6. Will the First Minister provide an update on the COVID-19 vaccination programme in Arfon? OQ56197

Llywydd, thank you to Siân Gwenllian for that question. On 11 January, we published our national vaccination strategy, with key milestones and priorities for delivery. Within Arfon, all primary care practices are ready to deliver the vaccine. Bangor has one of the three mass vaccinations centres in north Wales.

Thank you. It was a privilege to take my mother, who is 92 years old, for her first vaccination at the major event on the Llŷn peninsula over the weekend. As a result of the excellent efforts of local medical leaders and despite a whole host of bureaucratic barriers and snow, 1,200 people were vaccinated. GPs and health workers are doing heroic work in all parts of Wales, and our debt to them is very great.

May I refer your Government to one significant problem that needs to be addressed? The ICT systems at the various levels don't communicate with each other, and this is creating confusion. For example, GPs can't see which of their patients have had a vaccination appointment at one of the mass vaccination centres, and that could mean that some people receive two appointments and that a valuable vaccination is wasted. That's just one example. Can you actually try and find a swift resolution to these IT problems? They've come to my attention in Arfon, but it's likely that they are common across Wales.

Well, Llywydd, thank you to Siân Gwenllian for those supplementary questions. It's great to hear that her mother has received her vaccination, and I've been reading over the weekend about everything that's been happening in Arfon and on the Llŷn peninsula. I will refer in a moment to something I saw from Dr Eilir Hughes, who's been leading the vaccination efforts on the Llŷn peninsula. But, in terms of the ICT systems, things are happening so quickly and the NHS Wales Informatics Service are trying to resolve these problems that have arisen. They are happening because everyone is doing their level best to do everything they can to provide vaccinations to people the length and breadth of Wales. Areas of north Wales have led on those endeavours, so I can tell Siân Gwenllian that we're aware of the problems, and people are working very hard to resolve them. I do want to refer to one of the sentences I heard from Dr Eilir Hughes at the end of the weekend. It is in English, so will I just quote it in the original, because it does demonstrate the spirit and the effort that people are making.

This was Dr Eilir Hughes, one of the practitioners to whom Siân Gwenllian referred, who's done such a lot to provide innovative services in that part of Wales. This is what was said: 'Witnessing the joy that people felt of receiving the vaccine was a truly amazing and humbling experience to witness. I'm in total awe of everyone who made this happen and succeed. A team of 50 people delivering over 1,000 vaccines in two days; brilliant work by the admin staff, police, council staff and so many others overcoming unexpected snow and not a single dose wasted. Pen Llŷn at its very best.'