Many electors say that health is a major concern for them

The Welsh assembly campaign is no exception, with all the main parties offering their varied prescriptions.

The Wales 60, the group put together by the BBC to represent a balanced range of opinion, are giving their views in the run-up to voting on 3 May.

We asked members of the Wales 60 what they wanted to hear on health.

Linda Joseph

I think there is a need to carry out some reconfiguring of hospitals. Cwmbran, for instance, has a population of around 60,000 and with a large and growing catchment area, yet has no hospital.

I believe the health service has to change in Wales - catching up with services in the rest of the UK would be a start. I've lived in other parts of the UK and returning to Wales, it has been disappointing to see that there seems to be little change in the services or the attitude to them.

We all know about the problems in the ambulance service - I was horrified to learn that only 10 ambulances cover the whole of the Gwent area! On a cold night last winter, I tried to get an ambulance for an elderly man who had fallen outside his flat - it took four increasingly heated phone calls (due to having to repeat the same information over and over) and several hours before one arrived.

At one point it was even suggested we should ferry him to hospital in our car! The man was diabetic and had a head injury! We were told that an ambulance would only be available when they were released from the Royal Gwent Hospital.

My family's experience of the NHS has been much better in England and Scotland Linda Joseph

When it did arrive, it looked outdated compared to what I had experienced elsewhere. The crew were brilliant but clearly under ridiculous pressure.

I would rather pay for my prescriptions in line with England and have better primary health care. I think scrapping of the prescription charge will encourage people who seem to routinely have medication doled out to them on their "social visits" to the surgery. Anyone on low incomes, children under 16 have their prescriptions free anyway. People with repeat prescriptions get help. So why do people who can afford to pay, not pay?

Access to a doctor and a dentist is very difficult and there is an obstructive attitude instead of recognising patients as clients or customers. I requested stress counselling last year and had to wait over six months before I got an appointment.

There are no regular medical assessments or advice on staying healthy - everything seems to concentrate on treating health problems instead of prevention. Also there is no follow-up after an illness or health problem. The patient attitude here of "being under the doctor" is costly, is clogging the system and has to stop.

My family's experience of the NHS has been much better in England and Scotland. Complaints about the NHS in Wales are well documented and it should be clear to the highly-paid executives and managers what needs to be done.

There's plenty of best practice out there in the rest of the UK, or here's a revolutionary thought - why don't they come up with something innovative themselves? Less strategy and more action to put the client first please!

Peter Ganesh

In 1948 when the National Health Service was born, it was envisaged that as the NHS was paid for out of taxation, for the first time the Treasury had a powerful influence on the healthcare system.

The NHS would be a service comprehensive in scope, including medical and allied services of every kind. A service available to all - in spite of some professional opposition.

Internationally the usual basis of public medical schemes was insurance, so a health service funded largely from central taxation was, outside the eastern Communist bloc, distinctive.

What would you prefer: a cutting edge facility that saved your life that you had to travel to - or an inferior local service? Gwynne Griffiths

It was to be a service free at the time of need.

Over the years those ideals have been let slip by those we have elected to represent us at Westminster and to a lesser extent Cardiff, and more so those we have not elected: the civil servants, the NHS administrators and those who advise the politicians on what they think we want from the NHS.

Prescription charges were first introduced in 1952, much to the dismay of many and remained with us until 1965, when they were abolished and then reintroduced in 1968.

The National Assembly for Wales and not just the Welsh Assembly Government should be proud that on 1 April Wales became the first of the home nations to abolish all prescription charges for people living in Wales. The rest of the United Kingdom pays �6.85 an item.

Much health debate centres on improving general fitness

For many years large numbers of people in Wales were exempt from prescription charges, but that left groups of people who still had to pay and for those on more than one item, it was a lot to ask of them as many felt unable to pay for all their medications yet the state could not help them.

There is still a sting in the tail: the Welsh Assembly Government is happy that the NHS can foot the bill, but future administrations may not and reintroducing charges will never be popular.

The alternative is to look closely at what is available on prescription. You may still see and hear of postcode lotteries as local health boards pick and choose what your GP can prescribe for you.

Gwynne Griffiths

Wales is a tiny country of only 2.7m people, while England has 60m. It is impossible without crippling cost to have the "local" services that England has on a travel-to-facility basis.

Also, because Wales is small we are only used to short journeys What would happen if we lived in Australia - would we expect "local" services? Of course not.

If we expect cutting edge facilities then we can only afford a few and we must expect to travel, The air ambulance service may need to be expanded for this.

What would you prefer: a cutting edge facility that saved your life that you had to travel to - or an inferior local service?

As for free prescriptions, they are only a headline for the few, as they cost just �30m in a budget of billions.

The proposed Mental Health Bill will deter people suffering from mental health problems from coming forward and seeking medical help Andy Rinvolucri

The NHS service is excellent - in the last 12 months my wife Denise has had to go to hospital twice: once to Withybush at Haverfordwest and once to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. In both cases she was in a bed within six hour of seeing her doctor.

Care and treatment was first class. In both cases she was in for seven days. However, in Withybush there were eight ladies in her ward who had nowhere to go and in UHW three ladies.

The issue of bedblocking is now critical, because medical services are so good we all live longer. The issue is that social services do not want them and neither do the hospitals. This is a critical issue for the Welsh Assembly Government and will get more urgent.

Andy Rinvolucri

The government plans to detain people with mental health problems (even those who have not committed a crime).

The proposed Mental Health Bill will deter people suffering from mental health problems from coming forward and seeking medical help. I believe that the Mental Health Bill will reinforce prejudice and fear within the general public and give people with mental health problems a bad name in the media.

Only the severe cases are reported - Michael Stone, who murdered Lin and Megan Russell. The Mental Health Bill will create misconceptions in society that people with mental health problems are mass murderers when the reality is that they are much more likely to harm themselves than others, hence discouraging them from getting the help they need.

The government needs to strike the right balance in getting treatment to those who really need it, putting in patient safeguards and minimising the risk to the public. More people will be sectioned with a Mental Health Bill, adding ever increasing pressure on the NHS system with the lack of funds and hospital beds.

Services and access to services in the NHS need to be improved. Generally I would like to see better organised management in the health service and more nurses in Wales because waiting lists for people needing treatment with the NHS are getting longer. And in the long run it is costing the NHS health service more money when some people contract other illnesses while waiting for treatment.