South Wales Evening Post - 12 February 2009
A number of your readers think that I want to centralise neurosurgery services in Cardiff at the expense of Swansea.
They are wrong and at no point have I said this. All Welsh Conservatives want the best treatment for neurosurgery patients and are united in our belief that Edwina Hart has politicised the NHS to unprecedented levels.
The current debate over the future of neurosurgery is less about where the service is provided and more about the role of the minister who has attempted to deflect attention away from the controversy she finds herself in.
For someone in such a position of power to ignore what her officials and medical experts were saying says a great deal about the way a politician will behave. This was why I questioned the role of the minister and the way she approached the issue.
I fully accept there are valid concerns on both sides of the argument and that people in South West Wales feel passionately about this. Unfortunately, this has become a debate about what I did or did not say when the real focus should be on what the minister is actually doing.
Jonathan Morgan AM
Assembly Shadow Minister for Health and Social Services
