P-04-479 Tywyn Memorial Hospital X-ray & Minor Injuries Unit Petition – Correspondence from the Petitioner to the Committee, 06.01.17

Dear Kathryn, thank you for your e.mail regarding Petition PO 479 Tywyn Memorial X ray and Minor Injuries Petition. If I may, I would like to update you on the current situation which is that as far as I am aware there has been no response from the Health Board to the Petition Committee's question in 2015 of how Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have addressed the Community Health Council's recommendation that they should provide the population of Tywyn with a strategy for accessing alternative Minor Injuries Service outside the opening hours of Tywyn Memorial Hospital. The Community Health Council's Recommendation was that the Health Board would need to have plans for implementing and communicating it's proposals so that people can be confident that they will get Minor Injuries Services they need from GP's surgeries, Out of hours and Community Hospitals. The current situation is that the Minor Injury Service is available at Tywyn Hospital on weekdays from  Monday to Friday during the hours of

10 AM until 6 PM, this Service is unavailable after these hours and is also unavailable at the weekends. The GP's surgery provides a minor illness service but does not provide any Minor Injuries Service. We have not been informed what provision, if any, there is for a Minor Injuries Service from Out of Hours Practice. There are two other Hospitals in Meirionnydd which provide a Minor Injuries Service during seven days of the week from 8AM until 8PM. Access to these other Services would necessitate the use of private transport and at least a

40 mile round trip from Tywyn on difficult roads and often in hazardous conditions during the Winter. We feel therefore that there has been no change to the inferior Service that local residents are offered. We are advised by the Health Board to choose well seven days a week but unfortunately the residents of Tywyn do not have the equality of Service, compared to other Hospitals in the surrounding area, in order to be able to choose well. I will be most grateful if the new Committee would consider whether this issue is worth still pursuing with the Health Board. With kind regards, Jennifer Windsor (on behalf of The Tywyn and District Health Care Action Group)