Campaigners claimed Prince Philip Hospital would be downgraded

The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) was asked to review services.

It said emergency surgery at Llanelli's Prince Philip Hospital should be moved to West Wales General in Carmarthen as using both sites was "unsustainable".

The local health board said the report failed to look at all options and the "local context".

The report does not really take enough of the local context into account Mark Vaughan, chairman LHB

Nearly 2,000 people signed a petition against centralising services in Carmarthen claiming it would "downgrade" the Prince Philip unit.

The RCS report said the changes would increase the number of operations and improve services at both hospitals and help the NHS Trust recruit and retain staff.

It said emergency general surgery admissions at Llanelli were only around one per day and concluded that the present set-up was "uneconomical and unsustainable".

But the Carmarthenshire local health board, which would have to implement the changes, said the document had failed to look properly at all the options available and was not helpful.

Chairman Mark Vaughan said while members had only studied the report informally it would not follow its recommendations.

"The LHB has no plans to change the configuration of surgical services at present," he said.

"The report does not really take enough of the local context into account."

He said there was a pressing need to look at the way services were delivered at Carmarthenshire's two main hospitals.