Clwyd West AM Darren Millar has slammed the Welsh Government for the shambolic way in which it has issued shielding letters amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with the Health Minister today revealing that a further 21,000 patients have now been identified.
In March 80,000 people in Wales were issued shielding letters, 13,000 went to the wrong addresses and thousands were missed and had to be sorted by GPs.
A Written Statement by the Health Minister, Vaughan Gething AM, today reveals that the Chief Medical Officer for Wales will this week send letters to further high risk patients advising them to shield.
The Health Minister states that the 21,000 patients were “identified as a result of updated searches of our secondary care systems.”
Darren said:
“It is absolutely outrageous that these 21,000 patients were not identified in the first place. The whole process of issuing shielding letters by the Welsh Government has been an utter shambles.
“All those who need to shield should have been informed at the very beginning. People’s lives have unnecessarily been put at risk by this incompetence and the Welsh Government need to be held to account over this.”
In line with the initial 12 week shielding advice issued in late March, the latest letters advise people to shield until at least June 15th 2020. The Health Minister’s Statement says “The four UK Chief Medical Officers will be meeting again to consider the next steps and further advice will be issued before June 15th telling those who are shielding what to do next.”