Mr. Tony Wales from Manorbier has recently been elected as chairman of the Hywel Dda Community Health Council (CHC). In this capacity he will now lead the three local CHC committees across the counties of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. Mr. Wales is a voluntary sector member of the CHC, having joined Hywel Dda in late 2010. He already represents the CHC on a number of all Wales health programmes and initiatives.

Mr. Wales, in accepting the position at the AGM of the CHC, thanked the members for their vote of confidence in electing him as chairman and said he "would do all that he could to meet their expectations."

Mr. Wales went on to say that the times ahead would be challenging as he and his members endeavoured to closely monitor healthcare services across the region against a backdrop of changes that were being made by the Hywel Dda LHB under its five-year plan and associated initiatives.

Whilst he understood that change was inevitable, and that there were funding and staffing issues, he stressed that it was nevertheless important for patients and the public to be fully engaged in the plans that were being developed to ensure that there was no diminution of services. He and his members, all volunteers, would be vigilant in this respect and would work tirelessly in their health watchdog role. He stressed that openness and honesty were vital in these changing times.

Mr. Wales also said that any patient or member of the public would be welcome to contact him personally or any of the CHCs staff in its three locality offices if there were health related issues, changes or concerns that they would like to discuss, whether this be of a personal or more general nature, stressing that all intelligence to the CHC was vital in its monitoring role.