The Welsh Government will not be encouraging the local health board to retain A&E services at Withybush Hospital, despite a U-turn elsewhere in Wales.

During the Monday, July 6, coronavirus briefing the Western Telegraph asked Wales’ First Minister, Mark Drakeford, if now was the time for the Welsh Government to encourage Hywel Dda University Health Board (HDUHB) to reverse its closure plans.

This comes after a U-turn by the Cwm Taf Health Board, who agreed to keep A&E services at the Royal Glamorgan after large scale protests against the plans there.

Mr Drakeford would not be drawn into encouraging the HDUHB to make a similar change.

The Western Telegraph's question can be found around 30 minutes into the video above

He said: "It is for the local health board to make those decisions, I feel like I have lived in this conversation over many years.

"When I was health minister, I was repeatedly having to answer questions claiming that various part of Withybush hospital were about to be closed.

"They didn't turn out to be true because the health board has an aim of sustaining as many services as can be safely be provided at Withybush as in its other settings."
Western Telegraph: Mark Drakeford
Plans to close Withybush A&E were announced in 2018, as part of a proposal to downgrade Withybush to a community hospital.

Patients needing urgent care would instead be taken to a new hospital on the Pembrokeshire-Carmarthenshire border.

Recent years have also seen Withybush's maternity service downgraded to a largely day-time service, with women needing to call ahead to have a hospital birth after 5pm.

Mr Drakeford added that the HDUHB knew better than he did if the A&E services are necessary.

He said: "They are better placed than I am to know what the capability and the capacity of the service on the ground is, what demand that there is for it, and I know that they will talk very carefully with their local populations - as Cwm Taff Health board did in the case of the Royal Glamorgan."
Western Telegraph:
Staff at the hospital said on Sunday, July 5, that the coronavirus had highlighted the need for A&E services in Pembrokeshire.

On field hospitals, like Bluestone in Pembrokeshire, Mr Drakeford said a review had been carried out and they would be looking at that.

"The current thinking is that we will want to retain field hospital capacity here in Wales against the danger there is a second spike in the autumn or winter.

"But we may not need field hospital capacity on the scale that we produced it in this first wave."

Mr Drakeford said lessons had been learnt from the first wave of the coronavirus and that would go into plans for where and how much field hospital capacity is needed in the future.