LLANELLI: Mums-to-be face Swansea trips for check-ups as maternity clinic changes

Pregnant women in Llanelli who plan to give birth in Swansea will have to travel there for all their consultant appointments, under changes coming in December.

At the moment, those choosing Singleton Hospital can have some of their antenatal care at Prince Philip Hospital on their doorstep, with the rest in Swansea.

That split arrangement is ending, and the satellite clinic at Prince Philip is being replaced.

Not everyone is affected. Women whose pregnancies do not need a consultant will carry on seeing Hywel Dda community midwives locally, as now.

And for those who choose to give birth in Carmarthenshire rather than Swansea, a new Hywel Dda-run obstetric clinic will open at Prince Philip in place of the current one.

The change hits one group in particular: women who want a Singleton birth but have a pregnancy needing consultant oversight. For them, every hospital appointment now means the trip to Swansea.

The clinic at Prince Philip has been run under an agreement between the two health boards — Swansea Bay, which runs Singleton, and Hywel Dda, which covers Carmarthenshire.

It was Swansea Bay that gave notice. Hywel Dda was formally told on 6 June, and the agreement ends on 9 December.

Hywel Dda says the two boards work to different clinical guidelines, policies and governance arrangements, and that reviews found those differences “can create inconsistencies”.

Both organisations agreed ending the arrangement would support a safer and more coherent pathway for women and babies, the board said.

Sharon Daniel, director of nursing, quality and patient experience at Hywel Dda, said: “The safety and quality of care for pregnant women and people and babies must always be our primary consideration.”

She said the current arrangement had let people from the area access consultant-led maternity services in Swansea while attending some appointments closer to home.

“However, reviews undertaken by both health boards have highlighted that operating across two organisations with different clinical and governance frameworks can create challenges,” she said.

Women, families and staff will get their say first. A six-week engagement exercise starts on 17 August, with details of how to take part published beforehand.

“The engagement process will help us better understand any impact of the changes,” Ms Daniel said, adding that feedback would be considered as the new arrangements were planned.

The change comes with maternity care at Singleton under intense scrutiny. Services were escalated to Level Four intervention by the Welsh Government in July last year — the second highest level — after an independent review found repeated failures in the quality of care and governance.

That review examined 168 clinical cases and heard from more than 1,000 people. The then Health Secretary, Jeremy Miles, issued a full and unreserved apology to women and families who “have not received the service or care they deserved”.

Two months earlier, a report by patient body Llais had gathered the experiences of more than 500 people who used Swansea Bay maternity services. Women described being left alone during labour, having concerns dismissed and feeling unsafe. One said she was left covered in blood; another that her catheter was left in for 26 hours.

A healthcare lawyer acting for affected families said at the time that some cases involved babies only weeks old, and that “there is now a generation of people fearful of what might await them when the time comes to give birth”.

Swansea Bay has apologised unreservedly, accepted all the review’s recommendations, and says it has made improvements to staffing, training and services. Perinatal mortality has fallen since 2023.

In Llanelli, it lands on a hospital where residents are already watching services closely. Councillors have called for Prince Philip to become a “centre of excellence” for stroke care amid fears of erosion, with the town council leader warning the town “cannot afford to lose any more”.

Under separate proposals, Glangwili in Carmarthen would become the region’s only 24-hour acute stroke unit, leaving Prince Philip as a transfer site.

People can register to take part in Hywel Dda’s engagement work through its Siarad Iechyd / Talking Health scheme.