Executive at troubled north Wales health board gets new NHS job

A senior official from a troubled and heavily criticised north Wales health board has moved to a new job representing NHS organisations.

Sue Green, former executive director of workforce and planning, is now director of NHS Wales Employers.

She resigned from Betsi Cadwaladr shortly before an audit report said the executive team there was dysfunctional.

A senior Conservative strongly objected to the move. Ms Green has declined to comment.

Darren Millar, of the Welsh Conservatives, questioned how Ms Green could be in a senior Welsh NHS role following the recent findings, and said she had been part of a dysfunctional executive team that "let down patients".

Plaid Cymru's Rhun ap Iorwerth said the news was "strange" and warned against a "revolving door" of people from failing organisations taking jobs elsewhere in the NHS.

NHS Wales Employers represents health boards on workforce issues, including on the relationships with trade unions on pay, terms and conditions.

Ms Green resigned on 19 February shortly before the 23 February publication of the Audit Wales report on leadership at the organisation, and after the health board received a draft of the findings on the third of that month.

The Welsh NHS Confederation, which NHS Wales Employers is part of, said Ms Green got the job after an "open and vigorous recruitment process". Ms Green started her new job this month.

Ms Green is the first executive director to leave the health board since a damning Audit Wales' report alleged clear and deep-seated fractures within the team she was part of were preventing it from working effectively.

The report's wide-ranging findings also touched on workforce issues.

It said recruitment was not timely enough, that the health board had been slow to set up a recruitment process for the chief executive, and senior interim appointments were not fully compliant with health board policy.

It also said succession planning and leadership development was not effective to build skills, and working relationships had broken down between executives and independent board members.

The report, authored by Auditor General Adrian Crompton, did not attribute blame to any named individuals.

However BBC Wales was told that the description of the executive team in the review included Ms Green, who was interviewed as part of the work.

North Wales spokesman for the Welsh Conservatives, Darren Millar, said there was "no way" Ms Green should be in a senior role in the Welsh NHS, and said the appointment was going to raise "lots of eyebrows" in north Wales.

"This is a person who was part of a dysfunctional executive team that let down patients and staff across the North Wales area in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board," he said.

Mr Millar called for a register of NHS leaders, which individuals could be struck off from.

Plaid Cymru has made similar calls. Rhun ap Iorwerth, health spokesman for the party, said: "We can't be in a situation where we have a revolving door of individuals moving from organisations that have struggled... and taking up jobs elsewhere."

He said many will "find it strange" that at a time when questions are being asked of the executive team, that a former member of it "will be employed in a job that is essentially involved in advising all health boards across Wales".

He said the Labour Health Minister, Eluned Morgan, "should be very keen to take a close look at in this particular case".

Eluned Morgan forced independent members of Betsi Cadwaladr to resign after the Audit Wales report was published in February.

She has faced calls to take action against the executive, although she has said she does not have the power to do so.

Approached by BBC Wales, Ms Green said she did not want to comment "at this stage".

Dr Nick Lyons, Acting Deputy Chief Executive at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, said: "Sue Green submitted her resignation to the health board in early February 2023 having secured a new role with NHS Wales Employers. Mrs Green will start her new position in May 2023."

A spokeswoman for the Welsh NHS Confederation, which NHS Wales Employers is part of, said: "After an open and vigorous recruitment process Sue Green was successful in being appointed as the director of NHS Wales Employers, following the retirement of Richard Tompkins."

Neither Welsh NHS Confederation or Betsi Cadwaladr responded to comments from the opposition politicians.

The Welsh government declined to comment.