"Powys Campaign Strategy Meeting" Builth Wells 9/1/07
Powys campaign groups fighting to keep their local community hospital services joined forces yesterday. At a meeting in Builth Wells, they agreed to work together to oppose Powys Local Health Board’s plans to close hospitals at Bronllys, Builth, Llanidloes and Knighton.
Dr Robbie Gibbins, a GP at Builth Wells, chaired the meeting of over 30 invited representatives, including doctors, town and county councillors and Welsh Assembly members Kirsty Williams and Mick Bates, as well as representatives of hospital ‘friends’ and local campaign groups Builth Against Closing Hospitals (BACH), the Save Llanidloes Hospital Action Team, and the Black Mountain Area Health Action Group.
He said the excellent turnout from across Powys illustrated the depth of feeling and commitment communities had towards their local hospitals.
Updates were received from each area, with action groups giving short summaries of what had been achieved so far, councillors promising both moral and financial support, “Friends” groups indicating their determination to support their hospital’s staffs, and national politicians defining the view from their perspective. It was agreed that the simple stance of refusing to negotiate with the LHB was justified in view of its past history of paying lip-service to consultation, but not actually listening to local concerns. However, everyone agreed that negotiations would need to be restarted at some point, and that local groups had to work out how to get the best result for small rural areas in a debate increasingly dominated by the concerns of larger, urban areas.
The meeting considered the current position of the LHB’s “Doing More Doing Better” plans – which appear not to have been accepted by the Community Health Councils – and of the national debate, where consultation has been suspended pending new guidance from Welsh Assembly Government, expected by the end of the month, and where the Health Minister Dr Brain Gibbons had reversed his previous stance and agreed to meet with worried Powys doctors. It was also widely noted both that there were serious questions being asked in Cardiff and beyond about the overall management competence of the LHB as well as the fact that the Labour party were very keen to gain a regional seat in mid Wales at the forthcoming elections, which might tend to counteract the general urban-centric nature of their policies.
Networking between the Action Groups was formalised and a number of plans were agreed for a calendar of events and actions over the next few months. Greater sharing of information and developing the common issues, as a group, were seen as key objectives. The campaign to defeat Powys LHB’s current healthcare plans would continue, but now strengthened by a countywide approach, with increased vigour and commitment.
SPH was grateful for sight of an early press release. Many thanks.