Impact on transfers between hospitals

We understand that, with the preferred option, more patient transfers would be needed than there are currently. Under this option, stroke patients nearest to Bronglais, Prince Philip and Withybush hospitals would all access their specialist stroke care in Glangwili Hospital.

Under the preferred option, of the 16 stroke patients admitted per week on average, 11 of these patients would be transferred to Glangwili Hospital from a treat and transfer hospital site. Two patients a week would be transferred back to Bronglais Hospital for rehabilitation in the stroke rehabilitation unit or discharged to their community for onward care or their home.

During the consultation, we heard that people were concerned about being moved after initial assessment. We recognise this can be worrying. We already do this for some stroke patients who need to travel to Cardiff or Bristol for thrombectomy, and we have established processes in place to support safe transfers when they are needed.

We also heard that people were concerned that they would be too unwell to be transported and experience harm while moving between hospitals. Patients who are too unwell to travel will stay where they are until it is safe to transfer them for their acute stroke care.

Getting patients to hospital and between hospital sites, is partly within our control. However, travel for staff commuting, patients accessing care, and visitors travelling to see patients is largely outside our control. To ensure that the benefits of the preferred option are fully realised, appropriate transport solutions will be essential.

Patients who need to be transferred between hospital sites would be supported through a new transfer arrangement and not existing community ambulance provision provided by Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust. Further work is needed to understand how this would be delivered.

During the first and second phases of the Clinical Services Plan consultation, we have considered travel times for urgent transfers between hospitals (see table below). In this preferred option for stroke, we considered average travel times in each county alongside feedback from staff and patient transport surveys.

A travel survey was carried out in 2023, at 9am on a Monday morning, the travel times are provided between hospital sites. Two timings are provided for each journey: one for non-urgent travel, and one for travel using lights and sirens.

Travelling from Bronglais Aberystwyth to Glangwili Carmarthen for non-urgent journeys takes one hour and 25 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes one hour and four minutes.
Travelling from Bronglais Aberystwyth to Withybush Haverfordwest for non-urgent journeys takes one hour and 51 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes one hour and 25 minutes.
Travelling from Bronglais Aberystwyth to Prince Phillip Llanelli for non-urgent journeys takes one hour and 50 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes one hour and 29 minutes.
Travelling from Bronglais Aberystwyth to Royal Shrewsbury Shrewsbury for non-urgent journeys takes one hour and 55 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes one hour and 32 minutes.
Travelling from Bronglais Aberystwyth to Princess Royal Telford for non-urgent journeys takes two hours and 17 minutes for lights and sirens it takes one hour and 52 minutes.
Travelling from Bronglais Aberystwyth to Ysbyty Gwynedd for non-urgent journeys takes two hours and 12 minutes for lights and sirens it takes one hour and 53 minutes.
Travelling from Bronglais Aberystwyth to Morriston for non-urgent journeys takes one hour and 49 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes one hour and 30 minutes.
Travelling from Withybush Haverfordwest to Gangwili Carmarthen for non-urgent journeys takes 42 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes 38 minutes.
Travelling from Withybush Haverfordwest to Prince Phillip Llanelli for non-urgent journeys takes one hour 7 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes 58 minutes.
Travelling from Withybush Haverfordwest to Morriston Swansea for non-urgent journeys takes one hour 6 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes 59 minutes.
Travelling from Glangwili Carmarthen to Prince Phillip Llanelli for non-urgent journeys takes 34 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes 27 minutes.
Travelling from Glangwili Carmarthen to Morriston Swansea for non-urgent journeys takes 34 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes 28 minutes.
Travelling from Prince Phillip Llanelli to Morriston Swansea for non-urgent journeys takes 18 minutes, with lights and sirens it takes 14 minutes.

You can read about how we used data from 2023-2025 to understand how many patients could be transferred between site in the ‘Patient and travel insights’ document available in the ‘Supporting Documents’ area of our webpages (opens in new tab).

Table of transfer times between hospitals