A not-for-profit group has voiced its frustration after feeling “jollied along” by Powys Teaching Health Board which it feels has not fulfilled its promises over the last eight years.
Bronllys Well Being Park CLT Ltd [BWBP] held a hybrid meeting - both physical and online via Zoom, on Monday evening, to ask its members and the community about how they should progress with the health board which the group claims has “gone quiet” in recent months.
Board member Jacqueline Wilding said that while the group appreciated the difficulties the health board has faced during the pandemic, these frustrations pre-date Covid-19.
Opening the discussion, she said: “I’m going to start off by highlighting that we’ve really been trying hard to work with the health board tirelessly for the last, I would say eight years, on the whole but more recently in last six years.
“We do totally understand their predicament at this time for the pandemic, however most of our issues and the things that we’ve raised have been in that six years previously.”
The groups says that while it understands the current pressure on the health board from the Coronavirus pandemic, it is concerned that Bronllys is being “left behind” and that they have struggled to communicate with the health board which they feel has “gone quiet’ in recent months when they’ve tried to link up.
The meeting was told by Ms Wilding that the board are very keen to get the suggestions from members - which number between 500 and 600 - as well as members of the community.
Ms Wilding said: “We’ve really been frustrated since well before the pandemic but that has heightened things and made it a bit more difficult for us to deal with it and some of the things we’ve dealt with along with the health board are even more tricky.
“They’ve given us permission to use the site for meetings and an office. As soon as the pandemic came around we immediately said ‘right we’ll come off the site if it’s causing any grief and we’ll go elsewhere - we’re very grateful for what you’ve allowed us to do ‘ and we were really understanding of where they were at in the pandemic and how they’ve done an amazing job with that.
“Please be aware that we are really happy to say that we are not trying to cause them any grief during this really bad time, but these are issues which are happening around Powys and we feel we are being left behind and we in Bronllys are really keen to let people to know that’s the case and so that’s why we actually spread that information and we ask you and our membership about what you feel about that and what you’d like us to do about it in the future.”
The group said at the meeting that it has been “infuriating” trying to organise a meeting as whenever they do organise a face-to-face consultation, it’s cancelled at the last minute by the health board .
The public meeting was hosted by the community land trust group at Royston Hall in Bronllys as well as online via Zoom with various community figures attending including Powys County Councillors William Powell, Gareth Ratcliffe and Iain McIntosh.
The group expressed their gratitude to Cllr Iain McIntosh, who is the cabinet holder for planning, housing and economic regeneration, who said he would continue trying to help them go forward with the health board.
Cllr McIntosh said at the meeting: “All I would say really is that I’m going to see what I can do to find out what Powys Teaching Health Board intentions are, why they’ve stopped communicating and to see how we can open those communication channels again really.
“As far as Powys goes, obviously, I’ve discussed this and we’re keen to help with this going forward as we can.
“After seeing all the plans and everything from my perspective, even though I’ve come in at a late stage as I’ve only been on the cabinet for just over a year now, I can certainly see the merits in this, you know, it’s obviously been a long journey to get as far as this and it’s a bit of a shame that they’ve just stopped speaking. I’ll certainly see what I can do to try and help and it will be interesting to see what everyone else says following this meeting.”
The meeting placed emphasis on using “the four Ps” which are comprised of petition, press, political support and protesting, to help it demonstrate why it needs to move forward to the health board.
BWBP board member Max Comfort told the meeting: “What fascinates me about this and I should say also appalls me, is that here we have a large public body which has a large budget and a huge amount of responsibility to work with the community and for the community, has jollied us along for a number of years.
“They’ve patted us on the head for a number of years - ‘jolly good, keep going, but don’t make any waves’ - and as soon as we publish some really good ideas about well being and the importance of well being in the health package, because it’s not just about medicines it’s about well being, the shutters come down.”
Prior to the meeting, the group claimed that promises made by the health board to review the Bronllys site in 2018 - with full local engagement - have not been met or implemented to date.
BWBP is a non-for-profit group which is looking at the possibility of a well-being campus with the community hospital at its heart.
The group previously said it has been a “tremendous challenge” working with the health board since 2015 and that, while several-on site projects were verbally agreed with the health board, they “failed to come to fruition”.
They said is mainly because the PTHB Executive Team have not provided the written permissions such as Terms of Reference and Letters of Consent to allow certain projects to progress.
While £500,000 worth of investments were made by PTHB and Powys County Council to The Prince’s Foundation in 2011 and to the Arwain-funded feasibility studies from 2018, none of the recommendations by either have been progressed.
Powys Teaching Health Board responded to the claims saying it is “regrettable” that BWBP does not accept its position on the site.
A spokesperson from PTHB said: “Since 2016 there has been over £4 million of capital investment in the hospital site delivered by the Health Board. Details of this investment can be seen in the papers of the board meeting on 28 July 2021 where a paper was presented which provided an update on the developments on the Bronllys Community Hospital site. Powys Teaching Health Board would like to reassure the community that the Bronllys Community Hospital site continues to be of strategic importance in the delivery of health and care services and education. We continue to make progress on the development and implementation of our plans for the site wherever we have the capacity to do so. It is important to emphasise that the Health Board’s critical priority at this time must be to support our patients, staff and communities to respond to and recover from the pandemic given the unprecedented pressures on the health and care system.
“It is regrettable that the BWBP CLT does not accept the Health Board’s position in respect of the Bronllys Community Hospital site. The Health Board remains committed to working with communities across Powys and will indeed actively engage with the Bronllys community and surrounding areas (of which BWBP CLT is just one interested group) on the future aspirations for the Bronllys Community Hospital site as soon as we have the capacity to do so.”