Wales’ Health Minister Edwina Hart has again reiterated that Withybush Hospital is here to stay, while distancing herself from current concerns about services.

Mrs Hart visited the Western Telegraph with Labour Assembly candidate Christine Gwyther on Monday and said she was “getting sick and tired of all this, everytime an election appears on the horizon all these levels of concern start.

“I can understand it better this time because of the leaked document, to be perfectly frank, that came out from the local health board, but I think people do have to believe the reassurances from Trevor Purt and Chris Martin.”

Following the document’s release, Mrs Hart said she “summoned” Mr Purt and Mr Martin to see her and the chief executive of the NHS to ask what was going on.

“The point is in terms of Withybush there has been massive investment into Withybush and you wouldn’t invest in somewhere if you ever intended to get rid of it. Withybush is here to stay,” said Mrs Hart.

She also highlighted improvements to dialysis services as well as the new A&E. Mrs Gwyther added that she had been told that two new consultants had been employed at the A&E and expected the health board to continue to push for new staff.

Current worries about staffing levels and the removal of orthodontic services were an issue for the local health board the Minister said.

“I’m not responsible for the day-to-day management of the health service. It’s a matter for the local health board and I also think it’s not helpful when people stir things up and patients get concerned. It’s obviously a matter for the local health board to deal with.

“We do have local health boards now, with well paid executive teams and chairs and boards, which really need to get to grips with what’s going on in their communities. Health boards will always look at the delivery of services, patient safety, and the key issues of managing services and services change.

“Service patterns are changing across Wales in almost every hospital. But we are in difficult times in the health service and we’ll be in difficult times in terms of budgets in the future but the important thing is to keep the core services and ensure we can keep services as close to patients that are as safe as possible.”