6. Plaid Cymru Debate: Health Boards

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:03 pm on 8 May 2019.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 4:03, 8 May 2019

I rise with a very, very heavy heart today. We read last week—I can hear the huffs of breath on the benches opposite, and I'm very disappointed by that. I sincerely mean that I rise with a very, very heavy heart. Last week, we saw the publication of another stomach-churning report into failings in our precious national health service. In that report, we read about front-line staff that were overstretched and under-resourced. We read about a lack of dignity in the care of patients, vulnerable patients. We read about patients and family concerns being dismissed, and some individuals being regarded as troublemakers by the staff when they made those complaints. We read of a complaints system that failed to learn from mistakes; inadequate and missing patient records; an unhealthy culture amongst the staff; unprofessional behaviour that broke professional codes of practice; false assurances that were given to elected representatives raising constituency problems on behalf of individuals; many missed opportunities for intervention; failures in basic governance requirements; information not being disclosed to individuals where it ought to have been disclosed and, as a result, patients coming to harm—deaths, the needless deaths of vulnerable babies, with the distress and the heartache that comes from that. And each one of those issues was almost identical to the report that disclosed the terrible failures and scandals at the Tawel Fan unit in north Wales.