14/06/2026
U P D A T E O N S T R O K E
Dear PBS Friends,
This is a very long post from me I'm afraid, but I would strongly urge you to read it. PBS has at last received a response from the Welsh Government regarding our concerns about stroke services at Bronglais Hospital.
The PBS letter regarding this was orginally directed to Mabon ap Gwynfor who is the new Welsh Government Minister with responsibility for Health (and is copied below), however, this answer has been received from a Government department called the 'Government Business Team'. No mention of Mabon ap Gwynfor or any other Minister can be found in this response.
I have corresponded with many Government Ministers over the years and I find this unusual.
It is almost, heaven forfend, as if the Welsh Civil Service is actually running the Welsh Government!
So, this letter is not signed off by Mabon, but one must assume that he's had a hand in it somewhere.
Please do take the time and trouble to read further and let us know here at PBS what you think of this?
PBS will be commenting later.
Subject: TO/MG/05136/26 - Lisa Francis RE: Stroke Services at Bronglais Hospital
To:
Cc:
Dear Lisa Francis,
Thank you for your email below. We have been asked to reply on this occasion. Thank you for setting out the concerns of Protect Bronglais Services so clearly and constructively.
The Welsh Government recognises the strength of feeling locally about the future of stroke services in Mid and West Wales and acknowledges the significant engagement shown by you and others throughout this process, including the petition and your continued dialogue with Hywel Dda University Health Board.
The Welsh Government fully appreciates the seriousness of the issues you have raised, particularly in relation to access to specialist stroke care, the distances patients may need to travel, the impact of transfer arrangements on patients and their families, and the importance of rehabilitation being delivered as close to home as possible wherever that is safe and clinically appropriate. These are matters of real significance for people requiring urgent treatment and longer-term support following a stroke.
The Welsh Government is clear that any proposals for service change must be developed transparently, informed by evidence, and with full regard to quality, safety and patient experience. Decisions on the configuration of local NHS services, however, are matters for health boards, which are responsible for planning and delivering services for their populations within the appropriate statutory and governance framework.
On 28 May 2026, the Board agreed to begin a further phase of consultation and engagement on revised options for stroke services. This is an important stage in the process, as it provides an opportunity for the detail of those options to be tested properly and for concerns such as those set out in your letter to be considered fully and openly before any final decisions are taken.
In that context, it is essential that the issues you have highlighted are formally fed into that consultation process. It is important that the health board hears directly from patients, staff, campaign groups and local communities, and that it is able to demonstrate clearly how that feedback has informed its thinking.
This is not through any lack of care or concern on the part of Welsh Government but reflects the fact that decisions of this nature properly rest within the statutory remit of the health board. With access to clinical advice, operational data and local engagement, health boards are best placed to assess community needs and make accountable, evidence-based decisions affecting their populations. In doing so, they are expected to undertake thorough and robust assessments of any proposed changes, to engage meaningfully with the public in line with national guidance, and to identify and mitigate any risks arising from those proposals.
For that reason, Protect Bronglais Services, and all those with an interest in this matter, are strongly encouraged to continue engaging fully in the consultation and to ensure that your detailed concerns are submitted as part of that process. Those representations will be an important consideration in the development of any future proposals.
Welsh Government continues to engage regularly with health boards across Wales, and established governance arrangements are in place to monitor the quality, safety, performance and outcomes of the services they provide.
Thank you again for taking the time to write and for your continued advocacy on behalf of your community. We hope this response is helpful.
Yours sincerely
Tîm Busnes y Llywodraeth/Government Business Team
Y Grŵp Iechyd, Gofal ac Atal/Health, Care and Prevention
From: Protect Bronglais Services
Sent: 20 May 2026 15:42
To: ap Gwynfor, Mabon (Swyddfa Mabon Ap Gwynfor | Office of Mabon Ap Gwynfor) ; Correspondence/Gohebiaeth – MG
Subject: Stroke Services at Bronglais Hospital
Dear Mabon,
Stroke Services at Bronglais Hospital
Firstly, PBS should like to offer our warmest congratulations on your own electoral success, that of Plaid and also your appointment as the Welsh Government Minister for Health and Social Care of Wales. We know your passion for this brief and how keen you will be to get to work.
We should also like to thank you for all of the support you gave to our campaign to prevent Hywel Da University Health Board from downgrading the Stroke Unit at Bronglais Hospital. The fact that over 17,800 people the length and breadth of Mid Wales signed our Senedd Petition to prevent this from happening spoke volumes about the strength of feeling about the importance of this Unit within such a geographically significant hospital.
