4. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Winter Protection Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:46 pm on 15 September 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:46, 15 September 2020

I thank the Member for the series of questions. I think I largely addressed challenges about elective care and waiting lists in response to Andrew R.T. Davies's first set of questions, in acknowledging both that we have a significant challenge to address over a significant period of time, but the fact that the NHS has been progressively opening itself for more work; there is elective care taking place in every single health board. Our challenge is the fact that, in having COVID-secure arrangements for people who come in for elective care, that means we can't do as much activity as we would have done in the past, and, again, the need to prioritise. That goes for a wide range of services, not just cancer, but broader diagnostics. You'll see more detail in our operational framework, but, of course, on cancer, we have already seen the restart of a range of cancer screening programmes, so we are doing that work and we know there is ground to recover. I'm certainly not sanguine or unconcerned about the backlog in not just elective care but in other conditions where significant health harm can be caused, including, of course, some conditions that, left untreated, may prove fatal.

When it comes to the challenges about the flu season in particular, I think it's worth reflecting that an average flu season across the UK causes 8,000 to 10,000 deaths, so it's something that we get used to, but, actually, flu does take the lives of lots of people every single year: it reiterates why the flu vaccine programme is so important. In terms of people who may come to harm from flu, of course, they are potentially more vulnerable to COVID as well, so it reinforces the need to get yourself tested and protected against flu, take the jab, but also it's why some of the rapid point-of-care tests are really useful for us, because a range of those will be able to test people for strains of flu as well as COVID. So, there are a range of things in the plan that we've already published today as well as more detail to come in the statements I expect to continue to make to the Senedd through the winter and indeed in the operational framework I've referenced in my opening statement.