COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions in Rhondda Cynon Taf

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:16 pm on 30 September 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:16, 30 September 2020

Thank you for that series of questions. In terms of the actions that the health board are taking, my understanding is they had a meeting with local partners, crucially the local authority, yesterday, where they discussed and agreed the range of measures being taken, and I do think it is a sensible safety precaution to minimise routine care when they are experiencing an outbreak of infection. That does mean that people will have procedures delayed and rescheduled at a later date, but that is in the best interest of those patients—not to admit them onto a sight for routine procedures where we understand there is an outbreak where harm is being caused. And that is a temporary measure while the outbreak is being brought under control.

At this point in time, the chief exec of NHS Wales is in regular contact with the health board to have a proper understanding of the measures that are being taken, and the oversight, as indicated earlier, for the measures and the control measures to understand what is happening, with both the staff testing that's in place, to understand if there's a need to do more. As a result of the staff test results, we get to see where the outbreak actually is, and to see how well contained it is. So, we're learning and applying the measures from the Wrexham Maelor Hospital. 

In terms of your broader point about measures within the community, I think it's important to reflect that whilst we haven't seen the same reduction in cases that we have seen, fortunately, in Caerphilly—and Newport is also making good progress—there is some cautious evidence to think that we may be seeing a plateau. It's still at a very high level, but we'll want to understand if that really is the case, and that will give us some further hope for the future. But the evidence of Caerphilly is that it is possible to see a reduction in rates, and that this is not a one-way escalator to further and further restrictions. We'll continue to measure and weigh whether there is a need to do more to help control the spread of the virus across the RCT area. 

The key point is that it's in the hands of people in their communities to look after each other, and the rules are there for the benefit of everyone. If we get a high level of adherence to that, then we can expect to see a reduction in the spread of coronavirus and the harm that we know it has already caused and is likely to cause. We'll continue to review matters on a regular basis; that includes a provision of testing services. We've actually seen a fall in the number of people taking up the testing services available, so the concern that the health board have is not that we don't have enough access to testing, but that actually there are people who should be getting a test who are not. So, again, it's an appeal for people to use the testing resources that are available within RCT, and we'll continue to review how and where they're provided to make sure they're readily accessible for the communities that need to access them.