2. Statement by the First Minister: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:34 pm on 8 April 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:34, 8 April 2020

Well, Llywydd, I don't agree with the caricature of the position in Wales that Delyth Jewell offered. It is true that a very small number of staff in Aneurin Bevan were given the wrong test results, and that's very regrettable, but it was identified very quickly. And all of those people have been since provided with direct contact by Public Health Wales, who've investigated that no harm actually resulted from that small number of test results. I Bitterly regret the anxiety that that will have caused to those individuals, but that is a very small part of a bigger picture in which everything that can be done is being done to protect the well-being of people who are at the front line, both through PPE and by extended testing. We started testing NHS staff in Wales ahead of the rest of the United Kingdom. Our percentages of testing of staff are still ahead of other places. We want to do more, which is why we are bringing more tests online, and that is to recognise, of course, the astonishing bravery and commitment of people who provide help to other people in the most challenging of circumstances.

Where I do agree with Delyth Jewell is that this will leave an aftermath. It will leave an aftermath in the lives of people who are facing things and making decisions they never expected to be faced with, and sometimes having to do that very early on in their careers. I'm very struck at the number of people who are returning to work in the NHS, that one of the things that motivates them, after retirement, to come back in is to be able to offer their experience and their lifetime of dealing with huge difficulties, to put that at the disposal of young NHS staff, to be able to stand alongside them, to be able to offer some of that advice and guidance and a shoulder to lean on during these hard times. I think that's a very generous offer that those people are making. We'll have to systematise that as we come out the other side of coronavirus because some of these things will live on for a long time after it in the lives of people who've been on the front line.