The Problem
One organisation controls every digital system the NHS in Wales depends on. In March 2025, the Welsh Government placed it under its highest tier of intervention — across all nine of its biggest projects, at the same time, under the same leadership. This is how it happened.
Digital Health and Care Wales is responsible for every critical digital system the NHS in Wales depends on. In March 2025, the Welsh Government placed it under the highest tier of intervention for "serious concerns about the ability to deliver major programmes" — across all nine of its biggest projects. This section lays out the full case: what DHCW is, how it has failed, and why those failures are not accidents but the predictable result of destructive leadership.
What Is DHCW?
Every GP visit, every prescription, every hospital appointment in Wales depends on one organisation you've probably never heard of. Here's what it does — and why it matters when it fails.
What We Have Found
Hundreds of millions spent, no demonstrable return, whistleblowers silenced, and leaders who cannot explain what went wrong. The evidence comes from their own words, in public, on the record.
The Scale of Failure
Nine major programmes, all under the highest tier of government intervention, all at the same time, all under the same leadership. A programme-by-programme breakdown of what went wrong and what it cost.
Leadership Analysis
This is not bad luck. Six established leadership science frameworks explain every major failure at DHCW — and reveal why the organisation cannot self-correct without external intervention.