Top NHS official ‘gave misleading information to Senedd committee’

Martin Shipton

A senior NHS Wales official has been accused of giving misleading information to a Senedd committee about the number of radiologists being trained.

Nick Wood, the deputy chief executive of NHS Wales, appeared as a witness before the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee on May 1.

In his evidence, he stated: “We’ve increased the number of radiology trainees in particular to meet future demand – I think somewhere between 90 and 100 trainees will come out in this year.”

In fact, the figures mentioned by Mr Wood corresponded to the total number of trainees on the entire five-year course.

‘Rosy picture’

An NHS source told Nation.Cymru: “The August 2024 exiting group consisted of only seven new radiologists, according to Wales’ National Imaging Academy (NIA) which trains most of them. It was clear at the NIA’s inception that the figure of 100 described the total capacity of the five-year course, yielding a notional yearly intake and graduation of 20.

“Therefore the figure given to the committee for this year’s exiting group was five times greater than the correct one. It might be dismissed as just a sloppy presentation, except that it immediately justified a rosy picture of burgeoning capacity in Wales. It exudes an ongoing triumph of radiology provision by the Welsh Government, blessed with too many graduates to integrate.

“But the precise low number of those graduating in 2024 was the missing piece in front of the committee. The figure’s inaccuracy served to mask the truth at the committee that there is a staggering crisis in radiologist recruitment for Wales.

“The most natural explanation for such a crisis must surely be postgraduate disenchantment with NHS Wales’ cancer management and leadership. The story has squeezed its way out that even the real, planned, modest numbers for new radiologists are not rescuing the Welsh diagnostics drive. This means that the strategy of training, though widely welcomed, is barely making a dent.

“Obviously such a crisis should not be downplayed, especially by the illusory prospect of over 90 more graduates appearing soon. Everyone agrees that rapid imaging and diagnosis form the essential keystone for major improvement in cancer recovery figures. Hence these witness statements to the committee expose not a cause for satisfaction, as intended by Mr Wood, but rather one for alarm.

“The Senedd committee members were subjected, then, to a seriously flawed testimony on the most crucial point of their fact-finding meeting. Also concerning to some is that the National Cancer Clinical Director for Wales, Prof Tom Crosby, sat right besides Mr Wood as he spoke. But the needed correction to an obvious error never came. Nor did it even turn up in the final Senedd transcript checked by all present and made public.”

Audit Wales

The NHS source went on to draw attention to an Audit Wales report on cancer services from January 2025 that presented damning evidence of widespread confusion and perplexity throughout the cancer service regarding roles, responsibilities and accountability. Health boards and other stakeholders were said to feel unclear and insecure over what was expected of them and by whom.

The source said: “The same Senedd committee meeting drew out the following statement of satisfaction from the deputy CEO, regarding recent recommendations from the Ministers’ Advisory Group (MAG): ‘… our focus is on delivery of the existing plans rather than the development of a new strategy. And I think that was borne out by the MAG recommendations … which said very clearly that the Welsh Government – And not just with cancer, but generally, across the board, we don’t need any more plans; what we need to do is deliver the plans that are in hand.’

“However, the recent Audit Wales report on cancer actually did recommend some specified, practical ‘plans’ for remedying the disarray. These were not contrary to the MAG report, but very much in line with it. MAG similarly holds that it is government which must put things in order regarding NHS Wales, including on cancer. True it must scrutinise stakeholders and hold to account, but it also needs to support and lead, working collaboratively so that everyone is on the same page.

“The MAG report, then, like that from Audit Wales, is surely calling on the government to take responsibility for failings and to do things, energetically and efficiently. It precludes the issuing of aspirational policy announcements and then thinking that it is the health boards’ problem now. Even recent government statements have famously been seen as doing this, shifting the blame for poor performance onto health boards.But the two recent, candid reports now disallow this escape hatch.”

Increased

When we put the sources critique to the Welsh Government, we received this response: “In the Public Accounts Committee Nick Wood was referring to the total number of radiology trainees coming out of the programme.

“HEIW (Health Education and Improvement Wales) commissions the postgraduate radiology training programme in Wales, which lasts a minimum of five years, longer for subspecialty training.

“HEIW increased the number of radiology trainees to meet current and future demand, achieving a target of 90-100 trainees from approximately 40 in 2018.

“The development of the Imaging Academy, hosted by Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, provided additional training capacity to support this phased expansion.”

The NHS source further responded: “It is admitted here that the target of 90-100, as we said, is for the total five-year enrolment at any one time. But the Deputy Chief Executive for NHS Wales made 90-100 the number of radiologists about to graduate ‘this year’. This huge disparity in front of the committee gives the figure a wholly misleading, feel-very-good spin which should be addressed.

“Hence the comments, clothed in officialese, completely ignore the problem of remarkable misinformation from a senior witness and its presence on the record. The comments distract the reader from a fact-breach by deploying the very ‘layers of bureaucracy’ condemned by MAG. This only conveys the unfortunate impression that the NHS Executive lacks full transparency in front of a Senedd committee and, more importantly, afterwards.”