Part of 4. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:31 pm on 24 January 2018.
Thank you for that, Cabinet Secretary. I listened very carefully to the answers the First Minister gave to the leader of Plaid Cymru yesterday, and also the comments made by my colleague Paul Davies in the business statement. And I tabled the question today because I was absolutely appalled by the supercilious arrogance with which our concerns were dealt with.
Do you accept that the public have the right to express their worries to their elected representatives, because your backbenchers—a number of whom seem to think it was highly laughable that people in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion may be concerned about proposed changes? Do you accept that this, the parliamentary review, does not say 'close Withybush hospital'? Do you accept that the history that has been engaged in Withybush hospital, with botched consultations since 2006, has left people in Pembrokeshire very, very sensitive to this subject? And do you agree with recommendation 4 of the parliamentary review, which says, 'Put the people in control', and talks about openness, honesty, transparency, and engaging with the public in the shape of their future services? Could I please ask you, Cabinet Secretary, to urge Hywel Dda to make sure that their consultation is open, honest and transparent, because skitting around the west Wales area, holding meetings in very small village halls, and then not letting people take the papers out, does not strike me as being honest, open or transparent, nor does contacting the political representatives when the proverbial hits the fan, and there's a leak, seem to be open, honest or transparent.
Could you please give me a comment on what effect this latest series of events might have on 'A great place to work'—recommendation 5—and what damage that might do to our recruitment issues that we have in west Wales? I'd be interested in your comment following recommendation 3. And the reason why I reference this is because I'm particularly angry at the way the First Minister, in my view, traduced the work that I, my colleagues in the Welsh Conservatives, and, to be fair, the other opposition Members, have put into treating with honesty and maturity your efforts to support the panel on their review of health and social care delivery in Wales. Yesterday, he lost pretty much all of my goodwill, because this review is about how we talk to people, how we engage with people, how we take people with us, how we deliver a sustainable future, and how we try to take some of the battle out of the NHS. It is not air cover, before it's even dry, to suddenly say, 'Ha, but, you know, guess what? Tough luck, west Wales—once again, 15 years on, we're going to start going on about Withybush hospital.'
So, I'm asking you to please ensure that other Members of your party, and your Government, respect the people of west Wales. Will you please ensure that Hywel Dda speak to us in an open, honest and transparent way? In fact, my colleague Paul Davies and I have managed now to get a meeting with the chief executive and the chair on Thursday. This is so serious, and it's really, really annoyed me, beyond all description, that this, which I was looking forward to see as your vision, was traduced in such a way. We don't expect that supercilious arrogance from the First Minister. We are here to represent the people we represent and we have every right to ask you to scrutinise Hywel Dda health board to make sure that they go about this in a really fair way and, for once, take the people with them and not just set it up to be a battlefield.