CHANGES are being made to vascular services in north Wales following a damning review by the Royal College of Surgeons.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has announced that Susan Aitkenhead has been appointed as the independent chair of the board’s Vascular Quality Panel.

The panel has been set up in response to the findings contained in a review of its Vascular service, which was conducted by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS).

The report reviewed 44 sets of case notes and found deficiencies in care, record keeping, consent-taking and follow-up in a number of the cases examined.

Minister for Health and Social Services Eluned Morgan said she was “concerned” about the report’s findings.

In all, there were nine recommendations – five of them urgent and in response, Betsi Cadwaladr board chair Mark Polin said it was time to accelerate the rate of improvement within the service and appointed Ms Aitkenhead as independent chair of the Vascular Quality Panel.

Susan Aitkenhead has extensive clinical, operational, governance and strategic experience in delivering healthcare across a variety of settings and sectors.

She has held previous executive roles at board level both within the UK and overseas and taken a variety of national policy roles.

Ms Aitkenhead has worked at the Department of Health, providing advice and support to ministers and officials across central government departments, at NHS England and NHS Improvement, where she was Deputy chief nursing officer – and in professional regulation at the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Mr Polin said: “It is vitally important the North Wales public has confidence in our vascular services. In setting up this independently chaired panel to oversee the work we are doing, I intend to give those who use the service and our wider public that confidence.

“Everyone within the health board is committed to providing excellent care. In making such a high calibre appointment as Susan Aitkenhead, to oversee and quality check the work we are doing within vascular services, I believe our public can be assured we are serious about that commitment.

“We never forget we are here to serve the public of North Wales and I’m committed to seeing our health board provides them an excellent vascular service.”