Commenting on the announcement that the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in North Wales has been placed in special measures, Darren Millar AM, Shadow Health Minister, said:
"While I welcome the decision to place this dysfunctional crisis-hit health board in special measures, the move is long overdue and something I’ve been calling for since governance problems were first identified back in 2013.
“Placing the health board in special measures is the first step to turning the organisation into an effective provider of first class health care, where patient safety comes first.
“But we also need an independent panel to implement the recommendations of the Ockenden report into abuse at Tawel Fan and we need to make Health Inspectorate Wales entirely independent of Welsh Government and give it more resources to enable it to carry out more unannounced inspections.
“Labour Ministers, who’ve run the Welsh NHS for 16 years and imposed record-breaking cuts on the health budget, should also take this opportunity to scrap Ministerial appointments to health boards and set up an independent Keogh-style inquiry into the Welsh health service.
“Patients in North Wales have been failed by mismanagement, which has focussed minds on budget lines and compromised the safety of patients and staff. Now we must make sure this never happens again.”