Failure to justify (From Western Telegraph)

Failure to justify

12:20pm Friday 27th July 2012 in Letters

Regarding Government ‘did not seek to influence health report’ (Western Telegraph, July 11th).

I welcome the health committee calling Health Minister Lesley Griffiths to give evidence about the correspondence between her officials and Professor Marcus Longley, the author of a report on the future of the Welsh NHS.

The report did not specifically say which hospitals would see services disappear. However as the British Medical Association pointed out: "We thought at the time that the report was published, that the evidence set out in the technical documents was insufficient to support the bold statements contained in the summary document," They added: "We must now question whether this report was published in an attempt to justify plans for service change which were being designed by health boards.”

The Minister so far has failed to justify the independence of the report, and is it important that this is investigated further. The Health Minster has to demonstrate that she is someone we can trust to run the Welsh NHS. Plaid Cymru want services in Withybush Hospital to be improved wherever possible as with the recent £7.5m new kidney facility.

Simon Thomas Mid and West AM Plaid Cymru