Labour's First Minister Carwyn Jones last week announced a surprise Cabinet reshuffle. The move saw only one new name appear on the Welsh Government front bench as Mark Drakeford took over as Health Minister.
It is indeed a poisoned chalice - not only is the Health Service in Wales currently underperforming almost across the board, but there is the thorny question of hospital reorganisations to be tackled. The plans put forward in North Wales which include a transfer of neonatal services to England are particularly troublesome at the moment.
Yet Mr Drakeford appears determined to press on with the reforms. He told BBC Wales that people would live with the changes once there was "certainty".
""I think people now need to know what the end of this is going to be. Not everybody will be happy, I'm sure, with where the final decisions lie, I completely understand that.
"But I want to be able to give them certainty and once there is certainty then I think people will live with that, adapt to that and get on with the job."
It appears then that he is going to take up where his predecessor left off, at least in this instance - something which will anger a lot of people in North Wales. We can only hope that he shows more initiative where staff shortages, ambulance response times, and hospital waiting times are concerned.