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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Assembly Member formally objects to Neurosurgery proposals
July 26, 2006 10:28 PM
Peter Black addresses Liberal Democrats on health issues
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has written to Health Commission Wales formally objecting to their proposal to move adult brain surgery from Morriston Hospital to Cardiff.
In his letter Mr. Black pointed out that the loss of this vital service from Swansea would put lives at risk and leave other vital specialities such as burns and plastics in jeopardy. He is particularly concerned at the travel times that seriously ill patients will face in getting to Cardiff. He described the proposals as seriously flawed in that they have misrepresented the level of service at Morriston and they failed to take account of the presence of another neurosurgery unit at Bristol.
As the Evening Post has pointed out, placing neurosurgery in Cardiff means that 178,000 people will be two hours or more from the new centre, If it were in Morriston that figure will fall to only 70,000," said Mr. Black. "Helicopters, often used in emergency cases, can land 24 hours a day in Morriston. That is not the case in Cardiff. Morriston has a helicopter pad, UHW does not."
"Incredibly, placing this centre in Cardiff will mean that the people of South East Wales will have two brain surgery units on their doorsteps. I am astonished that when formulating the recommendation the Advisory Board were told to ignore the Bristol unit. By moving this centre to Cardiff they are in danger of stimulating a further migration of the service eastwards, whereas locating it in Swansea would achieve better geographical balance, better access and a better service, especially to those people living to the west of Swansea."
"As somebody who commutes from Swansea to Cardiff almost daily I am aware of the many problems with road transport into the Capital City. There is often congestion and major delays. Moving neurosurgery to Cardiff means that it is inevitable that ambulances carrying seriously injured patients will be delayed and that some will die. It is my contention that these proposals will lead to an increased fatality rate amongst patients and that people will die who would not have done so if they had been able to have been taken to a unit in Swansea instead."
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