Wales would be ‘overlooked’ as part of UK-wide Covid inquiry say Welsh Conservatives
Wales would be “overlooked” as part of a UK-wide inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Welsh Conservatives.
They responded after a woman whose father died with Covid-19 called for a Wales-specific inquiry into the Welsh government’s handling of the pandemic.
Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees said she believed her father, Ian Marsh-Rees, caught the virus whilst in Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, and said that decisions made in Wales had to be “properly scrutinised,” rather than becoming a “footnote” in a UK inquiry.
The Welsh Conservatives said that they agreed and that no inquiry into the Welsh Government and Welsh NHS’ handling of the pandemic would “simply consign the experience to a solitary, overlooked chapter in a UK-wide investigation”.
Welsh Conservative Senedd leader, Andrew RT Davies MS added that a quarter of those who died in Wales had acquired the deadly virus in a hospital setting, and “they deserve answers from a Wales-specific inquiry”.
“If we are serious about the Welsh Parliament and the decisions taken by ministers in Cardiff Bay then there must be full scrutiny and transparency,” he said. “No ifs or buts, and the First Minister can no longer shirk away from holding an inquiry.
“We owe it to the families who lost loved ones to ensure they have the answers they request, and that Wales learns the lessons from the past 18 months, ensuring our government and public services are fully prepared for any future pandemic.”
‘Interconnected’
The Welsh government has said that they favour being part of the UK-wide inquiry which will start next Spring and have no plans for a Wales-only one.
“The UK-wide inquiry has been agreed between all four nations,” a Welsh government spokesman said.
“We have requested specific chapters of the inquiry deal exclusively with the lived experiences of those here in Wales.
“A UK-wide inquiry will have the capacity and force to oversee the interconnected nature of the decisions that have been made across the four nations and is the best way for the experiences of people in Wales to be properly understood.”
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Tory makes the case for separation ! Hey ho, we’re off then .
One of the major foul-ups of the pandemic was in procurement of equipment and organisation of resources. Procurement was overseen by the private company NHS Supply Chain Coordination Ltd all of whose shares are nominally owned by the SoS in England. The devolved nations were forced to bypass this disaster zone and Wales ended up supplying tens of millions of items of PPE to England whilst all over the East of England there are huge piles of shipping containers stacked to the skies. These contain such wonders as the test tubes supplied by Matt Hancock’s pub mate which can’t be… Read more »
Well, a stopped clock showing the correct time here.
Tories know we’ll be “overlooked”. There’s a thing!
A number of points may have influenced the Wales Governments approach: 1. UK Gov failed to discuss a co-ordinated response with devolved governments. 2. UK Gov failed to take the virus seriously in the early days. 3. UK Gov failed to close down airports and ports allowing potentially infected passengers to cross to any parts of the UK. 4. UK Gov controlled the purchase and distribution of PPE 5. UK Gov dismissed the risk of allowing patients released from hospital to go back to their care homes. 6. UK Gov controlled the purchase and distribution of vaccines 7. UK Gov… Read more »
A very valid point from ARTD
Couldn’t help thinking ‘UK enquiry will be paid by UK gov, Wales specific enquiry will have to be paid out of the Welsh gov budget.’ Will ART campaign for extra funding from his bosses in Westminster in the hope of finding some dirt on the Welsh Labour handling of Covid?
Maybe an inquiry into the moving goalposts of the last year and a half…for example a year last July Drakeford stated that the science said that masks made little difference to infection.We have had them for a year, and today pro rata Wales,
Scotland and N.Ireland have more cases than England who have had a month of no restrictions…maybe Drakeford and Co were correct in July 2020…and we are suppose to be on Level 0…maybe there should be a Level -1 ?