ANGRY residents have made their feelings known about the sudden temporary closure of Tywyn Hospital’s inpatient ward by staging a protest.

Residents gathered outside the hospital on Saturday following Thursday’s announcement by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) that the ward will close temporarily due to staff shortages.

Ffion Johnstone, integrated health community director for the west of BCUHB, said: “We have been working hard to recruit new nurses from the surrounding area and from further afield to work at Tywyn Hospital for some time but have now exhausted all recruitment options.

“Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to recruit adequate numbers of nurses to provide safe nurse staffing levels across both Tywyn and Dolgellau hospitals.

“With the safety of our patients as our primary concern, we have taken the difficult decision to temporarily close the ward at Tywyn Hospital and consolidate inpatient beds at Dolgellau Hospital to ensure more robust nursing cover. All other services – including outpatient appointments - will continue as normal at Tywyn Hospital.

“Over the next week, staff and patients will start moving across to Dolgellau and we are working with staff, patients and their families to ensure a safe transfer between hospitals. We are grateful to our staff who are working hard to help make this temporary transition as smooth and as safe as possible.

“These arrangements will be under regular review. We are still actively recruiting and our intention is to reopen the ward at Tywyn Hospital as soon as possible. However, this is dependent on securing more nursing staff and the process is likely to take several months.

“We understand this will cause concern within the Tywyn community but we have taken the decision to protect the safety of our inpatients until we can achieve sustainable levels of nurse staffing.”

The MP, Liz Saville Roberts, was one of many - including resident Jane Muir, who has set up a Facebook page called Tywyn Hospital Action Group - who attended Saturday’s protest.

Jane said: “We are devastated by Betsi Cadwaladr’s decision to ‘temporarily’ close the inpatient ward at Tywyn Hospital. Staff and patients were told on Thursday that they would be moved to Dolgellau hospital by Tuesday. No notice, no consultation, no discussion, no rationale.

“The action to close the ward is premeditated, lacks transparency; it is a misappropriation of our community’s public services. If staff didn’t want to move to Dolgellau, they would not have a job. Tywyn is a new hospital which has excellent equipment and facilities. Our hospital has superb staff working there. Our relatives and friends have been provided with the best possible care you could wish for.The health board have said that it is unable to recruit sufficient staff to fill posts. We want to see what evidence the health board have to show that they ever actively recruited staff for our hospital.

"This hospital is a vital resource in our community. Please support our cause.”

Gwynedd Council met with (BCUHB) last Friday morning. Following that, Cllr Louise Hughes said on Facebook: “We’ve just had a robust and frank discussion with Betsi Cadwaladr and the healthcare providers and have been reassured that Tywyn hospital is NOT under threat of closure.

“We only need four registered nurses to be able to reopen the inpatient ward, so please put the message out to any nursing friends that there are excellent opportunities here in Tywyn.  

“As your local county councillors we are all in complete agreement that the situation as it stands is unacceptable and we are committed to ensuring that the inpatient ward reopens as soon as possible.”