The future of health services across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire will be discussed at a Health Summit organised by Plaid Cymru this week.

Hywel Dda University Health Board has been undertaking a Transforming Clinical Services project, looking at the delivery of health services across the region. Some of the options under consideration have already been leaked, leading to a great deal of criticism from residents concerned by the potential loss of local hospital services.

Plaid Cymru representatives from across the region will host a dedicated health summit on Friday, March 9 in Carmarthen, which they state will be a "open and honest discussion" on the way in which health services are organised, before concluding how they will respond to the Health Board's service transformation proposals.

Plaid Cymru representatives lead two of the three County Councils in the health board area; make up a third of all Assembly Members and 40 per cent of the area's Members of Parliament.

Carmarthenshire Assembly Member Adam Price said the health summit, which will receive presentations from clinicians working on the hospital front line, as well as a briefing from the health board, will enable the party representatives to take a "comprehensive and firm position on which health board proposals Plaid elected members can or cannot support."

Speaking ahead of the Health Summit, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr AM Adam Price said: "Hywel Dda is responsible for health services for close to 400,000 people across mid and west Wales. The way in which those services are organised will affect each and every one of those people.

"As elected representatives, we have a duty to engage positively with the health board and to fully understand the fine details of its proposals to transform services, and how those will impact upon the people we represent.

"Our Health Summit will bring together a large constituency of elected representatives for an open and honest discussion about the challenges and opportunities for the health board and patients.

"We will be receiving a range of briefings, including presentations from Consultant clinicians and senior representatives of the health board. We will conclude the summit with an internal policy discussion in order to take a comprehensive and firm position on which health board proposals Plaid elected members can or cannot support.

"We believe this is a sensible and mature way to engage with the health board, rather than opposing plans for the sake of easy political opposition. But be in no doubt, we will strongly oppose any measures which we believe will have a negative effect or make accessing health services more difficult for patients."