1. How is the Welsh Government supporting paramedics and the Welsh Ambulance Service? OQ56334

The Welsh Government has provided a range of initiatives to support paramedics and the ambulance service, including £1.6 million investment to expand the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service, and £10.9 million for new operational vehicles, which of course are green and will reduce the carbon footprint of the organisation.

Thank you for that answer, Minister. This last year has been an incredibly hard time for everyone at the Welsh ambulance service, from the paramedics who've been on the front line to the dedicated staff in the control rooms and those staff who support the service. Sadly, we saw earlier this month that the Welsh ambulance service lost a fourth member of staff to coronavirus: Kevin Hughes, aged 41 from Anglesey. Many members of staff are physically and mentally fatigued due to the increased pressure on an already busy service. Support and protection is needed, such as the supply of PPE, investment in vehicles and equipment, as well as investment in the workforce.

Can the Minister outline what more can be done to support our ambulance service workforce, both over the coming months, and as we come out of the pandemic?

Yes, thank you. I've outlined the increased investment in new vehicles in my initial response. We continue to look at the fleet to make sure it's appropriate, both for the emergency side of the service, but also the urgent care and patient transport side of the service as well.

When it comes to well-being, we've worked with social partners, so that's our NHS Wales employers and trade unions, to have a multilayered well-being offer for health and social care workers in Wales, including in particular paramedics as well. So, there's a confidential Samaritans listening support line, funded by the Welsh Government, dedicated for health and care workers in Wales. We have a number of free-to-access health and well-being support apps, like Mind, Sleepio and SilverCloud. We have a range of different resources and, on the Health Education and Improvement Wales website, there's a useful list of what all of those resources are. And it's a matter I regularly discuss with the trade unions in my regular update with them, as well as the partnership arrangements in place.

On PPE, we continue to have a successful delivery of PPE for our front-line workers. The vast majority of PPE issued—there have been over 647 million items issued in the last year to health and social care—the vast majority were directly sourced by the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, with all contracts awarded subject to robust governance. That includes protection from fraudulent or substandard PPE. So, in Wales, on PPE procurement, there have been no party favours, no VIP lane, no chumocracy. Everyone in Wales should take real pride, I believe, in the way we have continued to provide high-quality PPE for our front-line health and social care staff. 

I'm sure the Minister will join me in thanking all the ambulance service for all they're doing in such harrowing and difficult circumstances. Minister, last month, it was reported that concerns had been raised that some front-line ambulance staff were refusing to be vaccinated against coronavirus. This obviously poses obvious risks. The director of workforce and organisational development at the Welsh ambulance service confirmed that some staff had refused the vaccine, but that numbers were not being recorded. Can you, Minister, advise why this important information is not available, and can you advise what action is being taken to address the concerns of the ambulance staff who are reluctant to receive the vaccine? Thank you. 

I don't have an individual figure to hand today on the number of front-line staff who have not taken up the offer of the vaccine. We do know we've got incredibly high levels of take-up from our front-line staff, including within the ambulance service. We also know that, unfortunately, there is a sewer of anti-vax information that, in particular, concerns people of working age, with some particularly outrageous claims made about both male and female fertility. So, we do understand there are people with real concerns about that misinformation. 

There will also be a limited group of people who will have medical reasons why the vaccine isn't appropriate for them. That's a very small number of people, but I expect the matter to be not just resolved by the employer and trade unions working together, but by the positive encouragement for people to take up the vaccine. And I should say that I join with not just yourself, but also Jayne Bryant, in her recognition of what paramedics have done and all across the ambulance service. It's a much more wide-ranging organisation than the emergency end of the system, and the way in which they've had support from the military in undertaking their task, in making sure vehicles are ready, it's been a real team Wales effort, and I think everyone, as I say, should take real pride in what they continue to do in these, the most challenging of circumstances. 

Question 2 to be asked by Mike Hedges and to be answered by the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services. Mike Hedges.