The Welsh Affairs Committee's interim report on the 'Provision of Cross Border Health Services for Wales' has at long last acknowledged what so many of us have been campaigning on for years – Welsh citizens in our area feel we do not receive the same quality of access to healthcare as our English neighbours.

Patient's needs, and not funding must be at the centre of Welsh health provision and Welsh patients must have access to quality health services as close to their home as possible.

I am delighted to see the report calls for a permanent protocol on commissioning and funding cross-border Health Services and clarity for cross-border performance targets.

But I will be even more delighted to see our two Governments pay more than just lip service to the review and act upon its suggestions. As it stands the Daffodil curtain put up by the One Wales Government is a barrier to collaboration between Westminster and Cardiff and it is Welsh borderland patients who are losing out.

There are three major issues to be addressed.

The first is Welsh patients being refused treatment in England and instead having to travel further and wait longer to have treatment in Wales.

The second is Welsh patients in English hospitals receiving a poorer level of service than their English equivalents and very often having to wait substantially longer for treatment.

The third is Welsh patients, who in some cases have been receiving specialist treatment for years at English hospitals, are suddenly being told that they will now have to receive this treatment in Wales.

In many cases due to the size of our country and the size of our health service this specialist treatment is simply not available in Wales and we must accept it has to be provided by English hospitals.

Together we have long complained about the problems facing Powys patients, but the Plaid-Labour Government has continued to refute that there is even a problem, often inferring that Welsh patients should without exception be treated within the nation.

It is both natural and welcome that policy will diverge post devolution and we have a Welsh Health Service that can be shaped to fit the needs of Wales, but a lack of joined up policy is leading to borderland patients getting a very poor deal, particularly where specialist treatment is needed.

I hope that this report will not fall on deaf ears as our cries seemed to have for so long, I hope rather that the clout and authority that lies behind a report from a respected committee such as this will mean that the Assembly Government cannot cover its ears and turn its back but will now have no alternative but to begin addressing these issues.