Majority of hospital staff still untested despite First Minister saying 25 days ago “all staff are being tested”

Around 300 staff at Wrexham Maelor Hospital have been tested for Covid-19 in a week where an ‘accelerated programme’ of both symptomatic and asymptomatic testing took place as part of a plan to ‘test all staff’ at the hospital.  However the majority of hospital staff remain untested.

On the 14th of August First Minister Mark Drakeford said 20 per cent of workers at the hospital had been tested as part of a programme that would see”all staff” being tested, and that the following week would seen an ‘accelerated’ testing exercise rolled out.

The 20% figure of 2,500 people – around 500 staff – matches the statement that day from Public Health Wales, a figure that was covering the period ‘since the 6th July’.

It appears 500 staff tests took place in just over a month between early July and mid August, with a further 300 taking place between the 14th and 25th of this month, leaving around 1,700 staff members still awaiting a test.

A week ago we asked Public Health Wales for the specific latest figures on testing, however they have not been able to release them. A week ago we also asked Public Health Wales for the latest localised death figures, but they have not been able to release them.

Last Tuesday we told Health Minister Vaughan Gething that we had been contacted by hospital staff locally to say they’ve been working throughout the pandemic, some with elderly patients, and that they still had not been tested and that their colleagues have never been tested either.

We asked if that should be the case, and pointed to a statement on the 5th August from the First Minister that said “all staff at the Maelor hospital are being tested”. We also  asked what the delay had been in completing that exercise, and considering the time has passed, was it worthwhile anymore.

On Tuesday’s Welsh Government briefing, the health minister said: “So my understanding is that more than 800 staff at the Maelor have been tested. I’m not aware of that the end date of that program. I have updates during the week on the programme, and indeed the Health Board themselves have been providing a regular updates.

“I’m sure that we can go back and work with the Health Board and Public Health Wales to make sure that not just yourself, but people in North Wales have the confirmed figures on the number of tests have been carried out and where we are on staff testing.”

“To be clear that during the course of the pandemic there will have been people working with vulnerable people throughout this, the testing is essentially available on demand. So if people are worried about themselves, they have symptoms, they should certainly get a test and isolate. It’s very easy to get a test now.”

On Tuesday 25th, before the lunchtime Welsh Government briefing, we asked Public Health Wales for the latest death data and staff testing data for Wrexham Maelor hospital, however no data was released. We re-asked twice at the end of the week.

We also asked why the figures were not being released, and was told they need to be ‘validated’ prior to release.

Previously we have raised the issue over information access to the first minister, asking asking him if that kind of battle for information was what he had in mind when he pledged to give the people transparency by making data available, with him explaining the information has to be “thoroughly checked and validated” before release.

On Friday Llyr Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru MS for North Wales, said: “Wrexham has had the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in Wales and England for the past three weeks and one element in that has been the incidence of the coronavirus in Wrexham Maelor Hospital. With that in mind, testing all staff should be a priority.

“It’s therefore concerning that promises made by the First Minister at the hospital three weeks ago to ensure that happened don’t seem to have happened. The Track and Protect element is only as good as the Testing and that appears to be failing to deal with the thousands of NHS staff in Wrexham and the surrounding area.”