Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:00 pm on 2 December 2020.
I think there were several different points. Just on the call that I know you've made on social media for a vaccines Minister, unless the First Minister decides otherwise, it's me. This is a public health crisis, this is an immunisation programme, you'd expect it to be delivered through here. It's no surprise that the chief medical officer is the senior official, together with Gill Richardson, who is a senior professional adviser to the chief medical officer and a former public health director in Wales, and that they're taking the leadership from a civil servant point of view and gathering together people in health boards who will then deliver. And I'm very grateful—I should make this point again—for the way that military planners have been involved in assisting our national health service. Throughout the pandemic, the military have played an outstanding role in supporting the Welsh Government in achieving our objectives to help keep Wales safe, and they're very much part of the team Wales approach for the delivery of the vaccine.
With respect, I don't think it's a realistic expectation to say that, through winter, with all of the normal pressures it has, and with the still significant challenges of a rising infection rate from coronavirus, with all the harm that will bring, I'm afraid, that we could then also expect there to be a significant vaccination programme and to be able to eat into the waiting times backlog as well. We're in the very awful business of prioritisation, and if we can't regain control and turn back the tide of coronavirus, then even if we were not vaccinating people at the same time, we may be forced to make more choices about non-essential activity, and there's harm that comes with that, and I recognise that very well. So that's the position that we're currently in, with a vaccination programme on top. This is obviously a top priority, so we'll have to deal with those necessary priorities. I do hope, though, it reinforces for the public the need to see the vaccination programme that is going to start in the very near future as an opportunity to get to that future intact and not to let go of all the sacrifices that have been made, and not to act ahead of the vaccine as if there is no need to carry on with the unfortunate and unpleasant restrictions that we're living with, with the social distancing and the way that we can't have human contact in the way that is so precious to us all. But to hold our nerve and to keep going, follow the restrictions, and do what we should do for a period of months longer, and then we'll have a different future and we certainly will then have a significant backlog to address here in Wales and, indeed, in every country in the UK.