Ceredigion AM Elin Jones, has insisted that Health Board plans to centralise cardiac services to Carmarthen should be abandoned, following the Longley Review.

Professor Longley’s detailed work on the future of healthcare in mid Wales, as well as making a number of far-reaching recommendations on how services should be delivered in the future, has cast aside plans to centralise cardiology away from Bronglais.

The conclusion contradicts a Royal College of Physicians report in March which had recommended centralisation.

The Longley Report noted that ‘in cardiology, the report Commissioned by the Royal College of Physicians does not offer a satisfactory basis on which to proceed with the re-organisation of services across Hywel Dda’[1] and said the issue needed to be examined again.

The Royal College itself has expressed a willingness to consider alternative options, in appendix 14 of Professor Longley’s report.

Elin Jones, Ceredigion’s Plaid Cymru AM, said,

“I’m pleased that Professor Longley has dismissed the short-sighted and poorly-evidenced case for centralisation.

“Even the Royal College of Physicians, in its submission to the Mid-Wales Review, has distanced itself from the recommendations of its report in March.

“Professor Longley heard detailed and passionate evidence on the value of the cardiac service at Bronglais from representatives of the British Heart Foundation and others in his evidence sessions in Aberystwyth. Dr. Donogh McKeogh and his team are highly regarded by patients in this area and beyond.

“The Royal College and Professor Longley now recommend to build on the service currently run by Dr. McKeogh’s team to make it a resilient service for the future.”