Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for North Wales, Darren Millar MS, has called for “an urgent and rapid plan of action” from the Welsh Government, following damning reports into the deaths of two patients in the care of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in 2021.

The reports published today, amongst more than 450 committee pages, highlight further failings in mental health services in North Wales.

The latest revelations come after the findings of the 2013 Holden Report on the Hergest Unit were finally made public in November last year after nearly eight years.

Commenting Darren Millar MS, Shadow Minister for North Wales said:

“These reports make for extremely distressing reading and my heart goes out to the loved ones of those who died as a result of yet more failings in the NHS in North Wales. 

"It is extraordinary that such events have occurred at a time when mental health services at the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board had been in Welsh Government special measures for years and clearly demonstrates that Ministers in distant Cardiff based offices are completely incapable of delivering the changes that patients deserve.

"We need an urgent and rapid plan of action from the Welsh Government to hold those responsible for these failings to account and to resolve the problems in mental health care in the region once and for all."

He added:

"The fact that these reports have been buried amongst 450 pages of papers for a meeting of Betsi board members with an already packed agenda is an insult to those affected by these tragedies. 

"Such serious failings deserve sufficient time to be given focused consideration by those at the top."