8. Will the First Minister make a statement on the critical internal incident within Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board? OQ58933

On 19 December, an internal critical incident was declared at the board in the face of rising COVID pressures, rising flu numbers, public concern about strep A, a nurses strike on 20 December and an ambulance strike on 21 December. Declaring an incident of this kind triggers actions designed to reduce the pressures on the system, as seen elsewhere in Wales and across the United Kingdom.

We've had two incidents of this kind in the space of a fortnight in north Wales—two internal critical incidents. And I can give the First Minister an assurance that it does feel to be critical within Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board day upon day, for patients waiting a long time for treatment, for staff who are working under huge pressures and for ambulance workers who've had enough of queuing outside of hospitals. And if the First Minister's defence is that these are problems that exist in all parts of Wales, then let us remind the Senedd that this particular health board has been in some level of raised intervention for almost eight years. Now, yes, we need to tackle NHS problems across Wales, but I again ask the First Minister, whilst he's trying to do that with his health Minister, will he look at a new pattern of delivering healthcare in north Wales? The board is too large, it is too unwieldy, people have lost faith in the board, and we need to press the reset button in order to provide healthcare in a way that I'm afraid Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board cannot currently do.

Well, I hear what the Member says, of course. The only point that I have to make is the point that I have made when I have responded to the suggestion last year. To reconsider everything in north Wales, to put north Wales into a situation where there is uncertainty in everything that lies behind the health service—I don't think that that is going to help anyone who drives an ambulance or anyone who is waiting for treatment in north Wales. 

There are important things that need to be done in the north of Wales. I don’t disagree with that. I don’t disagree that that might involve greater responsibilities being discharged at the different locality levels within the north. But the idea that a wholesale reorganisation is what health services in the north of Wales require, and that that would lead to a solution to the problems that the Member outlined in his supplementary question—. I think that that is guaranteed to make things more difficult, rather than to solve those problems, and it’s not a course of action on which we will embark.  

I thank the First Minister.