News that key services look set to be lost from Withybush Hospital has been greeted with anger and dismay.

The Western Telegraph revealed last week how staff had been told overnight paediatric care was being cut and significant changes were being made to maternity services with only a midwife-led unit, the details of which are yet to be revealed, being left at Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest.

There is also concern about the knock on effects the changes will have with talk that overnight A&E services are also to be axed. A quarter of all A&E cases are thought to involve children.

Campaign group SWAT, the Save Withybush Action Team, has arranged a meeting on Thursday at the Picton Centre in Haverfordwest from 8-10pm to discuss their next steps.

And the fears of patients and staff and were addressed by key members of the Hywel Dda Health Board team who attended a meeting of the area’s patient watchdog, the Community Health Council, in Narberth last week.

Chairman Chris Martin said that staff going to the press with fears of service cuts was ‘unhelpful, because people become fearful’.

He said the independent review panel set up in the wake of earlier concerns about plans to close the Withybush Special Care Baby Unit had made it clear that the health board needed to look at its obstetrics and gynaecology provision if neo-natal services were to be set up in Carmarthen.

“We have not got firm proposals,” he said. “What we are doing is working with colleagues and clinicians.”

Dr Sian Lewis, associate director of clinical services for Hywel Dda, told the CHC:" In order to look to the future, we need to undertake planning. There are planning processes going on. Staff see planning, and that looks like decisions have been made."

However, the Western Telegraph has been told that when informed about the upcoming changes some staff were told to ‘expect letters from HR about their options’.

In addition, the transfer of paediatric junior doctors from Withybush to Glangwili on April 1 due to training requirements will have a knock on effect on other services, forcing changes. Obstetrics juniors are also due to transfer, but in August.

Sue Lewis, interim county director for the health board, told the CHC: "The model as it stands is overwhelmingly not sustainable."

"We are still planning, there are some fixed points," she added, before stating: "We can’t stop this information being shared."