Our joint report, published today, provides a progress update against the original 14 recommendations. We have been mindful of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the ability of the Health Board to respond to the recommendations, however, given the fundamental deficiencies identified in 2019 it was important to establish what progress the Health Board has made. We undertook similar evidence gathering activities as in our previous review. The ongoing requirements for social distancing, and the suspension of our onsite audit and inspection work at the time of fieldwork, meant that our work was undertaken remotely.

Through our work, we found that the Health Board has made significant progress against many of the recommendations despite the challenges it has faced in responding to the pandemic.

We found that the Health Board has made progress at a strategic and operational level to ensure a greater focus on quality, patient safety and risk. Arrangements for organisational scrutiny of quality and patient safety have also improved.

The management of incidents, concerns and complaints has been improved and positive steps have been taken by the Health Board to improve organisational culture and learning.

It is clear that the challenge of responding to the pandemic has impeded progress on improvements in some areas, meaning some actions haven’t progressed as quickly as originally intended. This means that there is still work to do in each of the areas where we made recommendations in 2019.

More detail about the progress made against individual recommendations is set out in our joint report.

Notes to Editors

• The Auditor General is the independent statutory external auditor of the devolved Welsh public sector. He is responsible for the annual audit of the majority of the public money spent in Wales, including the £21 billion of funds that are voted on annually by the Welsh Parliament. Elements of this funding are passed from the Welsh Government to the NHS in Wales (over £8 billion) and to local government (over £4 billion).
• The audit independence of the Auditor General is of paramount importance. He is appointed by the Queen, and his audit work is not subject to direction or control by the Welsh Parliament or government.
• The Wales Audit Office (WAO) is a corporate body consisting of a nine-member statutory Board which employs staff and provides other resources to the Auditor General, who is also the Board’s Chief Executive and Accounting Officer. The Board monitors and advises the Auditor General, regarding the exercise of his functions.
• Audit Wales is the umbrella name for the Auditor General for Wales and the Wales Audit Office. Audit Wales is a registered trademark, but it is not a legal entity in itself.
• Healthcare Inspectorate Wales is the independent inspectorate and regulator of healthcare in Wales. We inspect NHS services, and regulate independent healthcare providers against a range of standards, policies, guidance and regulations to highlight areas requiring improvement.
• The full review report will be available on the HIW and Audit Wales websites: https://hiw.org.uk/ [opens in new window] / https://www.audit.wales/
• A Welsh language version will be available on both websites.
• The COVID-19 pandemic meant that the fieldwork for this review was undertaken remotely, given the ongoing requirements for social distancing and the suspension of onsite audit and inspection work.