Carl Peters-Bond, Independent Senedd candidate for Sir Gaerfyrddin and Mayor of Kidwelly, has reacted with outrage to Freedom of Information documents which reveal that Hywel Dda University Health Board made no targeted attempts to recruit a salaried GP to Meddygfa’r Sarn in Pontyates for nine years — despite citing a lack of recruitment interest as a key reason for recommending the surgery’s closure.
The FOI documents, obtained by the Save Meddygfa’r Sarn Working Group and reported by Swansea Bay News, show that since Hywel Dda took over management of the practice in 2017, the only recruitment activity undertaken was a small number of circular letters sent to locums already working across managed practices — asking whether any wished to take up salaried roles. No targeted recruitment campaign was ever run specifically for Meddygfa’r Sarn.
Carl Peters-Bond, who is himself a patient at the surgery, said the revelation directly contradicted the impression given in the health board’s own January report, which stated there had been “little interest in recruitment to salaried roles” at the practice.
“This is duplicitous, beyond fairness, and misleading behaviour from Hywel Dda,” he said. “They cited a lack of recruitment interest as justification for closing this surgery — but they never actually tried to recruit anyone. Sending a circular letter to locums already on the books is not a recruitment campaign. Those responsible for presenting this to the board in the way they did need to be held to account.”
Carl also raised serious concerns about the conduct of the consultation process itself, which he said had been fraught with problems from the outset.
“The health board’s consultation only asked people about the impact of the closure — not whether the closure should happen at all,” he said. “That is not a fair or genuine consultation. In light of what these FOI documents have revealed, I am calling on health board bosses to scrap the closure proposal entirely and go back to the drawing board.”
The final decision on the future of Meddygfa’r Sarn will be made at the Hywel Dda University Health Board meeting on 28 May at Yr Egin, Carmarthen.
Carl’s call echoes his wider public services pledge, in which he has committed to ensuring that health services are delivered in communities where they are needed — and to ending the bureaucratic culture that he believes is failing patients across Wales.
“Communities like Pontyates need services on their doorstep — not miles away in places with poor or non-existent transport links,” he said. “Consultations on changes to those services must be fair, transparent and in the genuine interest of local people. What we have seen from Hywel Dda here is sorely lacking on every one of those counts.”
Read Carl’s public services pledge at carlpetersbond.wales
Read the full Swansea Bay News report on the FOI revelation at swanseabaynews.com
