Sir,
I am extremely concerned about plans to merge our Community Health Council into one 'supersized' council which will serve Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire.
The three Local Health Trusts have been merged into one and now our Community Health Councils are destined for the same fate.
Despite having a personal reassurance from the health minister in the Assembly Chamber just seven months ago that "there was no question of merging Community Health Councils," she is proposing just that.
The Community Health Council is incredibly important as the patient's champion keeping an eye on what goes on within our health care system.
It's proposed that Pembrokeshire will be represented by a local committee which will report up to the 'supersized' council.
This will simply add another layer of bureaucracy and succeed only in taking the patient another step further away from the man or woman at the top.
The Pembrokeshire Community Health Council will probably cease to exist on October 1.
However, we must not accept this as a fait accompli and I urge everyone to join me in submitting their objections to the plan,
Paul Davies,
AM for Preseli
Pembrokeshire,
20 Upper Market Street,
Haverfordwest.