Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:26 pm on 23 February 2021.
I congratulate everybody who is involved in not only closing the initial first-dose gap with England and Scotland, but also now closing the second-dose gap also. So, credit where it's due. I know I raised that with you previously and you said there would be good news ahead and you were right. So, well done.
But what assurance can you give to the constituent whose daughter is an elite Paralympic F20 world champion shot putter, hoping to go to Tokyo to the Paralympic games this summer, who may need to go to the Europeans in Poland at the end of May to qualify for Tokyo, but who's in vaccination priority group 6, has not yet had a vaccination, and where her mother rightly states it would be a real shame if she missed the opportunity to go to Poland and therefore jeopardise her chances of a gold medal in Tokyo because she's not been vaccinated in time?
And secondly and finally, how do you respond to the Chirk patient who contacted me yesterday, stating that contrary to the Welsh Government's proclamation about getting all of its over-70s vaccinated a day before England, Chirk surgery only completed the last of the first doses for people in this category today—i.e. yesterday; and, people in younger age groups who would already have been vaccinated if they lived in Shropshire, 100 yards away, are facing a two to three-week wait? Chirk's flu vaccine service is consistently excellent, so it plainly isn't their fault. The political borders in this area often don't match other lines, such as the divisions between GP practices, and in this particular instance, the problem is with the supply of vaccines to Chirk surgery, which is in Wales and part of the Welsh NHS system. Thank you.