Recovery and Rebuilding from Covid-19

Amidst the suffering and disruption caused to our daily life by Covid-19, the strength and struggles faced by those in our care services have been truly astonishing to watch. In an already demanding role our staff have gone further than ever before risking their own lives to care for those who needed it. We need to understand the scale of trauma and exhaustion our staff are facing and plan our services in the next few years accordingly.

Although the nature of the pandemic was truly unpredictable in the early stages it is nevertheless very clear that supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) could have been better prepared. We need to learn the lessons of this pandemic so the next generation is better prepared to face any similar difficulties.

Routine healthcare services have been disrupted as vast numbers of staff were moved to support intensive care and care homes and then to ensure the swift vaccination roll-out. Waiting lists and unmet need will sadly have built up to a scale not seen for over a decade and we will need to plan for this accordingly.

A Plaid Cymru Government would:

• Ensure we have ‘pandemic preparedness’ in terms of appropriate PPE stockpiling and sourcing arrangements along with communication protocols and other measures deemed necessary by healthcare professionals.
• Increase the number of specialist Infection Prevention and Control Nurses and ensure this advice and support extends to cover care homes and community care services.
• Ensure health and social staff have access to the counselling and other support services they need.
• Plan our recovery of routine care services sensibly and sustainably.
• Ensure NHS Wales has both resources it needs and the effective scrutiny required to ensure effective statistical reporting, vaccination and testing and trace programmes for the future.
• Hold a Wales-specific inquiry to ensure we learn any lessons from the Welsh pandemic response.