“SIGNIFICANT concern” over decisions to cut the hours of minor injury units and centralise hospital services will see health chiefs mull over the proposals for a second time.

At a meeting today, Wednesday, 25 September, Powys Teaching Health Board chairman Carl Cooper explained the re-think over the decisions.

At their last board meeting in July members agreed to stop out of hours treatment at the Minor Injury Units at hospitals in the county.

They also agreed that patients should be grouped together in hospitals according to specific need.

This would see two hospital wards in Llanidloes (War Memorial Hospital) and Bronllys specialise in getting patients fit and ready to go home.

Patients that need rehabilitation following illnesses or conditions such as strokes would be looked after in Brecon (Breconshire War Memorial Hospital) and Newtown (Montgomeryshire County Infirmary).

The “temporary” service changes were supposed to be implemented in September for a trial period of six months and were agreed a consequence of the dire financial position of the health board.

They health board are already predicting that they will be posting a budget deficit of just under £23million this year.

Dr Cooper said: “At our last meeting we reported that we were embarking on engagement in relation to decisions that we made as a board.

“Very quickly in that engagement process and in our conversation with Llais the citizen’s voice body, what we heard is that there was significant concern in relation to the process.

“So, we took that very seriously and changed the process by extending the engagement timetable.

“Instead of engaging on decisions that were already made, we changed that, and were engaging on proposals.

“When we meet on October 10, we will be discussing the proposals.”

He told board members that the updated reports will contain the “analysis” and “findings” that come out of the consultation exercise.

Dr Cooper said: “As a result of our listening and learning, things change and we alter accordingly.”

The board will meet on 10 October to decide the proposals.