Wales Covid families want answers as inquiry arrives

Accountability is top of the wishlist from the Covid inquiry as it comes to Wales, say bereaved families and those charged with protecting vulnerable people.

Over the next three weeks the focus will largely be on the decisions made by the Welsh government during the pandemic.

From the timings of lockdowns to the rationale of doing things differently to the UK government, the hearings will scrutinise actions taken in Wales.

For many, it will be a chance to hear the justifications for policies that they say left them feeling unsupported and alone.

Ann Richards did not get to say a final goodbye to her husband Eirwyn before he died from hospital-acquired Covid in January 2021.

Married for more than 20 years, she described the retired pharmaceutical worker as her soulmate.

"He was my best friend – and then suddenly he was taken," she said.

"When my parents died people would come to the house and you grieve together, but we couldn’t do that for Eirwyn."

Ann still wonders if non-urgent healthcare had been fully up and running, could Eirwyn have been discharged sooner, or perhaps even avoided a hospital admission altogether?

Additional rules put in place to reduce the spread of the virus meant there were delays in getting a purpose-built wheelchair – delaying his discharge from hospital.

So Ann drove the 60-odd miles from her home in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, to Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf to collect the chair herself.

"I understand there had to be rules in place," said the youth worker. "But it's the wellbeing of the patients I think they lost a lot of."

Her family were also left in a quandary when her son on the Welsh border was expected to work for his Bristol employer, despite rules in Wales preventing that sort of travel.

"We’re a small island. For Wales, Scotland and England all to have different rules - it's no good for anybody," she added.

"This was an unprecedented time and it should have been put more on a war footing. So we're all singing not just from the same hymn sheet but on the same line."

Over the next three weeks evidence will be heard from experts, advisors and those who sat around the cabinet in Welsh government during the pandemic.

It will look at things like the relationship with UK government, the timings for lockdowns, the public messaging and the rationale for doing things differently to Westminster.

As the manager of two care homes in Wrexham, Gaynor Jones felt her sector was “thrown under a bus by the government” because the advice was unworkable.

“For example, you cannot isolate people with dementia, they’re just not safe. And staying six feet away from someone you’re delivering personal care to is impossible,” she said.

Instead, from Easter 2020, each care home formed their own bubble, and staff didn’t leave for six weeks.

“Within 24 hours I had nine volunteers for each home, they packed their bags and moved in,” she said. It meant the homes didn’t have one Covid-related death during the first wave," she added.

“It’s something I’ll always be proud of.”

As officials, advisors and ministers give evidence to the inquiry about the decision making during that time, she would like “someone to be culpable and accountable” for the lack of support, as well as the confusion that ensued.

“You are responsible and culpable for the people in your care. That can only be achieved with multi disciplinary health professionals on board," she said.

But with doctors no longer visiting care homes, that support disappeared.

“The sector hasn’t recovered from Covid – a lot of people, especially staff who were furloughed, reflected on life and what they did for a living. It’s a hard job and so sadly we did eventually lose a lot of staff.”

Six things we will learn from the Covid Inquiry in Wales over the next three weeks are:

• The decisions around the actions that rapidly curtailed our day to day activities, like lockdowns, local restrictions and border controls, but also social distancing, household bubbles and face coverings. It will look into the timings of decisions and how reasonable they were, as well as the impact on the most vulnerable. Part of this will also consider the rationale behind the differences in approach between Wales and England.
• The messaging to the public to try and prevent the spread of the virus. How effective was that, and was public confidence in decision-makers affected?
• How well did Welsh government understand the nature and spread of Covid in the early days before lockdown?
• WhatsApp messages from advisors and politicians around the UK have shone a light on their private feelings about some of the decisions made – and the people making them. So just how good/bad were relations between Welsh and UK government?
• What sort of medical and scientific advice was used and was modelling done to predict the spread of the virus in Wales? Just how good was our understanding of transmission, infection, mutation and death rates?
• Fines and police stop checks were one element of the new legislation brought in – but how proportional were the new rules?