Thank you for your interest in our consultation for a site for our new Urgent and Planned Care Hospital. This is another significant milestone for our Health Board in delivering our strategy for A Healthier Mid and West Wales: Our Future Generations Living Well and to improve health outcomes for our communities. You can read our strategy in the Technical Documents area (opens in new window), or if you would like a copy sent to you please telephone us on 0300 303 8322.
It comes at a time of austerity for our communities as every person is having to consider how they can maintain their health, well-being, and lifestyles in these challenging times. But we have faced challenge before, not least of all the recent few years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The care, dedication, courage and the sacrifices of our staff, volunteers, organisations we work with, and our communities, has been humbling and awe-inspiring.
An important beacon of hope for us in the Health Board has been the prospect of delivering our vision for improved health and well-being. In January 2022, we agreed a Programme Business Case (PBC) that sets out, at a high level, how we intend to do this, and seeks support from the Welsh Government for up to £1.3 billion of investment in health and well-being in mid and west Wales.
You can read our PBC by visiting the website Technical Documents area (opens in new window). Purchasing a site and delivering the new Urgent and Planned Care Hospital is subject to Welsh Government funding, which is not yet confirmed, and if successful, would take several years to achieve. It does however offer us an unprecedented opportunity to shape and transform care for our communities and future generations. In the meantime, we continue to work with you, our communities, to prepare and deliver the best health and care services that we can.
The foundation of our promise, our strategy, is to bring as much care as possible closer to our homes through new ways of providing care and integrated health and well-being centres in communities close to you in Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, and Pembrokeshire.
Another key part of the work, is having hospital services that can address current and future challenges to provide better and more reliable care for you when you need it. This includes building a new Urgent and Planned Care Hospital in the south of our area.
Our services are fragile and part of this is due to how our hospitals are currently working and how we are having to stretch our clinical teams across our four main hospitals in a rural and large geography. A new Urgent and Planned Care Hospital will bring together many of our senior doctor teams in key departments such as emergency medicine and surgical teams, who are currently split between our existing hospitals in Carmarthen and Haverfordwest.
There will continue to be an important role for Glangwili and Withybush hospitals to provide valuable health services to you. This includes GP-led urgent care, day case procedures, beds for therapy and recovery, facilities for tests, and many outpatient clinics.
Please read this document and come to our events to learn more about why we need to change, how we have reached this point, and detail about the three site options for the new hospital, two near Whitland, and one near St Clears. We really want everyone in our communities to tell us what you think and provide us with answers to the questions that will help us, along with other evidence, to decide on the best location for a new hospital.
It will take several years before a new hospital is open for you, but now really is the chance to get involved and tell us your thoughts about the three sites we are considering.
Many thanks
Maria Battle, Chair Steve Moore, Chief Executive Lee Davies, Executive Director of Strategy and Planning