COVID-19 in Hospitals

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 4 November 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:05, 4 November 2020

I think there are two points to make. The first is that our health service is now in a different position to where it was in March and April. Our ability to test everyone who is coming in, regardless of the reason, is there now and that is being applied consistently across the service, so people can have that extra reassurance that an extra check is being undertaken, and this is all about minimising the risks, the way that PPE provision now works. All of these different things and the way in which we've organised our service to have zones that are COVID light, as well as COVID positive and COVID-suspected areas, to try to have that separation of patients, and, indeed, the way that we're looking to have some separation in the way that staff groups work as well—. So, all those measures are being taken to try to reduce the risk of harm to anyone who comes into an NHS hospital, or indeed into primary care as well; primary care has still been extraordinarily busy throughout the pandemic as well.

The second essential point I'd make is—and it goes back to comments that were made earlier in these questions—there's real harm in either stopping or not attending non-COVID activity. In the first half of the pandemic, we saw a significant fall in emergency admissions in our emergency departments, and also, very visibly for me, as well as the impact on cancer care, with people opting out of that, we saw a significant drop-off in emergency admissions for stroke. Now, that wasn't because the public suddenly became much healthier overnight; it was because people were so worried about going into an NHS hospital that they opted out, and that would have meant there would have been poorer outcomes for those people, including potentially avoidable mortality. So, it's really important that people recognise the NHS is open for business. It is there to serve you and protect you, and we are taking every reasonable measure to reduce the risk—as low as possible—to protect people from harm from COVID.