Further questions have been posed over the appointment of a senior official at Betsi Cadwaladr.
The questions emerge as a damning report - published today - highlighted a series of serious failings at Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust.
The report highlighted concerns at:
· failings at the trust being “ignored or watered down” by bosses;
· a four month delay in diagnosing a man with lung cancer;
· a culture of “bullying and harassment”;
· staff being “driven to the brink”.
A raft of senior officials quit when the failings first came to light in 2014, including trust chief executive Bernie Cuthel; since appointed to Betsi Cadwaladr, as interim director of Primary, Community & Mental health Services on secondment.
Ms Cuthel stepped down as chief executive ‘with immediate effect’ last April after it was mutually agreed that it would be in the best interests of the trust.
Shadow Minister for Health, Darren Millar AM, said:
“I described this appointment as questionable at the time, and with public confidence in Betsi at an all-time low these revelations are likely to further undermine faith in the board itself.
“This bombshell of a report highlights a culture of bullying and harassment, as well as a shocking failure to recognise the severity of the problems experienced by patients at the health board in Liverpool.
“It also describes how failings were ‘ignored or watered down’ by Senior Executives – the most senior of which now coordinates the development of a mental health strategy here at Betsi.
“It’s simply not good enough. Patients in North Wales have suffered enough and have been forced to endure a health board in special measures, lurching from one crisis to the next.
“North Wales patients deserve the very best people in charge of NHS services, I’m not sure that appointing a person who has been at the heart of such a scandal meets that criteria.”