Get the vaccine now for the public good

THE latest health statistics published by NHS Wales are very worrying indeed. It’s clear the hard-pressed and hard-working staff of the NHS are finding it difficult to cope with the number of patients whose needs they are expected to attend to.

Britain is proud of its free-at-thepoint-of-treatment NHS, a service not many countries have.

But the latest statistics demonstrate that the pressures are proving overwhelming.

The treatment of Covid is in itself a massive challenge, of course.

The UK has one of the highest infection rates in the world, and the return of children to schools in Wales has seen the virus proliferate and spread not just to children but to their parents and other adults they come into contact with as well.

While the rates of hospitalisation and death are not as high as they were when the virus was at its peak, they are rising and there must be serious concern about what the winter could bring, particularly when combined with the onset of flu.

The best way to limit the spread of infection is by getting the vaccination rate up by as much as possible. Those who have resisted being vaccinated for whatever reason should reconsider for the public good.

It’s clear that having to deal with so many Covid cases has led to a major impact on those who require other kinds of treatment. Many have had operations cancelled and treatments postponed, leading inevitably to more stress, suffering and avoidable deaths.

There is also no doubt Brexit has had a negative effect, robbing the NHS of many doctors, nurses and support staff who have returned to their EU countries of origin.

Yet it’s important to recognise that the NHS had difficulties before Covid-19 threw what plans it had off course. For many years there have been problems with waiting times for hospital treatment, with ambulance call-out times and with long waits for A&E patients.

Successive Health Ministers have discovered that making NHS Wales work effectively in serving the patients that call on its vital services each and every day is easier said than done.

The Welsh Government is spending millions of pounds in a bid to stem the tide of recordbreaking NHS waiting times and the intense pressures this winter will bring. It is only right that it will be held accountable for this plan of action – for the sake of our health, lives and the NHS.