The fight to keep Tenby's Minor Injuries Unit open is to continue, a meeting of local AMs, county, town and community councillors and South East Pembrokeshire Community Health Network representatives confirmed on Friday.

"Although the Hywel Dda Health Board has stated that the MIU is to close, we're not prepared to just roll over and accept their decision," Tenby town councillor and secretary of the SEPCHN, Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas, commented after the meeting.

"We feel that the case for maintaining the MIU in Tenby for the benefit of the whole of South East Pembrokeshire and the thousands of visitors who come to the area annually is as strong now as it always has been and we will continue to press that case," she stressed.

The meeting, which included Assembly members Angela Burns and William Powell, along with County Councillors, Mike Evans, Michael Williams, Phil Baker, Tony Brinsden, Jon Preston, Jacob Williams, Phil Kidney and SEPCHN chairman Mansel Thomas, was disappointed that chair of the Health Board, Mr. Chris Martin, had declined an invitation to attend.

Prior to the meeting, Mr. Martin had informed the clerk to Tenby Town Council, Andrew Davies, that the Health Board were not going to change their plans for the closure of the MIU, although he had stressed that no date had yet been agreed.

He had, however, agreed to meet with a small group of local county councillors to explain how the services currently provided at the Tenby MIU would be re-provided through local GP practices and 'third party' providers.

While the meeting was grateful to Mr. Martin for this opportunity to meet with him, local GP, Dr. Iwan Griffiths, senior partner at the Tenby practice, said that he could not see how Mr. Martin would be able to outline future provision, as Tenby Surgery had only been contacted on the matter once by the Health Board since June.

That contact had been to ask if the surgery had changed its stance on the re-provision of service through the GPs, which it had not.

"We, and I believe our colleagues in Saundersfoot, are still of the same opinion as 12 months ago, and that is that the current level of Emergency Nurse Practitioner-led service provided at Tenby MIU cannot be replicated by the GPs without an adverse effect on our role as primary care providers," he told the meeting.

Dr. Griffiths added that promises made by Mrs. Sue Lewis, the Health Board's county director for Pembrokeshire, at a similar meeting with the group in June to look into models of provision in other areas with similarly high influxes of tourists, eg. Newquay, in Cornwall, had not been kept.

He went as far as to say that minor injuries provision in the South East Pembrokeshire area had almost been deliberately reduced to such a level that the current position would be seen to be untenable in order to justify the closure.

"If you keep reducing the services, and the times that these services are available, then ultimately you are going to reach a situation where the number of people presenting at the MIU is statistically so low as to indicate that it is not needed," he ventured, adding that this seemed to fly in the face of the ethos of bringing care closer to the community.

The meeting felt that the Health Board had still not taken account of the poor transport links to Haverfordwest and Carmarthen, the large elderly population or the number of visitors. They were also dismayed at the level of communication between the Health Board and the local GPs in recent months.

Clr. Michael Williams suggested that the meeting write to Welsh Government Health Minister Mark Drakeford proposing a vote of no confidence in the management of the Health Board.

Assembly member Mrs. Burns agreed that there was certainly a case for lack of confidence in the board's consultation and communication procedure on such an important issue, but felt that a lot more evidence would be needed to support such a letter.

Questions were also asked of the role of the Community Health Council in the matter, with East Williamston County Clr. Jacob Williams fearing that they had 'capitulated'.

He reminded the meeting that the CHC had agreed not to refer the closure to the Health Minister on the proviso that the services available at Tenby MIU were replicated through other providers and questioned how the CHC could allow the Health Board to issue a press statement that the Tenby MIU was going to close without confirmation that alternative provision was indeed in place.

"The CHC seem to have accepted the Health Board telling them that the services are going to be replicated by the GPs and other providers, but we're now hearing from the GPs that no such agreement is in place," he said. "In fact, we're hearing that the Health Board have not discussed the matter further with the GPs since June."

Regional AM Mr. Powell, who is also chair of the Assembly's petitions committee, confirmed that Tenby Town Council's petition calling for the Health Board to reverse their decision was still 'live' and was due to be considered again on November 11.

He was shocked by the apparent lack of communication between the Health Board and the GPs and said that he would bring this to the committee's attention.

He also commented on a recent announcement that £1.9 million would be invested in providing enhanced MIU facilities in Llandudno to, as the health minister was quoted, 'improve services for local people and the large number of visitors who come to the area', feeling that the case for MIU provision in south east Pembrokeshire was no different from Llandudno.

The meeting resolved to keep the pressure on the Health Board to reverse their decision both through the Welsh Assembly and at local level.

Also see Letters section for further opinion on the proposed closure.