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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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Welsh Liberal Democrats in last ditch attempt to get rethink on NHS restructuring
May 20, 2009 12:00 AM
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have launched a last ditch attempt to get the government to rethink the way that they plan to restructure the NHS in Wales by putting forward a motion to annul the legislation that will set up the new Local Health Boards.
The party is concerned that the reforms being proposed by the Minister for Health put too much power in the hands of the Government and take away the say of local communities. The proposals are to turn the 22 current Local Heath Boards into 7 new larger ones. This will mean only one organisation will cover the health of the entire of North Wales.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats are also concerned that by taking away the link between LHBs and local authorities then the partnership working between social services departments and the health service will be weakened. There are also still many people in North and East Wales that remain unconvinced that the new structure will allow cross border working to continue as effectively.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Minister, Peter Black, said:
"As a party we do not oppose reform of the NHS structures in Wales. The reason that we are seeking to annul this piece of legislation is that there are still important issues to be resolved before the new LHBs come into operation. These are issues that have been raised in the Assembly on many occasions. But yet we still see this reform being pushed ahead without solution to these problems."
"We must not rush ahead with these proposals until all the concerns of stakeholders have been addressed. We still do not know how the new Local Health Boards will deal with cross border services, or how they will retain the link to social services departments."
"There is a particular issue with the size of the new North Wales Local Health Board. Five of the six councils it covers are against this proposal. There is a similar situation in Gwent and in the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg area."
"The Minister says that we have brought these problems up before, but she has refused to act on them, which is why we have had to take a drastic last attempt to try and stop these proposals coming into force at this stage."
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