I WAS dismayed to hear last week about the proposal from Post Office Ltd, to close Barry Crown Post Office on Holton Road.

Barry is the largest town in Wales and has benefited from Welsh Government regeneration funds; it is not right that it should lose its Crown Post Office. I have heard from customers and local businesses who are very unhappy with the proposal and I have launched a petition against the closure. (Hard copies can be requested from my office at 115 High Street and there is an electronic version at the below link:

https://www.change.org/p/post-office-ltd-post-office-ltd-withdraw-proposal-to-close-barry-crown-post-office-in-vale-of-glamorgan?recruiter=47756516&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive

I have met with the Post Office to express my disappointment and to urge them to reconsider. I also support the Communication Workers Union in its opposition to the closure and am arranging to meet with them.

However, there was some positive news for Barry when I recently welcomed Minister for Health and Social Services Mark Drakeford AM, to Barry Hospital to discuss plans to develop a pioneering new training facility for medical students.

The plans were presented by Professor Nick Topley and Professor John Bligh from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine, and the chair of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board Maria Battle.

As part of the innovative new medical education curriculum at Cardiff University, they are working towards placing students in the community earlier and for longer. Focussing their training largely on community centred learning and meeting patients at the earliest opportunity in a clinical setting. The approach will cultivate exceptional doctors equipped with a heightened patient empathy and an excellent scientific understanding.

Barry Hospital provides an ideal link between the Primary and Secondary care services so that students can learn about how to provide services closer to patients own homes.

Finally, the fourth all-Wales annual report for cancer was published last week. The report sets out the progress made against the Welsh Government’s Together for Health – Cancer Delivery Plan over the last 12 months and identifies areas for future improvement.

The report showed that although more people are being diagnosed with cancer, cancer survival is improving in Wales. More than 70 per cent of people diagnosed with cancer survive for at least one year and more than 50 per cent survive for at least five years, and the mortality rate for people diagnosed with cancer under 75 has reduced by 14 per cent over the last 10 years.

Over the next 12 months the Welsh Government and NHS will:

Cut down the number of people diagnosed via emergency routes, moving the focus to hard-to-diagnose cancers;

Continue to improve performance against waiting time targets;

Address the wider lifestyle risks for cancer – continue to cut smoking rates and target risky drinking behaviours;

Increase opportunities to improve the number of people who are involved in cancer research.

The report can be accessed via the Welsh Government website.