Hywel Dda Health Board, one resident's views

This is a letter by Mr Tony Flatley which was printed recently in a local paper. Mr Flatley has kindly given us permission to publish it online.

After the meeting conducted on behalf of Hywel Dda Health Board at Parc Y Scarlet’s not only was I surprised at the way questions were diverted away from the panel and forgotten about I was disgusted with the attitude of Trevor Purt, Chief Executive of Hywel Dda Health Board.

He seemed to find the whole thing amusing as he smirked his way through the meeting and shrugged aside any questions he didn’t want to answer.

This meeting was ‘Chaired’ and I say this loosely, by Dale Hall of Opinion Research Services, ORS who also conveniently let questions disappear into the night never to be answered.

Now Dale hall of ORS was the person who advised Hywel Dda Health Board to continue with the consultation period at their Committee Meeting at Prince Philip Hospital.

He recommended this with a figure of 0.099% of returned questionnaires as only 369 were actually answered by the public.

I wonder if there is a regulatory body for opinion research firms that sets standards because if there is it would be interesting to see the take on these figures?

Now lets remember these are the questionnaires and DVD’s that conveniently bypassed the people of Llanelli as Hywel Dda wasted £60,000 employing a company, who went bust the first week, to deliver in Llanelli.

It didn’t happen.

These questionnaires were loaded so much in the favour of the health board it was ludicrous to even send them out.

The meeting at Parc Y Scarlet was a deliberate attempt to control numbers after the last meeting in Llanelli resulted in the Health Board representatives packing up and going home early.

The actual amount of people allowed in the Quinell Suite is 350 which represents 1.2% of the population of Llanelli thus gagging us.

The attendance would have been massive held elsewhere but as everyone knew the venue was to small people decided in advance the wouldn’t go.

All very convenient for Hywel Dda Health Board.

All this is doing is showing us what we already knew here in Llanelli.

The Listening and the consultation period is loaded in favour of what Hywel Dda want and intended to do from the start to decimate Prince Philip Hospital from the hospital we have all felt so proud of and leave Llanelli in the NHS wastelands..

How many times have the Health Board been told by the people of Llanelli and by Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust: that Morriston cannot manage the people from Llanelli because they are to busy?

Why do Hywel Dda Health Board insist on telling all and sundry that Llanelli is in a unique position of being between two major hospitals so don’t need the A&E?

Yes Llanelli is between two hospitals Morristons and Glangwilli and neither can manage with the A&E patients they already deal with.

Once again though we see the true side of this Health Board because they insist Prince Philip Hospital has no A&E but allow 365 ambulances per month go their under ‘Blues and Twos’

Tony Flatley

Felinfoel