SWINGEING criticism was made this afternoon of the performance of Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board in the Senydd by Vale of Clwyd AM Darren Millar.

He said putting the Health Board into special measures just isn’t working and was supported by other North Wales AMs including Janet Finch-Saunders and Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Mr Millar was responding to a speech by Welsh Health secretary Vaughan Gething updating members on progress made in the management of the Health Board

Mr Gething said: “This week marks three years in special measures for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. I want to update members today on the progress made in some key areas during this period, the significant challenges that remain and plans to work with the Health Board during the next phase of improvement.

“Under the special measures arrangements we have provided support to stabilise and recover the position in key areas of concern. This has included areas outlined for immediate action in 2015 – governance, leadership and oversight, mental health services, maternity services at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, reconnecting with the public and primary care including out of hours services. More recently steps have been required in finance and some performance areas.”

Mr Gething outlined details of the measures that have been taken, and a programme of investment already undertaken and planned with the objective of ensuring improved access and healthcare.

However he added: “Despite the investment and progress in some key areas, significant challenges remain as reported in the Deloitte Review findings and the HASCAS report. They both highlighted continued concerns on governance, clinical leadership and service redesign. In the last 12 months the Welsh Government has escalated the level of intervention in finance and some areas of performance due to substantial concerns on referral to treatment waiting times, unscheduled care and financial planning.

“I am intensely concerned with the decline in performance in these areas, and exasperated with the pace of progress by the Health Board on the milestones set for the first part of this calendar year and the continued lack of clarity on its plans.

“I was always very clear that the transformation at Betsi will require significant culture change to working in partnership both externally and internally. This will require ongoing focus on board toward engagement and a move from an underlying resistance to consistency in clinical practice in a variety of service settings with strong professional oversight and clinical leadership. To deliver improved outcomes for its population the health board needs to work in a systematic way in partnership as one organisation at a local and regional level and play a full part on a national level.”

Darren Millar said the statement by Vaughan Gething “Will bring precious little comfort to people in north Wales, because, in spite of your claims of improvement, even in some areas, I do regret that that improvement is not being discerned by many of the patients in north Wales, and I think the statistics speak for themselves.”

"It has deteriorated in terms of its performance in its emergency department against the four-hour target; it has deteriorated in terms of the 12-hour target; the referral to treatment times have gotten worse for the 26-week target and they've got more patients waiting in excess of a year for treatment than there were three years ago when this health board was put into special measures. In fact, they're not only worse than they were three years ago, they are the worst in Wales against all of those measures.”

He added: “One of the other indications of the difficulties that the health board faces is in terms of its financial management. Its deficit has bloomed from £26.6 million in the year immediately prior going into special measures, to £38.8 million in the financial year that we have just closed. And you may say that we're making more money available to deal with some of these aspects of performance, but the reality is that you clawed back £3.13 million just a few months ago. So, you can't give on the one hand, take it back with the other and expect improvement the other end, because it's not working. Your intervention simply isn't working.”