A troubled health board in Wales is struggling to find a new chief executive. According to BBC Wales, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in north Wales has failed to find a new boss so far, despite management saying they have carried out an "intensive search" for one and offering a salary of up to £225,000.
In February, the health board had been put back into special measures by the Welsh Government after being taken out of them just before the 2021 election. Recently, a damning report into Wales’ largest health board, which covers the county of Anglesey, Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham, has found that senior members of the finance team deliberately misrepresented the organisation's accounts.
The report, carried out by accountancy firm Ernst Young (EY), found there was systemic cultural failings in the finance team at Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board and that the poor practices were widely known within senior leaders of the health board. You can read more about this report here.
Read more: 'No short-term fix' for Wales' most troubled health board
The report outlined several issues, including paying suppliers before they had received goods, but the thrust of the report was that senior management were deliberately misallocating spending to a single financial year when, in fact, it was spread over many years. You can get more health news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
When asked when the people of north Wales could expect a health board that is up to scratch in an interview with WalesOnline, the Welsh Government Health Minister, Eluned Morgan MS, said that it was "not going to be a short term fix".
She added: "This is going to take a while, we need to make sure that the people who 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 that performance measures are improved.
"So our team here in Welsh Government are trying to hold the hands of the people who are responsible for delivering for the people of North Wales - that is the health board themselves. We do not directly, as a Welsh Government, provide health services. It is the health boards that deliver those services. So we've now put in new independent members to change the way that the the top of the organization works."
The former chief executive of the health board was Jo Whitehead, who retired from the position in autumn 2022. In May of this year, the current interim chief executive, Carol Shillabeer, was appointed and is now on secondment from the Powys Teaching Health Board. Betsi Cadwaladr says that the interim chief executive will stay in post while further search is made for a suitable candidate.
In an interview with the BBC, the health board chairman Dyfed Edwards said: "Our campaign to recruit a new chief executive did not result in us making an appointment and a further intensive search will recommence in the coming months.
"This is a critically important job and it is vital that we appoint the right person to build the positive culture that will help to guide the organisation into a brighter future." He added: "In the intervening period, I'm pleased that Carol Shillabeer will continue in the role of interim chief executive.
"Carol has extensive experience in chief executive and clinical leadership roles in NHS Wales and she is working hard with colleagues across the health board to ensure that we achieve a period of stability, while making progress in addressing some of our key challenges."
Commenting on the struggles of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to find a new chief executive, Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for North Wales, Darren Millar MS said: "Given the health board's reputation, it is not surprising that recruiting a new chief executive is proving to be a challenge.
"Not only will anyone taking the helm have a significant task in turning around the performance of the NHS in North Wales, but they will also be saddled with having to work with a dysfunctional executive team, most of whom should have been sacked a long time ago.
"The best way to attract a new chief executive is to clear out the current executive team so that an incoming CEO can appoint a team with the integrity and culture that people should rightly expect of senior managers working in our NHS."
Plaid Cymru's Rhun ap Iorwerth, who has heavily criticised the Welsh Government's handling of the troubled health board also responded to its failure to find a new chief executive. He said: "The failure to recruit a new chief executive shows how bad the situation is at Betsi Cadwaladr.
"Plaid Cymru has been consistent in our calls that this is a health board that is too big and too unwieldy to adequately serve the people in the north of Wales. After a seemingly never-ending series of damning reports, that repeatedly flag up issues with leadership, re-organisation must now be looked at seriously.
"Welsh Government has refused calls to look again at a new model for health services in the north, but perhaps now that it's clear Plan A isn't working, they will admit that there needs to be a Plan B."
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