Why couldn't local bed be found for Wynn?

The Town Council is writing to regional health chiefs to ask why a hospital bed nearer than one in Mold could not be found for an elderly Llangollen man injured in an accident near his home a few weeks ago.

The issue was raised at Tuesday evening’s council meeting by Cllr Sheena Burrell who claimed the situation was a direct result of the “fiasco” of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board closing community hospitals, including the one in Llangollen, as part of a controversial shake-up of services across north Wales.

She said: “One of our best-loved characters in the town, Wynn Hughes, was recently injured in an accident and is now in hospital in Mold.

“Even with Llangollen Hospital closing, why could he not have been found a bed nearer than in Mold?

“People want to go to visit him and it would have been much easier for them to do that had he been at Chirk Hospital or even Wrexham.Mold is not even in this area.

“The closure of community hospitals has been a fiasco. Services were supposed to have been kept local.

“What we were told at the public meetings arranged by the health board was just a load of hot air and rubbish.

“At every meeting they gave the answers they knew people wanted to hear.

“This is disgusting and every fear that we had has come true right away.”

Referring to the situation at Llangollen Cottage Hospital, Cllr James Tobin said staff were now working from day to day and had not been told anything by the health board about when it would actually close.

The mayor, Cllr Jon Haddy, said: “We are now beyond the point where we can object to the health board’s policy on service changes but the implementation has not been what they said they would do.”

Councillors approved a suggestion from Cllr Burrell that the council should write to the health board asking why a bed could not be found for the injured resident she had referred to closer than in Mold.