Speaking in the Senedd this week on failing Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Shadow Minister for North Wales and Clwyd West MS Darren Millar again raised the desperate need for a new community hospital to serve North Denbighshire.
The Welsh Government announced back in 2013 that a new hospital would be built at the site of the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Rhyl, but residents are still waiting.
Darren has repeatedly called on Ministers to progress the project, to no avail.
This week in the Senedd, during the Welsh Conservative Debate on Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, he again raised the matter when highlighting the health board’s poor performing emergency departments.
Addressing the Health Minister, he said:
“You've talked also about the challenges that the health board has in many areas...Another one, is in the emergency departments. North Wales has some of the worst-performing emergency departments, particularly at Glan Clwyd and Wrexham Maelor, in the whole of the United Kingdom.
“It's not something we should be proud of; we need to improve them. One of the solutions, 10 years ago, that this Government said it was going to implement in order to improve that situation was the development of a new Minor Injuries Unit and a new Community Hospital in Rhyl. Where are we? We are still waiting.
“If you promise the public a new Minor Injuries Unit, to take pressure off the emergency department down the road, you should deliver. You should put your money where your mouth is and get on and deliver these things. We haven't seen that for 10 years.”
Darren also challenged the Health Minister over the capital investment in health care in North Wales.
He said:
“North Wales hasn't been getting its fair share of capital investment either, has it, Minister, not compared to other health boards across the country? We've been left far behind. Part of that is because nearly every plan that the executive team tried to bring forward, to improve the situation and improve performance, was swatted back under the previous escalation arrangements.
“So, that's why I do agree that there needs to be more freedom to innovate amongst the executive team and the health board, to address the challenges that they face, because it's local solutions that will deliver the improvements that we need to see.”
The previous day, responding to the Health Minister’s Statement ‘Special Measures at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board - One year on’, Darren asked why Abergele Hospital is not being utilised to tackle orthopaedic waits.
He said:
“You made reference to Llandudno. I'm very pleased to see that Llandudno is going to be getting an orthopaedic hub. Most of that activity at the moment is being undertaken in Abergele, at Abergele Hospital, which you said that you visited some time ago and were shocked to find that not all of the beds were occupied.
“I too was shocked just a few weeks ago, when I visited, and just one bed was occupied in that hospital. And my staff were shocked as well, this weekend, when they went to visit a member of their family and just two beds were occupied in that whole hospital. That does not seem as though you're sweating the assets to get rid of those overly long orthopaedic waits in the way that we need to. So, I do not accept your complacency on that front.”
In his response Darren thanked the health board’s hardworking staff, but said “I won't be thanking every employee of the health board, because we know that, unfortunately, some of those employees are still failing people in north Wales. Some of them are former executives that are still in the NHS and ought not to be.”
