Calls for health division to move

Apr 25 2008 by David Williamson, Western Mail

CALLS have been made to relocate the Assembly Government’s health division to the “spiritual home” of the NHS – Blaenau Gwent.

Trish Law, the constituency’s AM, believes this would be a fitting way to mark the NHS’s 60th anniversary.

The area has the lowest life expectancy in Wales, despite being the former seat of Labour MP and NHS champion Aneurin Bevan.

Mrs Law, the Assembly’s sole Independent, wants civil servants to move from their present location in Cathays Park, Cardiff, to Blaenau Gwent.

She said: “It would be a tremendous fillip for my constituency and, over a period of time, it would be a huge boost to the area’s employment prospects.”

The One Wales coalition pact between Labour and Plaid Cymru contains a pledge to “press ahead with relocation of Assembly divisions to North Wales, West Wales and the South Wales Valleys”.

Mrs Law said: “It would have been a fitting commemoration to announce this year, the 60th anniversary since the health service swung into operation, that the possibility of relocating health to Blaenau Gwent was being considered.”

She continued: “Other than the relocation of Social Justice to Merthyr Tydfil, which predates the One Wales agreement, I am not aware of any division being relocated to the South Wales Valleys.”

Mrs Law believes the move to Blaenau Gwent could help rejuvenate the local economy, saying: “To relocate them in Blaenau Gwent could well mean over a period of time that staff retiring or leaving would be replaced by local people. And initially local people would be engaged as cleaners and in specialist trades, such as carpentry, plumbing, and so on.

“It would be a huge boost to Blaenau Gwent which has the highest proportion of unemployed people in Wales and which has some of the worst health problems in the country. I was delighted to hear from Rhodri Morgan that the transfer of the Social Justice Department to Merthyr Tydfil had been a great success, despite initial reservations by the staff concerned. There is absolutely no reason why the relocation of health to Blaenau Gwent cannot be as great a success.”

There are 339 health and social services staff based in Cardiff.

A spokesman for the Assembly Government said: “The new £48m Assembly Government-funded hospital for Blaenau Gwent, which is expected to open in 2010, will be named after the NHS founder Aneurin Bevan.”