Shadow Local Government and Communities Minister and North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has hit out at the Health Minister for failing to address North Wales Police Officer concerns that they are being put at risk daily because they have not been given any priority for the Covid vaccine.
In the Welsh Parliament last week, Mr Isherwood called for Police Officers to be given some priority for the vaccine. He also raised the matter in yesterday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament.
Raising this again in today’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, he asked the Health Minister, Vaughan Gething MS, to respond to calls from North Wales Police Federation for frontline police officers to be placed on a standby list, as is the case in some parts of England, but the Minister failed to answer the question put to him.
Mr Isherwood said:
“The gap between the supply of vaccines and the capacity to deploy those vaccinations in Wales is causing particular concern when it comes to Police Officers.
“Responding to you last week, I referred to calls by the North Wales Police Federation for Policing to ‘be considered for some’ —not full, but some— ‘priority on the COVID-19 vaccination programme’.
“Many current and former North Wales Police Officers have written to me since, stating that ‘every single day’, Police officers and staff ‘run the risk of coming into contact with a person with COVID, contracting it themselves and then bringing the killer virus back into their own homes’ - and asking for the Welsh Government to commit to giving policing some priority.
“AND on Monday North Wales Police Federation told me they were contacted last weekend by ‘very reliable sources working within the vaccination centres who advise that hospital secretaries and even social workers – working from home – are receiving the vaccine yet frontline policing is still not considered to be a risk nor even being allowed to use up any spare /unused vaccines’.
“How do you therefore respond to their statement that even getting ‘frontline police officers on a standby list, like is happening in some parts of England, might be a start’.
In his response, the Health Minister, failed to answer the question asked and instead said: “The independent, expert JCVI have given us advice on how to make best use of the vaccines that we have available; chief medical officers have endorsed that advice, because it will help to save as many lives as possible.”
Speaking afterwards, Mr Isherwood said:
“It is deeply concerning that instead of listening and responding to my specific question, he sidestepped the issue and recycled the same old lines. Our North Wales Police Officers deserve so much more.”