Campaigners demand independent inquiry into NHS boss’s concerns about financial crime

Martin Shipton

Health campaigners have called for an independent inquiry into the sudden departure of an NHS chief executive who claimed he was being bullied because he was seeking to expose financial crime.

Nation.Cymru revealed that David Donegan, chief executive of Velindre University Health Board in Cardiff, had written to Jeremy Miles, the Cabinet Secretary for Health, in July this year about his concerns.

He stated in the letter: “We are in receipt of legal advice suggesting that individuals may be liable to criminal prosecution for improperly obtaining regulatory licences, contrary to board instruction.

“ … [Our] concerns have however been largely dismissed by the Welsh Government to-date, and we feel that we have been obstructed from investigating them properly. It is important to say that these concerns were brought to my attention by the board and by other CEOs of NHS statutory bodies when I started [in late 2024], and I have evidence of written concerns around governance and legal compliance by Shared Services being raised internally by my predecessor since 2021.

“There is a long-documented history in fact, illustrating a contentious and difficult relationship on a range of matters between Shared Services [an NHS department under the wing of Velindre that deals with administrative matters across the whole of NHS including procurement contracts] and the Trust’s Executive Directors since circa 2020. This is neither a personality clash nor a recent issue.

“I am also writing to you because I am sad to say that I am now fearful for my own position, as a result of having raised these concerns to the current Accountable Officer for the NHS in Welsh Government [the then CEO of NHS Wales Judith Paget], and as a result of her apparently close relationship to senior Shared Services colleagues.

“In light of some recent correspondence, I now feel inhibited in raising concerns on any matter, particularly in meetings where DHSCEY [the Welsh Government department responsible for the NHS] officials are in attendance.”

Concerns

A spokesperson for the Save The Northern Meadows campaign, which has raised numerous concerns about the building of a new near-£1bn Velindre Cancer Centre in the Whitchurch suburb of Cardiff, said: “The sudden and still unexplained departure of the Chief Executive of Velindre Trust, together with ‘numerous and serious’ concerns about NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) which Velindre Trust is responsible for, are leading to questions about the capability of its senior management to effectively lead Velindre Trust.

“David Donegan wrote in his letter of July 8 2025 to the Health Minister regarding NWSSP: ‘Our Board is ultimately responsible for all governance, legal, compliance and employment matters.’ Why then have ‘concerns about governance and legal compliance by Shared Services’ which have been known about by Velindre Trust since 2021 not been dealt with by its senior management? When did the Health Minister first know about these concerns and why did he not intervene sooner?

“Weeks after the abrupt departure of David Donegan, Velindre Trust has yet to issue any statement explaining why its Chief Executive left his post just one year after starting work there. Velindre Trust has failed to answer questions about whether a financial payment was made to the departing Chief Executive, if so how much was the payment, and whether there is a non-disclosure agreement in place.

“Failure to explain and answer fundamental questions about what has gone wrong will be unsettling for Velindre staff, who all work hard to provide a high standard of care for patients at such a critical time in their lives.

“This secrecy by Velindre’s senior management is part of a wider problem of a lack of transparency and accountability. At the Board meetings of Velindre Trust a significant amount of the agenda items are being discussed. discussed behind closed doors in the Private Session of the Board. For example, the Trust Board meeting of 24 July 2025 had an unacceptable 17 agenda items for the Private Session, making these Board discussions and decisions unavailable for public scrutiny. Two of these Private agenda items were reports on Shared Services.

“For the two most recent Velindre Board meetings of 25 September 2025 and 27 November there has not even been a list of the agenda items for the Private Sessions. Furthermore at no time has Velindre Trust ever published summaries of what was discussed in the Private Sessions. This is despite the Audit Wales 2024 Structured Assessment of Velindre Trust indicating that Velindre would be publishing summaries of its Private Board and committee meetings.

“Not only do we have concerns about the significant amount of Velindre Trust decisions that take place in secret, it has also been our experience that senior management does not place a high value on its relationship with the local community. It frequently will not answer questions of public interest which are put to the Trust.

“The recent public consultation that Velindre Trust held on the redevelopment of the Whitchurch Hospital site was widely held to be shambolic. More than 25 local residents came to Whitchurch Library to find that Velindre had not booked a room for the meeting, residents were left standing, unable to hear, with no presentation by Velindre and no handouts.

“One of the main concerns of local people is the potential loss of yet more green space, including a football pitch, cricket ground and bowling green. This is after the huge loss of green space in Whitchurch with Velindre building on the 23 acre Northern Meadows. We find this lack of basic competency and courtesy toward local residents deeply concerning.

“All of these issues raise serious questions about the capabilities of the senior management at Velindre Trust. We are calling for an Independent Inquiry into the events surrounding David Donegan’s departure and the concerns regarding NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership.”

We asked the Velindre Trust to comment on Mr Donegan’s letter to Jeremy Miles.

A spokesperson for the Trust would only say: “It is not the Trust’s practice to discuss details relating to individual employment matters.”