Martin Shipton
The Welsh Government has confirmed that an independent Wales-specific review of the previous Labour administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic will be held.
A decision notice issued by the government on October 21 said: “The Cabinet Minister for Government and Effectiveness and the Constitution [Dafydd Trystan Davies] has agreed to the establishment of an independent Wales Covid-19 Review.”
A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said: “Further details will be announced in due course.”
Such a review was promised in Plaid Cymru’s Senedd election manifesto.
Commenting on the decision, Natasha Asghar MS, the Welsh Conservatives’ health spokesperson, said: “For years, Labour refused to set up an independent inquiry into Covid-19, preventing the Welsh Government learning the lessons from the pandemic.
“We welcome this decision to set up an independent review into the Welsh Government’s handling of the pandemic and look forward to detailed scrutiny of one of the most extraordinary and distressing periods in recent history.
“There are difficult questions that need addressing such as why the virus was allowed to spread in care homes and why the Welsh Government took a more draconian approach to lockdowns compared to other parts of the UK.
“Welsh Conservatives have consistently called for an independent inquiry to help ensure that Wales is better prepared for any future pandemic.”
Earlier this week, the campaign group Covid Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru renewed its condemnation of the Welsh Government’s handling of the pandemic in care homes.
It accused former Welsh Labour ministers of hiding behind supposed scientific advice while failing to confront shortcomings in preparedness and testing capacity.
Members of the group expressed their anger after the UK Covid-19 Inquiry published a report which concluded that government failures had allowed the virus to “spread like wildfire” in care homes.
Between March and May 2020, 1,729 patients were discharged from Welsh hospitals into care homes, with the overwhelming majority of those discharged during the earliest phase of the pandemic not having been tested. As late as the end of April, untested and Covid-positive patients were being discharged into these settings.
The inquiry’s findings identified limited testing capacity as a reason for the failure to test. The campaign group said this challenged the explanation that the policy had simply been dictated by the science.
‘Real questions’
The campaign group said: “Welsh Labour cannot hide behind the science when the real questions concern its own preparedness, its decisions and its failure to ensure Wales had the capacity to protect vulnerable people.
“Why was testing capacity insufficient? Why were statements made to the Senedd suggesting there was no value in testing care home residents? Why were the people of Wales not given a clear and honest explanation of the limitations facing the Government? These questions demand answers.
“The failures went far beyond testing. Wales entered the pandemic with inadequate preparedness, known weaknesses in social care planning and insufficient national information about care home capacity. Lessons from previous pandemic exercises had not been properly implemented. Restrictions on care staff working across multiple settings were delayed until August 2020, and enhanced sick pay was not introduced until November.
“These were not unforeseeable problems. They were weaknesses that should have been addressed before the crisis struck. Health Minister Vaughan Gething acknowledged that more could have been done on capacity and contingency planning and described the delay in introducing isolation requirements for discharged patients as unnecessary.
“This was a catastrophic failure to protect some of the most vulnerable people in Wales. Bereaved families have every right to be furious.”
The post Plaid Cymru Minister announces Wales-specific Covid review appeared first on Nation.Cymru.