Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Now, I'm determined to ensure that we make all possible efforts across my portfolio to tackle health inequalities. That's why I've been clear with officials that we must redouble our efforts across health and social services, and across health services in Wales, to ensure that tackling health inequalities is an integral part of the post-COVID-19 recovery. Now, as we consider how broad the...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Jenny, and you are absolutely right: I think that midwives are very key, and health visitors are key, particularly in those early years. I think that we have got to take every opportunity to make every contact count, to make sure—. We know that we are managing to vaccinate children—about 90 to 95 per cent of children come for vaccination—but what an opportunity to talk...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Of course.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I'd like to begin my contribution by thanking Plaid Cymru for bringing forward this really important topic for debate today. Since my appointment, I have been absolutely clear that reducing health inequalities is one of my key priorities as a Minister. The links between where you live, your socioeconomic status, your life expectancy and how many years you can expect...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Formally.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I do hope that if people did feel able to support these measures today, they would then have the opportunity to really look at the detail of what we've set out in that guidance. Thank you for that intervention, Huw. Certainly, what we've found is that we did have guidance in place, but as the threat of omicron became clearer, it was clear that we needed to strengthen the protections, because...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Sure. Yes.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Rhun, I can give you that commitment, because we're hoping that we're getting to the peak and people, we hope, will be going back to work at some point very soon. So, if we're going to make any changes, then it makes sense to understand that we would have to make them very quickly in order for them to make any sense at all. So, I can give you that commitment. I think what is important—and...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I'd be happy to do so.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. Thank you for that interesting debate. It's really important that we focus on the detail of some of the points that Members have set out today. On the issue of outdoor sports, I just want to make it clear that we have heard very clearly the views of people in relation to outdoor sports, and I'm sure you heard me earlier on today suggest that we will, obviously, try and...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Members will be aware that Wales moved to alert level 2 on Boxing Day. These changes were made through the No. 25 regulations before us today. These include a general requirement for businesses to put measures in place to ensure social distancing of 2m in all regulated premises, including workplaces where that is reasonable. There is a rule of six for gatherings in pubs and restaurants and...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Llywydd, I move the motions before us. As the First Minister set out last week, omicron is now the dominant form of the virus in Wales and cases have been rising sharply. Cases are far higher now than they were at the peak of the previous waves. Omicron is already putting significant pressure on the NHS at the busiest time of year, not just from rising hospital admissions, but through staff...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Laura, and certainly, what we do know is that face covering in classrooms is not something we ideally want to see. We know that it's uncomfortable, we know that the children's commissioner, for example, is very unhappy about the need to do that, but also recognised that there are some exceptional circumstances, and that actually now was an exceptional circumstance. The rates...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Alun. Obviously, we do have a kind of route-map out of this in the sense that we already have the levels that are in place, so there's no reason why we couldn't just move down the levels pretty quickly. We don't even need to move to level 1; maybe that we could move directly to level zero, or it may be that we would like to go even faster, and it may be that we would want to...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, Heledd. You are correct: heroic work has been done by all kinds of people over the past few weeks—in terms of carers, those who work for health services, and particularly those unpaid carers who work on all of our behalf. The fact is, if they weren't there, we as a Government would have to step into the breach, or local government would have to do that work for them....
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Mark. I'll take up your point about the facilities for deaf people. I want to make sure that those are addressed, so I'll certainly take that away and see if our officials are able to give some clearer advice on that. In relation to the lateral flow tests, I think that it is important, where we can—. You know, we're party that believes in the United Kingdom, and there are...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Rhianon. You're absolutely right that the pressure the NHS is under at the moment is truly extraordinary, which is why, of course, we're trying to direct people to get the right help at the right time in the right place. We're directing people to use the 111 service. There are online services that people can use. They can use their local pharmacies for some ailments. And so,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, Mabon. I'm very aware of the situation and how difficult it is for those who are suffering dementia who don't understand exactly what is going on, and why they can't see their loved ones. But the fact is that our guidelines are clear. We have made it entirely clear that we expect care homes to allow people to visit, especially if they are a very close family member. The...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, Gareth. Obviously, we are really keen to make sure that we protect the most vulnerable, but we need to make sure also that they have the opportunity, for example, to meet their loved ones. We're trying to get the balance right between protecting them and, for example, allowing visitors into care homes. It is a really difficult balance, because I'm sure, Gareth, you'd be...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, John. Of course, we've had countless requests to relax our regulations in relation to spectator sports, and we completely understand that. We're all very keen to see if it is possible to dismantle these before the six nations tournament. Obviously we're going to keep things very closely under review, and if possible, we will do everything we can to see if we can make that...
