Acute services may leave Singleton Hospital within 10 years

Dr Dewi Evans, consultant paediatrician at Singleton Hospital, told BBC Wales that centralising the city's health services was a "better use of money".

Health chiefs are set to launch a review on Tuesday that will examine the future of Swansea's two main hospitals.

The proposals include moving all critical and emergency services from Singleton to Morriston within 10 years.

The NHS trust said at this stage all it was doing was examining options and nothing concrete would be proposed for a year.

Months of meetings and consultations with staff, patients and other partners are planned if the board approves the review on Tuesday.

But Dr Evans said he thought creating one super hospital made more sense than running two separate hospitals just six miles apart.

He said: "It's much better if you have the doctors and other staff all under one roof.

'Superficial appeal'

"It's much better for the patients because you can have all the disciplines, all the specialities in the same place. It makes it more efficient, it's a better use of money."

Under the proposals, Singleton Hospital would keep only day care, routine surgery and a nurse-led Accident and Emergency department.

Surgical emergencies, complex surgery and high level intensive care would all be moved to Morriston Hospital.

But Dai Lloyd, Plaid Cymru AM for South Wales West, said the plans had a "superficial appeal".

Dr Evans believes creating a super hospital will save money

He said: "The issue is we need better services from the two current district general hospitals now because of our long waiting lists."

An initial report to be discussed at the meeting states: "Anyone looking at Swansea from the outside would feel a city of less than 250,000 population would find it difficult to merit two large acute hospitals.

"Increasingly, the concentration of specialist skills, the need for multi-disciplinary team working and the avoidance of duplicated facilities, whether diagnostic or supporting, make the idea of a single site acute hospital for Swansea a preferred outcome."

A spokesman for the trust said the project would consider how health services could best be delivered in Swansea in the 21st century.

"This project will be firmly based around clinical services and not buildings," said a spokeswoman.

"In line with Welsh Assembly Government planning guidance, a wide range of options will need to be developed and considered.

"These will include the maintenance of services on two acute sites and the option of moving services to a single acute site."