Shadow Local Government Minister and North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has praised care home workers across North Wales and called on the Welsh Government to ensure they receive the support and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) they require to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thanks to the UK Government pledging an extra £1.6 billion for local councils in England to fight Covid19, the Welsh Government will receive an additional £95 million to spend on public services in Wales.
In the battle against Covid19 the UK Government has now made more than £2.1 billion available to the Welsh Government and Mr Isherwood is therefore calling on the Labour administration in Wales to ensure that the money goes to where it is needed most, which includes care homes.
He said:
“I was very pleased to see Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Social Services, Cllr Christine Jones, praising care home workers in the press recently and I echo her sentiments entirely. Care and Nursing Home Staff are doing truly amazing work in these extremely challenging times and I thank each and every one of them.
“However, I was concerned that Cllr Jones’s comments focused on criticising the UK Government for the shortage of PPE supplies for care workers in the County, when this is the responsibility of the Labour Welsh Government.
“The Labour Welsh Government have been awarded more than £2.1 billion by the UK Government in the battle against Covid-19 and it is up to them to decide how this money is spent. This is on top of the additional £1.5 billion the Welsh Government was due to receive from the UK Government after spending increases in England on public services like schools and education.
“Although, in Wales, PPE is the responsibility of the Welsh Government, the Minister for Health and Social Services (Wales) states in his 2nd April ‘Statement on PPE Guidance’ that "All UK countries are working on a four-nation approach to make sure we can increase the supply of PPE. But, even with these new arrangements, it may take some time before we have a reliable supply chain for all the equipment needed".
“I have been informed by the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales that through this four-nation approach, the UK Government is working closely with the devolved administrations to co-ordinate the distribution of PPE evenly across the UK, that as of 6th April Wales had received 3 million pieces of PPE from central UK stocks, but that certain products released from each nation’s own pandemic flu stockpile are supplied to that nation individually.
“Despite this four nation approach to sourcing, it is still the Welsh Government’s responsibility to quantify and distribute the PPE equipment that is needed across Wales.
“To reiterate this fact, the Secretary of State recently wrote to the First Minister highlighting that military support is available to help with the rapid distribution of PPE should they need it. My colleague, Darren Millar AM, also wrote to the First Minster urging him to reconsider his position after the Welsh Government had declined the offer of assistance by the UK Ministry of Defence’s Covid19 Aviation Task Force to support frontline emergency services in their fight against Covid19, despite the Task Force being successfully deployed in Scotland and England.
“The Welsh Conservative Official Opposition has also been calling on the Welsh Government to remove the 15 tests per day per local authority to enable more testing of people in the social care sector, and to commit to test all care workers and care home residents who have suspected Covid19.”
Last week, Mr Isherwood spoke to the Chair of Care Forum Wales, who emphasised that Care Homes in Wales now operate as independent providers of public services. The issue for North Wales is about fairness, where Independent Nursing Homes in North Wales are severely disadvantaged financially by comparison with those in Health Minister Vaughan Gething’s constituency.
