A rallying cry has gone out to the people of south-east Pembrokeshire to back calls for any new health facility in Tenby to include in-patient beds.
In October last year, Welsh Finance Minister Edwina Hart earmarked some £8 million for new facilities in the Tenby and South Pembrokeshire area to replace those provided at Tenby's aging Cottage Hospital, while on Wednesday National Park planners gave outline consent to the Pembs. and Derwen NHS Trust for the erection of a health care facility building on the former gas holder site in Gas Lane, near Tenby's Butts Field car park.
The Outline Business Plan for the re-provision of health facilities in the area is currently with Jane Hutt, Secretary of State for Health at the National Assembly awaiting a decision, with Ms. Hutt visiting the Gas Lane site yesterday (Thursday) at the invitation of local AM Christine Gwyther.
She later went on to meet members of the League of Friends of Tenby Cottage Hospital where the case for in the inclusion of on-site beds at the new facility was put to her.
It is believed that the favoured option of the Trust is a new building with an outpatient clinic, a social services base, minor injury unit with x-ray facilities and telemedicine, with beds being provided in a private nursing home locally.
However, speaking at Tuesday's meeting of Tenby Town Council, CATCH (Campaign for Action on Tenby Cottage Hospital) committee member, Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas, urged everyone to convince both the Trust and Ms. Hutt of the need for in-patient beds.
"The local Labour Party urged people to write in expressing this view, but local AM Christine Gwyther has gone a step further," Clr. Mrs. Thomas pointed out. "She has had leaflets produced with a tear-off slip, which you can send in.
"She and I urge the thousands of people in the south-east coastal area to send in these slips saying we want a hospital with beds not just a medical facility," Clr. Mrs. Thomas continued.
"This is likely to be our last chance to have a say, the last chance to do something positive and get the message across.
"Everyone who wants a hospital with beds must join together, not leave it up to a small band of people. We must work as a community to get what we want. It's no use complaining afterwards if we have not put forward a united front."
The leaflets will be available at the De Valence Pavilion, Clarice toy shop and all village post offices, while the Observer is also printing the slip on page 4 this week.
Speaking to the Observer, Ms. Gwyther said: "I believe the new hospital should have beds on site and am pressing the Trust and Jane Hutt to provide them, because having beds will help Withybush Hospital by helping to stop bed-blocking by recuperating patients.
"An important factor is that the proposed site is big enough to provide beds; it's better for patients to have a local facility near family and friends and a new facility with beds has been promised for years.
"Now we must convince the NHS Trust and the health minister."
Completed slips can be sent to Ms. Gwyther's constituency office, 17 Morley Street, Carmarthen, SA31 1RB, or alternatively in Tenby they can be dropped at the Observer offices in Warren Street, at the town council offices in the De Valence Pavilion or at Tenby Surgery for Ms. Gwyther to collect.
The Trust's application considered by the National Park on Wednesday indicates that the site, neighbouring Tenby Surgery, could accommodate a building of some 1,013 square metres and provide some 39 car parking spaces.
However, the Trust does not own the land and the National Park recently passed an application by Lattice Property Holdings Ltd. to build a two-storey block of 16 flats on the site.
Development control officer, Mrs. Cathy Milner, told members that there was no reason why two separate applications could not be made on the same site and it was possible that the other application had been made to establish the development potential of the site and subsequent land value.
Setting aside this issue, the site was one of a number that had been looked at for the provision of a health facility and was in Park officers' opinion "the best location available for this facility."
The question of whether beds would be included was not an issue for Park planners at the present time as the application was only in outline and all other matters relating to siting, scale, massing, design, finishes, materials, parking, access, landscaping, drainage and the decontamination of the site from its previous use, the subject of a more detailed submission.
Mrs. Milner said that there was one letter of concern from a neighbour, pointing out the volume of illegal parking along Gas Lane.
While she felt that this was a matter of police enforcement, Mrs. Milner said that these comments would be passed on to the Trust.
Clr. Mrs. Rosemary Hayes commented that she was disappointed that there were no details on what was going to be provided.
"People are really being kept in suspense, but we must move approval of this application," she stressed, adding that care should also be taken to protect trees surrounding the site wherever possible.