The overall geographical zone for the new hospital - between Narberth and St Clears – was agreed because it is the area that would mean most of our population is within an hour of an emergency department (either at this hospital, Bronglais Hospital, in Aberystwyth, or Morriston Hospital, in Swansea).
We have done a lot of work to narrow down the options for specific locations:
• We looked for sites and asked you for site nominations within the zone during an engagement exercise in summer 2021, called Building a Healthier Future After COVID-19. This, along with our own desktop exercise, helped us identify 11 potential sites. We also asked you what you thought was important for us to consider when shortlisting sites so we could use this feedback.
• Representatives from the public (from across our area) along with staff, and experts, helped us shortlist five sites between October 2021 and February 2022 – the sites at the time were called site C Whitland, site J St Clears, site 12 Whitland, site 17 St Clears, and site 7 Narberth.
• Four ‘land appraisal groups’ looked at the five sites from the viewpoint of clinical considerations, financial and economic considerations, workforce considerations and technical considerations, including what was important to the public. You can read more detailed reports from each of them, they are called Land Appraisal Reports. In a Public Board Meeting on 4 August 2022, Health Board members heard all the outputs from the land appraisal groups. You can read the full report from the groups, which include the detail of how and why the longer list of sites were narrowed down to the five considered, in documents called Public Board Reports 04 August 2022 (opens in new window). In this meeting, the Board said two sites in Whitland (sites 12 and C) and one of the sites in St Clears (site 17) should remain under consideration and unanimously agreed to consult with the public on these sites.
They eliminated two of the five sites, for the following reasons:
• St Clears (site J) – This site had the highest risk score based on the characteristics of the site such as difficulties with emergency access to the site and being more remote from a town centre. It also scored quite a bit lower than the other sites in the technical appraisal process with the public.
• Narberth (site 7) – The clinical appraisal groups had concerns about this site, due to it being further west. They were concerned that this site may lead to a reduction in the number of people choosing to have their babies in Hywel Dda, as opposed to further east, which could also affect neonatal and paediatric care. This could pose a risk to the critical amount of activity needed to keep services safe and sustainable. It could also have a negative impact on the number of beds kept and keeping trainee status, which is our ability to train doctors, nurses, and midwives.