Kim Howells has launched a scathing attack against Wales' health minister.

In a letter to Labour assembly member Jane Hutt obtained by BBC Wales, the transport minister questioned her record in the job and her professionalism, after it took over two months for her to respond to previous correspondence written on behalf of one of his constituents.

When it eventually arrived, Howells' query had been answered by a member of Hutt's staff.

"In the 15 years that I have served as an MP I have rarely, if ever, had to wait so long for a response from a minister of any description or any party," he wrote.

"Never have I had to suffer the discourtesy of a reply on an important subject like this one, not from the minister, but from someone unknown signing it on behalf of the minister's diary secretary.

"Such behaviour does not smack of a professional approach by your department and offers little encouragement to those of us, inside and outside of politics, who would like to contribute to the debate about how best to deliver improved health care provision in Wales.

"It is an improvement that is badly needed and slow in coming."

Liquid oxygen therapy

The Welsh assembly government often comes under fire for its long NHS waiting lists, but rarely from within the Labour Party.

Howells had written to Jane Hutt regarding the difficulty in receiving liquid oxygen therapy for patients suffering from lung diseases, a problem most prevalent in his Pontypridd constituency where a large number of former miners live.

"The issue of liquid oxygen therapy is an extremely important one of the many people in Wales who suffer from lung diseases," he added in the letter.

"On the evidence of your response, I fear that it is not receiving the attention it warrants.

"I hope very much that you will consider improving the quality of the response of your department to ANYONE who might offer their cooperation on this or any other health care issue, let alone to a Labour minister in a Labour government that provides your department with extremely high levels of funding which we hope are being used to best effect."