Community Health Council Mergers

The recent statement by the Minister is as close to a U-turn as Edwina ever gets. The proposals for CHC mergers received a pretty universal raspberry from the consultation. Certainly in my own area of Powys, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and southern Gwynedd, you would scrabble pretty hard to find double figures in favour of the proposed changes.

I hope these proposals do not go through. There is to be a six month delay while CHCs are encouraged to collaborate together. This respite should not cause us to lower our guard.
Working together already exists where there are issues of shared significance, but CHCs must now, I would think, exchange information, agendas and venture into discussions on issues of wider significance to ensure the half-baked, unwelcome merger idea doesn’t merely gather dust but is consigned to the litter bin of unhelpful Labour ideas.