Strained relationships between ministers in the Welsh and UK governments ‘hampered’ pandemic planning – Vaughan Gething
Former Health Minister Vaughan Gething has told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that strained relationships between ministers in the Welsh and UK governments “hampered” pandemic planning.
Mr Gething said during his evidence on Tuesday that lack of communication between devolved nations and Westminster led to the situation at the start of the pandemic being “suboptimal”.
He also told the counsel to the inquiry, Kate Blackwell KC, that he could have “sped up” preparedness for a pandemic if he had put more time into it, but said his focus as a minister was on more immediate issues.
Mr Gething agreed Wales’s stockpile of PPE was “woefully inadequate”, telling the inquiry “it did not stand up against reality”.
Asked by the counsel for the bereaved families if the country’s lack of preparedness had led to more suffering for individuals and families, Mr Gething said: “One of the things I found most difficult was the question around dignity in death.
“All of this was not fully completed and that meant when Covid came we were not as prepared as we could and should have been and that did lead to additional pain for bereaved families.”
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I thought that Drakeford, Gething et al were following a slightly different tack to those nut jobs beyond Y Clawdd. Now it seems they were ambling along in the dark just like those other wallies but still insisting it was a different and more “sensitive” direction. Political gobbledegook, undistilled bollox, call it what you will. Utterly shameful but the sheep will still vote them in next round of elections to Senedd. Enough to make a man weep. Those who lost near and dear ones must be driven to hatred at the contempt and ignorance shown by these feeble so-called leaders.
The government in every single country on the planet was taking a leap in the dark during the spread of Covid-19. and having to devise strategies on the hoof, because no government anywhere had had to confront this previously. Wales was no exception. The Welsh Government did the sensible thing and let its public health policy be guided by experts. It was never going to be perfect, but it could have been a lot worse. and it wasn’t helped by people coming into the country illegally to get out of the big cities..
What astounded me was their total lack of awareness as to how an epidemic such as Covid would affect the poorer demographic…..seriously ?Wales is the most unhealth and poverty riddled nation in the UK. And it had not dawned on those alleged leaders who wld suffer the most? They will duck their heads under the parapet and blame Westminter again , This is where 20 plus yrs of a one party state has left us….with politicians unable and unwilling to take the rap for their inactions
You are wrong or ill-informed, Spanish Flu and a little Pelican paperback whose title I will let you have when I’ve had my dinner. There were several books released for the centenary in 2018…
Lawyers and Politicians are usually clueless when it comes to history.
But Whitty should have known…
The Yanks took the ‘Flu’ with them to war in 1917, not Spanish at all…
Epidemic Diseases…A.H.Gale…Pelican 1959
China Syndrome: The True Story of the C21’s First Great Epidemic by K. T. Greenfield Penguin 2006
There are about 90 more under this heading on Good Reads…
I’m not referring to Johnson’s government. It goes without saying that they were misguided and clueless. I’m pointing out that the WG were marginally more effective considering that they, too, were not covid-ready, but neither was any other government on the planet.
I understood the Spanish ‘flu actually originated in France!
Hatred…is that what I’m feeling, hatred is the flat-line…
Sheep set upon by Wolves, no, Wolves probably love their cubs…
Tories must hate their cubs in so many ways…
That is how we get generations of Jenricks and Rees-Moggs…
Mab have you taken your medication today
Jenrick orders pictures of cartoons and animals painted over in children’s asylum centre…
Do try Rob, it’s called putting 2 synapses together and making a connection…
For another example of stupidity and meanness inhabiting the same Tory mind, google Grayling and books in prison…unlawful and essential for rehabilitation…