Health services in Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire are teetering on the edge of a financial cliff face, a meeting has heard, and redundancies would follow if savings can’t be made.

A Hywel Dda Health Board meeting heard on 25 July heard that the health board had targeted a deficit of £64m in 2024/25 - more than £5m a month - but that even that target is already being missed.

Last year, Hywel Dda registered a deficit of £65.8 million, significantly exceeding the target control total of £44.8 million set by the Welsh Government.

The Welsh Government then put Hywel Dda on targeted intervention.

A revised financial plan, which targeted a deficit of £64m despite finding more than £30m in savings was deemed “unacceptable” by the Welsh Government.

Hywel Dda University Health Board chair Neil Wooding said the situation at the health is “probably more serious than we can imagine” and that if significant savings are not made by February there would be “no cash” and redundancies would follow.

Mr Wooding, who took up the role earlier this year, told the meeting: “The very sobering kind of situation we face is, I think, probably more serious than we can imagine.

“Because generally we have had a history of over spending as a health board and somehow at the end of the year we’ve been forgiven.

“While we have been reminded and critiqued we have been given the resources to carry on.

“I absolutely think that will not be available this year.

“We can have no assurance whatsoever that we will receive any further resources from Welsh Government at the start of 2025.

“We have to, at all costs, demonstrate the fact we can return to a balanced budget by the end of this year.

“With every month that passes that task becomes more difficult if we can’t demonstrate that we are making the necessary savings.

“I want to know what radical steps we will take in the next three months to be able to deliver the cost savings.

“Because if we do not, we’ll be in a situation in February where we have no cash, we will not be able to pay our creditors, and we will also be looking to make people redundant – forcefully, as the case may be.

“Let us, as much as possible, try to identify what actions we can take in the meantime – above and beyond what we are currently seeing – to avoid reaching a situation that, frankly, most of us in this room would find unacceptable.”

A report but before members said “addressing the challenges”would require “thoroughly reviewing and assessing the savings schemes included within the plan, identifying new saving opportunities and managing potential risks to delivery through mitigating actions.”

“The Health Board must also explore additional opportunities to further reduce the deficit and move closer to the target control total, which will require a comprehensive review of all areas of expenditure, identifying efficiencies, and making difficult decisions about service provision and resource allocation,” the report added.