‘Babies have been born and reached secondary school’: MS challenges Betsi’s 11 years in special measures
“Babies have been born, started school and reached secondary education during the time Betsi Cadwaladr has been in special measures,” a Reform UK Member of the Senedd for Fflint Wrecsam has said.
Speaking in the Senedd on Wednesday, June 17, Cristiana Emsley asked why patients should believe that this time would be different after more than 11 years of assurances.
She also questioned Cabinet Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor on when patients across the region will see “tangible improvements in waiting times and patient care.”
Mr ap Gwynfor said he had asked officials alongside NHS Wales Performance and Improvement to “undertake a stocktake of the current position” and that he would chair a meeting with the health board’s executive team in July “to make clear to them my expectations in terms of improvements”.
“Serious concerns”
The comments from Ms Emsley came the same day as Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) announced that the Emergency Department at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, in Bodelwyddan, had been designated as a Service Requiring Significant Improvement after an unannounced inspection found serious concerns over patient safety and overcrowding.
The department was previously under the same improvement arrangements between May 2022 and August 2024, with inspectors concluding that improvements made during that period had not been sustained.
Mr ap Gwynfor told the Senedd he was “deeply concerned” about HIW’s findings and said the health board had been “put on notice”.
Darren Millar MS (Conservative, Clwyd), said his constituents were “not very surprised” by the latest designation.
Mr Millar described being contacted “week in, week out” by constituents sharing their experiences at the hospital, including “an elderly patient spending four days in a chair on a corridor due to a lack of beds” and “others waiting for treatment while lying on blankets on the floor”.
He also referenced “that awful report about the very tragic death in a corridor, in a very undignified way, of an elderly person last year, in full view of other patients”.
He said: “The situation in that emergency department is totally unacceptable, not just for patients, but also for the staff who care for them—the hard-working staff.
“It’s unsafe, staff are facing burn-out, patients are coming to harm, and I’m afraid that some are even dying as a result of the failures in the leadership and the governance at the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.”
In response, Mr ap Gwynfor paid tribute to the emergency department staff, saying the failings were “in no way a reflection of their dedicated work” and that “they’re being let down just as much as patients by the ongoing institutional dysfunction that is not of their making”.
“I’m sick of it. I know the Member is sick of it. Staff are sick of it, and the people of north Wales are frankly sick of it,” the minister said.
“As the First Minister outlined last week, we’re putting the health board on notice. Things have to improve, and they have to improve quickly. All options are on the table in this respect.”
Eleven years
The health board has been under heightened levels of Welsh Government escalation for more than a decade, with its current level 5 status having been in place since 2023. The emergency department was only removed from its significant improvement designation in August 2024.
Mr Millar pressed the minister on whether the number of beds planned for a new hospital in Rhyl could be increased from 14 to the 30 originally proposed, and whether Abergele Hospital could be used to take pressure off Glan Clwyd.
Mr ap Gwynfor said the government had “committed to a review of bed numbers across Wales” and that he was “more than happy to invite the Member to come and discuss this issue with officials” regarding Abergele.
He also revealed a striking comparison about the scale of the challenge facing Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, saying that during a visit to the hospital, “one of the officials mentioned a statistic that was quite shocking to me”.
Mr ap Gwynfor said: “If you consider the size of Ysbyty Glan Clwyd compared to the University Hospital of Wales, the size of Rhyl, Bodelwyddan and Prestatyn compared to Cardiff, it’s significantly different, but the same amount of ambulance visits go to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd on a daily basis as go to the Heath hospital in Cardiff.”
He said this raised “questions about fundamental weaknesses in terms of primary care” in the area.
Cross-party concern
Interim Labour Group Leader and Fflint Wrecsam MS Ken Skates highlighted the inspection’s findings about internal leadership and culture, asking what the minister’s response was and whether “all options” for Betsi Cadwaladr’s future included reorganisation.
He said: “Next week, the health board has promised to consider plans to strengthen staffing levels across all emergency departments in north Wales, but problems here don’t just relate to staffing levels. They relate to staff feeling that they weren’t listened to. Specifically, what is your response to concerns over internal leadership and culture?”
Mr ap Gwynfor acknowledged the cultural problems, saying, “If we can’t resolve those questions, then we won’t be able to resolve any of the many problems facing Betsi Cadwaladr.”
He added: “There are deeper problems that need to be looked at, as well as the core point made by the Member about culture.
“So, I’m content to take what the Member has said, and I’m very eager to work on a cross-party basis in order to find solutions to these problems.”
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