Rhyl meeting held over hospital maternity care shake-up

About 30 people attended the first public consultation meeting about plans to temporarily remove consultant-led maternity care at a north Wales hospital due to staff shortages.

Health officials are considering making one hospital maternity unit at Wrexham, Bangor or Bodelwyddan midwife-led.

A fourth option is to leave things as they are but managers have warned the situation is becoming "unmanageable".

The meeting in Rhyl, Denbighshire, follows a protest in the town.

Other public meetings are due to be held across north Wales over the next three weeks.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board's preferred option is to withdraw consultant-led maternity care at Glan Clwyd Hospital, Bodelwyddan.

Executive medical director Matt Makin, who was part of a panel taking questions from members of the audience, said: "The service change is for a short time as possible so we can recruit the best people... we know we will be having a neo-natal intensive care unit at Glan Clwyd in 2018, we know we'll need a team to wrap around that unit."