Priorities for the NHS in North Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 26 November 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:15, 26 November 2019

One day, Llywydd, as you know, the Member will find something good to say about the health service on which his constituents rely. Their report on health services in north Wales is so different to his own.

Only last month, the health Minister set out a series of actions that the health board needs to take in order to move on from being in special measures, and we expect the health board to report against those requirements by 13 December. That will show how the health board intends to build on the successes that it has achieved, which it would be good to hear the Member just occasionally acknowledge: the fact that all trainee GP posts in north Wales have been filled for the first time; the fact that flu vaccination rates in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board are amongst the very best in Wales; the fact that maternity services, which were a concern at the very start of special measures, are no longer a matter of special concern.

When I hear the Member lecture us on the state of the health service in Wales, deficits and the need to follow the advice of the Public Accounts Committee in securing external help to bring about even further improvement, I'm reminded of the United Lincolnshire trust that his party is responsible for, a trust that is half the size of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, and whose deficit last year was greater than the whole of the Welsh NHS put together, and which spends millions of pounds in securing external support, yes, in order to try to deal with the issues that that trust faces.