2. Will the First Minister provide an update on the Wales-specific investigation into COVID-related deaths in care homes? OQ58416

I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. Certain categories of care home residents are already included within the national programme of work announced in January this year by the health Minister. Learning from the early period of the programme is being used to support the care home sector in investigating remaining COVID-related deaths.

Diolch, Prif Weinidog. The information that there would be a greater and specific investigation into care homes was widely shared on social media by the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru campaign group, following their meeting with you a few weeks ago, and it would be helpful to receive clarity on the approach timeline and whether it will cover discharging the elderly from hospital to care homes without testing. In addition to seeking clarity on this, the bereaved families also reported that they had discussed with you the investigations of hospital-acquired infections in Welsh hospitals. Can you confirm, First Minister, when reporting and implementing of the recommendations will take place? And I understand the campaign group have prompted your team and the health Minister's team on this twice but have not heard anything since, and, given that 1,619 investigations have been completed, I'm told families still haven't been contacted and are desperate for an update. 

Well, thank you to Heledd Fychan for those additional questions. She's right to say that I have, once again, met the bereaved families group earlier this month, so not many days have elapsed since that meeting, and, in the extraordinary circumstances of last week, I think it's understandable that not every question has been responded to immediately. So, for the sake of clarity, then, Llywydd, anyone whose care is funded by the NHS, including people who were transferred from hospital into a care home, and who subsequently contracted coronavirus and died within 14 days of transfer, those cases are already covered by the 'Putting Things Right' regulations, and those incidents are already being investigated following the actions that the health Minister outlined earlier this year. We are able to do that because there is a direct line from the NHS to the care of those patients.

The general care home sector, as the Member will know, is far more diverse than that: over 1,000 registered adult care homes in Wales, the vast majority of those privately owned. Inevitably, that adds complexities and challenges to the investigation process when you're relying on that much wider set of individuals and circumstances. Individual health boards are already reporting the results of the investigations that they are carrying out. Aneurin Bevan health board reported and put up onto their website their first report in June of this year, and Swansea bay did the same in July, and I expect health boards to continue to do that. The delivery unit, which was funded by the Minister in order to assist with consistency of approach in every part of Wales, will produce its interim report in March of next year, and a final report will be provided in March of 2024. 

First Minister, data related to the number of deaths due to COVID in care homes shows that, in Wales, COVID-19 was the second leading cause of death in male and female care home residents in both the first and second waves of the pandemic. Given that winter and, indeed, the flu season are fast approaching, I am sure that many people will be worried about the safety of elderly and vulnerable people, especially if we see another deadly COVID-19 strain emerge. Given that the Welsh Government has declined to have a Wales-only COVID inquiry, I'm keen to know what evidence and data analysis this Government has subsequently used to develop its strategic plan for care and nursing homes, going forward, and how you have used this analysis to develop plans for the safe transfer of residents to and from care accommodation, the safe treatment and care that they receive whilst in care, and what measures have been put in place to prevent and control future outbreaks. Thank you.

Well, an all-Wales inquiry would not be of any help to someone wanting to look forward, as the bulk of the Member's question did, to conditions in care homes in Wales over the coming winter. I'm grateful to the Member for the question, Llywydd, because it just enables me to remind everybody in the Chamber and beyond that coronavirus has not gone away. We saw, earlier in this summer, record numbers of people falling ill with the omicron wave compared to any other part of the pandemic period. And, although the link between falling ill and severe illness has been successfully eroded by vaccination, just being ill with coronavirus itself is a difficult experience, and the more vulnerable you are, the more difficult it is likely to be. So, that is why we have prioritised care home residents for the autumn booster campaign. First letters inviting people to come forward for vaccination were issued on 15 August. The first vaccinations happened on 1 September. Yesterday, while most people were focusing on the events that were happening at Westminster Abbey, vaccination teams in Wales were out there in care homes making sure that all those vulnerable residents had the earliest possible opportunity to be vaccinated.

That's a general message that I hope Members here will help to convey to the population at large. There is a fear amongst the professional community that, because people feel that coronavirus is in the rear-view mirror, we will not have the take-up of vaccination that we would have seen in earlier waves. Nothing will be more important to do on the day that you get the invitation than to go and have that vaccination, and that is particularly true, of course, for elderly and vulnerable residents in our care homes, which is why they have been put, in Wales, at the front of the queue.