Betsi Cadwaladr: Health board boss set to retire for personal reasons

The chief executive of an under fire health board has announced she is retiring from the NHS after less than two years in post.

Jo Whitehead will leave Betsi Cadwaladr, responsible for health care in north Wales, at the end of December.

In a statement, Ms Whitehead said she was bringing forward her retirement plans due to family circumstances.

The decision had been "extremely difficult", she added, and one she had "not taken lightly".

"The last few months have brought some serious health challenges for my father in law, with consequences for my husband who has had to bring forward his own retirement plans and go to Germany to be with his father," she said.

"This has caused us to consider how we want to spend our time and has led me to conclude that it is time for me to retire from my chief executive role."

Ms Whitehead was appointed chief executive of the health board in January 2021 and joined from Mackay Hospital and Health Service in Queensland, Australia. She was born and grew up in north Wales.

Betsi Cadwaladr health board was in special measures, under direct Welsh government control, from the summer of 2015 until November 2020.

Further failings have since been identified and it has narrowly avoided being put back into special measures since then.

The health board's hospitals include Glan Clwyd Hospital in Denbighshire, Wrexham Maelor Hospital and Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor.

In June, Health Minister Eluned Morgan announced Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, in particular its vascular services and emergency care, had been put into "targeted intervention".

This is the second highest level of oversight by the Welsh government.