PROTEST HELD OUTSIDE MEETING OF HEALTH BOSSES AS THEY DISCUSS CLOSURE OF ROYAL GLAMORGAN A&E
LOCAL RESIDENTS SAY LOSING EMERGENCY CARE ‘COULD BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE OR DEATH’
OVER 12K SIGN PETITION TO KEEP A 24 HOUR A&E SERVICE
ANALYSIS SHOWS £200 MILLION BEING AXED FROM THE WELSH NHS BECAUSE OF TORY AUSTERITY
WELSH LABOUR GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF ‘PUSHING’ CUTS ONTO HARD HIT COMMUNITIES
By Mark S Redfern @genericredfern Cover Image copyright Loretta Tomkinson
Around 200 people gathered in Abercynon today in protest against plans to close their local A&E facility at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital. Locals and campaigners were there to lobby a meeting of the Cwn Taf University Health Board, which was due to discuss the plans this morning. A local bus company, Thomas and Edwards, provided free coach transport to the event.
The protest came as health bosses said they intended to speed up proposals to downgrade the A&E department at the Royal Glamorgan due to staff shortages, which they say are now at dangerously low levels. But many of those affected point out that cutting hospital provision entirely will leave them more vulnerable and less safe.
Andrea Morgan, who’s late husband was treated for Cancer in the Royal Glamorgan, is furious about the plans and says the service is vital.
“[My husband] ended up having seizures, which come along with the cancer that he had… The Royal Glam is on your doorstep, it’s like 10 / 15 minutes away. Your family are close if you need them.”
“I just think it’s gonna have a massive impact on people if they have to go to Merthyr, to the Heath, to Bridgend…I can’t believe they’re even considering shutting the A&E down… it is within the community.”
Rhi, a local woman who’s son was treated in A&E following a fall last year said the removal of the provision could be life threatening.
“I think additional travel time will be catastrophic in many cases. Those like my son, who needed immobilisation quickly, to prevent further damage. Those who have conditions that are time limited, like strokes, heart attacks, clots, blood loss. When speed is of the essence, and it’s been slowed down due to travel, the effects could be the difference between life or death, or those in my sons position, salvaging some mobility or paralysis.”
Protesters scored an important initial victory when the health board were forced to keep the current provision – a consultant led, 24hr A&E facility – on the table as part of their proposals. They had previously indicated that the current arrangement would have to be downgraded in some form.
After plans to close the A&E were leaked, an online petition was launched and already had over 12,000 signatures at time of writing.
A Facebook group was also set up to co-ordinate action against the proposals. Within three days the group already had 10,000 members, many of whom are from the local area and will be directly affected if emergency care is lost.
Andrea, now a single mother of two in her late forties, said she was protesting today for the first time.
“I’m going to the rally. I’m taking the day off work. And I do feel quite strongly about it and this is the first time I’ve ever done something like this. Because I do think is something we can’t afford to just let them take away from us again.”
She says her experience of the A&E department at the Royal Glamorgan is that it is under a huge amount of pressure.
“There’s no beds, there’s no movement and a backlog! Then people are waiting outside because people have hardly moved inside. But they close everything down. They closed Dewi Sant Hospital [in Pontypridd], they’ve closed all the care homes. It’s got to be an impact somewhere doesn’t it.
“My mum used to work for social services, she used to work for the elderly. She would go in and put care packages in their homes. …Their resources have been reduced. They cut back and cut back and cut back. But taking A&E out is not going to solve a problem. The hospitals in Merthyr, in the Heath they’re already backlogged. How on earth are they going to take all of us as well?”
Analysis by People’s Assembly Wales from 2018 showed that Welsh health boards were planning to make cuts totalling around £200m per year from 2018 to 2021 to cope with a huge funding shortfall. Despite spending around half of its total budget on health, the Welsh Government has overseen sizeable real terms cuts to the Welsh NHS. There has also been unpopular, top down reorganisation within health boards that have seen communities in Wales lose vital emergency services.
This graph produced by PA Wales shows the funding shortfall since 2009. Overall there has been a 22% real term cut (once inflation has been taken into account) in the Welsh budget since the financial crash over a decade ago. According to the research this amounts to a £3.5bn loss in funding to Wales.
In a report in 2018, Cwm Taf health board admitted that it needed to save £32.8m over three years, and admitted this could amount to a net decrease of 160 full time staff. The report went on to say that. ‘In the event that it has not been possible to redeploy any displaced staff and that there is little prospect of any suitable employment arising in the near future, the Health Board would need to consider offering voluntary redundancy and as a last resort compulsory redundancy.’
Angry residents now face losing their A&E due to staffing shortages that many believe were entirely preventable.
Despite the enormous cut in funding which is hitting communities in Wales, there has been no national campaign led by the Welsh Labour government to oppose austerity. The poorest areas have suffered the most as essential services are cut back. As chancellor Sajid Javid and Prime Minister Boris Johnson demand further cuts of 5% to government departments which are already underfunded, people are asking what the administration in Wales plans to do. Len Arthur (pictured) from RCT People’s Assembly, and who helped organise the protest today and set up the ‘Save Royal Glamorgan A&E’ Facebook group, told us that:
“The proposed downgrading of Rhondda’s Royal Glamorgan Hospital A&E is the consequence of 10 years of austerity cuts across the UK. Cwm Taf the local health board should have 40 A&E consultants but only has 12. The UK is short of 1800.
Lack of consultants is the reason being given for downgrading Royal Glamorgan A&E so our fight is also for the protection of A&E across Wales and the UK.
The Welsh Government should as a matter of complete urgency be convening a meeting with the other devolved governments and the UK government to take immediate action to employ the required number of A&E consultants. Not push the problem down to us.
“We need to keep the momentum going, and enable people to come together to form an all party – and none – campaign group to save the A&E.”
An open public meeting has been called for next Thursday 6 February at Clwb Y Bont Pontypridd, starting at 7.00pm
