Last week in the Senedd Llyr Gruffydd called for independent oversight over investigations into mental health scandals, and called for an end to ministers being misled on improvements to mental health care.
Mr Gruffydd said the failure to implement recommendations to tackle problems raised in successive reports were a damning indictment of historic problems at Betsi Cadwaladr health board as well as the failings of oversight by the Welsh Labour Government. A review by the Royal College of Psychiatrists presented to the health board last week confirmed that just 24 out of 66 recommendations had been implemented, with the rest rated as red or amber.
In a question in the Senedd, Llyr Gruffydd said:
“Time and time again, we've had Ministers stand up in this Chamber and tell us that things are being sorted. Report after report, as we've heard, have been commissioned with recommendations made, and we've all been led to believe that things would change.
“Now, this latest damning report to the health board reveals that the majority of recommendations in successive reports into mental health scandals in the North have not been implemented. Have you as a Government therefore been misled - or some would say maybe deceived - by someone? And if you have, that in itself is another scandal to add to a very long list.
“Given all of these failings, is it not now time to try a different tack? Should you not be establishing an independent oversight committee now, made up of Llais, the patients’ voice, affected families, the third sector and others, to work with the health board to make sure that these recommendations are fulfilled, once and for all?”
Speaking later, Llyr Gruffydd added “It’s not good enough for us to have bland platitudes from ministers saying that everything’s in hand when it clearly isn’t. It’s a decade since ministers were being told there was institutional abuse taking place and that was being denied in this chamber. It’s only now that nurses are being struck off for patient abuse but, while overstretched nursing staff are being disciplined there seems to be no equivalent punishment for senior managers.”
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