‘We deserve the truth’: Bereaved families demand Wales-specific Covid-19 inquiry

Chris Haines – ICNN Senedd reporter

Bereaved families have issued a powerful plea for a Wales Covid-19 inquiry, warning the UK-wide process is fundamentally incapable of properly scrutinising devolved decisions.

Sam Smith-Higgins, who co-leads the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group, told the Senedd’s public accounts committee today (December 10) that lessons learned from the national trauma must command public confidence.

“Families in Wales deserve more than high-level commentary,” she said. “We deserve a full explanation – one rooted in the Welsh context and accountable to the Welsh public.”

Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees, who co-leads the group, said Wales must learn from the tragedy rather than seek to bury it, telling the committee a process designed for Westminster cannot uncover the “simple truth” of Welsh failures.

“We cannot patch over the gaps, we can’t pretend minimal scrutiny of devolved issues is enough,” she said. “Wales needs a Wales inquiry – not to score political points… but because thousands of lives were lost in circumstances that were avoidable.”

Ms Marsh-Rees said almost every major failing in Wales during the pandemic can be traced to a lack of preparedness.

She warned Welsh ministers had “no grip” on the risk, leaving the nation with no meaningful testing capability and a “dangerously inadequate” PPE stockpile when the virus arrived.

“When we talk about preparedness, we don’t mean abstract conversations about civil contingency structures – we mean something much more basic and concrete,” she said.

“Our hospital and care home estates were not fit to prevent transmission, with poor ventilation, limited isolation facilities and ageing buildings. Even vaccinations were compromised because of a failure to prep for the known requirement of cold storage.”

She added: “These aren’t minor administrative issues. They cost lives.”

‘Tragedy’

The committee heard harrowing testimony that policy decisions treated older and vulnerable people as “expendable”, turning care homes into the “epicentre of tragedy”.

Ms Marsh-Rees criticised the decision to delay care home vaccinations for four critical weeks, against expert advice, and the discharge of Covid-positive patients back into care.

“In Wales many thousands of people were affected in the very places they expected to be safe: hospitals, care homes,” she said. “Our dads were two of these.”

The campaigners warned that nearly six years on, there is still “no meaningful improvement”, fuelling fears that the system remains vulnerable.

“Preparedness failed us once,” Ms Marsh-Rees said. “The greatest fear of our bereaved families is that it will fail Wales again.”

‘Gaps’

Ms Smith-Higgins warned the Senedd’s current approach – examining gaps in the UK inquiry – is not fit for purpose and will not work for Wales.

She said: “The UK inquiry leaves more gaps than substance when it comes to Wales… despite the enormous scale of the UK inquiry, Welsh issues have only been lightly touched.”

Ms Marsh-Rees said Wales entered the pandemic with almost no testing capacity, criticising Welsh ministers for suggesting “the science” did not support asymptomatic testing.

She told the committee: “We now know these statements were simply not true. The real reason was that Wales could not test – not that testing had no value.

“This misrepresentation must be scrutinised; if leaders will not acknowledge past mistakes, how can Wales hope to reform them?”

‘Appalling failures’

Ms Marsh-Rees told Senedd members: “Without a Wales inquiry, these appalling failures and decisions will never be properly scrutinised.”

Ms Smith-Higgins explained that much of the evidence has already been gathered through the UK process as she warned of the consequences of no Wales-specific inquiry.

“Welsh ministerial decision-making will not receive meaningful examination,” she said, accusing Labour of failing to listen to the people by resisting an independent inquiry.

“The real reasons behind testing delays, PPE shortages and false public statements that were made will not be uncovered. The failures of infection, prevention and control in hospitals and care homes will not be addressed.

“The concerns about destroyed messages, missing records and a lack of candour will never be resolved. And, crucially, we will fail to understand why Wales had the highest mortality rate in the UK between August and December 2020.”

First Minister Eluned Morgan is expected to give evidence to the committee in January.