The Western Mail reports on the continuing row over the McKinsey report saying that Welsh Liberal Democrats have accused the health minister of trying to underplay its importance.
Edwina Hart referred to the McKinsey document as “some little discussion paper” as she answered questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday, but the Welsh Liberal Democrats said the conclusions of the external management consultancy were more significant and had been used as the basis of a report by NHS Wales chief executive Paul Williams about how the health boards can weather the coming financial storm.
Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Veronica German said the McKinsey document, dated November 2009 and called Ensuring Financial Stability and Developing a Five-Year Strategic Framework, was “heavily influential” in Mr Williams’ June 2010 report called Delivering a Five-Year Service, Workforce and Financial Strategic Framework for the NHS.
Mrs German said: “The McKinsey report is not ‘some little discussion paper’ as the Health Minister states.
“The work carried out by McKinsey is essentially the Health Minister’s plans for the next five years.
“We have two documents which are very similar that relate to the next five years of the NHS in Wales. One was written by McKinsey and the other was essentially rehashed by the Health Minister’s officials to take out the unpleasant parts of the commissioned report.
“If the McKinsey report was full of positive comment about the Health Minister and the NHS in Wales, there is no doubt this report from McKinsey would have been published in full.”
“The work McKinsey provides does not come cheap and to call it ‘some little discussion paper’ shows that either the Health Minister does not have a handle on our NHS and is not taking leadership of our failing health service, or that she deliberately played down its importance.”
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Edwina Hart has lost credibility and worse, misled the Welsh Assembly. She MUST go.
Veronica, dont u understand she’s got an election next year and shes got block any incriminating stuff that may perceive her in a bad light…its called politics