A major investigation is to be launched in September by the National Assembly for Wales into problems with links between the NHS and social care.

The probe, which will last a year, follows the publication of a review of the sectors ordered by Welsh health minister Jane Hutt from Derek Wanless, author of the NHS review for chancellor Gordon Brown.

Wanless warned that the current Welsh system was "unsustainable" because of increasing demands and a defective system of operation.

Committee chairperson David Melding claimed the investigation would be one of the first into the relationship between the two sectors. "Usually, the social care sector is not considered as central in any discussion," he said.