A Green Party candidate has called on Hywel Dda University Health Board to pause its decision on the future of Meddygfa’r Sarn in Pontyates – warning that a full Equality Impact Assessment has not yet been completed, and that no community engagement was undertaken before a preferred option was identified.
Michael Willis, Green Party candidate for Carmarthenshire in Thursday’s Senedd election, made the call following the Freedom of Information disclosure obtained by the Save Meddygfa’r Sarn Working Group and reported by Swansea Bay News, which he says raises serious questions about whether every reasonable option has been exhausted before recommending the closure of the surgery.
The FOI disclosure states that no community engagement was undertaken before managed dispersal was identified as the preferred option. It also confirms that an Equality Impact Assessment – intended to examine the impact on older residents, disabled patients, Welsh-speaking patients and those without access to private transport – will not be completed until the 28 May board meeting itself, rather than having informed the recommendation at an earlier stage.
Willis is calling for a full independent review of GP recruitment efforts at the surgery since Hywel Dda took over its management in 2017, alongside publication of all options considered – including incentives, shared roles, training practice status, alternative premises and branch-service models. He is also calling for a capacity assessment of receiving practices before any patient transfer is approved.
“The people of Pontyates deserve more than a closure proposal dressed up as inevitability,” he said. “If the Health Board is relying on recruitment failure as a central reason for dispersing patients, then residents are entitled to see clear evidence of a sustained, targeted and imaginative recruitment effort for this surgery.”
The FOI disclosure revealed that the health board made no targeted attempts to recruit a salaried GP to the practice in nine years – despite citing a lack of recruitment interest as a key reason for recommending closure. The only recruitment activity recorded was a small number of circular letters sent to locums already working across managed practices in Carmarthenshire.
The campaign to save Meddygfa’r Sarn has been running since January, when Hywel Dda first proposed dispersing all 4,300 patients to other surgeries. Campaigners lodged a formal complaint over the consultation process, submitted a 52-page report and sustainability document to the board, and held a human chain around the surgery. Independent candidate and surgery patient Carl Peters-Bond has also called on the board to scrap the closure proposal, describing the board’s recruitment claims as “duplicitous.”
Willis said the issue went beyond a single surgery. “A GP surgery is not simply a building. It is continuity of care, local trust, access for older people, support for families, and a key part of community infrastructure. Once lost, services like this are rarely restored,” he said.
Hywel Dda University Health Board’s position, as set out in its January report, is that the practice is “entirely locum-dependent” and that there has been “little interest in recruitment to salaried roles” – the characterisation that campaigners and candidates dispute.
The health board began an eight-week engagement period on 9 February, running until 6 April, ahead of a board decision expected at Yr Egin in Carmarthen on 28 May. Under the proposal, patients would be transferred to nearby practices including Coalbrook Surgery in Pontyberem, Meddygfa Minafon in Kidwelly, and some practices in Llanelli.
Willis said managed dispersal should be treated as a last resort rather than a default. “Hywel Dda should pause the process, publish the full evidence base, and work with residents on a credible rescue plan before any irreversible decision is taken,” he said.
The final decision on the future of Meddygfa’r Sarn will be made at the Hywel Dda University Health Board meeting on Wednesday 28 May at Yr Egin in Carmarthen.
