S.Wales Evening Post - 19 September 2008
MORRISTON Hospital's neurosurgery unit is safe and its future looks healthy, a top politician has pledged.
Dai Lloyd, Plaid AM for South Wales West, vowed there would be one neurosurgery service but it would be based over two sites — Swansea and Cardiff.
Dr Lloyd has been sanctioned to speak out by Assembly Health Minister Edwina Hart, following the confusion sparked by a report carried out by Edinburgh-based consultant neurosurgeon James Steers and a supporting statement from the minister.
It led to scepticism among some campaigners and Swansea-based Lib Dem AM Peter Black, who also represents South Wales West, raised concerns that the Morriston life- saving service would be downgraded. Mr Black said: "On the one hand, the proposal for a managed clinical network is something that has been advocated by Swansea health professionals for some time as a means of keeping neurosurgery at Morriston Hospital.
"On the other hand, the recommendation that a single neurosurgery service should be established, co-located with paediatric neurosurgery, and paediatric critical care, together with its emphasis on the new University Hospital of Wales helicopter pad in recommendation 8(1) indicates that complex and emergency neurosurgery will be moved to Cardiff, leaving Swansea with the few crumbs of a basic service."
Within the supporting statement by Mrs Hart, she called for the setting-up of a neuroscience network, along with developing extra inpatient neurology services and strengthening the neurorehabilitation available.
But the report of the Welsh Neuroscience External Expert Review Group suggested there was a strong argument for a single neurosurgery unit, alongside other services, including paediatric neurosurgery, implying it should be Cardiff-based.
Dr Lloyd said there were gaps in the review of adult neurosciences, as it failed to take into account Morriston Hospital's level one trauma centre status, along with its burns and plastics unit and the presence of a neurosurgery service in Bristol.
He admitted the report by Mr Steers proved difficult to understand even for those working in the profession and the position in the supporting statement, drawn up by civil servants on Mrs Hart's behalf, was unclear. But he said there was a long-term plan to safeguard the neurosurgery service in Morriston and Cardiff, which would see staff rotated between the two sites on a six- monthly basis and consultants travel up and down the M4 to share their expertise.
Dr Lloyd added: "The future of Morriston Hospital's neurosurgery is guaranteed in the long term.
"It will be one service over two sites — that's Swansea and Cardiff — and it will be an equivalent service to now, which will work together.
"It's not a novel concept, we have got cancer networks where it's the consultant that goes from specialist centre to specialist centre, not the patients.
He added: "What's driving this is finance, as you can't shut the burns or plastics in Morriston or the Children's Hospital of Wales in Cardiff."
It is expected the plans, which will ensure Swansea, Cardiff, along with Carmarthen and Newport, are neurological centres, will come into force at the end of the year.
"Alan Axford, the interim chief executive of Hywel Dda NHS Trust (covering Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion), has been given the remit to sort it out financially," said Dr Lloyd.
When asked whether the decision to retain the key service at both sites was a political one, Dr Lloyd added: "Everything is a political decision at the end of the day."
