Covid Bereaved group criticises charity over praise for Vaughan Gething

Martin Shipton

Bereaved relatives of people who died during the Covid outbreak have strongly criticised a charity that has praised Vaughan Gething for his handling of the pandemic while Health Minister.

After the former First Minister announced at the weekend that he would be standing down from the Senedd at the next election in 2026, Asthma + Lung UK Cymru posted to X a message that said: “Thank you @vaughangething for leading our health service through the pandemic and protecting people with lung conditions.”

The campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru posted an angry response stating: “So shocked to see an org whose entire purpose is lung protection thanking @vaughangething

“@asthmalungcymru please come & talk to our families whose loved ones had lung conditions & died of Covid. No prep, no ventilation & filtration in hospitals. No RPE [Respiratory Protective Equipment]. Silent hypoxia not recognised. Oximeters not recommended. Not enough ventilators, CPAP [Continuous Positive Airway Pressure] & high flow machines. Not enough oxygen!

“Have you watched someone die of Covid- gasping for breath on a boiling ward without ventilation and no oxygen? It’s etched on my retina. They were not protected in any way by him or anyone else. Serious question: what do you believe warrants your admiration?”·

Testing

In a further post, the group said: “Don’t forget under his watch HCW [health care workers] weren’t regularly tested until March 2021. Four months after England! So no testing unless symptomatic throughout Wave 2. It’s no surprise Wales has the highest % Covid deaths in the UK.”

Mr Gething’s announcement came as the UK Covid Inquiry is about to resume public hearings in the week beginning September 9. Module 3 of the Inquiry will primarily consider the impact of Covid-19 on people’s experience of healthcare; core decision-making and leadership within healthcare systems during the pandemic; staffing levels and critical care capacity, the establishment and use of Nightingale hospitals and the use of private hospitals; and the use of 111, 999 and ambulance services, GP surgeries and hospitals and cross sectional co-operation between services.

Answers

In a statement to Nation.Cymru, Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru said: “We set up our group three years ago because we were heartbroken, shocked and confused, and couldn’t get answers. We still can’t get answers. Most of our group lost loved ones to hospital acquired Covid in Wales but despite a two year Welsh Government investigation we’ve all been told it was ‘just inevitable’.

“We were refused a Wales Covid Inquiry but are fully committed to our role as the core participant representing Wales in the UK Inquiry. This healthcare module is so so important to our families – it’s now the only mechanism we have of finding out what happened in Wales, why it happened and to make sure it doesn’t ever happen again.

“We already know that with the right preparation, correct understanding of SARS2 and proper infection prevention and control (IPC) these deaths could have been prevented. Over the next 10 weeks we look forward to the qualified experts explaining what should have been done in response to an aerosol, asymptomatically transmitted virus.

“Module 1 highlighted that decades of pandemic preparedness reports were ignored by the Welsh Government. It revealed a health minister that hadn’t read a single prep document or even seen the National Risk Register.

“Module 2B exposed the sloth-like response by the Welsh Government to the virus, even when it had hit England and challenged the spin that Wales had a ‘good pandemic’. Wales, as Mark Drakeford kept reminding us, has an older and sicker population which skewed the percentage of deaths. The big question is therefore, when this is a known fact why wasn’t more done to protect them?

“In Module 3 we must find out why in Wales GPs wouldn’t take calls or see patients, why no one knew all the Covid symptoms, why our loved ones were put on non-Covid wards where 20+ patients & staff had Covid, why even when PPE was available it wasn’t the right PPE, why in many hospitals only 40% of staff in some hospitals had completed mandatory IPC training.

“It cannot be right that in Wales, Mark Drakeford and Vaughan Gething delayed testing without symptoms in hospitals because they didn’t think it was valid – going against WHO guidelines of ‘test test test’. And Sir Frank Atherton, our Chief Medical Officer (CMO) didn’t believe in masks despite all other CMOs and every other expert mandating them.

“They all knew it was aerosol and asymptomatic from early 2020. The Welsh Government, Public Health Wales and NHS Wales cannot simply say they were following orders from the UK Government when they had their own experts, their own version of SAGE [Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] and their own Nosocomial Transmission Group.

“It’s an enormous undertaking for the UK Covid Inquiry to cover all healthcare matters across all four UK nations in just 10 weeks. We appreciate that the Chair, Baroness Hallett, has committed to look at the systemic issues across all four UK nations. But as healthcare is devolved, scrutiny of Wales is vital.

“We are optimistic that our ‘what about Wales?’ questions will be raised to all those representing UK organisations. The Inquiry has to interrogate and identify the deficiencies and targeted steps for Wales specifically so the failings can be remedied by the Welsh Government. If not, then the legacy of Covid in Wales will be our relatives’ awful deaths.”