News

Former NHS manager moving to England due to health care concerns

Published

6 years ago

October 22, 2018

Siobhan McClelland: Moving to England

A FORMER senior NHS manager intends to move to England following failures in her husband’s treatment for prostate cancer.

Professor Siobhan McClelland, who lives in Manorbier and is a former Vice Chair of Aneurin Bevan Health Board, said: ‘There is neither capacity nor capability in Welsh Government to be making really good health policy.”

When it comes to health policy, Professor McClelland knows the subject well. She formerly held senior positions as a health economist and health manager. Her experiences of working within the Welsh NHS is substantial.

Apart from her experience on the Aneurin Bevan health board, she chaired the Welsh NHS’s emergency ambulance services committee.

Hywel Dda UHB acknowledges ‘shortcomings’ in Professor McClelland’s husband’s treatment.

Speaking to BBC Wales’ Wales Live programme broadcast on Wednesday (Oct 17) Prof McClelland outlined the successive difficulties in getting GP appointments, referrals for diagnosis, and the failure to spot the spread of her husband’s cancer.

She blamed those failings for making an already difficult situation worse.

Siobhan McClelland continued by observing there was ‘a massive disconnect’ between the experience of being a member of a Health Board or – as in her own experience – being Chair of the Emergency Ambulance Committee and the state of services being delivered to the public.

Prof McClelland told the BBC that she and her husband had lost confidence in the healthcare available and that was one of the reasons they placed their house on the market and were looking to move away from the area.

“We’ve got a fundamental problem here with health boards – not in terms of geographical boundary – but in the autonomous way in which they act.”

Professor McClelland’s most telling criticisms were of the way in which Health Boards lacked leadership from the Welsh Government and local accountability.

She told BBC Wales: “We have a void in Welsh Government where robust, rigorous, innovative health policy should be made.”

Her scorn for the Welsh Government’s ‘nothing to do with me, guv’ approach led straight to the door of current Health Secretary Vaughan Gething and his predecessor Mark Drakeford. Both Mr Gething and Prof Drakeford are candidates to lead the Labour Party in Wales and to succeed Carwyn Jones as First Minister.

Claiming that the current organisational setup was convenient for the Welsh Government as it ‘abdicated responsibility for health board services’, Siobhan McClelland said that both Mark Drakeford and Vaughan Gething ‘struggled to implement policy’.

In the Senedd, however, Vaughan Gething rejected Prof McClelland’s criticism out of hand.

Faced with Rhun ap Iorwerth’s assertion that the words of someone as respected as Professor McClelland were ‘about as damning an indictment as you could hear of your running of the Welsh health service’, Vaughan Gething said he did not accept the system-wide criticism that she makes of Welsh health services.

Pressed by Mr ap Iorwerth, Mr Gething sought refuge behind a Parliamentary Review and an OECD report which he claimed justified his response.

Plaid’s health spokesperson mordantly observed that ‘Professor McClelland has looked at the NHS in Wales and how it’s run probably more forensically than anybody else’ and repeated her criticism of a lack of central direction and asked whether the recently announced increase to the health and social care budget would simply be lost in Boards’ poor financial management.

Instead of answering his opposite number, Labour’s Health Minister suggested that Mr ap Iorwerth seemed to be suggesting a cut in health budgets and said: “I am content with the fact that we understand there are real challenges, and we’re not complacent about actually managing and meeting those.”

Having rubbished Professor McClelland’s substantive complaints about the Welsh Government’s mismanagement of the health service and repeating the line that they operated accountably, the Cabinet Secretary lauded the model for the delivery of social care that had been agreed with third sector bodies, local government and health boards.

Bearing in mind the content of most recent local government discussions on that vexed subject, the casual observer might wonder to which local authorities the Welsh Government had been speaking.

Equally, in highlighting the extent of central control and monitoring and by the way he addressed some of Rhun ap Iorwerth’s points, Vaughan Gething appears to have laid the way for future difficulties in claiming the planned cuts to health services by Hywel Dda UHB are nothing to do with him or the Government he wants to lead.

By claiming to have his hands on the levers of healthcare’s delivery, Mr Gething can hardly now claim they are clean when it comes to decisions about the future of West Wales’ health services.

News

Welsh Lib Dems urge First Minister to return dodgy donation

Published

1 hour ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THIS week in the Senedd, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have urged the First Minister to return the £200,000 donation he received from a company linked to environmental crimes.

