New hospital might never be built, health bosses admit

HEALTH bosses have admitted they may never be able to afford a new hospital in west Wales almost 20 years after the ambitious plans were first proposed.

- ROB HARRIES

The idea of constructing a new ‘super-hospital' in the region was first discussed back in 2006, and in 2018 Hywel Dda University Health Board - which is responsible for healthcare provision across Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, and Ceredigion - officially unveiled its proposals to build the new urgent and planned care hospital to the west of Carmarthen in an area near St Clears or Whitland.

The project was estimated to cost more than £1bn in total and would result in the downgrading of Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen and Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest.

The A&E departments at both of those existing hospitals would be shut down with a new A&E department being housed at the new site - around nine miles from Carmarthen and around 25 miles from Llanelli.

We are now seven years on from the launch of the official plans and yet the beginning of construction has never seemed further away. A long list of potential sites for the new hospital was whittled down to three and then two - agricultural land forming part of Ty Newydd Farm on the outskirts of Whitland, and a site located less than a mile to the west of St Clears.

But, two years on from that decision, no land has been purchased.

Furthermore no funding has been secured to purchase any land.

There is scepticism among some members of staff at Glangwili Hospital - a sense that plans for a new hospital have been shelved entirely due to a lack of funds, rendering something once seen as ambitious now impossible.

These concerns are amplified by continuing issues at existing Hywel Dda hospitals. At Glangwili, parking continues to prove challenging for staff and visitors alike, while multiple-hour waits at A&E have become common.