Speaking in today’s Welsh Conservative Debate calling on the Welsh Government to initiate a Public Inquiry into Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, North Wales MS Mark Isherwood said an Inquiry is needed “because we must not allow the facts to be buried, the buck to be passed, and the whistle-blowers to be bullied”.
This Sunday, June 8th 2025, marks 10 years since the Welsh Government first placed Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in special measures.
In this afternoon’s Debate calling for a Public Inquiry into the controversial North Wales Health Board, Mr Isherwood said highlighted concerns regarding failings have been overlooked for years.
He said:
“After the Health Board attended the Senedd's Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee in March 2022, I wrote to them as Chair regarding concerns about some of the responses that they provided us with.
“Our letter referred to various reports over the previous decade, including the Holden, Ockenden, HASCAS and Public Account Committee Reports, and included ‘We were disappointed by the lack of ownership and responsibility taken by the Executive of the problems at the Board’.
“Despite the Senedd's Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee and its predecessors having consistently reported concerns regarding both Board functionality and oversight of the Health Board by Welsh Government, including reports published in 2013, 2016, and 2019, and despite the North Wales Community Health Council having raised these concerns throughout, matters were allowed to reach this head.
“A Written Statement by the Health Minister, now First Minister, in February 2023, stated that she had agreed that it was time for ‘Independent Members of the Board to step aside’.
“These former Independent Health Board Members subsequently told me that ‘through her actions, the Minister has wiped the memory of the organisation. Those who battled to see the organisation learn from past failings have been replaced’.”
“At the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee meeting on 3rd May 2023, we also heard from former independent Health Board members that their forced resignation followed their attempts to hold certain Executive Members of the Board to account through purposeful challenge and scrutiny.”
Mr Isherwood referred to his own experience as a patient at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, where “the staff were brilliant, but the system was clearly breaking“. He said he spent the night on a trolley in the Majors Ward and had to ask for a blanket at 3am.
He added:
“Although it is good news that 2-year waits have fallen, they remain at 8,389 in Wales, compared with only 147 in England, with the majority - 5,747 - in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
“Llais North Wales, the people’s voice in health and social care, told me two weeks ago that the Health Board remains the primary concern reported to them.
“Meanwhile, the Health Board continues to pursue false economies in third sector partner funding, which will add to the cost pressures upon it, ranging from Hospices, to Emergency Department Services, to the postcode lottery across North Wales in access to services for people living with dementia.
“Because we must not allow the facts to be buried, the buck to be passed, and the whistle-blowers to be bullied, North Wales needs a Public Inquiry into Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.”
Labour and Plaid Cymru defeated the Motion.