6. What consideration did the Minister give to the provision of personal protective equipment when allocating funding to the health and social services portfolio? OQ57381

In 2021-22, the HSS main expenditure group received an additional £1.1 billion of revenue COVID funding. Of this, over £820 million has been allocated to support the NHS and test and trace. To date, we've allocated over £38 million to the NHS and are currently forecasting a spend of around £58 million on PPE.

Thank you very much, Minister. Minister, the reason why I'm asking this question is because, according to infection protection and control guidance, staff on general wards do not have access to FFP3 masks. Given the evolution of the COVID variants, including what we've all heard of recently more so than ever, the omicron variant, it may be necessary to review IPC guidance as a precaution. This could include introducing FFP3 masks in general clinic areas, based on risk assessment. I'd like to know what discussions have you had with the Minister for health with regard to providing the necessary funding required to extend the availability of FFP3 masks should they be required by NHS staff in Wales. Thank you.

Thank you. I have regular discussions with the Minister for Health and Social Services to ensure that NHS organisations do have the funding that they need to respond to the pandemic. My belief is, at the moment, that the NHS does have the funding it needs, both in terms of providing the correct kit, but also in terms of all the other work that it needs to do to respond to the pandemic and to try and undertake some of the recovery work that has been going on recently. I haven't had any further requests for funding from the NHS, but, obviously, I would be open to those discussions should additional funding be required.

This isn't my area of expertise, but I understand that chief medical officers and chief nursing officers requested that the evidence be reconsidered last weekend in the light of the new variant in relation to face masks, and the advice is that FFP3 masks are still not considered routinely appropriate, but should be provided if a local risk assessment suggests a continuing transmission risk after all other IPC measures have been put in place. If it is the case that funding is preventing any of this from happening, I would want to know that, but I don't think it would be the case, because there is sufficient funding there.