Swansea NHS trust have set out their case to keep the surgery

The Labour AMs have written to Brian Gibbons to ask him to consider other factors before deciding to move the service from Swansea to Cardiff.

A Health Commission Wales (HCW) report proposes neurosurgery is centred at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.

A petition opposing the move has been signed by 88,000 people.

The five AMs, all from south-west Wales constituencies, are Edwina Hart, Andrew Davies, Gwenda Thomas, Val Lloyd and Catherine Thomas.

They want the minister to assess the ongoing Wales Ambulance Trust review and the review of hospital services in mid and west Wales before making a final decision.

Swansea NHS Trust strongly disagrees with the HCW report's conclusions and has already called it "seriously flawed".

The most important issue is the safety of clinical services - the patients' rights and the patients' interests come first Andrew Davies AM

The trust has compiled an 11-page paper that sets out a range of arguments showing why the service should be centralised in Swansea and not Cardiff.

It says Morriston hospital is far better placed geographically to serve all of south Wales.

In addition, the hospital is unique as the only site in Wales with all the main trauma services - this status would be lost if neurosurgery was moved to Cardiff.

But HCW believes that surgery for adults should be centralised in Cardiff, a view welcomed by the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust.

'Expertise'

Val Lloyd, Swansea East AM, said that the letter to Dr Gibbons made her opposition quite clear.

"The feeling in Swansea is that the consultation process has been skewed towards Cardiff rather then being absolutely unbiased," she said.

"I believe that the consultation process has not taken all factors into consideration."

Swansea West AM Andrew Davies also believes that the process was "flawed".

He added: "I feel that we as a government have established the clinical school in Swansea but the consultation has dismissed that in favour of expertise in Cardiff."

But Mr Davies denied that it was a "Cardiff versus Swansea" issue.

"In the past there has been a feeling that Cardiff as a capital gets a disproportionate share of the resources but that isn't the issue here.

"The most important issue is the safety of clinical services - the patients' rights and the patients' interests come first and that has to be the main concern."