RHODRI MORGAN refused last week to offer any guarantee that patient services at Bronglais Hospital would not be cut, with a consequent downgrading of the regionally important unit. Appearing to hint at future possible cuts, the first minister said that, although Bronglais was rated as "ex-ceptionally good", there would not be enough cases in some specialties to maintain doctor training. He told an audience of about 70 at a public meeting at Ysgol Penweddig: "No-one is contemplating closing Bronglais Hospital, but if you ask can I guarantee that every single service will never be touched at Bronglais, no-one can give that guarantee. "Some services will grow, with oth-ers there won't be enough cases to keep doctors in training. But we are going to spend £21m at Bronglais, and there is no threat to the hospital." He added: "There will also be investment at the community hospi-tals at Tregaron and Cardigan." While the area covered by the hospi-tal was geographically huge, the population was not large, he said, and the Ceredigion birth-rate had fallen substantially, although it was now recovering. He said: "The bigger the birth-rate, the lower the threat to paediatrics. The royal colleges all say 'how many cases do you see in a year?' If it's below a certain line they say that's not enough to develop expertise. "They'll make exceptions for Bronglais, but only up to a certain point. There will be special rules for Bronglais because, with Truro, it is unique in Britain in the size of the geographical area it covers and the size of the population." But Mr Morgan made no reference to acknowledgment by the Royal College of Surgeons that centralising and networking hospital services may not suit rural areas. They have called for special atten-tion to be paid to remote rural hospi-tals which, as in the case of Bronglais, serve populations of 150,000 or less. That call has been echoed by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, who have stressed that, in the debate on quality of care, access to care should not be forgotten. • Questioned by Tricia Burden, of Cross Inn, Llanon, about closure of old people's homes as a result of new centrally-imposed regulations on accommodation, Mr Morgan said he hoped homes inspectors were not being "over-zealous" over regulations on precise measurements and standards. • Nick Sawyer, of Ship Street, Aberaeron, asked what contingency plans the Assembly government had to counter the rising sea-levels caused by climate-change on Ceredigion in general and Aberaeron and its vulnerable harbour in particular. The first minister said there was a £6m informal proposal for Aberaeron, and protection of Borth could cost £20m, but added: "We haven't got the money at the moment. Mr Sawyer said the solution for Aberaeron could be to build another arm to the harbour, an idea first put forward many years ago. • Haydn Foulkes, of Penrhyncoch, said people had noted with "alarming frequency" the present trend for companies to move from Wales and relocate overseas, where labour was cheaper and more profit was to be made. What could the National Assembly do, he asked, to reverse this trend, protect Welsh jobs and make the Welsh workforce more competitive, and had the Assembly been wrong to interfere with the Welsh Development Agency, which had earnt a status akin to a brand name? Mr Morgan said it was almost impossible to stop companies moving to low-wage countries -Moroccan labour rates, for example, were one-tenth of those in the UK, and China's one-twentieth. He said Ceredigion's unemployment rate was just 1.4 per cent, but made no mention of the fact that average salaries in Ceredigion were the second lowest in the UK. One member of the audience, Llanbadarn Fawr county councillor Paul James, said many Ceredigion jobs were part-time and were poorly paid. • Owen Llewelyn, of Temple Bar, Felinfach, raised the Dairygold fiasco, which centres around the closure of a Felinfach cheese factory five years after the company received a £1m grant. The first minister said: "The present situation is that we're trying to claw back as much of the grant as possible." • Gordon Ash, of Chancery, Aberystwyth, challenged Mr Morgan over the Assembly's proposed new office in Aberystwyth, and asked whether it would not be better to instead build a new state-of-the-art hospital with an old people's annexe. "This is a fake either-or question", Mr Morgan said. "We're not sure obviously of the cost of the new offices - it will be between £15m and £17m, but we're going to spend £21m at Bronglais. "The offices will share with the new Ceredigion council building next door a biomass supergreen boiler costing £5m. The new Assembly building will be a very helpful sheet-anchor for the economy of Mid Wales. "We want to see Aberystwyth become the academic, administrative and research centre for agriculture. • Chris Morgan, of Aberystwyth, said mid and west Wales needed a dual-carriageway, if not a motorway, connecting the north, west and south of the country, and a railway line between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen. "It was a tragedy the Aberystwyth-Carmarthen railway line was closed down", Mr Morgan said, "but to reopen that line would be much more ambitious than what we have done in Ebbw Vale. Dual carriageways have been overtaken by green issues." • Menna Machreth Jones, UMCA president, asked whether Labour would commit themselves to strengthening the Welsh Language Act. Mr Morgan said: "The Act currently in force is flawed. It was not an Act for the Welsh language but for quangos and their Welsh language needs. But we do not believe it is practical for the private sector in Wales to go down the road of Belgium, Catalonia or Quebec, where citizens have the right to insist on services from shops, offices or private bodies to be provided in their own language."