Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 11 March 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:54, 11 March 2020

There are real, practical questions there, and I'm glad the Member managed to raise some of those with my office earlier today. And I would encourage any other Members, from any party, who have similar experience with constituents, where they're not sure about the advice they're being given, or they've been directed to the wrong part of the system, to raise those with my office. Because I want to make sure that they're resolved sooner rather than later, because we may well see more use of those services in the coming weeks. Some of that has come because people have been directed and gone to the wrong 111 service—so, the 111 service in England, where it says it's not available in your area. So, the 111 telephone advice service is available in every part of Wales. There is a symptom checker available on the NHS Wales Direct website. We want to try to ensure that people are using the service that we have set up and created and want to minimise the risk of people going to a different service over the border that may not direct them to the right path for their help and advice. But I don't want to lose sight of the experience that people do have of using the 111 service, and, as I say, I reiterate to them that I'd ask Members from all sides to contact me if they have the sort of experience you've described.

On the point about how and when people should be tested, it comes back to people following the advice and the guidance they're given. But I have asked again for some clarity to be reiterated, because we've seen some headline instances of people who are, for example, on cruise ships coming back, what happens to them, if people are symptomatic when they return, and to be clear, that the advice is consistent and isn't confusing for members of the public. So, I am taking the opportunity to do that, and will be able to reiterate that with the regular information that Public Health Wales provides and I'll also make sure that that advice is circulated specifically to Members.

But on the sorts of things that might happen, or might be required, I think we need to look at the circumstances in each country. We can learn, of course, from different countries' experience. And Italy, they're a European country we have links with, with a developed and modern healthcare system. There are parallels there for us to look at. Seriously, there are some differences, though. They have an older population than Wales does as well that may explain some of the challenges and the numbers they have coming through. But certainly the experience there of them finding that their health service is effectively overwhelmed now, well, part of that journey is how early and when we take action, because timing is really important, and that's been the advice from our own scientific advisers to all four Governments in the UK and indeed our four chief medical officers.

The danger is that if we act too early, it's the point that the First Minister made yesterday about the level of compliance if we ask people to act again. There's also a danger that we depress the peak of the coronavirus outbreak and we have a second peak later on, rather than being a wholly effective measure. There's also the risk that if we time it too late, then we could effectively bolt the stable door once the horse has bolted, because actually Italy is now in a position where it looks as if there's significant community transmission. And the value then of taking really restrictive measures, our scientific advice doesn't suggest that that's an effective measure at that point.

And it comes back to the difficulty that Ministers have to stand up to and recognise in making choices and advising the public, and that is about following the evidence and the best scientific advice about what we should do and the choices available to Ministers to make, rather than looking to have something that, from a communications point of view, may look as if we're making big and difficult choices and showing how seriously we're taking it, but may not actually be the right thing to do both to depress the peak of the coronavirus outbreak to allow services to recover and cope, but equally to make sure that we resolve and reduce, as far as possible, the potential mortality of the coronavirus outbreak.

And I would not want to be in a position where I've taken a series of actions that may look as if we're doing something that is gripping the situation from a public point of view, and subsequently find out that actually it was the wrong choice and our mortality rate may be higher at the end of it, and that is not a choice that I think I could live with.