Geoff Wright, chairman of Pembrokeshire Community Health Council, and its chief officer, Ashley Warlow, have expressed their 'grave concern' following the Report of the Royal Colleges of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, of Paediatrics and of Midwives affecting those services at Withybush General Hospital. "We are gravely concerned," said Mr Wright, "on the potential impact of these recommendations, not only across maternity, children's and women's health provision in Pembrokeshire, but on the consequential effects on the hospital as a whole. With the Acute Services Review currently looking to make radical changes in those health services, we really did not need outside bodies, eminent or not, led by people from Bristol, London and East Anglia, to come and pronounce judgements affecting basic services enjoyed by a third of a million people in West Wales." Mr. Warlow added: "Any loss of such core services, and the knock-on effect upon other services at Withybush, could be a devastating blow from which we might never fully recover. "I concur that we must look at things differently, and we are not opposed to change and modernisation - but we should be working with our local service providers, including staff and consultants, and identifying what needs to be done so as to ensure that services are retained locally. "The transfer of services elsewhere is the easy option. Let us not be drawn down that path. Pembrokeshire is special to us all. Let us not forget that this report was commissioned by those that are now in the final stages of delivering to us proposals for the future of hospital services in West Wales. If these proposals are implemented the future is indeed grim. Previous generations have campaigned for preservation of our local hospital services and we must all do likewise, and rise up with great vigour across all sections of the community." Mr. Wright concluded: "We, at the CHC, recognise that no service, public or private, can remain unchanged forever. Nevertheless, the maintenance of basic health services in both primary and secondary care for Pembrokeshire in a way that recognises the importance of our geography and the accessibility to those services, these are keystones in our beliefs and in our policies in protecting Pembrokeshire's health provision." Following the full public disclosure of the Maternity Services Report and in coming weeks the Acute Services Review, a special full meeting of the Pembrokeshire Community Health Council will be called to discuss the implications of both reports for Pembrokeshire, the processes for both informing and consulting the public across the county and the means of translating those views to all appropriate levels up to and including the Welsh Assembly.