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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Labour Health Minister must overrule Health Commission on neurosurgery
July 7, 2006 12:00 AM
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has called on the Labour Health Minister to overrule Health Commission Wales so as to keep adult neurosurgery in Morriston Hospital.
He was speaking in response to the devastating news that the organisation plans to move the service to Cardiff where it will join children's brain surgery, following a controversial decision to relocate that service two years ago.
Health Commission Wales argue that the move is needed to keep pediatric neurosurgery viable through creating a single neurosurgery unit in South Wales. However, Mr. Black has dismissed that argument as nonsense:
"In my discussions with senior clinicians it has been made clear to me that pediatric neurosurgery is entirely separate from adult neurosurgery. In fact it is possible that even if these proposals go ahead and a single neurosurgical centre is created in Cardiff, that children's brain surgery may still be lost to Bristol in a few years time."
"If the decision to move neurosurgery from Swansea goes ahead then it will undermine a multi-disciplinary service in Morriston Hospital and raise question marks about the future of orthopedics, burns and plastics there as well. Travel times for patients from West Wales will increase markedly, putting lives at risk, whilst trauma patients coming into Morriston will also be in danger because they will no longer have access to the full team of specialist surgeons as they do now. The presence of a neurosurgery unit at Bristol makes this decision a nonsense. Heath Commission Wales are concentrating vital services in the south east and disadvantaging patients to the west."
"Swansea and Gower are represented by two cabinet members, whilst the Health Minister himself, also sits for a local constituency. It is vital that they use their collective clout to have this decision overturned. I, for one, am fed-up of Swansea always coming out second best to Cardiff. If it happens again then I believe that Labour will pay a heavy price at the ballot box in May, and deservedly so."
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