Your Hospital is at Risk Unless You Act NOW.

You will probably be aware of publicity surrounding the latest cuts in services at Withybush Hospital. As these are the latest in a series of reductions in services then you can be forgiven for not appreciating their significance. But we believe that to accept them would be to accept the end of your local hospital as you know it.

The government believes there are too many hospitals in South Wales providing acute (emergency) services; they have a long term plan to downgrade as many as they can, leaving only a few 'super-hospitals' to treat all of the emergency patients. Those of you who believe this is `never likely to happen in my lifetime' should take a closer look at what has happened to Neath General Hospital (now Baglan Hospital, Port Talbot) and Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli. Both were self­-sufficient district general hospitals like Withybush and both have had their emergency out of hours services systematically stripped away piece by piece over the last 10 years, until all that remains now is a downgraded 9 to 5 service for non-urgent cases and an accident and emetgency unit that only treats minor injuries. We believe that YOUR hospital is the next to face this threat.

The politicians will not suddenly try to close Withybush Hospital as this would attract too much adverse publicity. They will nibble away at services little by little, hoping this will go unnoticed. The beauty of this `slicing salami' technique is that once started it gains momentum without much input from the politicians. All the departments in the hospital are interlinked and rely on each other in order to function. A cut here, a bed closure there and soon the service becomes unsustainable. Cutting surgical lists will eventually make the whole of surgical services including cancer treatment unsustainable and surgery will cease, closing surgery will make acute medical services unsustainable. Obstetric and gynaecological services are already under threat awaiting the results of a recent audit by the Welsh Assembly, losing that service will mean children's emergency services will be next to go. Without the help of all of these specialised departments accident and emergency will be reduced to a minor cuts and bruises department and the hospital managers job will be complete. They will pat each other on the back, pocket their chunky bonus payments (paid for by you) and move on to the next poor hospital without a thought for the carnage they have left behind in our community. We are convinced that the bed closures last year and the current cuts in surgical services are the start of this process.

Do not be fooled by the rhetoric of those who seek to implement these plans. It is their job to baffle us with practiced speeches and charm us with their sincerest smiles. They will talk of `efficiency' and `modernization' and `a 21st century service that we can all be proud of’. The people of Neath and Llanelli will testify that ‘efficiency’ means cuts, that ‘modernization’ means closure and ‘a service we can be proud of’ means a big super-hospital in Swansea. They will tell you that `your hospital is safe', knowing full well that they mean a hospital without emergency services; they will tell you that `times are tough and we all have to tighten our belts' and `there is only so much money to go round'. The truth is that the United Kingdom is one of the wealthiest countries in the world with an economy well up the world top ten rankings, yet if you go to the World Health Organisation web-site you will see independent report after report proving that we have less doctors and spend less on health in this country than virtually any developed country in the world, way behind equivalent societies in Europe. How can this be? The truth is that we don't have sufficient money for health in this country because the government/assembly choose to spend the funds elsewhere.

As with many services we take for granted, we probably would not appreciate the value of our local hospital until that hospital is taken away from us. So let us spell out the future of your health following the cuts:

• If you ignore these cuts then in a few years time if you are pregnant you will have to travel to Carmarthen or Swansea to have your baby; or if you choose a home birth and something goes wrong, the ambulance will have to take you to Carmarthen for specialist help to save your baby's life.
• If you ignore these cuts then in a few years time if your child is sick you will have to drive him all the way to Carmarthen to see a paediatrician for expert help, if you are lucky enough to be in time.
• If you ignore these cuts in a few years time if you develop a serious surgical condition or injury you too will have to take your chances in an ambulance up an ever more congested A40.

Some of us have been working in Withybush long enough to be aware of similar events in the mid-1970's that culminated in the formation of the breakaway Pembrokeshire Health Authority following a petition to Parliament. One of the tragedies leading to this was the death of a man who suffered a ruptured spleen in an accident on the Cleddau Bridge construction. He died in the ambulance on the way to Carmarthen, when he would have been saved if he could have had emergency surgery in Haverfordwest. Don’t allow the politicians to re-invent history!

If we accept these cuts they will affect us all, they will put us all at risk and some of us will die directly as a result of this insane plan to cut our acute services.

The time to act is NOW . Once services are lost there is no way they will be brought back. We, the senior hospital doctors and nurses at Withybush, call on all loyal Pembrokeshire people to join us in this fight. We demand that our hospital managers many of whom are local people, stop pandering to the politicians' ludicrous and ill-conceived policies and join us in condemnation of these people who care only for short term balancing of the books and who seem to have no regard for the people they are supposed to represent.

We say NO to these proposed cuts in surgical services. We demand an equivalent service to the patients in England and we demand an INCREASE in funding not a decrease. We call on all the people in Pembrokeshire to join us, members of the public, health workers and managers. If you stand by and do nothing then you are as guilty as those pushing through these plans.

Demand change from your AM and your MP, write to your local paper, telephone your local radio; if we all stand together we can change the minds of the politicians and save our services. It is no more than the people of Pembrokeshire deserve.