'Llandudno hospital is integral to North Wales,' vows Hart

Oct 8 2009 by Judith Phillips, North Wales Weekly News

THE Welsh Assembly Government is committed to ensuring Llandudno Hospital is an integral part of health care in North Wales, and breast surgery will be provided there, says health minister Edwina Hart.

Recently she accepted the findings of a review which recommended that between £20m and £45m be spent on upgrading and providing new services at the hospital.

“Llandudno Hospital is integral to our approach to dealing with the Health Service across the whole of North Wales. I have asked officials to look at a capital bid to the Strategic Capital Investment Fund,” she said.

“Given the additional facilities we are considering, it might require far more than the £20 million that we looked at originally, and it might require as much as £45 million.

“There might have to be a staged approach, but I think that everyone would understand that in these difficult times,” she added.

Responding to a question from Aberconwy AM Gareth Jones about the future of breast surgery at the hospital, she added: “The excellent work done in Llandudno, particularly on the breast surgery side, and the opportunity that I had to speak to patients about those issues, influenced me with regard to the future of that service.

“The service at Llandudno Hospital is deemed to be first class, and if patients tell you that is the case, you have to recognise that.”

Mr Jones said he was delighted by WAG’s approach to Llandudno Hospital when he asked the health minister for assurances that delivering additional medical services would remain a key priority.

“I am delighted with the minister’s response, because stopping the downgrading of Llandudno Hospital and others like it was a key part of the One Wales agreement between Plaid and Labour,” he said.

“It won’t be easy in the current economic climate but I am confident that after hearing from the minister and local NHS bosses that, in progressing to the preparation of a bid to the Strategic Capital Investment Fund, delivering this massive new investment in Llandudno Hospital is a top priority for them.”

Mr Jones has also met senior NHS officials, including Mary Burrows, chair of the new Betsi Cadwaldr University Local Health Board.

“It’s clear to me that far from being the forgotten hospital in North Wales as it was in the past, the new Health Board sees Llandudno very much as a valuable asset and the potential site for a number of different specialities in the future.

“That has to be good for the hospital as a place to practice medicine, nursing and the allied professions and also good for the economy as a source of highly-skilled and well-paid local jobs,” he added.

judith.phillips