MORE THAN 5,000 people have shared a petition calling on health bosses to 'stop risking lives' and restore 24-hour paediatric services to Withybush Hospital.

Young father Myles Bamford-Lewis has started an online petition to Hywel Dda Health Board and Health Minister Mark Drakeford after his own fair share of hospital experiences with two of his children, both of which were born prematurely at 27 and 30 weeks.

He said: “Lives have been put at risk by the removal of services in the Pembrokeshire locality and this is wholly unacceptable in this day and age.

“Severely ill children that would otherwise be seen locally and stabilised locally are now having to wait for a transport team based in Bristol to come down to Haverfordwest to drive them to a hospital nearly an hour away for treatment. This ambulance in itself can take several hours to arrive.”

Mr Bamford Lewis had his own experience before Christmas when his daughter became seriously ill with a virus, bronchitis and hypothermia. After being taken to Withybush, they waited six hours for an ambulance to arrive to transfer them to Glangwili.

He was full of praise for the nurse who cared for his daughter during the wait. “They rubbed her feet and stimulated her to breathe because there was no one available at Withybush who could ventilate such a small baby," he said.

The family went through the same ordeal a week later, when it took eight hours for the same ambulance to arrive.

“How can these people put a price on our children's lives?” asked Mr Bamford Lewis

“What our children don't have when they are in peril is time. What they deserve is the very best care and service they can get and as close as they can get it.”

He added: “Anyone of you could find themselves at the mercy of Hywel Dda and Labour's centralisation policy. This is why we need to stand shoulder to shoulder and tell the suits and the ties that we have had enough and that Pembrokeshire lives matter. This is not some sort of improvement of services, this is a costcutting exercise.”

The petition launched on Saturday morning and had more than 4,000 supporters at the time of going to press.

Steve Griffiths from Haverfordwest is among them. He said: “I am now a member of the emergency services and have on more than one occasion had to provide an escort for ambulances as they convey children from Pembrokeshire to Carmarthenshire. "Sadly one of these resulted in a fatality. Would the outcome have been different for that poor soul had they been taken the shorter distance to Haverfordwest?"

He added: “Surely it would give the most seriously ill patient the best chance of survival to go to their nearest hospital and not travel the ridiculous amount of extra miles in order to be treated. Bring back our services which we all contribute to, and not expect patients and families to travel to a different county.

"This is a ridiculous situation which desperately needs reversing.”

The petition can be viewed here: https://www.change.org/p/labour-welsh-assembly-mark-drakeford-a-petition-calling-for-the-return-of-24-hour-paediatrics-to-withybush-hospital?recruiter=84866157&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

The petition now has almost 5,000 signatures.