The local Health Board's recent consultation process to garner the views of Pembrokeshire people on the future of health services in the area was labelled a 'sham exercise' by a local councillor this week.

Speaking at Tuesday night's meeting of Tenby Town Council, Clr. Lawrence Blackhall said that the Hywel Dda Health Board's 'Your Health Your Future' consultation process was nothing more than a "very expensive paper exercise", stating that the public feedback had been ignored.

Local campaigners and organisations have expressed anger and disappointment over the past few weeks at the decision by the Health Board to close the Minor Injury Unit provided at Tenby Cottage Hospital, with members of the town council and the South East Pembrokeshire Community Health Network (SEPCHN) leading the fight to keep the service.

SEPCHN chairman, Mr. Mansel Thomas, has urged everyone to write to the Welsh Government's Minister for Health and Social Services, Lesley Griffiths, stressing how important the MIU is to the community, while community councils are to set up their own individual petitions to send to the Welsh Government.

At the town council meeting on Tuesday, the town clerk, Mr. Andrew Davies, said that they had tried to launch a new petition, but unfortunately it was not permissible as the National Assembly for Wales' petitions committee were still considering the council's previous petition regarding the Tenby MIU.

Mr. Davies also said that the Community Health Council had been contacted to ask for the decision by Hywel Dda to be called in by the Health Minister.

Correspondence from Hywel Dda's chairman, Chris Martin, was also brought before councillors, after the town council had written to the board asking if they could give assurances that the Tenby MIU would remain open and operational until an agreement was made with the local GPs to take over the responsibilities of the unit.

"The Board recognised the local opposition to the proposal to close Tenby's MIU, and clearly did consider this as part of its decision making process," said Mr. Martin.

"The final recommendation paper the Board based its decision upon, shows that all feedback for each service area was an integral part of the process.

"The implementation of change will be managed through the Clinical Services Strategy Implementation Board and closure will only happen when it is sustainable to do so.

"Discussions are ongoing with local GPs and we have also take the decision to commission a summer service within Tenby recognising the greater volume of potential patients in the tourist season. The latter element has been included specifically as a result of the feedback we received," added Mr. Martin.

Responding to the letter, Clr. Blackhall said it seemed the Health Board had just disregarded the vast majority of views from the public that had been sent back to them.

"The consultation has been a sham exercise and nothing more than a very expensive paper exercise," he claimed.

"We keep being told that discussions are ongoing with GPs, but if you make the decision to replace a service with something else, then surely you sort out the decision of who's going to run it before you make that decision.

"It's nonsense to say that anyone else can provide that service, until we have an agreement from the local GPs. It's like saying we're going to knock the harbour down in Tenby and we might build another one in time," added Clr. Blackhall.

Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown felt that the town council, along with the community, were just being "fobbed off" again with the Health Board's latest response.

"We know the board didn't base their decision on local feedback, otherwise we'd be getting a different answer," she commented.

Clr. Blackhall finished discussions by stating that he would like them to write to the Health Board inviting them into discussions about how they could work together to see the Tenby Cottage Hospital facility become a community health hub for the southeast of the county.