THE CONCEPT that health care Wales is the Cinderella of Britain is reinforced by the stroke services report.

An overall damning E rating for all but one of 12 Welsh hospitals doesn’t paint a rosy picture for those of us all too possibly at risk.

It is worrying, to say the least, that the Royal Gwent avoided the axe by a mere 6% of patients being scanned within an hour of admission – 56% is a woeful record and hardly reassuring to the neglected and terrified 44% waiting on trollies.

Come on, why are we talking about human lives in terms of percentages?

Professor Rudd, chairman of the working party, speaks of “unacceptable variations”. Too right, guys; let them hear about it in Cardiff Bay and Westminster. There’s no point relying on a glass slipper.

Julian R. Powell Larch Grove Malpas Newport