Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood, who is the Assembly member for South Wales Central said:
“Today’s announcement marks the start of a painful process of withdrawing critical A&E services from our valleys communities.
“Emergency A&E treatment is a fundamental and basic health service as are consultant led maternity services and everybody should be able to access these services as quickly and locally as possible.
“Announcing that there will be three alliances, based around Swansea, Cardiff and Cwmbran suggests that health bosses are giving up on providing proper services close to many of our communities – including those who are most disadvantaged.
“Plaid Cymru believes that Wales should have a world-class National Health Service and this is achievable.
“That is why we have worked hard to propose fully costed plans to recruit 1,000 doctors, close to home – bringing us up to the average number of doctors per head for the UK.
“With enough medics, these basic services can be available to all who need them – that is what we should be working towards, not the centralisation of fundamental services.”
