Hospital claim 'mischief-making'

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An NHS trust has accused an Assembly Member of "mischief-making" over claims it has dropped plans for a newly-built "super-hospital" in Swansea.

The city's two existing main hospitals are set to be replaced by one.

Liberal Democrat AM Peter Black said minutes of a confidential meeting show rather than backing a new site, trust managers want to redevelop Morriston.

The trust said both options remained open and Mr Black was "misrepresenting the situation".

Mr Black, regional AM for South West Wales, has obtained the minutes of a workshop held last month by Swansea NHS Trust on reshaping hospital services.

Both the trust and Swansea Local Health Board have backed plans to centralise existing acute services currently provided at Morriston and Singleton - with a brand new "super-hospital" at Felindre suggested.

The reality is that it will leave people in the west of Swansea and Gower having to travel further for crucial hospital services Peter Black AM

But Mr Black said the minutes of the meeting showed the NHS simply wanted to move services from Singleton to Morriston.

"What is obvious from these minutes is that the trust's known preference for a single hospital serving all of Swansea no longer involves a new build at a site such as Felindre," he said.

"Instead they are proposing the dismantling of Singleton Hospital and the transfer of all its services to Morriston.

"The public are being led to believe that this transition will be painless but the reality is that it will leave people in the west of Swansea and Gower having to travel further for crucial hospital services.

Peter Black claims the trust should "come clean" on its plans

"If this has been the intention of Swansea NHS Trust all along then they should come out and say so openly so we can have a discussion about their plans and their implications for health care locally."

But the trust's acting chief executive Calum Campbell said the idea of building a new hospital at Felindre was one of two options "being actively persuade."

"This is nothing more than mischief-making," he said.

"I am not prepared to let him misrepresent the situation - we are, after all, talking about the future of acute hospital care in Swansea.

"No-where in the documents he has seen does it say the Felindre idea has been dropped. To the contrary, it is explicitly included.

"I do not know how he has come to this conclusion - he did not bother to contact the trust to discus the situation before making his public accusations."