English: My recent call for a Senedd debate in Welsh Government time on the Holden report published last month, documenting failings on the Hergest mental health unit in Bangor, was rejected. We have therefore brought forward this opposition debate on a matter that has long-standing Welsh Government involvement. In 2012, the deputy coroner wrote to the health board outlining her concern after a woman died in the Hergest unit. After Professor David Healy from the department of psychiatry in the Hergest unit raised concerns over developments in the provision of mental health services in north Wales, Lesley Griffiths, then health Minister, replied to Darren Millar in 2012, stating that an independent review would commence shortly. After I raised the same concerns with the health board's then chief executive, she replied to me in 2012 that she had initiated an investigation. But, the board was not put into special measures until June 2015, after an external investigation revealed that patients had suffered institutional abuse in Glan Clwyd Hospital's Ablett acute mental health unit. The health board stated that it was alerted to serious concerns regarding patient care on the Tawel Fan ward in the Ablett unit in December 2013, but concerns about this ward went back a lot further. For example, in 2009, I raised with the Welsh Government and health board the concerns of a constituent who said that the treatment received by her husband in the Ablett unit nearly killed him, that three other patients admitted around the same time as her husband had similar experiences, and that she was now worried about the treatment others may receive in this unit. Ahead of the Holden report's publication, I was one of five Members to receive correspondence from a retired NHS executive after he had seen the report and appendix. He stated that, up until then, the health board had protested that the main text of the Holden report and its appendix, completed in December 2013 and containing extracts from the damning statements of 40 whistleblowers, must remain hidden from public view in order to safeguard the confidentiality of the whistleblowers, and that the decision to withhold evidence of neglect on such spurious grounds was deliberate and wilful. The health board, he said, had finally given up this pretence by now accepting the information commissioner's ruling, first made over 16 months ago, that the report should be published in full. It is now crystal clear that the main body of evidence provided by the whistleblowers - all of them key members of staff on the Hergest unit - was deliberately kept hidden from view. This was done not to protect the identity of the whistleblowers but to conceal the acts and omissions of their senior managers that were causing staff to be bullied and patients to be neglected. The health board, he said, made a brief summary of the report available to the Public Accounts Committee in November 2015, but publication of the full report now reveals just how much detail was concealed from the Public Accounts Committee at the time. As he asked, how, then, was it possible that in 2014, the most senior of these managers was allowed to make reports to the health board and its quality committee that concealed his own part in the Holden process, and has the health board now satisfied itself that the senior officials responsible for this mess and for keeping it under wraps for so long have now all been removed from any responsibility for the care of vulnerable mental health patients?
Welsh: Gwrthodwyd fy ngalwad ddiweddar am ddadl yn y Senedd yn amser Llywodraeth Cymru ar adroddiad Holden a gyhoeddwyd y mis diwethaf, ac a ddogfennai fethiannau yn uned iechyd meddwl Hergest ym Mangor. Felly, rydym wedi cyflwyno'r ddadl hon gan y gwrthbleidiau ar fater y mae Llywodraeth Cymru wedi bod ynghlwm wrtho ers tro byd. Yn 2012, ysgrifennodd y dirprwy grwner at y bwrdd iechyd yn amlinellu ei phryder wedi i ddynes farw yn uned Hergest. Ar ôl i'r Athro David Healy o adran seiciatreg uned Hergest fynegi pryderon ynglŷn â datblygiadau yn y ddarpariaeth o wasanaethau iechyd meddwl yng ngogledd Cymru, rhoddodd Lesley Griffiths, y Gweinidog iechyd ar y pryd, ateb i Darren Millar yn 2012 yn datgan y byddai adolygiad annibynnol yn dechrau cyn bo hir. Ar ôl i mi godi'r un pryderon gyda phrif weithredwr y bwrdd iechyd ar y pryd, cefais ateb ganddi yn 2012 ei bod wedi cychwyn ymchwiliad. Ond ni chafodd y bwrdd ei roi mewn mesurau arbennig tan fis Mehefin 2015, wedi i ymchwiliad allanol ddatgelu bod cleifion wedi dioddef camdriniaeth sefydliadol yn uned Ablett, uned iechyd meddwl acíwt Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. Dywedodd y bwrdd iechyd ei fod wedi cael gwybod am bryderon difrifol ynglŷn â gofal cleifion ar ward Tawel Fan yn uned Ablett ym mis Rhagfyr 2013, ond roedd y pryderon am y ward hon yn mynd yn ôl lawer ymhellach. Er enghraifft, yn 2009, tynnais sylw Llywodraeth Cymru a'r bwrdd iechyd at bryderon gan etholwr a ddywedodd fod y driniaeth a gafodd ei gŵr yn uned Ablett bron â bod wedi'i ladd, fod tri chlaf arall a gafodd eu derbyn tua'r un adeg â'i gŵr wedi cael profiadau tebyg, a'i bod bellach yn poeni am y driniaeth y gallai eraill ei chael yn yr uned hon. Cyn cyhoeddi adroddiad Holden, roeddwn yn un o bum Aelod i dderbyn gohebiaeth gan swyddog gweithredol GIG wedi ymddeol ar ôl iddo weld yr adroddiad a'r atodiad. Dywedodd fod y bwrdd iechyd, hyd hynny, wedi protestio bod yn rhaid i brif destun adroddiad Holden a'i atodiad, a gwblhawyd ym mis Rhagfyr 2013 ac a oedd yn cynnwys darnau o ddatganiadau damniol 40 o chwythwyr chwiban, barhau ynghudd o olwg y cyhoedd er mwyn diogelu cyfrinachedd y chwythwyr chwiban, a bod y penderfyniad i atal tystiolaeth o esgeulustod ar sail mor annilys yn un bwriadol. Roedd y bwrdd iechyd, meddai, wedi rhoi'r gorau i'r esgus hwn o'r diwedd drwy dderbyn dyfarniad y comisiynydd gwybodaeth, a wnaed yn gyntaf dros 16 mis yn ôl, y dylid cyhoeddi'r adroddiad yn llawn. Mae'n gwbl glir bellach fod y prif gorff o dystiolaeth a ddarparwyd gan y chwythwyr chwiban - pob un ohonynt yn aelodau allweddol o staff yn uned Hergest - wedi'i gadw ynghudd yn fwriadol. Nid i ddiogelu chyfrinachedd y chwythwyr chwiban y gwnaed hyn ond yn hytrach i guddio gweithredoedd ac esgeulustod eu huwch reolwyr a oedd yn achosi i staff gael eu bwlio a chleifion i gael eu hesgeuluso. Gwnaeth y bwrdd iechyd grynodeb byr, meddai, o'r adroddiad i'r Pwyllgor Cyfrifon Cyhoeddus ym mis Tachwedd 2015, ond mae cyhoeddi'r adroddiad yn llawn yn datgelu bellach faint o fanylion a guddiwyd rhag y Pwyllgor Cyfrifon Cyhoeddus ar y pryd. Fel y gofynnodd ef, sut felly roedd hi'n bosibl, yn 2014, fod yr uchaf ei statws o'r rheolwyr hyn wedi cael caniatâd i wneud adroddiadau i'r bwrdd iechyd a'i bwyllgor ansawdd a oedd yn cuddio ei ran ei hun ym mhroses Holden, ac a yw'r bwrdd iechyd bellach yn fodlon fod yr uwch swyddogion a oedd yn gyfrifol am y llanastr hwn ac am ei gadw ynghudd am gymaint o amser bellach i gyd wedi'u symud o unrhyw gyfrifoldeb am ofal cleifion iechyd meddwl sy'n agored i niwed?