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A minister for the Welsh language asked civil servants for advice on how to “sell” a policy that weakened patients’ rights to receive treatment in Welsh.

Eluned Morgan believed that proposals to deprive people of the right to hospital consultations in Welsh would lead to criticism.

But the minister continued with the policy, which was passed by the Assembly in March.

A limited right for patients to receive face-to-face health care services in Welsh was not included, despite a cross-party committee report demanding it and the measure appearing in draft regulations.

Language campaigners have accused Ms Morgan of being “weak” and the civil servants of having an agenda “to weaken people’s language rights”.

But the Welsh Government described the criticism as "complete nonsense".

The language standards place a duty on health boards to provide some services in Welsh.

In a document released following a Freedom of Information request by pressure group Cymdeithas yr Iaith , Ms Morgan seeks the advice of civil servants on how to justify removing a limited right to receive clinical consultations in Welsh from the regulations.

(Image: Richard Swingler)

She asked: “So I want to be clear: if a little old 90-year-old lady from Gwynedd who speaks poor English goes to hospital and is about to have a complicated operation, she cannot ‘legally’ ask for someone to explain to her in Welsh what is happening, and what we are offering is that the Health Board makes plans so that they can set out to what extent they will be able to carry out clinical consultations in Welsh 5 years from now, which presumably could say that they still won’t be able to. (I think this is quite a tough sell! Any ideas?)”

Heledd Gwyndaf, chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, said: “These papers will shock many people who are under the impression that the Welsh Government supports the Welsh language.

“We are less surprised, because we know that the civil service’s agenda is to weaken people’s language rights.

“What we see is a weak minister who, instead of challenging the regressive direction of civil servants and showing leadership on the language, asks them to help her justify steps that will deprive the most vulnerable of their language rights.

“This is what has happened with language rights in the health service, and that’s their intention with the proposed Welsh Language Bill.

“The minister is acting as the voice of the establishment, which wants to weaken the language rights of ordinary people, instead of speaking up for the people who want to see their rights protected and increased.

“That’s what’s behind these shocking comments about an older person’s rights to healthcare in Welsh.

“This shows that the minister and her civil servants knew what they were doing – they were depriving vulnerable people of their language rights.

“Now that these papers have come to light, the Government must revisit the Health Standards and their plans to weaken Welsh language legislation.

“Instead of meekly following the lead of her civil servants, the minister should listen to those who support the interests of the Welsh language, not powerful institutions and companies.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “This is complete nonsense. The Minister’s comments demonstrated the intense scrutiny of the Welsh Language Standards prior to their publication.

“This underlines the difficulties of balancing the rights of individuals to receive services in Welsh against the practical consideration of delivery of health services in a complex environment where there is already an issue of recruitment.”