Jane Dodds, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats

LIKE many of you, I’ve spent much of the past week following the spread of coronavirus (or Covid-19 to give it its technical name).

While we have been fortunate so far in Wales and across the UK to have only experienced a limited number of cases, we must brace ourselves for significantly more.

We have seen from Italy, Iran and China just how serious coronavirus can be and how challenging it can be for health systems to deal with it.

It can be scary following the virus spread, particularly if you or those close to you are immunocompromised or have pre-existing health conditions.

Our 24-hour news culture doesn’t necessarily help assuage these fears.

While there has been plenty of public interest journalism on coronavirus, the constant updates about the virus can serve to stoke fears and prove overwhelming.

We must all take coronavirus seriously and do all we can to prevent its spread as best we can.

On an individual level, this means fully following NHS advice to wash hands regularly and thoroughly for 20 seconds, calling 111 when appropriate and selfisolating when necessary.

Meanwhile, organisations must seriously consider cancelling major gatherings and events.

We’ve already cancelled our conference and I would urge other organisations to strongly consider whether proceeding with their events is in the public interest.

However, we all have a duty not to overreact or unduly panic. Public Health Wales continues to provide excellent advice we should all follow. The World Health Organisation also continues to do admirable work shaping global responses to the virus.

We must hope our governments will take the right steps to keep us all healthy and safe and protect our NHS from being overwhelmed.

There are few easy decisions in times like this and these are no times for party politics.

This is the time for governments to represent all their citizens. We can only hope our governments listen to the experts, think deeply and make the right decisions.

The NHS is perhaps Wales’ greatest achievement, and certainly one we can all be proud of. We always appreciate the NHS in Wales, but perhaps there are times when we take it for granted.

Perhaps we’re critical of it when we’re struggling to make an appointment with our GP or are waiting a little too long to be seen in A&E. This is understandable.

Recent weeks have shown there’s nothing like a pandemic to remind us how important and valuable our NHS really is.

From its inception, the NHS was designed to be something we could all rely on in hard times or crisis.

It has certainly fulfilled this purpose over the past 70 years and today NHS Wales and all its staff stand ready to fulfil this purpose once again.

However, we cannot let these committed, talented and compassionate staff face this challenge alone.

For too long we’ve asked them to go above and beyond the call of duty, working overstretched and under-pressure to keep our NHS running.

Staff simply don’t have the capacity to work harder to try to contain and stop coronavirus and even if they did, capacity shortages within hospital beds and ambulances alike would still have to be overcome.

In the short term, we need the Welsh Government to give our NHS the resources to tackle this pandemic and for the UK Government to play its part in making sure the Welsh Government gets the resources it needs.

In the long term, we must fully address the structural problems facing our NHS.

Problems like limited resources, rising demand and acute staffing shortages.

We must invest in the NHS and ensure it has the staff it needs. Only then can we ensure our NHS runs better during the good times and is fully prepared to tackle the next crisis it faces, whenever that may be.