From left to right: Gina Jones (Treasurer), Sarah Edwards MS, Mick Gough (Chairman), Derek Jones – Photo by Elkanah Evans
Sarah Edwards MS, Member of the Senedd for Carmarthenshire, has pledged her support to the people of Llandovery after visiting the town to meet the Llandovery Hospital League of Friends, following the withdrawal of the hospital’s X-ray service.
X-ray services at Llandovery Hospital were permanently withdrawn from Monday 3 August 2026 as part of changes approved by Hywel Dda University Health Board. Patients now face a round trip of more than fifty miles to Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen for a service that was, until recently, available on their doorstep.
A service the community built themselves
During the visit, Sarah Edwards heard directly from League of Friends chairman Mick Gough and treasurer Gina Jones about the depth of feeling in the community, and about the remarkable local effort that funded the X-ray unit in the first place. The League of Friends and the people of Llandovery raised close to £200,000 to build the unit around a decade ago, without any funding from the Health Board.
The strength of local opposition is well established. When the Health Board held a consultation at the Castle Hotel in July 2025, over 500 people, roughly a fifth of the town’s population, turned out on a hot summer afternoon to object to the closure of the unit.
A deeply personal loss
For many residents, the loss is deeply personal. The League of Friends described an 81-year-old man who, until a few months ago, could walk the 300 yards from his home to the unit for an X-ray. He now needs two people to escort him on the long journey to Carmarthen.
Treasurer Gina Jones, a member of the League of Friends since 1999, described having to travel to Glangwili herself for a chest X-ray, and her granddaughter making the same journey several times in recent months.
Speaking after the visit, Sarah Edwards MS said:
“What this community achieved is extraordinary. The people of Llandovery dug into their own pockets and raised close to £200,000 to build this X-ray unit themselves, because they believed in their hospital. For the Health Board to take that service away, having contributed nothing to build it, is a bitter blow, and the people I met today feel it deeply.”
She added:
“I met residents today who now need not one but two people to help them make a fifty-mile round trip for something they once accessed with a short walk. That is not progress. It is the quiet erosion of a hospital that has been the heart of this community for generations, and I will not stand by and watch it happen.”
A warning for the hospital’s future
Sarah Edwards warned that the removal of services risks putting the hospital itself in jeopardy over time, as reduced services lead to reduced use, which the Health Board could later cite as grounds to question the hospital’s future.
“When you strip services out of a community hospital, fewer people are able to use it, and before long that falling usage is turned against the very community that has been let down. The people of Llandovery can see exactly where this road leads, and they are right to be worried. Today I gave them my word that I will fight this alongside them.”
The League of Friends has called for the X-ray service to be reinstated, alongside a guarantee of proper staffing for the hospital. Sarah Edwards has committed to raising the issue directly with the Welsh Government and to supporting the community’s campaign in every way she can, and has encouraged local residents to make their voices heard to the Health Board.
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