Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 7 March 2023.
I would like a statement, please, on the practical work that will be done by Betsi Cadwaladr health board now that it is under special measures. Particularly, I want to see progress in providing improved primary care in Holyhead and the area. There is a crisis in primary care in Holyhead; there has been ever since two surgeries came under the direct control of Betsi Cadwaladr in 2019. We've won the long-term argument for a new health centre in Holyhead, but, of course, that's going to take some time to deliver.
But what the two surgeries managed by Betsi Cadwaladr had intended to do was to bring their services together on one site. The hope was that that one site could have been developed by the end of last year, so that there was more flexibility in terms of staffing, and an opportunity to provide better care. It didn't happen, because Betsi Cadwaladr hadn't given it sign-off. We need an assurance that that can happen as a matter or urgency, for the sake of the people of Holyhead, who have suffered for far too long in terms of the level of healthcare available to them, and a statement from Government would be a means of showing that things can hopefully progress slightly quicker.