ANGRY patients have set up an action group after being told they have to use Welsh hospitals because of new government policy.

And Forest MP Mark Harper has taken up their fight with health minister Jeremy Hunt asking him to intervene.

Under the new ruling thousands of English patients registered with Welsh GPs have to go to Newport or Abergavenny and are banned from using Lydney or the Dilke except for emergencies. Most are in border areas such as Tutshill, St Briavels and Staunton – but some live in heartlands such as Lydney, Bream and Parkend.

Lydney GP Dr Peter Fellows, who is a British Medical Association representative, condemned the policy as 'postcode medicine' and the 'thin end of a very large wedge'.

See this week's Forester for full story