Health Minister does not expect health system in North Wales to be ‘overwhelmed’ as we reach peak

The Health Minister has re-iterated the ‘stay home’ message to North Wales in the week the First Minister pointed to a peak being reached in the area.

With the news on Monday that the First Minister, in response to our question, had said we might just be reaching the peak in North Wales we asked the Health Minister Vaughan Gething about the ‘peak’.

Previously we have asked Ministers about ‘hotspots’ and the lack of testing in North Wales (along with or data questions), and if hotspots were seen where testing was taking place. Recently more tests have been taking place in North Wales however there are still under 2,000 tests taking place in the entire of Wales as of the latest data.

We asked the Health Minister if the peak had been identified due to more testing taking place in North Wales, and is perhaps therefore more man made, or if it a more real, new, concern based on non-public data such as hospital admissions and the like?

The Health Minister replied, “There are two things as you identify, on the one hand, when you undertake more testing, you’re likely to understand a greater level of people who have Coronavirus.

“Actually for us in many ways, the levels of hospital admissions are an even more important indicator, because that shows you the level of harm that’s potentially being caused in an area and the pressure on our health and care system.

“You remember right at the start of all of this when we went into lockdown, and we were talking about staying home saving lives and protecting the NHS. That’s because we were really concerned that the NHS could be overwhelmed, and the sort of dignity in care but also the ability for the health service to treat people and to help to save the lives of those people could have been overwhelmed.

“Now in North Wales we don’t expect the system to be overwhelmed but it is at a different level in, if you like, the curve of the pandemic, to other places of Wales.

“But, it is still the case that the amount of coronavirus per head is at a lower rate in North Wales than all of the South Wales health boards in the south east.

“So, Cardiff and Vale, Cwn Taf, regarding and an Aneurin Bevan [health boards] still had many more cases per head of that population.

“But we continue to look at what’s happening in North Wales and it’s why the messages we’re giving about stay home and if you do need to go up for one of the permitted reasons, stay local and stay safe are still so important.”