Fears that a local surgery will close and patients be sent to see doctors miles away have been voiced, as a public consultation about its future is ongoing.
There are questions over how healthcare in St Davids will look in the future after it was announced that the surgery’s solo GP will resign the General Medical Services contract, from October 31, this year.
Residents are keen that Hywel Dda Health Board take over the surgery but are worried that instead it will be closed an patients sent to practices in Solva, Haverfordwest or Fishguard.
“We have an outstanding surgery here in St Davids and want to do everything we can to save it,” said local resident Sarah Saunders.
The issue of the surgery was top of the agenda at this month’s meeting of St Davids City Council, attended by more than 150 local residents.
Councillors discussed a motion to support the Save The St Davids Surgery Campaign to formally establish St Davids City Council’s commitment to facilitating active participation, and to emphasise the urgency of research and decisive action.
After the meeting the city council printed a bilingual leaflet encouraging residents to attend a health board drop-in consultation event later this month.
“There are only two options,” said the city council. “[These are] that the health board takes on the surgery, saving it from closure, or that the surgery will close and patient dispersal will occur to surgeries in Solva, Fishguard and Haverfordwest.
“The surgery will close if the health board does not take it on.”
St Davids residents are urged to attend the drop-in event which takes place at City Hall on Friday, June 14 from 2pm to 7pm.
Speaking last month assistant director of primary care for Hywel Dda UHB, Rhian Bond, said: "We would like to reassure the patients that we are working to find a sustainable solution for how services can continue to be delivered locally to patients after October."
Ms Bond added that she understood that changing services could cause patients anxiety and said she wanted to understand their concerns about such an important service.
Members of the public have several ways to share their opinions, including attending the drop-in event, completing a questionnaire available at St David’s Surgery, calling 0300 303 8322 and selecting option 5 for ‘other services’, emailing ask.hdd@wales.nhs.uk, or directly providing feedback to Llais the patient voice organisations for Wales.
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