Kate Blackwell

Two of Wales' most senior Labour ministers, including Mark Drakeford , have admitted failings over the country's planning for a pandemic.

The former health minister Vaughan Gething said Wales was not prepared enough to deal with excess deaths.

Plans that did exist for pandemic flu would have also left Wales vulnerable, Vaughan Gething told the Covid inquiry.

Meanwhile the First Minister said the Welsh Government was not as prepared as it could be.

However he suggested it was " unduly bleak" to suggest the problems were significant.

Mr Drakeford defended the fact resources were diverted from pandemic plans to readying for a no-deal Brexit.

The Chief medical officer Sir Frank Atherton said on Monday that plans for the possibility of leaving the EU without a deal held up work to prepare for a flu outbreak.

Vaughan Gething is currently economy minister but served as health minister from 2016 to 2021.

Questioned by a barrister for the Welsh Covid bereaved families group, Mr Gething said: " One of the things I found most difficult was the dignity In Death and knowing what a bad death is, and understanding that has a real impact on people Left Behind . "

He Said work to increase capacity at mortuaries and crematoria " was not fully completed".

" That meant that when Covid came we were not as prepared as we could and should have been, and that does… lead to additional pain for bereaved families, " He Said , adding he accepted responsibility.

Mr Gething appeared to agree, when it was put to him by The Inquiry 's counsel Kate Blackwell , that Wales' PPE stockpile had been " woefully inadequate" to deal with the pandemic being planned for.

" We would go in through PPE at a much faster rate than our planning assumptions assumed we would, so actually, we found that our stockpile that should have lasted for a whole wave didn't, " He Said .

He then added: " I think it's fair to say that The Plan for an influenza pandemic would still have had challenges.

" I hesitate to say it was inadequate because it's such a loaded term but certainly with all The Evidence that I've seen… the planning for an influenza pandemic was not complete, and we would have had vulnerabilities if it had been an influenza pandemic. "

Under examination, the health minister said he did not question the assumption in plans for a pandemic that flu was the biggest risk.

Mr Gething made The Comment after he confirmed that he had not read documents, guidance and plans looking at civil emergencies and pandemic flu.

" I did not read those on my entry into The Post , " Mr Gething said, saying they were not for ministers to read through.

He did say that he received briefings on the Welsh Government 's preparedness for a pandemic, though.

Mr Gething later added: " I didn't question the assumption that an influenza pandemic was The Most likely of the pandemic risks. "

The minister said he could have " sped up" preparedness for a pandemic if he had put more time into it.

He also admitted that he had not read The Report that resulted from the Cygnus exercise into preparing for pandemic flu.

The Counsel to The Inquiry , Kate Blackwell , read out a part of the conclusions that found the UK's plans, policies and capabilities were not sufficient to cope with the severe demands of an extreme pandemics.

He Said if he had read it he would " have asked extra questions about what was taking place".

Advisers had fed back that there was a need for improvements, and He Said he had received briefings.

But he added: " Looking Back , I think it is fair to say that if I had put more ministerial time into this, then I may well have sped-up preparedness. "

In his evidence, Mark Drakeford also admitted failings but defended The Work the Welsh Government did do.

The Lead counsel to The Inquiry , Hugo Keith, said that " in the round there were and there continued to be significant failings" on government preparedness for a pandemic.

He cited a lack of resilience in planning, a lack of resources and a lack of updating policies.

Mr Drakeford admitted that Welsh Government was not as prepared as it could be, and that there were failings, but said The Counsel was being " unduly bleak"

Mr Keith pressed him, asking if Mr Drakeford agreed " in terms of the consideration of whether or not structurally The System of preparedness in advance of the pandemic was simply not as good as it should have been".

The First Minister responded: " Put like that, I would agree. Yes. "

He told The Inquiry resources across Welsh Government had to be diverted from preparing for a pandemic " into dealing with the dangers that are sitting right in front of us of leaving the European Union without a deal".

He Said : " At The Point when the UK government decides to institute operation Yellow Hammer, and We Are now facing the reality of leaving the European Union without a deal, with all the consequences that would have had for Wales, I Am making a decision along with my colleagues to divert resources to deal with that.

" The Number of people we have in the Welsh Government who have genuine expertise in civil contingency matters is relatively modest, and their skills are particularly relevant to preparing for leaving the European Union without a deal. "

He told The Inquiry that when he became First Minister in 2018 he did not receive advice from civil servants that he needed to be aware of difficulties with pandemic planning.

Separately, He Said the Welsh Government also did not feel a need to create a Wales-specific risk assessment document to set out the risks facing the Welsh Government .

Asked about The Principle that all risk is local, Mr Drakeford said that, at The Time , " I'm not sure we would have felt there was a huge advantage to be gained from deducing Welsh specific risks when the UK government process looked like one that had the expertise to deliver it".

He went on to say that " for certain purposes it is sensible from a Welsh perspective to rely on the expertise and capacity that the UK government has and we were content at this point to do so" and that creating a Welsh intermediate tier for a national risk register " did not justify the resources. "

But he added that there was a " community risk register" in The Four local resilience forums, for things such as local-specific potential vulnerabilities such as explosions in oil refineries.

Source of news: bbc.com