I WAS extremely pleased to read the press release from Mark Harper addressing the issue of cross-border health care. As a constituent of his, I am very grateful that he is taking the issue of cross-border health care seriously.

I have in recent years encountered numerous difficulties in securing appointments with the only hospital in the country that specialises in my health conditions, and this hospital happens to be in England. There is no equivalent care in Wales as this hospital is unique.

The IPFR panel have repeatedly forced me to go to appeal over the matter of the funding for me to continue my care at this hospital, resulting in a waste of NHS time and resources, but more crucially, added stress for myself as the patient, and it is widely documented that stress exacerbates my conditions. The Welsh consultants at the ABHB who are attempting to prevent my care from continuing in England are fully aware of this, so it would appear to be a matter of finances rather than patient care that is at the heart of matters in Wales.

I was alarmed to read the comments made by Daphne Pearson in your letters page as she has referred to Mark Harper as "pandering to prejudices and preconceptions" and has also called his comments "inflammatory".

Perhaps Daphne is unaware that there are specialist hospitals in England, with no equivalent alternative in Wales, and that it is in cases such as these Mark Harper is referring to.

When his constituents are being denied access to such specialist services, and are instead being forced to accept inferior alternatives in Wales, then it is unacceptable and it is absolutely imperative that these anomalies in health care are addressed.

Daphne Pearson appears to have misunderstood the comments made by Mark Harper relating to cross-border health care.

She has made an assumption that he believes all healthcare in Wales to be inferior to that offered in England. Having read the article several times, I do not believe that is what was implied and she has clearly been very quick to jump to the wrong conclusion.

My GP surgery is based in Wales and is excellent. However, the specialists I need to see for my conditions are in England and it is only right and proper that Mark Harper should endeavour to assist his constituents in their right to choose English health care if they so wish.

My understanding is that English patients have the right to choose where they receive their health care, however, Mark Harper is pledging to help those English patients who have Welsh funded GP surgeries. This is due to the fact that their right to choose has been removed from them by the Welsh Assembly Government, a government that was not voted in by his constituents.

I will be copying this letter to Mark Harper, my consultant in England, my GP in Wales, Jeremy Hunt the Secretary of State for Health, and the chair of the IPFR panel at the Welsh Assembly Government.

As a result of his pledge to assist his constituents in their right to choose, he has secured my vote in the next election.

– Tutshill resident.