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Glan Clwyd Hospital: Healthcare Inspectorate Wales 'needs reform' Glan Clwyd Hospital: Crabb call to 'show some leadership'
(about 5 hours later)
The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats has said scrapping Wales' health watchdog should be considered. Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb has called on Health Minister Mark Drakeford to "show some leadership" after an "appalling" report on mental health care at Glan Clwyd Hospital.
Kirsty Williams said a damning report into Glan Clwyd Hospital's Tawel Fan unit in Denbighshire was a "scandal". He told BBC Radio Wales it was "about the worst case of abuse and negligence I've ever come across in Wales".
She said Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) had failed as the "final backstop and assurance mechanism" to ensure care was "first class". There was a "huge accountability gap" and "absence of responsibilities".
HIW said it provided a "robust" service, and the Welsh government said it was "largely fit for purpose". The Welsh government has defended its health inspection regime as being "largely fit for purpose".
But families who took part in a review of care at the unit in Bodelwyddan described patients being treated like animals in a zoo. Families who took part in a review of care at the Tawel Fan unit in Bodelwyddan described patients being treated like animals in a zoo.
'Warning signs' 'Culture change'
Ms Williams, a member of the assembly's Health and Social Care Committee, told BBC's Good Morning Wales: "All the mechanisms internally within the trust, and then externally, failed to provide the warning signs and the action that the patients, and the families of those patients, needed in this particular case. Mr Crabb told the Jason Mohammad programme that "very troubling questions" needed to be asked about management failings at the Betsi Cadwaladr health board, which runs NHS services in north Wales.
He also said the "buck stopped" with the Welsh Labour government.
"There are people in Wales who can get this right and should be getting this right," he said.
Mr Crabb added, the NHS in England had learnt from the mistakes identified in the Stafford Hospital scandal and that the "same sort of culture change" should happen in Wales.
Earlier, Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams said the damning report showed that Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) had failed as the "final backstop" to ensure care was "first class".
A member of the assembly's Health and Social Care Committee, she told BBC's Good Morning Wales: "All the mechanisms internally within the trust, and then externally, failed to provide the warning signs and the action that the patients, and the families of those patients, needed in this particular case.
"And we really now have to consider whether Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, in its current form, is fit for purpose and can provide that reassurance that we need.""And we really now have to consider whether Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, in its current form, is fit for purpose and can provide that reassurance that we need."
Ms Williams said options for a new regulatory inspection regime should be looked at and should be independent of the Welsh government. Dr Kate Chamberlain, chief executive of HIW, said the body "is committed to providing a robust and effective system".
Reform of the whistle-blowing mechanisms in the NHS was also needed, she said. A Welsh government spokesman said an independent review of HIW by Wales' former older people's commissioner Ruth Marks found "its role and function is largely fit for purpose".
Prof Marcus Longley, director of the Welsh Health and Social Care Institute, told BBC Radio Wales scrapping HIW was "something that needs to be looked at." A Green Paper looking at her recommendation of a single regulator for health and social care would be published this year, the spokesman added.
He said the situation in England was "very different" where its regulator has a much higher profile compared with HIW.
"People know about the chief inspector of Hospitals in England - a very senior and respected person. So that profile can be an advantage," he said.
Dr Kate Chamberlain, chief executive of HIW said the body "is committed to providing a robust and effective system".
She said the review "confirmed that significant improvements had been made".
"Her report also posed important questions about whether there was a need to strengthen our independence," Ms Chamberlain said.
A Welsh government spokesman added an independent review of HIW by Wales' former older people's commissioner, Ruth Marks, found "its role and function is largely fit for purpose".
"She made a series of recommendations to make HIW a stronger, more independent inspectorate, including the possibility of having one single regulator for health and social care," a spokesman said.
"The Welsh Government is committed to bringing forward a Green Paper this year to consider these options."