Jenny Randerson responds...

This is an email I've received from Jenny Randerson, Cardiff Central, Liberal Democrat AM, re. my post on Monday.

"Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond.

You will be aware I am sure, of how often small parts of much longer interviews are taken out of context, and this is exactly what David Williamson has done in this article. He phoned me about two separate issues and for some reason spliced the quotes together into one.

Let me get two things straight, firstly, I do not like the blanket PFI model, and secondly, I did not mention private finance in the context of any plans that I may or may not have to stand for the leadership. Instead, after that discussion, he asked me for my views on private finance and I pointed out to him the upcoming health committee report into PFI.

I told him that it would make some very interesting reading and stated that I believe that pragmatically speaking, because of the Westminster model for funding capital developments, we must find ways to unlock Private Finance in the NHS providing that it does not interfere with the fundamental principles of the NHS. All I said was that I am not in favour of the blanket ban on private money and believe that examples such as the mutual model can harness private sector money for use within the NHS.

In an Ideal world, I would like to say there should be no private money in the NHS but the fact of the matter is that Gordon Brown provides Wales with capital finance on the understanding that we use private sector money to top it up. As a result of the fact we are not doing this, capital projects in the NHS in Wales are falling further and further behind Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. We cannot allow this to continue.

I hope that this helps to clear up the situation and the misinterpretation which I blame on bad journalism rather than you."