Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:46 pm on 23 November 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:46, 23 November 2021

Well, Llywydd, I take full responsibility for everything that I did and decided when I was health Minister, in the many, many questions that I was asked on the floor of this Senedd and answered at the time. I visited the Hergest unit while I was the health Minister, partly in response to the correspondence that I was receiving about it. I found a beleaguered but very committed staff, determined every day to try to make a difference in the lives of those people whose illness required in-patient mental health attention. Those people were determined, despite all the criticism, to come into work every day to do their best, and that's what I think happens every day, ever since, by those people who provide those services in north Wales. The Member, as ever, has never a good word to say for anybody who works for the health service—[Interruption.] Well, I haven't heard a good word said yet. We'll see if he can manage one now. Those people deserve support from people in this Chamber, not asking what we are going to do to conduct some sort of retrospective trawl to see who can be held to blame. My belief is that, with the new management of the health service in north Wales—. And I had an opportunity, Llywydd, yesterday to discuss with the chair of the health board, the new chief executive and the person in charge of mental health services the plans they have to go on building on the improvements that they have been able to bring about. Many further improvements are necessary, all of that recognised by the people responsible on the ground, but looking ahead to build from that, to make sure that the services provided to people in north Wales are of a quality and a standard and of a consistency that they would wish to see.