Help city keep paediatric ward

I REFER to the report printed in the South Wales Argus on July 9 under the heading ‘Issues may force wards out of city’. 
The report states that due to recruitment problems, children’s wards at the Royal Gwent Hospital will close over the next year, with care being transferred to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny. 
Aneurin Bevan Health Board claims this would be a temporary measure ahead of the building of the Specialist and Critical Care hospital  at Llanfrechfa. 
The opening of this hospital is at least four years away. If this goes ahead, many parents will face 20-mile journeys to and from hospital potentially for days or weeks. 
This is not acceptable. Newport is a city and as such should have paediatric services.
If the NHS paid front-line staff a decent wage, reduced the number of pen-pushers and treated staff with the respect they deserve they may find recruiting staff less of a problem. 
I’m so incensed by this I’ve started an online petition aimed at getting the Aneurin Bevan Health Board to keep services at the Royal Gwent. The petition can be accessed on Facebook under my name. Please note there are inadvertently two petitions in my name. Please sign the one that shows a picture of a pen and an ink bottle.