Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:32 pm on 30 April 2019.
I have absolutely no intention of coming back here in two or three years' time and having to report that no further progress has been made. That's why I've taken the steps that I've confirmed today and given the assurance of independence in reviewing the progress that the health board has or has not made. Because I will be honest about the level of progress that has or has not been made by the health board every time I report back to the Chamber or to the wider public.
Again, I go back to the point about behaviour and culture, because when you talk about the report highlighting that doctors weren't available, that's a point about the medical culture, because that wasn't about the numbers of people employed within the service, it was actually about their working practice. In many ways, that is much more difficult to address, which is why I said to Dawn Bowden that we are talking about many months of work to change the culture to a point where it is more likely to be sustained and changed, and I'm under no illusions whatsoever that significant change is required within the organisation.
The work that I've highlighted is not just confined to maternity services. There is new clinical leadership within the medical team within this part of the service, there's a new clinical lead in place, and that's a positive step forward. But the work that Healthcare Inspectorate Wales are going to be doing is looking more broadly at leadership and governance within the organisation, and I'm expecting their report to be available before the end of the autumn. I've had a conversation with the chief inspector of HIW today, and that is my expectation following the conversation with her—that she expects a report to be available within the autumn.
Again, HIW reports are published and there is no hiding away from them, and so we'll be clear about what level of change has or has not taken place and what further change is still required. I would expect that we'd still hear at that point what further change is still required to make sure that that change is real and sustained. So, I'll return to this Chamber and/or committees that do or don't want to ask questions about this, and as I said, I'll be honest about where we are and about what we still need to do.