Health boards ‘were not using right system’

Boris Johnson got a score of 5.9 and Wales’ Chief Medical Officer, Frank Atherton, 5.7.

It appears that Wales’ difficulties in getting supermarket deliveries for the vulnerable and volunteering opportunities sorted have had an effect on how people perceive our leaders.

First Minister Mark Drakeford was rated 5.0 and Health Secretary Vaughan Gething had the lowest score at 4.7.

It is notable that people in the Republic of Ireland have a far higher respect for how their leaders have handled the pandemic, telling the Irish Mirror they would give Taoiseach Leo Varadkar a personal rating of 7.4, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan a rating of 8.4 and the Irish Government a rating of 7.6.

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Despite all the trauma, Wales has

remained resilient

There have been many who have found lockdown hard.

More than a third of people who took part in our survey told us they had experienced more anxiety than they usually would.

Around one in five told us they had experienced more loneliness, and one in five more depression.

These are worrying figures that show the effect that lockdown is having on the mental health of many people.

Yet it also shows how resilient the nation has been as we face up to some of the most draconian restrictions on freedom ever forced on us in peacetime.

■ Many are suffering financially.

Lockdown has been difficult financially for many of us.

Nearly half of the people (42%) who

filled in our survey said their income had dropped.

Nearly a quarter of those said their income had dropped by more than 50% – a devastating figure.

Many others had seen smaller, but still significant, falls in their income.

The reasons included furlough, pay cuts from their employers, redundancy or being forced to shutter their businesses. There was very little regional variation in these figures across the UK – although it suggests Londoners are the most likely to have seen their income fall and the most likely to see their income fall by more than 50%.

■ Nearly half of us would pay more tax to help the UK recover

People appear to be resigned to the fact that we will have to pay more tax to help balance the books in future.

We’re told paying for the furlough scheme alone is costing as much as it costs to run the NHS. Some 49% of people said they were willing to accept a tax rise to help the economy recover once the outbreak is over. A third (34%) said no, and 17% said don’t know.

■ Childcare has not been easy for many

How difficult you find looking after children while schools and nurseries are shut, and many are trying to work from home, will be very different depending on the age of your children.

Some 34% of the people who filled in the Great Big Lockdown Survey said they were looking after children.

Of these, more than half, 52%, said they found it difficult or very difficult.

A quarter said it was the same as usual, while 23% said easy or very easy.

WELSH health boards which failed to report 115 coronavirus deaths “weren’t using the proper electronic system”, according to a Senedd committee.

The IT system cost thousands of pounds but the two university health boards were not using it.

Betsi Cadwaladr in north Wales and Hywel Dda in west Wales failed to report 85 and 31 Covid-19 deaths respectively.

Following an investigation, the Welsh Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee found that it was because they were not using the expensive “allWales” IT system.

Chair of the Senedd’s Public Accounts Committee Nick Ramsay MS said: “A significant amount of public money has been spent on NHS ICT systems in Wales and for many years these systems have suffered from problems in terms of functionality and performance.

“The misreporting of coronavirus deaths this spring has highlighted that the problems highlighted by the Public Accounts Committee still exist.