By Judith Phillips, Reporter

Nearly two years ago the Weekly News launched a campaign to keep breast surgery and coronary care units at Llandudno Hospital.

Our Hands Off Our Hospital campaign was prompted by a recommendation in the North Wales Hospitals Secondary Care Review that these vital services be transferred to one of the two district general hospitals at Bangor or Bodelwyddan.

For the people of this area it seemed like the latest insult in a series stretching back many years which had seen what had once been a busy general hospital in its own right, on the road to becoming nothing more than a rehabilitation and care of the elderly facility.

Enough is enough, we said, and we lent our voice to those of thousands of people in the community we serve who rightly felt that now was the time for the rot to stop. Among them were breast cancer patient Dorothy Smith who pounded the streets gathering hundreds of names on a petition; town councillor Doreen Websell who organised a protest rally at the hospital gates; and Aberconwy Assembly Member Gareth Jones who did a leaflet drop which brought 6,000 responses from people opposing the proposals.

With the backing of this newspaper these people organised themselves into a group called the Llandudno Hospital Action Group which declared to fight to the bitter end the bureaucrats who wanted to deprive us of these essential and highly respected services.

These so-called health professionals tried to tell us that Llandudno Hospital was ill-equipped to provide the standards of service they required, ignoring the fact that hundreds of women have been successfully treated for breast cancer there, and thousands have had their lives saved by the prompt and efficient service they received in the coronary care unit.

They pooh-poohed arguments put forward by people like Dorothy Smith who said the treatment she received had been second to none, and how Llandudno should be developed as a centre of excellence for breast surgery because it already had the specialist nursing staff required. They smirked at arguments that heart attack patients could die on the road to Bangor or Bodelwyddan if their ambulance was delayed by an accident or the perennial roadworks on the A55.

When the Weekly News launched its campaign we took heart from the groundswell of public support it provoked and we never faltered in our belief that we and you were fighting a just cause.

And so it has proved because it is with great pride that we, the people and the people's voice, can proclaim a great victory. Health minister Edwina Hart has listened to the arguments and agrees that Llandudno Hospital still has a vital role to play in local health care.

The breast surgery services will remain, and may even be developed into a centre of excellence, and coronary care will be available for the foreseeable future for 70% of patients who need it. In addition, thanks to the independent review she ordered of services at the hospital, it is likely to get a whole raft of new facilities including an MRI scanner, a birthing unit staffed by midwifes, and more surgery being carried out in the currently under-utilised operating theatres.

So this is the week when we can feel justified in giving ourselves a pat on the back, but also in paying tribute to you, the people of Conwy county who have proved that the voice of the people can prevail.

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