Rebecca Evans AM, Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales, has raised her concerns about recruitment difficulties at Withybush Hospital with the First Minister, asking him to “investigate the circumstances behind the failed attempts to recruit to paediatric posts” in order to satisfy her that “all efforts have indeed been made to fill the positions.”
This follows the decision by Hywel Dda University Health Board to provide a 12 hour ambulatory paediatric service from Withybush Hospital, with in-patient treatment being provided at Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen.
During questions to the First Minister in the Senedd, the Labour AM said: “Recruitment difficulties have been cited by Hywel Dda UHB as a key reason for the decision for this service change at Withybush, although local people and the CHC have questioned this.”
The First Minister responded by stating that: “Hywel Dda has experienced continued difficulties in recruiting paediatric consultants in Pembrokeshire for some time. One post has remained vacant despite being advertised for over a year, and the job description having been rewritten to make the post more attractive.
“At middle-grade level, there have been successive vacancies in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. This is partly because those hospitals rely heavily on recruitment from the European Union and outside. If they were not able to recruit from outside the EU, they would have enormous problems in terms of recruitment. The difficulty is that those people who come quite often move on very quickly—they move to urban areas very quickly and they do not tend to stay, although some clearly do. That is the reality of what Hywel Dda has to try to deal with. It undertook a recruitment drive within the EU, but it was not able to fill all the posts that it needed to as a result of that recruitment drive.
“I can say that additional vacancies will be created in Withybsuh at junior doctor level when the paediatric training rota is centralised. The college said that it was not possible to have paediatric training at two sites separately; the deanery would not back that situation. So, Hywel Dda, on this occasion, has tried to recruit people into those posts, but unfortunately it has proven difficult. It is a historic problem, but, nevertheless, I am sure that they will continue to make sure that they look to recruit further in future.”
