Head of Powys air ambulance talks urges people to have say

Chief Ambulance Service Commissioner, Stephen Harrhy, who is running the upcoming public meetings about the proposal to close the Welshpool and Caernarfon bases and relocate them to a new north Wales site has stressed that no decision has been made.

“Everything I am doing to is to show that this isn’t the case,” said Mr Harrhy.

“We’re running a process and we really want people to contribute to that process so that when we do make a decision people have had an opportunity to add their views.”

The process will contribute to their decision making will be looking at a number of options that can be taken.

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“There are probably three or four types of option,” said Mr Harrhy. “One which is let’s not do anything at all, second is don’t change the bases but organise things a bit better to see if we could get more people getting treated.

“There is a third option which the charity and their NHS partners EMRTS have put up for consideration. We'll have a look at that and take into considerations the concerns have about it such as weather, seasonal influx of tourists and we’ll look at any other options people want me to have a look at.”

Mr Harrhy also confirmed many more places in the county are likely to host public meetings other than Newtown and Welshpool, with both Builth Wells and Machynlleth being added to the timetable and dates in Knighton and Llandrindod Wells both possible.

The consultation will also see alternative options for those who can’t make the in person meetings.

“I know that sometimes people would prefer to do meetings online over teams or on Zoom,” said Mr Harrhy.

“We’re also opening up a telephone line so people can leave comments or questions. We are tying to make it as easy as we can for as many people want to take part.”

The consultation will be split in two parts with the initial part getting feedback from the public to be added to their data analysis - which is being extended to add a number of extra years’ worth of data to allow for changes that could have been caused by the pandemic - before being put back to the public in the second phase.

“We’re analysing the pattern of activity and how it changes. I don’t want any area to be worse off than they are now, I want everyone to be better,” said Mr Harrhy. “I don’t want it to be if we made a decision that could get us to an extra number of patients that looks good but you end up having one area that has gained quite a lot and another area which is lost. I don’t want us just chasing a figure.”

The final decision will be made by the Emergency Ambulance Service Committee made up of heads of the health boards of Wales.

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However Mr Harrhy has stressed that the decision will be very carefully considered as the recent announcement that the bases would not be moving until 2026 at the earliest gives them time to take a proper analysis.

“We need to look at options. No decision has been made about anything,” said Mr Harrhy.

“Recent announcements mean there is no ticking clock, there is no deadline here.

“This is a service that saves lives, if something serious happens to you it means critical care is coming to you. People are living who wouldn’t live and people are living longer and better quality of lives - the more people we can get that to the better. We’re not going to do that by making a rush decision.”