In the Senedd today, during Health Questions, James Evans MS challenged the Health Secretary, Jeremy Miles, to explain the sudden departure of the Velindre University Health Trust CEO after only a year in post.
Former CEO, David Donegan was removed by the newly installed Chair of the Velindre Trust, after raising alleged criminality and governance failures, according to media reports.
The Trust’s 2024/25 annual report states clearly that “the Trust escalated concerns to Audit Wales and Welsh Government about the current governance of Shared Services which hadn’t been reviewed since 2012.”
Evans called on Miles to confirm the existence of and to publish any and all correspondence or whistleblowing material in full, to reassure the public that the Welsh Government has not engaged in impropriety. While Miles confirmed the existence of correspondence, he did not commit to releasing it.
Commenting following the exchange, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, James Evans MS, said:
“I am extremely disappointed with the Health Secretary’s dodging of my serious questions today.
“How can we trust the Health Secretary, if he refuses to tell us why the highly respected and diligent CEO of Velindre NHS Trust was removed and if he won’t publish the correspondence which he has confirmed that he received relating to governance issues and alleged criminality within the Welsh NHS?
“The Welsh Labour Government is clearly all talk when it comes to improving accountability, it is failing fundamentally in its duty to reassure the public about how The Welsh NHS Shared Services Partnership who manage millions of pounds of public money is conducting itself.
“Welsh Conservatives want to see a truly accountable, transparent NHS and that starts with the publication of that correspondence, and I will be writing to the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary to demand they publish the correspondence”
ENDS
Notes to editors: The full exchange in the Senedd will be published here in due course
