NHS Closures Reveal Poor WAG Planning - Burnham

10.23.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 17th Oct 2006

NHS Closures Reveal Poor WAG Planning - Burnham

Eleanor Burnham AM challenged First Minister Rhodri Morgan over the poor planning and implementation of NHS reconfiguration in North Wales following news of the latest planned unit closure at Wrexham Maelor hospital in favour of one in Bodelwyddan.

Ms Burnham, Welsh Liberal Democrat AM for North Wales, spoke out against the poor implementation of the radical changes to the NHS system in her region after receiving yet another letter from concerned patients.

The patient support group Cherish, which aids the parents of intensive care babies at Wrexham Maelor hospital, contacted Ms Burnham with news of the impending closure of the specialist neo-natal intensive care unit. In response, Ms Burnham attacked the Welsh Assembly Government for the badly thought-out enactment of Design for North Wales, a consultation document that many people believe did not fairly explain proposals for changes.

Ms Burnham said: "I have had many concerned residents, patients and groups contacting me with grave concerns over the future of their NHS care in North Wales. Cherish are just the latest in a queue of people who feel they have been ill informed of government plans for major changes to their services.

"When parents are coping with the care of very sick and vulnerable babies, the last thing they want is to have to travel an hour across North Wales to see their children.

"These parents may get an urgent phonecall day or night telling them to get to hospital. Considering the distance between Wrexham and Bodelwyddan, I cannot believe the government expects them to travel that far to be with their child.

"This reveals the weakness in government planning when it comes to North Wales. Many parents will become even more dependant on cars for their journeys to hospital, as the public transport links for these kinds of journeys just aren't in place as of yet."

The First Minister's response to these concerns was simply to dismiss what he called "doom and gloom" on the part of North Wales AMs. In reply Ms Burnham said, "The implementation of changes to the NHS must be well planned and at the moment they clearly are not. I'm sorry if Rhodri Morgan thinks our concerns are unfounded, but the letters I am receiving from my constituents prove his attitude wrong."

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