3. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Update on COVID-19 vaccinations

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:14 pm on 2 March 2021.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 3:14, 2 March 2021

Minister, one of the other big impacts of the vaccination programme, which has been so successful here in Wales and across the UK, has been the falling number of people with COVID in our hospitals. I've noticed, though, that, on the latest sets of data that are available, it would seem that the proportion of hospital beds that are taken up by COVID-positive patients in Wales is still much more significant than they are in other parts of the NHS in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This would imply, potentially, a number of things. It could be that we just have people staying in hospital longer because they are older and frailer, or could have some more complex needs than the patients elsewhere in the UK. It could mean, of course, also that we have a problem with hospital-acquired infections. I don't know. I just wonder whether this is something that the Welsh Government has considered, and if you don't know the answer, whether that's something that you could provide some information to Members on in the future, given the fact that it doesn't look as though the number of patients in our hospitals with COVID is coming down at quite the same rate as other parts of the United Kingdom.