Can I take the opportunity to put on record the thanks of everybody on the Welsh Conservative benches to those front-line members of NHS staff in north Wales who've been working so hard, particularly during this pandemic?

It's a great shame, Minister, that you didn't have the courtesy to brief any Members on opposition benches today about your decision, and in fact, you even gave the great discourtesy of not even sharing your statement until a moment before it was actually read from your lips. The reality is that today's announcement appears to have more to do with the prospects of the Labour Party in north Wales at next year's Senedd elections than it does with any evidence of real improvement on the ground in north Wales. Your decision to remove special measures cannot be justified and you cannot fool or hoodwink the people of north Wales into thinking that everything is hunky-dory. Your description of improvement bears absolutely no resemblance to the reality of patient experiences across the region.

Let's look at the facts. The Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board was in its sixth year of special measures. In that time, it's had a revolving door in terms of its senior leadership team, with a number of chief executives, a number of finance directors, and a number of directors of mental health. In fact, the current director of mental health departs his role at the end of this month, another notch on Betsi's bedpost.

Since 2015, A&E performance has gotten worse, waiting lists and waiting times have deteriorated and gotten longer, and the financial position of the health board has also deteriorated. The recent figures show that Betsi still has the worst emergency department performance in the whole of Wales, with one in 10 people waiting more than 12 hours before they're able to be discharged after arriving in A&E, and over half, almost half the population who turn up not being able to be released within four hours.

We know that GP services are still fragile in the region, with more managed practices than any other health board area in Wales. And, of course, we now know that dentistry services are fragile across north Wales as well, with 20,000 patients being given notice that their NHS services are going to stop early next year. This is not a health board that is fit to come out of the special measures arrangements. 

You referred to a number of reasons when this health board was put into special measures, and governance, leadership and oversight was one. We know that there are still weaknesses there because there's been a recent outbreak of coronavirus in two of the hospitals in north Wales, none of which came to light because of the situation in the health board, but because local Members of the Senedd had written raising concerns.

Mental health services are still not out of the woods. In spite of the promises of new, shiny buildings, the culture in those departments is still the same. We've got 1,600 patients who, earlier this year, were discharged from services without their knowledge, or being made aware. Bed capacity is still a huge problem. Child and adolescent and mental health services are still not adequate, with patients still being sent hundreds of miles for in-patient treatment. And a quarter—a quarter—of all mental health safety incidents in the Welsh NHS are incidents in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. This is not a health board that is fit to come out of special measures.

Just a few weeks ago, last month, you said that there were still big challenges in north Wales. Just a few weeks ago, you said, and I quote,

'Specifically, the group wanted some further assurance from the health board in respect of progress in mental health services.'

This is just a few weeks ago. Now, either this really is the most miraculous recovery since Lazarus was raised from the dead or you're trying to hoodwink the people of north Wales into thinking that services are better, when the reality is that they're not.

So I ask you, Minister, how can you justify your position given that many of the issues on that original list—and I quote one, for example: reconnecting with the public and regaining the public confidence. That's one of the reasons it was put into special measures. I can tell you what, the public in north Wales have no confidence whatsoever in your ability to improve their services. They've only seen them deteriorate, as I've just pointed out to you, in terms of some of those facts on the ground. So how can you say that that item has been dealt with?

How can you say, when there are so many GP services that are fragile, and so many health board intervened and managed services, that the concerns about GP and primary care services have been dealt with, especially with the looming crisis now in dentistry care as well? And how on earth can you say that governance has been addressed when the health board itself didn't know the rate of hospital-acquired infections in relation to COVID until I pointed it out to them? And how on earth can you say that mental health services are better when, frankly, they're just as bad now as they were back in 2015?