Health board urges public to help protect vulnerable patients

From today (Thursday, December 11, 2025), Hywel Dda University Health Board has reintroduced mandatory face masks for all visitors and staff in clinical and patient-facing areas as cases of flu and other respiratory viruses continue to rise across west Wales.

The health board says the number of patients needing care for respiratory illnesses has been “increasing at a steady rate”, prompting the return of precautionary measures. All staff — regardless of role — must now wear a surgical mask when in clinical environments or interacting with patients, unless otherwise advised through PPE guidance. Visitors must also wear masks when entering clinical areas, including when attending appointments at hospitals and community sites.

Sharon Daniel, Director of Nursing, Quality and Patient Experience, said the precaution was necessary to prevent further spread within local hospitals.

“We are seeing a growing number of people with flu and other respiratory viruses needing our care and need to take this proactive step to limit the spread within our services and sites,” she said. “This change is effective immediately and our Infection Prevention colleagues will be reviewing the situation on a regular basis.”

Ms Daniel reminded visitors not to attend hospitals if unwell.
“You should only come to our sites if you are feeling well, and to wait 48 hours after you are free of flu and cold-like symptoms, or sickness and diarrhoea. This helps protect our most vulnerable patients and keeps staff well so they can look after those in greatest need.”

While visiting remains open, Hywel Dda warned this could change at short notice if virus levels continue to increase.

Masks will be available at all hospital and community site entry points.

Health board urges public support

Ms Daniel added: “There are several ways people can support our NHS during this time. Please follow the mask-wearing guidance and ensure that you wash your hands regularly with soap and warm water.

“A simple way to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe this winter is to have a flu vaccination. Information on where you can get your vaccine — including RSV and COVID-19 boosters if eligible — is available on our website.”

More information about vaccination clinics can be found at hduhb.nhs.wales/fluvaccine.
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BEREAVED families have issued a powerful plea for a Wales Covid-19 inquiry, warning the UK-wide process is fundamentally incapable of properly scrutinising devolved decisions.

Sam Smith-Higgins, who co-leads the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group, told the Senedd’s public accounts committee on Wednesday December 10 that lessons learned from the national trauma must command public confidence.

“Families in Wales deserve more than high-level commentary,” she said. “We deserve a full explanation – one rooted in the Welsh context and accountable to the Welsh public.”

Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees, who co-leads the group, said Wales must learn from the tragedy rather than seek to bury it, telling the committee a process designed for Westminster cannot uncover the “simple truth” of Welsh failures.

“We cannot patch over the gaps, we can’t pretend minimal scrutiny of devolved issues is enough,” she said. “Wales needs a Wales inquiry – not to score political points… but because thousands of lives were lost in circumstances that were avoidable.”

Ms Marsh-Rees said almost every major failing in Wales during the pandemic can be traced to a lack of preparedness.

She warned Welsh ministers had “no grip” on the risk, leaving the nation with no meaningful testing capability and a “dangerously inadequate” PPE stockpile when the virus arrived.

“When we talk about preparedness, we don’t mean abstract conversations about civil contingency structures – we mean something much more basic and concrete,” she said.

“Our hospital and care home estates were not fit to prevent transmission, with poor ventilation, limited isolation facilities and ageing buildings. Even vaccinations were compromised because of a failure to prep for the known requirement of cold storage.”

She added: “These aren’t minor administrative issues. They cost lives.”

The committee heard harrowing testimony that policy decisions treated older and vulnerable people as “expendable”, turning care homes into the “epicentre of tragedy”.

Ms Marsh-Rees criticised the decision to delay care home vaccinations for four critical weeks, against expert advice, and the discharge of Covid-positive patients back into care.

“In Wales many thousands of people were affected in the very places they expected to be safe: hospitals, care homes,” she said. “Our dads were two of these.”

The campaigners warned that nearly six years on, there is still “no meaningful improvement”, fuelling fears that the system remains vulnerable.

“Preparedness failed us once,” Ms Marsh-Rees said. “The greatest fear of our bereaved families is that it will fail Wales again.”