There is a feeling of collective dismay at what is happening to Bronglais – we are customers of three different health boards, but only one District General Hospital. As you said during the debate about the petition on the 22nd October last year:
‘Moving rehabilitation services away from the patient's own area is likely to lead to worse results and cuts against the Welsh Government's principle in the 'All Wales Rehabilitation Framework', which sets out clearly that care should be provided as close to home as possible. Rehabilitation services have to be timely and intensive, but only when those services are accessible is it possible to provide that.
Neither is there a guarantee that stroke diagnosis and treatment will be led by stroke specialists. Without specialist oversight, we risk slower assessment, misdiagnosis and delayed treatment—the very problems reform is meant to fix. There is still no clear plan for thrombectomy access. At present, mechanical thrombectomy—a life-saving treatment for severe stroke—is only available in Cardiff. Without a regional expansion plan, patients in Mid and West Wales face a postcode lottery for treatment, which can mean the difference between walking, talking and permanent disability. These aren't small details; they are the foundations of safe, effective stroke care.
When health boards plan in isolation, they can design systems that look good on paper, but fail in practice. There are two ways to view the Bronglais hospital. One is from the viewpoint of a finance officer. On paper, Bronglais is a nuisance, and placing stroke services in the south of the region may seem efficient. But, with an established specialist service already nearby in Morriston, it makes no practical sense. The other way to view Bronglais is from the viewpoint not of the finance officer, but of the patient. Viewed from this end of the prism, Bronglais is a solution to many of our health problems. Indeed, it’s a life saver. If boards worked together across Hywel Dda, Swansea bay, Betsi Cadwaladr and Powys, they would see that Bronglais is the hospital best placed to serve as a regional centre of excellence. Bronglais should be viewed as solution, not a problem.
We all accept the need to modernise, but sustainability can’t come at the expense of access, quality or clinical excellence. This plan must be rethought, with genuine regional collaboration, with a patient focus, specialist leadership, and a commitment to care that’s close to home. There is cross-party agreement on this debate here today, and opposition to the proposals.’
You will be aware that at their extraordinary meeting on the 19th February this year, Hywel Dda UHB decided that a completely different option for stroke services to the one that had been put forward in their original Clinical Services Plan consultation document, should go out to engagement and be progressed post Senedd election. This new idea was that stroke patients presenting at Bronglais should be moved to Glangwili Hospital Carmarthen for their rehabilitation. This proposal still results in the long distance ‘treat and transfer’ of stroke patients and there is still no sign of any detail around the ‘transfer’ element of the plan. In effect, this is really no different to what was being proposed before except that Glangwili is some 16 miles nearer to Bronglais than Llanelli. You will know that it is also well documented that Glangwili is a hospital that is in dire need of millions of pounds worth of restructuring and refurbishment. You may recall that PBS asked HDdUHB many questions following their decision on the 19th February – our copy letter to them and their response to us is again attached for your information – (we sent this to you before the election). PBS was frankly outraged that within this new proposal, once again there was very little detail around how patients would be transported.
· Now that the ‘purdah period’ of the Senedd election is over and there is a new Welsh Government in situ, PBS is very concerned that Hywel Dda UHB intend to press ahead with these proposals. Given your stance during our campaign and indeed, your compelling words during the above debate, PBS now ask you as our Welsh Government Health Minister to please intervene to ensure that this unsafe and dangerous plan to move Bronglais stroke patients to Glangwili for their rehabilitation, is not allowed to progress.
During the PBS Health Question Time for candidates held in Aberystwyth on the 13th March, the Plaid representative at the meeting, Elin Jones MS, agreed, when asked the question about whether or not Welsh Government Ministers should intervene when Health Boards make ill-thought through and unsafe decisions, that they should and indeed, cited the former Welsh Government Health Minister, Edwina Hart, as someone who frequently did so when she felt it was necessary. It was reassuring to hear this and of course, this tenet is legally set out in the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006 Sections 26-28. Unfortunately, your ministerial predecessor Jeremy Miles and the former First Minister Eluned Morgan, both believed that Health Boards should be autonomous and refused to intervene on Hywel Dda in this matter.
We wish you well and very much look forward to receiving your answer to our question.
Yours sincerely,
FOR AND ON BEHALF OF PROTECT BRONGLAIS SERVICES
Lisa Francis
(Chair)
[email protected]
