Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:29 pm on 8 July 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:29, 8 July 2020

There are two points to make there: the first is that, yes, we look at international surveillance, what happens in other countries as they reach their winter. It's part of the challenges around Melbourne, but it's also part, for example, of a concern we have about South America as they're approaching their winter and, in particular, the challenges of overcrowded housing and people who are already vulnerable. That is a real factor of concern for us, and that does inform our plans here about both restarting the NHS, as I said before, the plans we already have—the need to have COVID-positive or suspected pathways and non-COVID pathways, the green and the red demarcation, which will require extra work to be done over the summer, physically in the environment in a range of our NHS treatment facilities—and we'll then need to think not just about restarting that activity, but how much and how far we can maintain that through the winter, when we know that there's normal, regular pressure on the health service. But if there is a further spike in coronavirus through the autumn or the winter, then it is of course possible that I may need to make another decision to suspend parts of our health service, because of a much greater harm that could be caused by having a spike in coronavirus and not changing the way that our health service delivers its service.

So, all of those things are possible, but my plan is to get as much as possible of normal treatment to resume in the national health service through the summer and to take all necessary steps to help people to continue taking measures to reduce the prospect of a further upswing in coronavirus here in Wales.