No plans to close Llandovery Hospital
22 July 2025
Hywel Dda University Health Board has no plans to close Llandovery Hospital and will return to the town to hear more about their views on the future role of the community hospital and opportunities for the future.
More than 400 people in the community recently attended a consultation event with the health board on potential changes to nine specific clinical services provided across the three counties of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire.
One of the clinical services in the consultation is radiology, which is facing challenge across the health board area with patients waiting too long and difficulties in staffing.
Under current options in the consultation, it is proposed that X-Ray, currently provided one day a week at Llandovery, could instead be provided from Glangwili Hospital, in Carmarthen, and Prince Philip Hospital, in Llanelli.
The service is provided between 10am and 4pm by a visiting member of staff from Prince Philip Hospital.
This is for between 12 and 15 patients per day, although it can be as high as 20, compared to around 45 patients per day at main hospital sites.
The type of imaging the machine, which was kindly donated by the community several years ago, can carry out is also limited due to technology advances and some patients need to be transferred to Glangwili or Prince Philip Hospital for their X-Rays. If the service were to continue in Llandovery, the machine would need to be replaced.
Medical Director Mark Henwood explained: “Thank you to everyone who came to talk to us in Llandovery on 17 July – it was great to meet so many people who care deeply about Llandovery Hospital and our NHS. The proposed options included in the Clinical Services Plan seek to deal with fragilities in our radiology services particularly, but we are consulting with our communities to learn more, to listen to potential impacts and also to hear and consider new ideas or alternative options from people.
“There are no plans or decisions ongoing about closing Llandovery Hospital, which was a concern put to us by many people in the community at our recent event.
“Llandovery hospital is a hub for our community, and we have heard the passion the community has for local services very clearly at our recent event. We are extremely grateful to the League of Friends and the community for their continued support of the hospital and our staff. The hospital is still open and providing a range of services from the ward and palliative, end-of-life care, to the range of services offered through clinics. We are grateful to our committed and compassionate staff who work there, in the community, and primary care locally.”
Clinics that are currently run from Llandovery Hospital include:
- Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
- Catheter care and trial without catheter (urology)
- Clinical musculoskeletal assessment and treatment service (joints and muscles)
- Community mental health
- Continence
- Diabetic retinopathy
- Ear wax management
- Leg ulcer
- Lymphedema
- Memory clinic
- Minor operations
- Midwifery
- Phlebotomy (bloods)
- Physiotherapy
- Podiatry (feet)
- Smoking Cessation
- X-Ray
Andrew Carruthers, Chief Operating Officer for the Health Board added: “Whilst the broader potential of the hospital and its future is not part of the current consultation into clinical services, we would value continued discussions with our community about the hospital and community-based care, especially as we are also engaging on a review of our Healthier Mid and West Wales strategy.”
People can share their views on what is important to live a healthy life by visiting https://www.haveyoursay.hduhb.wales.nhs.uk/our-strategy. The health board will also come back to Llandovery, and other communities, to discuss this with the local people in the autumn.
In the meantime, if you wish to share your views on the future of the nine clinical services in the health board, including radiology, you can do this by visiting https://hduhb.nhs.wales/clinical-services-consultation or phoning 0300 303 8322 (option 5).
The other eight services are critical care, dermatology, emergency general surgery, endoscopy, ophthalmology, elective orthopaedics, stroke and urology.
In the questionnaire there are multiple options available for indicating a preference, including ‘no particular preference’ or ‘don’t know’. Completing this section is optional, and there is a comment box provided for additional views or to suggest alternative ideas.
The Board will consider all they have heard leading up to, and during, this consultation when they meet later in the winter. This includes health and equality impact assessments, which will consider how people could be affected and what needs to be done to reduce negative impacts. They will also consider any new ideas and decisions will not be based solely on option selections in the questionnaire.