* Campaigners, including the Llangollen contingent, gather outside
Lesley Griffiths' Wrexham office. Below left, lobbyists knock on the door.
Llangollen campaigners
played a key role in a mass lobby of Wales’ Health Minister Lesley Griffiths against
plans to shake-up NHS services in the region.
And Ms Griffiths, who
is Assembly Member for Wrexham, was warned by demonstrators she could face
electoral problems is she fails to take notice of their case.
The controversial plans
by the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board include the axing of Llangollen
Cottage Hospital.
Campaign groups across
north Wales have been opposing various aspects of the proposals and around 60
of them gathered outside the constituency office of Health Minister Lesley
Griffiths in Wrexham on Friday afternoon.
Among them were members
of Keep Llangollen Health Services (KLHS) who are incensed that measures to
wind down the town’s community hospital have already been unexpectedly put in
place – before patients watchdog the Community Health Council is due to finish
its examination of the shake-up package on March 1.
Maria Haines of KLHS
said of the demo: “Basically I summarised the current situation regarding the
proposals in general and Llangollen Hospital in particular, including the fact
that I have heard that just this week a Llangollen resident needing the type of
care provided by community hospitals has been admitted to Mold Community
Hospital instead of Llangollen because it has been decreed that Llangollen is
not receiving any new admissions.
“I then read an open
message to Lesley Griffiths, which was vociferously endorsed by the assembled
throng.”
“I then read an open
message to Lesley Griffiths, which was vociferously endorsed by the assembled
throng.”
This is the message
she read out: "Lesley Griffiths, at
the last election, the people of Wrexham entrusted you with representing their
interests, and the interests of the people of Wales in general, in the Welsh
Government. And sufficient people throughout Wales voted Labour for your party
to be able to form the Welsh Government, and to appoint you to oversee and
safeguard the health of the people of Wales – ALL the people of Wales.
“That
includes all the people who live a long way from any of the main hospitals, and
all the people for whom forming a bond with a sick baby on the Wirral, or
supporting that baby's already-traumatised mother, would involve an impossible
journey.
“Please,
Lesley Griffiths, fulfil the responsibility you have taken on as Health
Minister, by:
·
calling
in these plans,
·
looking
at them in detail, and
·
compelling
the Health Board to maintain and improve existing services, bearing in mind the
real needs of ALL the people who need to use them, rather than withdrawing
services now on the vague less-than-promise than we might get something else in
the future.
“We
are placing our trust in you – but if you betray that trust, we will not go
away. And we will not forget, when the next election comes around.
“Sixty-five
years ago, Aneurin Bevan said that: ‘The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight
for it’.
“Let us assure you, Lesley
Griffiths, that there are plenty of people ready to fight for a decent,
fit-for-purpose NHS in North Wales – and we are watching very carefully to see
whether you are one of us!"
* Placards laid outside Lesley Griffiths'
constituency office.
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