In the wake of Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABM) members’ recent decision to end the acute medical service at Neath Port Talbot Hospital in September due to shortage of doctors, Aberavon MP Hywel Francis and AM David Rees have urged the board to carry on their search for more doctors so that the service can be continued.

ABM has been struggling to find aptly-qualified CT2 doctors for running the acute medical service ever since the last-year decision by the Wales Deanery - which shoulders the responsibility for postgraduate doctor training – to move CT2 doctors to other hospitals which would provide the doctors with more suitable training environment.

Given the fact that the acute medical service examines nearly 9,000 patients a year, Francis and Rees recently held a meeting with the senior health board officials, and expressed their desire to see the service reinstated at a later date.

Revealing that they had expressed their concern with ABM’s decision pertaining to acute medical services at the Baglan hospital, the two politicians said in a joint statement that they had been “reassured that the hospital was not to be downgraded and it had a secure long-term future."

The politicians also said that they had put forth the proposal that ABM should continue exploring all possible ways of recruiting suitably qualified doctors; and urged the board to “quickly reassure the public that there will be sufficient capacity in neighbouring hospitals to accommodate the additional workload placed upon them.”