Wales gave 10 million items of PPE to England

DURING the coronavirus pandemic Wales gave England more than 10 million items of personal protective equipment, Health Minister Vaughan Gething has revealed.

Mutual aid agreements in place with Westminster, Holyrood and Stormont saw nearly 15 million items of PPE, such as face masks, gloves, visors and gowns, given to England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Wales had received 1.4 million items of PPE from those countries in return, the Senedd was told.

Mr Gething said the figures showed that intergovernment relations had worked well during the Covid-19 crisis but suggested England had “significant challenges in organising themselves”.

“Of the net figure, though, we’ve actually provided slightly more mutual aid to Scotland and Northern Ireland but significantly more mutual aid to England – we’ve provided more than 10 million items net to England,” Mr Gething said.

The minister was giving evidence to the Senedd’s health, social care and sport committee and Plaid’s Rhun ap Iorwerth suggested it was “odd” that the system had turned out to be so imbalanced.

“Rather than it being odd, I think it does show how successful we’ve been relative to other parts of the UK,” Mr Gething said.

“We were glad to help Scotland and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland had short-term issues that we helped them with but they’ve also assisted us, and again they’ve very much been a team player and helping other parts of the UK.

“We received mutual aid from Scotland on a range of masks early on and we returned the mutual aid we received as well. Really, it’s the English system that has some really significant challenges in organising themselves.

“The system we have in Wales has stood up to the extreme stress and pressure of this pandemic.”