Stop Vale hospital cuts

By Ross Saunders

Unison members in Barry Hospital have launched a campaign to save the Sam Davies ward from closure.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board plans to close the acute rehabilitation ward as part of its latest round of cuts, which it has dressed up as a reorganisation of services for older people. Ward East 2 in Llandough Hospital is also facing closure as part of the plans and Rookwood Hospital in Cardiff.

Sam Davies provides rehabilitation services for older people following a stroke, injury or illness. Patients can spend weeks or months on the ward before they are ready to return home so ensuring services are local and accessible to family is very important.

The closure of Sam Davies represents a further downgrading of services at Barry Hospital, which has, for example, lost virtually all of its accident and emergency and maternity services. People who live in places like Barry – the biggest town in South Wales – should have access to the full range of NHS services in their local hospital, not have to travel to the Heath in Cardiff where services are already overstretched.

The Health Board says its plans are designed to ensure patients are rehabilitated as quickly as possible and return home, but in reality are driven by the funding cuts demanded by the Westminster Tory government, which the Welsh Labour government has done nothing to oppose.

Small recent increases in Welsh NHS funding have not reversed the huge cuts carried out previously. Hospitals in Cardiff and Vale alone have lost £130 million, according to Cardiff Council.

Ward East 2 in Llandough Hospital and Rookwood Hospital in Cardiff are also facing closure as part of the cuts to services for older people. The closure of Rookwood in particular – a much-loved hospital in an environment which encourages recovery – will be a severe loss.

Health workers’ union Unison has organised two days of action in Barry and has set up a petition calling on the Welsh Government to intervene to reverse the closure. Sign the petition here:

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has famously pledged more money for NHS Services. The Welsh Government and Local Health Boards should not give him time to backtrack on that promise: they should spend now to restore and improve services, including employing more nurses and doctors and expanding the number of beds to cut waiting times, and demand Johnson foot the bill.

Support for the campaign had been enormous. The union reports that 5000 signatures have been collected in just three weeks. No doubt Barry would turn out onto the streets to support NHS staff and patients if the union organised a protest march, as they did recently when the Vale Council proposed library closures. Unison could mobilise their membership across Wales to attend.

Workers would get huge sympathy, too, if they took strike action against cuts, as NHS staff in Bradford and elsewhere are doing. People understand that endless cuts demanded by big-business politicians are permanently disrupting our NHS services and could be stopped if workers take action.