Speaking to the Senedd on Wednesday, party leader Jane Dodds MS urged FM Vaughan Gething to return money donated to his campaign by Dauson Environmental, a refuse and recycling business owned by David John Neal.

Mr Neal received a 3-month suspended prison sentence in 2013 for illegally dumping waste at a conservation site on the Gwent levels.

His companies Atlantic Recycling and Neal Soil Suppliers were also prosecuted and given fines and costs of £202,000.

Then in 2017, Mr Neal was given another suspended sentence of 18 weeks, with fines and costs of £230,000 after failing to remove the waste.

The Welsh Lib Dems have called on the FM to return the donation, as part of wider calls for a shift away from the influence of “big money” in Welsh politics.

Commenting, the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds MS said:

“This entire episode has casted a dark shadow upon Welsh democracy and has rightfully led to many questioning the integrity of Vaughan Gething’s leadership campaign and the way our democracy works here in Wales.

Unfortunately for many of us this is hardly surprising, as our political system has been broken for quite some time now.

A system that empowers the elite donor class whilst simultaneously shutting out the voice of the voter is a perversion of democracy itself.

This is why our wider goal must be to remove the influence of ‘big money’ from Welsh politics once and for all.

We cannot have another government that prioritises the interests of its financial benefactors over those of the Welsh people.

We need to take a firm stance in rooting out the influence of cash in Welsh politics, for the sake of our communities we must start prioritising their interests and needs instead of having more self-serving politicians.”

News

Council seeking legal advice to address Withyhedge enforcement

Published

2 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

PEMBROKESHIRE County Council says it has sought legal advice and is contemplating legal proceedings against Withyhedge Landfill operators RML, in regards to the ongoing odour issues at the site.

The Council intends to ask the Court for an injunction requiring RML to abate the public nuisance odour arising from the landfill. Failure to comply with the injunction would be contempt of court, which carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment and unlimited fine.

Following significant work undertaken by RML the Authority is disappointed that the problem has not been resolved and residents continue to be impacted by the odour.

Working in collaboration with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Public Health Wales (PHW), we fully appreciate that the communities affected cannot tolerate this any longer.

NRW announced that the first set of deadlines for the completion of actions to tackle the ongoing odour issues at Withyhedge Landfill have been met, one week on following the issuing of further enforcement action on 18th April.

This will be closely monitored by NRW to ensure the operator complies with all the actions set out in Notice by 14 May.

It was deemed appropriate to wait until the operator had carried out mitigation to comply with the enforcement requirements by NRW prior to considering this additional action.

To that end, on 26th April 2024, the Council served RML with a letter of claim and invited them to give legally binding undertakings to abate the odour nuisance or face legal proceedings. The Council also asked for disclosure of documents relevant to the proceedings, including records of waste brought in or removed from the landfill.

The Council has given RML until 14th May 2024 to respond to its letter of claim. This aligns with the current deadline set by NRW under its enforcement notice.

Pembrokeshire County Council Chief Executive Will Bramble welcomed the move. He said: “We are extremely disappointed that RML has not delivered the necessary action to stop the completely unacceptable smells from the site.

“We fully support the additional enforcement action being taken by NRW and continue to work closely with them to do all in our power to correct the situation.

“Our intention to ask the Court for an injunction requiring RML to stop the odour nuisance arising from the landfill, is another part of our collaborative approach. The smell from Withyhedge is having a major impact on residents and visitors. This situation has gone on too long and it is unacceptable.”

News

Beautiful, funny and lovely: Family pay tribute to Sian Batchelor

Published

4 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THE family of a woman has paid tribute to a “beautiful, funny, lovely person.”

Sian Batchelor, aged 32, was found on a beach near Pennar, Pembroke Dock on Tuesday evening, April 30^th, 2024.

Her family has issued a statement to say: ‘We are devastated by our loss. Sian was a beautiful, funny, loving person. We will treasure the good times we had with her.

“We would now like time to grieve and would ask to be given privacy in which to do so.”

The circumstances surrounding Sian’s death are being investigated and police would like to hear from anyone with information, sightings of Sian or contact from Sian, between Thursday April 25 to Tuesday April 30.

Police can be contacted either online at: https://bit.ly/DPPContactOnline, by emailing [email protected], or by calling 101. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired text the non-emergency number on 07811 311 908.

Quote reference: DP-20240430-284