How did Welsh Govt respond to Cygnus?

IN 2016, a cross-government pandemic drill took place, which accurately predicted that the National Health Service would be plunged into crisis by an infectious and deadly disease.

It was codenamed Exercise Cygnus but its conclusions have never been made public, even though it highlighted shortages of intensive care beds, vital equipment and even mortuary space.

There are only a handful of references to Cygnus in public documents, although in December 2016 Dame Sally Davies, England’s then chief medical officer, said it suggested that the health service would struggle to cope.

Last week I received a reply to a Written Senedd Question to the First Minister of Wales:

Sian Gwenllian AM (Plaid Cymru, Arfon): Will the First Minister confirm if the findings of Operation Cygnus were shared with the Welsh Government? WAQ79908

First Minister, Mark Drakeford AM: I can confirm that the Welsh Government received a report of the findings of Operation Cygnus from Public Health England.

Plaid Cymru is calling on the Welsh Government to publish the ‘Operation Cygnus’ findings now that we know that the Labour administration had received a copy of the report. Urgent questions need to be asked of both the Conservative UK Government and the Labour Welsh Government about why the NHS was not prepared for the coronavirus crisis, despite the exercise three years ago.

There are serious questions for ministers on what lessons were learnt from the Cygnus pandemic drill, which can only be answered by publishing its conclusions and the actions taken as a result.

We went into this crisis without enough staff or beds.

We have long warned about critical care bed capacity and pressures on the NHS after years of financial squeeze. The public deserve and need to know what happened in this test so that we can learn lessons to help us now.

We need to know exactly what specific actions the Labour Welsh Government took to better plan and prepare our NHS for an inevitable pandemic in light of the report and its findings.

It is in the public interest to know what steps the Welsh Government took in terms of PPE, testing infrastructure, key equipment and their general preparedness for a global pandemic.

I hope the First Minister will listen to his colleagues and do the responsible thing

● The Welsh Government has confirmed that it was sent Public Health England’s conclusions from pandemic planning drill Operation Cygnus: it must now say what action it took as a result (pictured: critical care bed in England)