Jobs go as Mid Wales charity closes
A health charity founded almost two decades ago has closed with the loss of three jobs.
The Mid Wales-based Institute of Rural Health has been shut down amid claims it was struggling to attract grants and had failed to forge significant links with universities.
Today the doctor who set up the institute 18 years ago said it was tragic that it had shut at a time when rural health services were in real jeopardy.
The academic charity, which was based in Newtown, promoted the health and wellbeing of rural communities through education, research and policy work.
Dr John Wynn-Jones, founder of the institute, said he believed that a lack of grants and not being able to link up with a university had been the small charity's downfall.
He started the charity with Jane Randall-Smith in 1997 and stood down three years ago.
"It is a tragedy that the institute has closed at a time when it is actually needed more than ever," he said. "Powys and Shrophire are some of the most rural areas of Britain.
"GP practices are struggling to recruit doctors and in Mid Wales and rural parts of Shropshire there are fears that moving health services from Shrewsbury to Telford will be detrimental to many people.
"But it is tough for small charities to win funding and the institute had been unable to gain the support of a university, which is vital for a research body."
Dr Wynn-Jones said he was indebted to all those who had worked at the institute over the past 18 years.
