As we’ve heard, special measures was to be a temporary measure for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Now, four years later, they are still in special measures. I can tell you, Minister, that the people of north Wales don’t consider those measures to be temporary and the people of north Wales don’t consider special measures to be special in any way whatsoever, because, as the community health council in north Wales has said, the special measures are now the new normal in north Wales.

The health council believes, and I agree with them, that direct management by Welsh Government of the board has lost its impact. There is a lack of confidence among the residents of north Wales in the way in which the Government is seeking to deal with this situation, and, indeed, as a result of that, in the ability of the health board to provide the care that the public in north Wales wish to see, expect to see, and have a right to receive.

This new normal, of course, represents an ongoing financial crisis, it represents recruitment problems, failures in long term planning, particularly in terms of the workforce, GP services collapsing, an over reliance on locums and agency staff, and a failure to deal with complaints in a timely or appropriate manner. Increasingly too—and this is something that I have raised in this place in the past—there is more and more involvement of the private sector in health services in north Wales. I’ve raised in the past the campaign to prevent the privatisation of aspects of the dialysis service in Wrexham and in Welshpool, including transferring staff from the national health service to the private sector, and now, of course, we are facing the privatisation of pharmacy services in general hospitals across north Wales.

People are complaining that Donald Trump is going to be a threat in privatising elements of our health service in Wales—well, perhaps we need to look closer to home when it comes to that particular agenda. I do hope that the Government and the Minister will have the honesty, when they do condemn the privatisation of health services in England, to be aware of what is happening on their watch in terms of similar services in Wales.

I am going to refer to the case of one constituent of mine who is 90 years old, living in Flintshire. She went to hospital very recently after a fall in her garden. She’s now well enough to return home but she will need some support of course. Her family clearly want her to return to her home having spent 10 days in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and more recently in Holywell Community Hospital. But, there are no care packages available to allow her to return home. The family are therefore in a quandary. Do they leave her in the community hospital where clearly she is becoming demoralised, or do they pay privately for a care package that will cost a total of £210 a week?

I highlight this because back in 2012, Betsi Cadwaladr home enhanced care packages—I’m sure you will all remember the HECs, as they were called. The aim was to help people out of hospital and back into the community, and the claim made at that time was that patients would be able to see consultants in their homes and that would replace the community hospitals that were being closed across north Wales as part of a radical restructuring and centering of services across north Wales. But the truth is that even support workers aren’t able to visit patients in their homes now, never mind anyone else. There is too much demand for the service and they can’t meet that demand.

Now, it’s not the front-line staff who are to blame here. They are doing their very best despite the circumstances and difficulties. The problem, I fear, is senior management who have made these poor decisions, which have led to the health board reaching this point and have led to special measures. And of course one of those was appointed to be responsible for turning the board around, which raises further questions.

But unlike doctors and nurses who occasionally make errors in their work, there’s no way for health board managers to be held to account. If it’s right for nurses and doctors to be struck off—we’ve said as a party that should also be the case for senior managers. In north Wales, we’ve been through three chief executives and three chairs and there’s a feeling of shifting the deckchairs whilst the ship is sinking. The one consistent factor throughout that period of course is that you, previously as Deputy Minister, were responsible for the day-to-day running of the health service and the situation in Betsi Cadwaladr. So, rather than changing chairs and chief executives, isn’t it true that you are the one who should resign?