Welsh Health Board Mulls Closing Three Urgent Care Centres
Betsi Cadwaladr is consulting on ending urgent primary care at hospitals in Holyhead, Tremadog and Bangor by March 2027. Local politicians object.
A north Wales health board is consulting on closing urgent primary care centres at three hospitals in north-west Wales. If approved, the centres would shut by 31 March 2027, but objectors say the closures would have "dire consequences".
What is proposed
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board wants to end urgent primary care centre (UPCC) services at Ysbyty Penrhos Stanley in Holyhead, Ysbyty Alltwen in Tremadog and Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor. The board says access to urgent care is a "priority". It also says the centres have faced financial pressures and ongoing recruitment difficulties.
The centres opened in 2022. Advanced nurse practitioners, GPs and physiotherapists staff them and treat patients with urgent problems on the same day. Services at Mold Community Hospital and Wrexham Maelor Hospital would not be affected.
Objections
Plaid Cymru MP Llinos Medi, Reform Wales leader and MS Helen Jenner, and Conservative MS Janet Finch-Saunders have written to the board. Opponents say closure would add pressure on GP practices and emergency departments. Easing that pressure is what the centres were set up to do.
They are especially concerned about Holyhead. Ysbyty Penrhos Stanley lost its four-bed hospice unit, run by St David's Hospice, in 2025.
Finch-Saunders said the centres help when people cannot get a GP appointment but need immediate care. Without them, she warned, waiting times could increase and treatment could be delayed.
Holyhead county councillor Jeff Evans said closure would have "dire consequences for the community and patients". "If you close this centre, where do the people go?" he asked.
Evans said the community, doctors, nurses and patients who need the service would not accept the closure.
Board and government response
The proposal follows the board being given a "final chance" to improve in June, after nine years in special measures over care quality, patient safety and leadership.
Chief executive Carol Shillabeer said the board is reviewing current UPCC provision and engaging with staff. The outcome and any future approach "will be developed in the coming months".
The Welsh government said decisions on local NHS services are for the health board, which it called best placed to assess local needs. It expects NHS Wales bodies to engage openly with stakeholders.
Our View
No decision has been made. It remains unclear what would replace the centres' same-day care, and how the board would weigh its financial and staffing problems against local objections. Those answers may decide how the consultation ends.
Source: BBC News