§ Mr. Dafydd Wigley (Caernarfon)I have been asked by constituents to present a petition to the House. It is addressed to "the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled and is a petition from residents of the Dwyfor area, in my constituency. The petition concerns the plans of the Gwynedd area health authority for reorganising the ambulance service within the district. The plans are already in operation and are denying a psychiatric day centre the services of an ambulance, with the result that people who use the centre are unable to attend with the frequency with which they would otherwise attend. The coverage of the ambulance service in a widely scattered area has been reduced, leaving people vulnerable to illness, particularly as they have a long distance to travel to the district general hospital.
The petition has been signed by 70 residents, but it is a parallel petition to one signed by thousands of people which has been sent to the Secretary of State for Wales. This petition includes signatories from the centres of Pwllheli, Porthmadog, Criccieth, Tremadog, Abererch, Penrhos, Abersoch, Llanbedrog and Pentrefelin in my constituency. My constituents pray:
that your honourable House shall take the necessary steps to ensure that the Health Authority do not make any further cuts in the service and that they re-instate a full service in those places where cuts have already been made.And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.To lie upon the Table.