Labour, the self-proclaimed party of the NHS, is responsible for just 7 health boards in Wales.
It is shocking that five of these are in special measures of some kind.
The largest of these - serving 1 million people – Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in North Wales – will not be celebrating the fact that next Saturday will be four years since it was placed into special measures.
Ministerial oversight of these special measures arrangements has been with the current Health Minister.
No Conservative Prime Minister has ever cut an NHS budget.
Under Labour, however, Wales was the only UK Nation to see a real terms decrease in identifiable expenditure on health 2010 and 2016.
Betsi Cadwaladr continues entered special measures after horrific reports emanated from the Tawel Fan Mental Health ward.
The Welsh Labour Government has failed to heed the warnings of the Ockenden Review of this - and consistently ignored the concerns of families involved.
They have instead relied on the 2018 HASCAS review which was described as a cover-up by the families.
In January Donna Ockenden said she had seen ‘insufficient progress’ in improving mental health services and revealed that staff had told her services ‘were going backwards’. Her 2018 Review found that from the Health Board’s birth in October 2009, they were repeatedly informed that there was very significant cause for concern in the systems, structures and processes of governance underpinning a range of services provided by Betsi Cadwaladr. Speaking here in May last year, I asked the Health Minister why the conclusions of the HASCAS report Commissioned by Betsi Cadwaladr did not stack up with the findings of Donna Ockenden’s 2015 report, which the Welsh Government had accepted - or with a Healthcare Inspectorate Wales Report, or Dementia Care mapping work, both in 2013, the year that the Health Board states that it was alerted to serious concerns regarding patient care on the Tawel Fan ward. In fact, I had highlighted concerns in 2009.
While frontline staff are working incredibly hard, last month the Public Accounts Committee found that the Welsh Government’s intervention with the Board has had “little practical impact”.
The North Wales Community Health Council stated that it totally agreed with this report’s recommendations - and referred to a letter sent to the Health Minister in which they stated there is a belief among its members that Special Measures is now “the new normal” and “appears to have lost its impact”.
The Welsh Government A&E target to see 95% of patients within four hours, in place since 2008, has never been met.
The latest figures show that Betsi Cadwaladr remains the worst performing in Wales. Wrexham Maelor hospital’s A&E department only saw half of its patients within four hours.
In January, the North Wales Coroner, John Gittins, stated that “ambulance hold ups, staff shortages and the difficulty of getting speedy A&E care have contributed to numerous deaths and may claim more lives”.
Last month, a Senior Consultant, Ian Smith, told the Coroner’s inquest into the death of Megan Lloyd Williams at Glan Clwyd Hospital that it was over two years since he had highlighted a gap in the care and treatment received by geriatric at a similar hearing, but nothing had changed despite assurances that improvements had been made.
Following the inquest the Coroner gave the Health Board until the end of this year to make improvements to its orthopaedic care.
In March, North Wales Community Health Council wrote to the Minister expressing their disappointment with the Welsh Government response to the “NHS Wales GP Performers List” Options Paper, stating:
“the difficulties in North Wales have been present, and increasing, for at least five years. There is no question about “if” or whether the difficulties in recruitment and retention will continue”.
They added that the other ways tried by Betsi Cadwaladr to address the recruitment problem were “not as successful as had been reported”.
They are now working with Community Health Councils across Wales to review experiences of people having to stay too long in hospital when they are well enough to leave.
Is it any wonder that this thin skinned Labour Government is now seeking to replace Community Health Councils with a centralised body that they can control?
Only last month, the Royal College of Physicians stated that only 43% of advertised Consultant Physician posts in North Wales were filled last year.
This Health Minister’s repeated statement that he expects to see action have become hollow.
He needs to accept his responsibility for failing to deliver the required improvement at the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, and resign