3. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:54 pm on 1 April 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:54, 1 April 2020

Thank you. I now expect the PPE guidance to be provided tomorrow. I'm providing all of these time frames in good faith, but they're time frames that I'm not in control of, because the guidance is being provided by a range of different expert advisers—CMOs are working together and we're looking at what the scientific evidence is. I can honestly say, 'The sooner the better', though, because I know that I'll continue to face questions even after the guidance is produced. But once there's some more certainty and clarity about who needs PPE and who doesn't, that will help to improve the situation and then we'll be able to make sure that we procure that PPE in accordance with the guidance. So, I recognise the concern and frustration that you and other Members who are here and, no doubt, who will be watching the later recording of this will be stating, because that's a concern of front-line staff as well. 

On cancer and other life-threatening conditions, as I indicated to Paul Davies, we'll of course be looking at how the health service continues to provide care for those people. But you can't avoid the honest truth that the national health service can't pretend that it can carry on as normal in every other sphere of life with the significant challenge that COVID-19 provides. The way that I've already closed down significant parts of NHS activity to allow people to prepare for it will have some consequences for the way in which we provide other forms of treatment.

The important point is that people have conversations with their treating clinicians about what's happening and, if surgery is postponed or moved on, that they have a way in which to understand why that's happened and what that means. Because a number of our patients, for example, don't want to have treatment if there's the possibility of them going into a clinical area where there may or may not be people with COVID-19. So, some people are looking to defer their treatment in any event. I know that there are calls that are taking place between treating clinicians, their teams, and the people that they are looking after.

And that point about not carrying on as normal goes into your point about the 7,000 extra beds and the ability to staff them. That's why we are looking for people to return to service; it's why we are looking to recruit people into the service; it's also why we're managing to persuade some of those over 3,700 undergraduates who are undertaking medical and other health professional degrees to undertake work within the service.

It will be a different way of working and, as I've said many times before, the way that we currently work, or the way that we would have worked, say on 1 March, will be very different to the way that we will be working within the health service and providing care for a period of time ahead. But I understand, it's a matter that I raised today in my call with chief executives and chairs of the national health service organisations in Wales about making sure that the extra bed capacity we create aren't just beds in a room that are abandoned, but we can adequately staff them. So, I'll happily not just take that up but make sure that I can provide more assurance for members of the public on the staffing issue. 

And on the GP letter, I am aware of the issue. The constituency Member Huw Irranca-Davies notified me of the challenge and the conversations he was already having with the practice and the health board. And I've been assured, before this morning, that there'd been a conversation that had taken place about the letter itself; the GP practice is contacting people to try to recover that; and I know that they've issued an apology.

Having a conversation about a 'do not resuscitate' notice is difficult at any time, end of life care is difficult at all times in the public cycle, and it's a conversation that requires some sensitivity. I am confident that, after this incident, you won't find similar letters going out from general practices to their patients and there'll be a real sensitivity and dignity in the conversation between general practitioners and their patients. And, taking on board Angela Burns's point earlier about the way that people make really difficult choices, there will be an ethical framework for doing so to support our staff to take the best possible care of all people, regardless of what age they are, right across the country.