NHS staff 'work in a virtual war zone', says ex-consultant

He accuses health board of lacking experience

- By RICHARD EVANS

"HARASSED" frontline NHS staff in North Wales are working in a "virtual war zone" led by a board with not enough "medical expertise." That is the claim made by a retired consultant heading a Facebook campaign for more community hospital beds.

Jonathan Osborne FRCS, a former ear, nose and throat surgeon at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, fears the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) doesn't have the experience to turn the situation around.

Mr Osborne, who recently criticised A&E waiting times in Bangor, Bodelwyddan and Wrexham, said: "Betsi's board now has no one with any experience of general practice, nor anyone with public health expertise and only one hospital doctor with significant other responsibilities, not least the new medical school in Bangor."

He added: "This just isn't enough to provide a health board in such dire circumstances the clinical expertise it so desperately needs. The management team appears to be totally divorced from what is happening in the engine room.