The comments follow a report by retired health chiefs who have criticised Assembly Government plans to stop neurological patients being treated at the Walton Centre in Liverpool.

Mrs Hart said: “I fully recognise the strength of feeling over neurosurgery, but let me be clear – no decision has been made on the future provision of neurosurgery services in North Wales.

“There is not, and never has been, such a proposal – and the suggestion that patients would be 'compelled' to travel is so far from the truth that it ought never to have been included in the report. “However, if, as it appears, this report is based on a belief that ‘non-emergency neurosurgical patients should be redirected to Morriston, then it is really tilting at windmills.”

The Neurosurgery and Specialist Hospital Services for the People of North Wales report was co written by Huw Thomas, former chief executive of Gwynedd Health Authority.

He said: “This bizarre proposal should be firmly rejected by the Assembly.

“The Minister’s standard response to objectors that they are scaremongering is patronizing.

“People in North Wales are right to be scared when such an extraordinary idea is put forward with any seriousness.”

The report also highlighted a gap in treatment time which Welsh patients face at specialist hospitals in England compared to English patients.

Speaking after visiting the Walton Centre, Conservative MP for Clwyd West David Jones said he was impressed with the site and that the staff and equipment are “unrivalled anywhere in the world”.

He said: “The links between Walton and North Wales are strong and well-established. North Wales people trust Walton, and it is vital that they should be able to continue to rely upon it.”

An independent report on neurosurgery services in Wales is due to presented to the Health Minister in the summer.