Welsh Lib Dem Assembly Member for Cardiff Central, Jenny Randerson AM has today demanded answers from the First Minister as to why patients in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan are not to be fairly represented under new plans for the area's Community Health Council.
Under the new system introduced by the Labour Health Minister, the Community Health Councils for Cardiff and the Vale, which have long been viewed as championing the voice of patients are being merged. The new body will have only 24 members, compared to 60 in Gwent, an area with a similar population.
"We know that this Government is obsessed with centralizing and controlling our local health services, but the unfairness in their plans for CHC's is staggering.
"Health reorganisation has led to severe political control over our health services, and the old CHC's were the last line of defence for patients. The Government is now centralizing and weakening them as well.
"In the Chamber, the First Minister seemed to suggest that they'd wait to see if the system failed. This is awful.
"The Gwent CHC will have 60 members for just over 500 000 people, while Cardiff and the Vale, an area with a similar population, will have just 24 members. These are people who fight for patients above all else. Leaving patients here with a weakened voice is wrong and unfair."
