Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:53 pm on 13 September 2016.
Minister, thank you for your answers this afternoon. I would be a little less generous than Angela was by saying that 50 per cent of the LHBs are now in special measures or under some form of Government supervision; it’s actually six of the health boards that have district general hospitals within their remit to run, and two thirds of them now—four of them—are under some form of Government intervention. Hopefully, that will be seen as a helpful measure for those health boards so that they can progress in the areas in which they do need to progress. But I do think it is not unreasonable to ask the question: how long do you foresee this level of intervention continuing, in particular for the three most recent entries into this programme of Government assistance, if you want to call it that, or Government intervention? When can staff and when can patients take some form of comfort that these LHBs will be emerging as more autonomous organisations running the services within their area of control?