Ms Smith-Higgins warned the Senedd’s current approach – examining gaps in the UK inquiry – is not fit for purpose and will not work for Wales.

She said: “The UK inquiry leaves more gaps than substance when it comes to Wales… despite the enormous scale of the UK inquiry, Welsh issues have only been lightly touched.”

Ms Marsh-Rees said Wales entered the pandemic with almost no testing capacity, criticising Welsh ministers for suggesting “the science” did not support asymptomatic testing.

She told the committee: “We now know these statements were simply not true. The real reason was that Wales could not test – not that testing had no value.

“This misrepresentation must be scrutinised; if leaders will not acknowledge past mistakes, how can Wales hope to reform them?”

Ms Marsh-Rees told Senedd Members: “Without a Wales inquiry, these appalling failures and decisions will never be properly scrutinised.”

Ms Smith-Higgins explained that much of the evidence has already been gathered through the UK process as she warned of the consequences of no Wales-specific inquiry.

“Welsh ministerial decision-making will not receive meaningful examination,” she said, accusing Labour of failing to listen to the people by resisting an independent inquiry.

“The real reasons behind testing delays, PPE shortages and false public statements that were made will not be uncovered. The failures of infection, prevention and control in hospitals and care homes will not be addressed.

“The concerns about destroyed messages, missing records and a lack of candour will never be resolved. And, crucially, we will fail to understand why Wales had the highest mortality rate in the UK between August and December 2020.”

First Minister Eluned Morgan is expected to give evidence to the committee in January.

THE LABOUR Welsh Government has struck a £300m deal with Plaid Cymru to pass its £27bn spending plans for next year, with additional money for the NHS and councils.

The budget agreement will allow the Welsh Government’s final budget for 2026/27 to pass through the Senedd in January, averting a potential crisis for public finances.

Labour cannot pass a budget on its own because the party is two votes short of a majority after Plaid Cymru won the Caerphilly by-election.

Since the draft budget was published, councils have warned of a £400m funding gap and experts suggested the NHS faced a “historically low” funding settlement.

Without a deal, the picture would have been far worse – with the Welsh budget automatically reverting to 75% of last year’s, rising to 95%, costing public services billions of pounds.

The deal, which was announced in a written statement from First Minister Eluned Morgan, includes an extra £112m for councils, so all local authorities will receive at least 4% more.

An additional £180m will be spent on health and social care, the equivalent of a 3.6% increase. Meanwhile, £120m of longer-term capital funding will be available for the next government following the Senedd election in May 2026.

Baroness Morgan said: “This agreement shows the strength of the Senedd parties working together on shared priorities to deliver for Wales. Through this agreement we have secured the passage of the budget and prevented potentially catastrophic cuts to funding next year.”

Plaid Cymru previously supported Welsh Government budgets under the cooperation agreement, which contained 46 commitments, between December 2021 and May 2024. The party was in the ‘One Wales’ coalition government with Labour from 2007 to 2011.

Heledd Fychan, Plaid Cymru’s shadow finance secretary, warned the Labour draft budget would have been “catastrophic” for public services. She said her party was not prepared to let that happen as she pointed to more funding for councils and the NHS under the deal.

Last year’s budget was voted through after ministers cut a £100m deal with Jane Dodds, the Liberal Democrats’ Welsh leader and the party’s sole Senedd Member.

Ministers had been in budget talks with Conservative and independent Senedd Members for weeks, with the Tories calling for land transaction tax on primary homes to be scrapped.

Darren Millar, the Conservatives’ leader in the Senedd, described the deal as “another Labour-Plaid Cymru stitch-up”, accusing the First Minister of “playing games”.

He said: “Labour and Plaid’s deal will mean yet more of the same wasteful spending on extra politicians, overseas embassies and trees, instead of focusing resources on the priorities of the people of Wales, and putting more cash into people’s pockets.”

A Reform UK Wales spokesperson said: “This is more evidence that a vote for Plaid next year is a vote for Labour. While Labour find themselves without a paddle, Plaid have stepped in yet again to save them.”

The government’s final budget for the 12 months from April will be published on January 20.