Hospital Reorganisation

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:13 pm on 23 May 2018.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 3:13, 23 May 2018

Thank you very much. As the Cabinet Secretary knows, there's a lot riding on the results of this consultation, and from the countless conversations I've had, awareness is low, and it's fair to say there's a degree of suspicion that the health board have made their mind up in advance. They've only printed 10,000 copies of a quite hard-to-follow questionnaire, and they're making no envelopes available. I've been contacted by a constituent from Cross Hands last week who wants me to ask you whether or not you'd ask the health board to write to every household in Hywel Dda to make sure that they're aware of the proposals and encouraged to take part.

The health board are holding drop-in sessions, but their session in Llanelli yesterday had fewer than 100 people turn up. And a public meeting I supported, along with Nia Griffith, two weeks ago, had over 200 people turning up and the health board refused to send anybody along to engage in a dialogue and explain to people what the proposals were. Would the Cabinet Secretary ensure that Hywel Dda understands that if they want to take the people with them, they need to engage openly and be seen to be engaging openly?