Inquiry into cross-border health services announced

The inquiry will see if there are lessons to learn from arrangements between other parts of the UK

Welsh MPs are to hold an inquiry into cross-border health arrangements between England and Wales.

Members of the select committee on Welsh affairs will look at the impact of "increasing divergence" in health systems either side of Offa's Dyke.

They will consider the experience of patients who rely on services on the other side of the border.

The committee has said it will not examine the merits of healthcare in Wales or England.

The Welsh affairs committee last investigated cross-border health issues in 2009 and says increasing differences between the English and Welsh NHS have developed since then.

David Cameron has described the state of the NHS in Wales as a "scandal" and claimed Welsh hospital care is so poor that Offa's Dyke is a "line between life and death" .

Labour has said such comments are intended to distract attention from "ongoing scandals" in the English NHS by Conservatives "hell-bent on creating an iron curtain between two health systems that work well together on a daily basis".