Commenting on today’s statement about Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, the Shadow Minister for Health – Angela Burns MS – said:
“Labour’s Health Minister can play with semantics all he likes, but to call the measures announced regarding Betsi Cadwaladr ‘targeted interventions’ is misleading: the board is still in special measures in all but name.
“Cynical rewording of the truth does not change the truth; it just hides it, and Labour is playing a dangerous game in the run-up to the elections in May because the people of North Wales will see through it.”
Mark Isherwood MS, the Shadow Minister for North Wales, added:
“Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board was in special measures for over five years – the longest of any health organisation in the UK. Although we never expected it to be given an immediate ‘fix’, it seems that concerns over the delivery of health services for the people of North Wales are as pertinent today as when the Health Board entered special measures under the stewardship of this Health Minister in 2015.
“We know that staff have gone above and beyond to deliver health services to the people of North Wales, especially during the pandemic. Both they and their patients deserve better.”
Notes
The ‘targeted interventions’ outlined today include Mental Health Services, Leadership (Governance, Transformation and Culture), Engagement (patients, public, staff and partners), and Strategy, Planning and Performance, which are rewordings of reasons the board was put into special measures in 2015.
