By Rhun ap Iorwerth, Ynys Môn MS and Plaid Cymru spokesperson on health and care.

The recent report into vascular services in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board was scandalous, heart-breaking and utterly damning.

Add to this a recent statement from the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) which declares vascular services as being a “service requiring significant improvement’ and the situation remains grimly sobering.

If you read the HIW guidance, it explains the process they follow when providing a service in the categories of wanting significant improvement.

It explains that they are a body that insists on action when they see that standards are not being met.

HIW tells us that this escalation process “ensures that focused and rapid action can be taken by a range of stakeholders to ensure that safe and effective care is being provided.”

So, let’s pause on that word “safe”. HIW has put this escalation measure in place because, and I quote, “the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) report identified a number of concerns that we believe indicate a clear risk to patients using the vascular service.”

Vascular patients have been put at risk because of poor management.

Just as mental health patients’ lives have been put at risk through a number of scandals within the same health board.

In fact, the scandals in mental health services were enough to put the whole health board into special measures in the first place, back in 2016.

The recent report into vascular services is just one in a long line of damning reports, which highlight how premature it was to take the board out of special measures.

I genuinely feel for those trying to put things right and being knocked back time and time again.

But the fact remains that the measures that need to be taken certainly need to be significant.

My question is whether the proposed process of escalation is enough in itself.

That the health board was taken out of special measures conveniently just before the last Senedd election is enough to raise eyebrows, but that patient lives continue to be put at risks is inexcusable.

This is why I repeated my calls to the Welsh Government in the Senedd: put vascular services in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in the highest level of special measures you have.

This action must be taken with the patient in mind. Those whose faith in their local health board has been rocked to the core.

Those in the furthest reaches of the North West who've been left at vast distances from core services by the centralisation at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, and who must see the strengthening of services accessible to them.

I would not be calling for reorganisation if I did not think that this is what our health board desperately needs.

But you don’t have to just take my word for it - the damning report from the RCS smacks of a health board that is too large, too unwieldy to be run effectively, and too distant from the people it serves.

Episode after episode of mismanagement, of poor patient communications and terrible outcomes means the redesigning of health services across the north has to be left on the table.

That is why I put it to the Welsh Government that they either must agree that the health board needs a complete redesign, or at the very least bring back special measures for vascular services to show that they’re serious about resolving things within the current structures.

The people of North Wales deserve no less.

READ MORE:

Health Minister's ultimatum to Betsi to improve or face going back into special measures

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