PEMBROKESHIRE'S health service is "close to meltdown" in the face of massive debts, an Assembly Member said this week.

Plaid Cymru AM Helen Mary Jones went on the offensive after learning that Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust must repay the Assembly over £8m in three years.

The AM for mid and west Wales said the NHS "lurches from one disaster to another."

She added: "No wonder services are being cut when the trust have to pay back such an enormous debt. I have spoken to people in the health service in Pembrokeshire and they are saying that it is close to meltdown.

These people work incredibly hard and under a lot of pressure but are being let down by this government.

"I am not concerned about the excuses that are coming from Labour in Cardiff, I am concerned about how services will be affected in Pembrokeshire in order to pay back this considerable sum of money."

The Trust has total debts of over £11m and will have to pay back £8.238m by 2009. The remaining £2.8m will be written off as soon as the Trust achieves financial balance over two years.

Preseli Pembrokeshire AM Tamsin Dunwoody Kneafsey said: "We in the Welsh Assembly Government acknowledge that the 2005-06 settlement will but challenging but we have invested considerably in Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust: a new accident and emergency department; full funding for the consultants contract as well as additional waiting list money and finding for Agenda for Change."

Mrs Dunwoody-Kneafsey added: "Nick Ainger, Chris Gwyther and I have met Mary Hodgeon and are all adamant that the Trust must preserve the high service levels they deliver to patients within their budgets."

Mrs Dunwoody-Kneafsey said she believed that a merger between the Trust and Local Health Board would help the situation.

"It is a shame that the Trust and the LHB did not agree this option," she said.

LHB chairman Chris Martin said: "The proposed merger was subject of benefit analysis, undertake by an external company to measure the benefits to patients. However, as two statutory organisations, a good relationship has always existed and there is now an agreement to work even closer together, building a virtual organisation, towards the aim of providing one health voice for Pembrokeshire."