Betsi Cadwaladr: Pressure grows to publish NHS finance report

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board includes Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor

Pressure is growing on north Wales's NHS board after a former cabinet minister said it must be "transparent" over a damning finance report.

EY's investigation said Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board wrongly accounted for millions.

Ken Skates said the organisation should try to publish "all it can as soon as possible".

It comes as Welsh Secretary David TC Davies expressed "serious concern" over the findings by EY.

Mr Davies, the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd and Plaid Cymru, want the findings in the public domain.

A Conservative motion calling for the EY report to be published failed to pass the Welsh Parliament after exactly 24 politicians voted for it and 24 voted against.

The probe said that there had "been systematic cultural failings in the finance team and leadership".

The Welsh government has so far refused to publish the document, saying it is up to the health board which "is awaiting legal advice on whether or not they can release the report".

The investigation, seen by BBC Wales last month, said finance officials at the board deliberately made incorrect entries into the accounts.

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Forensic accountants said the health board recorded transactions in its 2021-22 accounts that related to work which contractors had not yet done, or medical equipment which did not arrive until months afterwards.

A criminal fraud investigation into the matter was dropped earlier this year, although an internal review of what happened is continuing.

Health Minister Eluned Morgan told the Senedd on Wednesday that NHS Counter Fraud "decided there was no evidence that was motivated by personal gain, and announced that it would not be taking any criminal action at that time".

North Wales Police are considering whether to hold their own enquiry.

Ken Skates was economy minister until two years ago.

In a Senedd debate Mr Skates, who was economy minister until two years ago, said the report "had caused enormous interest in north Wales and information emerging from it has undoubtedly further damaged public trust in the organisation".

"The report is owned by the board and the board must rebuild public trust," the Clwyd South MS said.

"To build, you must provide the truth and be transparent.

"The board should not be asking for legal advice over whether to publish the report, but instead seek legal advice over when and in what form it should be published in a form and at a point that will not prejudice any disciplinary action".

Mr Skates told BBC Wales: "The board should certainly give assurance that it will be transparent and publish all it can as soon as possible."

Darren Millar, Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for North Wales, said: "We need to be see this information out there.

"It is scandalous. False accounting; fraud; what appears to amount to misconduct in public office being committed.

"All of these of course could be criminal matters and that is why it's absolutely appropriate that the police are carefully consider whether to take a prosecution forward."

He said the report "goes to the heart of NHS Wales".

Plaid Cymru MS Rhun ap Iorwerth said the report "highlights deep mismanagement".

"It's a report that highlights financial impropriety. It's a report that highlights a lack of transparency.

"It's a report that highlights an inadequate response by Welsh Government and its failure to provide the transparency by giving as efficiently a copy of that report is a part of that."

'Extremely poor accounting practices'

Health Minister Eluned Morgan told the debate the board's chair Dyfed Edwards told her that Betsi Cadwaladr "is seeking legal advice on whether it is able to publish the report and should that advice be to publish the report in full or in part that is what they will do".

"As I said previously, the report makes very sobering reading and sets out some really serious failings in financial control at the health board.

"It did not find any evidence that anyone has personally benefited from these actions, but it did amount to extremely poor accounting practices."

The key individuals named in the report have been suspended, she said.

"It is not for this chamber to act as judge and jury on matters which will directly impact on people's personal and professional lives as well as their well being," she warned the Senedd.

Ms Morgan told the Senedd that audit committee of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board commissioned EY to undertake the review "on advice from the Welsh government".

The debate followed the publication of a letter from the UK government's Welsh Secretary, who said there was "considerable anxiety within communities in north Wales" after the report found that there was "widespread mismanagement of public money within the board".

"Given the drip feed of parts of the report to the media and with widespread concern mounting, I believe it is in all our interests that members of the public are able to read the report in full themselves.

"I would therefore ask you to publish the report in full today," he asked the Welsh government.

David TC Davies said the report found "widespread mismanagement of public money within the board"

The Welsh government said the health board was "taking forward issues raised in the Ernst & Young report in line with its procedures and policies".

"This follows the conclusion of the NHS Counter Fraud Wales investigation connected to the Auditor General's qualified opinion of the health board's 2021-22 financial accounts.

"We do not comment on leaked documents, particularly when, as in this case, internal procedures are still ongoing."

Dyfed Edwards, the board's chairman, said ahead of the debate: "We are seeking legal advice regarding our ability to share this report and wish to do all that is possible to cooperate with interested parties in a spirit of openness.

"In dealing with such sensitive issues, it is important that we strike an appropriate balance between transparency and the duty of care we have to our staff."

'He would like to see it released'

A senior Senedd member told a committee on Wednesday that Mr Edwards wants to release the controversial finance report by EY.

But Conservative MS Mark Isherwood also said that the health board has demanded legal grounds for why it should release the document.

He said he hoped he did not have to use legal powers to obtain the report "as a last resort".

He told the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee, which he chairs, that he had asked for a copy of the report from the board.

"That generated a call with the chair who stated his personal view that he would like to see that released, but they were waiting for legal advice before they could determine what basis that could be released to us."

Since then they have sent correspondence to "specify the legal grounds on which we base our request for that report".

Labour's Member of the Senedd Mike Hedges said the committee needs to clarify whether public bodies can refuse to provide information. He was concerned that the board refusing to provide the document would set a precedent for others.

"It surely is in our remit," he said. "If it is not in our remit, who can we scrutinise?"