{"id":735363,"date":"2026-08-12T06:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T06:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/735363\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T06:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T06:48:17","slug":"reform-ms-calls-for-team-from-outside-wales-to-take-over-betsi-cadwaladr-health-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/735363\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform MS calls for team from outside Wales to take over Betsi Cadwaladr health board"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Addressing the Senedd before the summer recess, Williams, for the Fflint Wrecsam constituency, said: &#8220;You mentioned that all options are open.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Would you actually consider a takeover by a health board from outside of Wales?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">To which, ap Gwynfor said: &#8220;No, I will not even countenance the idea of allowing a health board from outside of Wales to take over Betsi Cadwaladr, because they work to different rules and regulations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve got devolution here. We&#8217;ve got our own pieces of legislation. The health board answers to this Senedd, to you, the people elected by the people of Wales.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">During the debate, ap Gwynfor said he had put together an intensive support, recovery and turnaround team to take a hands-on approach to bring BCUHB out of special measures and planned to launch a well-led review, led by a panel of health experts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But Reform Wales&#8217; shadow counsel General Adrian Mason MS, who represents Clwyd, urged the Welsh government to seek outside help to speed up the process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Nothing about Betsi Cadwaladr&#8217;s performance is acceptable,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Patients across north Wales have waited far too long for safe, timely and dependable healthcare, while dedicated front-line staff have been repeatedly let down by failures of leadership and governance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He added that Williams was &#8220;right to test the minister&#8217;s claim that every option remained open&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Devolution must never become an excuse for being insular&#8221;, he said, adding &#8220;the very best clinical, operational and turnaround expertise&#8221; should be brought in from across the UK.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Patients will not care where that expertise comes from \u2013 they care whether it saves lives and improves treatment,&#8221; Mason said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He called for ap Gwynfor to &#8220;publish the membership and terms of reference of his expert panel&#8221;, set clear monthly performance targets and outline the actions to be taken if those targets are not met.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The MS added: &#8220;Patients need a successful turnaround, not a constitutional bidding war. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Bring in the best expertise from across the United Kingdom, keep accountability firmly with the Welsh government, and judge the minister on delivery.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Addressing the Senedd before the summer recess, Williams, for the Fflint Wrecsam constituency, said: &#8220;You mentioned that all&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-735363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}