Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru condemns Welsh Government

A woman whose dad died of Covid-19 in a care home in Aberystwyth says she and her fellow campaigners are angry, devastated and tired of having to fight for answers, following the publication of the Module 6 UK Covid Inquiry report.

Catherine Griffiths is a member of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru.

Her father, RAF Group Captain Harold Griffiths, died of Covid-19 at Hafan y Waun care home in Aberystwyth at the age of 86.

Originally from Dinas-Mawddwy in Gwynedd, he moved to Aberystwyth to be closer to Catherine, from Machynlleth, who has relentlessly fought for justice for victims of the pandemic.

As a member of campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru she co-led Module 6 of the inquiry regarding care homes in a bid to prove mistakes were made and thousands of lives were needlessly lost.

Around 340 families across Wales, including Catherine’s, experienced bereavement during the pandemic and find themselves still seeking accountability for decisions and delays by Welsh Government they say exposed vulnerable care home residents to avoidable risk during the pandemic.

COVID Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru is once again condemning the Welsh Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in care homes.

Speaking on behalf of the COVID Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, Catherine said: “We are angry. We are devastated. And we are tired of having to fight for answers that should have been forthcoming years ago.

“Welsh Labour told the people of Wales that decisions were based on the science.

“But when the inquiry identifies a lack of testing capacity as a reason for failing to test vulnerable patients, we have to ask whether the public were being given the full truth.

“We believe the people of Wales were misled, and we want to know who knew what, when they knew it, and why these failures were allowed to happen.

“Care home residents were left exposed. Families lost loved ones. Care workers were left facing impossible circumstances.

“Meanwhile, known weaknesses in preparedness and planning had not been addressed.

“The science must not be used as a political shield. If the Government lacked the capacity to test, it must answer for that failure.

“If assurances given to the public were misleading, that must be exposed. And if decisions put vulnerable lives at risk, those decisions must be examined fully.”

The campaign group is accusing Welsh Labour of hiding behind supposed scientific advice while failing to confront the reality of its own lack of preparedness and testing capacity.

In a statement to the ‘Cambrian News’ following the publication of the Module 6 UK Covid Inquiry report on Tuesday, 20 October, the group said: “The inquiry’s findings have exposed the gap between the assurances given to the people of Wales and the reality of what the Government was able to deliver.

“We believe the public were misled, and those responsible must be held to account.

“The Welsh Government knew older people in care homes were exceptionally vulnerable.

“Mark Drakeford said on 3 March 2020 that the Government was “very alert” to the risks. Yet between March and May 2020, 1,729 patients were discharged from Welsh hospitals into care homes, the overwhelming majority without having been tested during the earliest phase of the pandemic.

“As late as the end of April, untested and COVID-positive patients were being discharged into these vulnerable settings.

“The inquiry’s findings identify limited testing capacity as a reason for the failure to test. This fundamentally challenges the narrative that the policy was simply dictated by the science.

“Welsh Labour cannot hide behind the science when the real questions concern its own preparedness, its decisions and its failure to ensure Wales had the capacity to protect vulnerable people.

“Why was testing capacity insufficient? Why were statements made to the Senedd suggesting there was no value in testing care home residents? Why were the people of Wales not given a clear and honest explanation of the limitations facing the Government? These questions demand answers.

“And the failures went far beyond testing. Wales entered the pandemic with inadequate preparedness, known weaknesses in social care planning and insufficient national information about care home capacity.

“Lessons from previous pandemic exercises had not been properly implemented.

“Restrictions on care staff working across multiple settings were delayed until August 2020, and enhanced sick pay was not introduced until November.

“These were not unforeseeable problems. They were weaknesses that should have been addressed before the crisis struck.

“Vaughan Gething acknowledged that more could have been done on capacity and contingency planning and described the delay in introducing isolation requirements for discharged patients as unnecessary.

“This was a catastrophic failure to protect some of the most vulnerable people in Wales. Bereaved families have every right to be furious.

“The M6 report provides a factual narrative, but it does not go far enough in connecting the failures, examining responsibility and drawing the conclusions families deserve. We need to know why Wales was so slow to act, why known risks were allowed to persist and why public assurances did not reflect the operational reality.”

Sam Smith-Higgins, also speaking on behalf of the COVID Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, said: “We will not accept another process that simply lists what went wrong and leaves the most important questions unanswered. We need a statutory Wales COVID inquiry with the legal powers to compel evidence, establish responsibility and hold decision-makers to account.”

The group’s statement adds: “COVID Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru is demanding an independent, statutory Wales COVID Inquiry with the powers necessary to investigate testing capacity, hospital discharges into care homes, ministerial statements, pandemic preparedness and delayed protections for residents and care workers.

“A proposed £10 million review without statutory powers risks leaving the most difficult questions unanswered. After years of campaigning, bereaved families will not accept a watered-down process that fails to deliver meaningful accountability.

“Welsh Government must deliver what they campaigned for. “We must have what Scotland has!

“The people of Wales deserve the truth. Bereaved Welsh families deserve justice.”