HCW Consultation is a sham says AM

11.01.23am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 10th Aug 2006

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has accused Health Commission Wales of not being interested in genuine consultation on their proposal to relocate neurosurgery in Cardiff.

Mr. Black was speaking following the attempted rebuttal by HCW of Swansea Health Trust's response to their relocation plan. In their reply HCW reiterated the view that the move to Cardiff is essential to keep the service in Wales, that travel times do not matter and that the scoring they used in the review was not flawed, despite the fact that many other experts think differently. They concluded that none of the points put to them by Swansea Health Trust will alter the outcome of the review.

"What concerns me is that the consultation on these proposals has just begun and yet already Health Commission Wales are rejecting out of hand alternative views to their own," said Mr. Black. "They do not seem prepared to properly evaluate responses or to assess the weight of opinion. In fact they do not seem prepared to even pretend that they have any level of impartiality in this matter."

"It is my view that HCW are too compromised in this matter to properly run this consultation. The Health Minister should intervene and take this process off them. He must offer some guarantees that all of the views put forward during this period will be assessed objectively and not dismissed out of hand before the consultation period has even ended."