Opening times at the Llandrindod Wells War Memorial Hospital will be a reduced, the health board has announced.
Powys Teaching Health Board confirmed on Wednesday, July 24, that there will be a “temporary” change in the opening times at the hospital from September.
The board said the decision had been made due to difficulties in staffing at the hospital.
A spokesperson for Powys Teaching Health Board said: “The NHS across the UK, and locally in Powys, faces a number of challenges to maintain quality, safety, outcomes and financial sustainability for patients and communities.
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“Waiting times for planned care increased during the Covid pandemic and remain high. Inflationary pressures affect the whole of the public sector, increasing the costs of service delivery.
“More people are living longer with multiple health conditions. And there are pressures on staffing, including that the proportion of people of working age is reducing.
“Powys Teaching Health Board is therefore taking some immediate steps to help maintain quality services within available resources.”
The changes will see the opening time at the minor injury unit at the hospital being reduced from its current opening time of 7am to midnight to being reduced to a 12-hour shift of 8am to 8pm.
The health board added: “It has proved increasingly difficult to staff the county’s minor injury units. There are frequent overnight and evening closures because appropriately trained staff are not available. This creates uncertainty for patients.
“Typically, around one to two people per night attends the MIU in Brecon or Llandrindod Wells, and in the significant majority of cases their care needs could wait until the morning or would be better addressed elsewhere – for example because they need the specialist resources in a major hospital A&E department.
“Whilst this does offer convenience for patients it does not offer the best use of precious NHS resources.”
The same reduction in opening times will also apply to the minor injury unit in Brecon.
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