North Wales MS Mark Isherwood yesterday called for a Senedd debate in Welsh Government time on the Holden Report, published last week, which documents failings at a North Wales mental health unit.
Mr Isherwood made the request during Tuesday’s Business Statement in the Welsh Parliament, but the Minister for North Wales, and Trefnydd, Lesley Griffith MS, failed to agree to his call.
Commenting afterwards Mr Isherwood said “The Minister’s failure to agree to my request only adds to suspicion that the Welsh Government’s fingerprints are all over this”.
Speaking during the meeting, Mr Isherwood said:
“Ahead of last Thursday’s publication of this report, exposing serious and extensive problems with patient safety on the Hergest mental health unit in Bangor, a health expert involved in the appeal sent me his observations on the report and its appendix, stating ‘up until now, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has protested that the main text of the Holden Report and its Appendix, completed in December 2013 and containing extracts from the damning statements of 40 whistleblowers, must remain hidden from public view in order to safeguard the confidentiality of the whistleblowers. The decision to withhold evidence of neglect on such spurious grounds was deliberate and wilful’.
“He further states that the whistleblowers complained about the behaviour of three senior managers, including acts of bullying and conduct that put the care of patients at serious risk. He asks ‘how then was it possible that in 2014 the most senior of these managers was allowed to make reports to the Health Board and its Quality Committee which concealed his own part in the Holden process?’ and ‘Has the Health Board now satisfied itself that the senior officials responsible for this mess, and for keeping it under wraps for so long, have now all been removed from any responsibility for the care of vulnerable mental health patients?’.
“Responding to September's Short Debate on the Holden Report, the Health Minister said it was important to note that a summary report was published in 2015, including the Holden recommendations. It's therefore important to note that when the Health Board's Acting Chief Executive presented the summary report to the Senedd's Public Accounts Committee in November 2015, it was very brief and did not describe the 31 concerns listed by staff.
“And last week, a Public Services Ombudsman for Wales report also revealed that the Health Board had made a fulsome apology to the son of a lady who received treatment on the Hergest Ward—people's hero, David Graves – ‘for the failings identified and injustice’ caused to him and his family - the hell that poor man's been put through by public bodies in Wales. I call for a debate in Welsh Government time accordingly.”