Personal Protective Equipment

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 28 September 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:05, 28 September 2021

(Translated)

Well, Llywydd, I thank Siân Gwenllian very much for those supplementary points. They're important, and I've heard myself that people working in the field feel the same way. But throughout the pandemic, the nature of the PPE that has been provided to social care has been led by the specialist expert committee that provides advice to this Government here in Wales and to every other Government in the United Kingdom. They look at everything that emanates from the field, every report available, and their advice then goes to the four chief medical officers and the four chief nursing officers, and they then reflect that advice to us and tell us, 'That is the PPE that is appropriate for people working in context A, context B and so on and so forth'. Everything they tell us we then ensure that we actually give that equipment—we fund it and we issue it. If the advice changes—and they monitor and look at this advice regularly—then this Government's standpoint here in Wales will also change. But it's not down to me to go against the advice that we receive from people who are much more familiar with the field than myself. When they say, 'That is what is appropriate in that context,' then that's what we do.