Betsi Cadwaladr: Claim minister's actions amounted to bullying denied

Eluned Morgan asked independent members to resign in February

The Welsh government has denied its health minister's actions were tantamount to bullying when she forced independent members of Betsi Cadwaladr health board to resign.

Last month Richard Micklewright accused Eluned Morgan of treating them as "expendables to be used".

He and other health board members were effectively sacked in February.

The denial came after Ms Morgan told a press conference she was "not sure" her actions sounded "like bullying".

Independent members of the board were forced to resign after a damning Audit Wales report was published about problems in the leadership at Betsi.

It triggered criticism that the wrong people - independent board members who oversee the NHS organisation rather than executives responsible for its day to day running - had been targeted.

The latter team had been described as dysfunctional by Audit Wales.

Speaking to Wales Live last month, Mr Micklewright said it was "tantamount to bullying" and had come out of the blue.

"There'd been no communication from her or her officials to indicate there was dissatisfaction in what we were doing," he said.

"It was an extremely difficult, traumatic experience."

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At a press conference on Tuesday, Ms Morgan said: "I would say that the definition of bullying has changed quite a lot.

"I'd never met him as a member of the board before, and to read out a legally approved statement to somebody that I've never met before, I'm not sure how that would [be] tantamount to sound like bullying.

"We took the action that we did. We are in the process of making sure that we can turn around the Betsi Cadwaladr health board."

At the time of the resignations, Ms Morgan said the Audit Wales report had made clear "it was not possible... that the independent members could work well with the executives in future to correct the situation".

After the press conference, the Welsh government said the minister had denied that her actions were tantamount to bullying.

Ms Morgan put Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board into special measures at the same time as she forced the board members to resign.

The health minister told her press conference that the process of turning around the health board would take some time.

"We've got to be clear this is not going to be a short term fix. This is going to take a while.

"We need to make sure that the people that work for the health board understand the changes that need to be made.

"We do need to think about a new culture in the health board. We need to make sure performance measures are improved."

In recent weeks findings have been leaked to the media of a highly critical report by accountants EY.

The report said officials at the board put deliberately wrong entries into the board's accounts.

The investigation said Betsi Cadwaladr wrongly accounted for millions of pounds.