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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:23 pm on 22 April 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:23, 22 April 2020

Yes, I'm happy to confirm that, when it comes to staff returning to the health service, there are over 10,000 staff who have now returned to the register that the NMC hold, and about 5 per cent of those are staff from Wales. That's a really good news story, because that's slightly more than our population share, and it does show a real willingness from recently retired staff to want to return. The NMC, as the regulator who holds the records, are writing out to people who have been retired from further back to see if they want to return. It's crucial we use those people in a way that is aligned with their skills, but also to recognise that some of them may need to be deployed away from front-line person-to-person care as well, so we make use of their skills without looking to compromise their own safety.

And it's the same picture with returning medics as well. There are a number of people who are retired who now have their own comorbidities where we need to make sure that we use them in a way that is entirely appropriate. I'll be able to give figures over the coming weeks on the number of undergraduates who have taken up the offer to come back to work and to be paid on 'Agenda for Change' conditions and to support the network that we have. And the need to scale that up is not what we thought it would be even a month ago, because of the fact that we haven't had the more significant upswing in coronavirus infections that we were planning and having to prepare for. So, that's a good news story—that we haven't needed to have all of those people working within our system. But it will matter as we move into not just restarting parts of our national health service, where we'll need to make use of that field hospital network; it will also matter about our ability to care for people who have urgent care needs. And, if we do see a further upswing in coronavirus, we'll need to be able to call on those people fairly rapidly, and I'm very grateful for the level of flexibility and commitment that all of those people have shown.

When it comes to the use of video-conferencing, I'm very pleased we've managed to roll this out across the country. There was a pilot in the Aneurin Bevan health board area. So, this was trialled in Gwent first and it was shown to be successful, and we've managed to roll that out much more rapidly than we would normally have done to a nationwide roll-out. It's part of my frustration in normal times that we aren't able to move more rapidly across the system. The real willingness of staff to make things happen and to remove barriers has been one of the really positive aspects of our response. That is available freely and comprehensively in primary care in general practice, and we are looking to roll that out further in secondary care as well, because some areas of that service already have a range of using digital technology and video-conferencing. I want to see that being a much more consistent part of the way we run our service. It's a point of necessity for the position that we're in, but, of course, it's a point of real advantage and opportunity for the future as we get used to different ways of working that make better use of everyone's time—both patients who need care, and our staff who provide it.