5. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Update on Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:08 pm on 4 June 2019.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 5:08, 4 June 2019

I'd also like to begin, as the Minister has done, by welcoming Angela Burns back to the Chamber. We have certainly missed her contribution here and on the Health and Social Care Committee. It's good to see you looking so well.

I begin by associating myself with much of what Angela has said in her introductory remarks; there's no need for me to repeat them. But I am a little bit surprised that, in his response to her, the Minister refers to examples of health institutions in England that continue to be in special measures for a very long time. Now, it's my understanding that we have a very different system here in Wales, a system that I think the Minister would probably agree with me ought to be better, and a system that very certainly does give the Welsh Government much greater control over health institutions in Wales than the English Government has over institutions in England. So, I would put it to the Minister that it is little comfort to me, I am afraid, for him to tell me that there are institutions in England that are doing just as badly under Conservative Ministers in their attempt to recover, as the Betsi Cadwaladr board is doing or not doing under him.

I am grateful for the opportunity that we'll have to discuss these matters in more detail under the motion that the Conservatives have tabled tomorrow. A couple of the points that I want to raise with the Minister—I wouldn't necessarily expect him to have the facts at his fingertips today, in the point of quite a general statement, but I would be grateful if it was possible, perhaps, for some of those points to be referred back to when he responds in the Conservative debate tomorrow.