3. Statement by the First Minister: The Coronavirus Control Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:51 pm on 14 July 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 3:51, 14 July 2021

Well, Llywydd, let me say to the Member that I think this has been one of the most difficult issues that we've had to face throughout the whole of the pandemic and I absolutely understand the distress that some families have felt where people have had to go through an experience on their own where they would in any other time have had the support of a partner alongside them. I can't do more than to give an undertaking that we will continue to keep that guidance under review. As Sioned Williams has recognised, it was revised only a couple of weeks ago, but, in the end, a clinician has to weigh up the risks involved, and the risks are different individual to individual, the underlying state of health of the potential mother, and they vary from setting to setting. And no clinician, I believe, looks to exclude somebody from an experience that they know will be very important to them. They do it when they have weighed up the risks and decided that the risks involved to the health of the individual are such that that cannot go ahead, and, when you know what the consequences of those risks could be, I just think we have to have some confidence in our clinicians at the front line who deal with this every single day and do their best to come to the right conclusion in what are always highly charged emotionally and very challenging clinically sets of circumstances.