With the population of Tenby rising from 5,000 to 50,000 during the busy summer season, a local councillor believes that 24-hour accident and emergency cover is a necessity for the town.
Clr. John Griffiths suggested at Tuesday night's meeting of the town council that they should write to the Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust with a request that they consider the option of the new Tenby Cottage Hospital providing round-the-clock cover during the summer.
"As the population of the town increases during the holiday period, so does the chance of someone needing A and E cover," said Clr. Griffiths.
"Not only that, but Tenby is the lifeboat centre, so if the cover were to save just one life, it would be worth it," he added.
In another topic discussed relating to the new hospital, Clr. Paul Rapi referred to an incident at Greenhill School recently where a pupil was injured and required an X-ray.
However, Clr. Rapi explained that the pupil had to be taken to Withybush Hospital as no-one at the Tenby site at the time was able to use the X-ray equipment.
"This was during school hours, so it was a concern to us that there was no staff member able to carry out the X-ray," he said.
With regard to the councillors' comments, chairman of the local implementation group, Mr. Mansel Thomas, told the Observer that the hospital did not actually provide A&E facilities, only a Minor Injuries Unit.
"The demand to justify overnight usage of this unit at the new hospital has not been there, but the suggestion of 24-hour cover during the summer period is certainly worth considering and is something we will bring up at our next meeting."
Mrs. Sonia Hay, project co-ordinator for the new hospital, explained how the nurses had been retrained to read X-rays, but that a radiographer was still required on site to actually take an X-ray. "It's unfortunate that this child was not able to be X-rayed, but although the nurses have been trained to read the results, our radiographer still needs to be at the hospital to carry one out. The radiographer's hours have not increased since the move from the old hospital, so is not on site at all hours during the day," she explained.