Beat flu this winter, urges Mike Hedges AM

Beat flu this winter, urges Mike Hedges AM

Vaccination is the single best way to protect yourself and others against influenza (flu), a potentially life threatening illness

The annual NHS Wales Beat Flu campaign, which encourages everyone eligible for flu vaccination to get protected, is now underway.

The free vaccine is being made more widely available to now include all primary school children and pre-schoolers aged two and three. For the first time the vaccine is also being offered to staff with regular client contact working in residential care and nursing homes this winter.

Annual flu vaccination is the best protection against catching or spreading flu, a potentially life-threatening infection. Every year over two thirds of those aged 65 and over and almost half of people in at-risk groups in Wales get their flu jab.

Over 820,000 flu vaccines were given by NHS Wales last year. 

Mike Hedges  AM, Assembly Member for Swansea East  is urging people to take advantage of the free vaccine on offer: “I have had the flu and was very ill, I lost a week of my life,  it is not a heavy cold it is a serious disease”

Developments for this year include:

·         All primary school children are now eligible for a free nasal spray flu vaccine, as well as children aged two and three years (age on 31 August 2018).

·         Staff in adult care homes who have regular contact with residents can have a free NHS flu vaccine at many community pharmacies. This will help protect care home residents who are more vulnerable to complications from flu and reduce the spread of flu.

·         To improve effectiveness different flu vaccines recommended for different age groups are being introduced this year. Delivery of supplies of certain flu vaccines to GP practices and community pharmacies will be staggered between September and November. Some people may be asked to wait until the most effective vaccine for them is available. It’s planned that everyone will be offered vaccination before mid-December when flu typically starts to circulate.

Pregnant women, people with long-term health conditions and everyone aged 65 and over are also eligible for a free NHS flu vaccination, along with unpaid carers and first aid volunteers. All health and social care staff with direct patient or client contact are also recommended to have the vaccine to protect themselves and those they care for. They can ask their occupational health department or employer about where and when to get their vaccine.  

Dr Richard Roberts, Head of the Vaccine Preventable Disease Programme at Public Health Wales, said: “Each year new flu viruses circulate, causing many people to be ill and some to face life-threatening complications. And flu vaccines are changed each year to try to match the flu viruses circulating in order to give the best protection.

“Last winter there were 2,680 patients with confirmed flu in hospitals – 192 in intensive care units. As well as the impact on these individuals, this places an additional pressure on the health service at a busy time of year.

“People with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems are over ten times more likely to suffer severe outcomes from influenza and we want to see even more people protected this year.”

While most NHS flu vaccines are given in GP surgeries, it is also available for adults in many community pharmacies across Wales.

Flu is a respiratory illness caused by a virus that affects the lungs and airways. Symptoms generally come on suddenly, and can include fever, chills, headache, cough, body aches and fatigue.

Flu is spread via droplets which are sprayed into the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Direct contact with contaminated hands or surfaces can also spread infection. It can spread rapidly, especially in closed communities such as hospitals, residential homes and schools.

Find out more by visiting www.beatflu.org or www.curwchffliw.org or finding Beat Flu or Curwch Ffliw on Twitter and Facebook.

ENDS

Editor’s notes

This year, the vaccination programme has been extended to include all children of primary school age (reception class through to year 6) as well as two and three year olds. In 2017-18 flu vaccine uptake in two and three year olds was 50.2%, and in children aged between four and eight years it was 68.3%.

For the first time this year, staff who work in adult residential care homes and nursing homes who are in regular contact with residents will be eligible for the free vaccine via community pharmacies. Staff working in children’s hospices in Wales will also be offered the vaccine as part of the scheme.

Last year in Wales, uptake of flu vaccine in clinical risk groups (ages 6 months – 64 years) was 48.5%.

Vaccine uptake in those aged 65 and over was 68.8% in Wales last year.

For more information visit www.beatflu.org

About Public Health Wales

Public Health Wales is an NHS organisation providing professionally independent public health advice and services to protect and improve the health and wellbeing of the population of Wales.

Public Health Wales has four statutory functions:

• To provide and manage a range of public health, health protection, healthcare improvement, health advisory, child protection and microbiological laboratory services and services relating to the surveillance, prevention and control of communicable diseases;
• To develop and maintain arrangements for making information about matters related to the protection and improvement of health in Wales available to the public; to undertake and commission research into such matters and to contribute to the provision and development of training in such matters;
• To undertake the systematic collection, analysis and dissemination of information about the health of the people of Wales in particular including cancer incidence, mortality and survival; and prevalence of congenital anomalies; and
• To provide, manage, monitor, evaluate and conduct research into screening of health conditions and screening of health related matters.
• More information on Public Health Wales is available at www.publichealthwales.org

Swansea East AM, Mike Hedges asks for further testing of Mud to be dumped in Bristol Channel near Cardiff.

Swansea East AM, Mike Hedges asks for further testing of Mud to be dumped in Bristol Channel near Cardiff.

Speaking after the Senedd Debate, Mike Hedges said…. I have been contacted by many constituents expressing concerns about the dumping of mud from the Hinkley C construction site. We have had a lot of conflicting opinions about whether or not the mud is radioactive, and if the right tests were used. I have therefore asked for the testing undertaken to undergo peer review by other scientists so that we can establish a correct picture. Failure of EDF to make the mud available for independent testing is very disappointing

Mike Hedges AM - I'll be very brief. I don't know if the mud is safe. It has been tested, and we've had the results of that testing. What I do know is that the public are not assured that it is safe.418

EDF offered me a briefing three times last week. Each time I asked that the mud be made available to bona fide academics to re-test. Each time that request was ignored. I wish once again, in public, to request that EDF make that mud available to bona fide academics. Science is a wonderful thing. If two people test the same sample, they'll come out with the same results within the margin of error. Scientists don't make up results. It would destroy their credibility as scientists if they did make up results and those results were so out of sync with everybody else who is producing results. So, what we want is to make people believe that it's safe. Have a peer review. Everything is peer reviewed. Why can this not be? I think I'll ask again, and hope that EDF will make that mud available to bona fide academics to peer review it. If the results produced by Cefas are correct, and I have no reason to think they're not, then exactly the same results will be produced by every other scientist who tests it. So that, I think, might give more reassurance to the public than they have at the moment.

Speech on Debate on dumping of Radio Active Mud 10 October 2018

Debate on dumping of Radio Active Mud

Mike Hedges AM - I'll be very brief. I don't know if the mud is safe. It has been tested, and we've had the results of that testing. What I do know is that the public are not assured that it is safe.418
EDF offered me a briefing three times last week. Each time I asked that the mud be made available to bona fide academics to re-test. Each time that request was ignored. I wish once again, in public, to request that EDF make that mud available to bona fide academics. Science is a wonderful thing. If two people test the same sample, they'll come out with the same results within the margin of error. Scientists don't make up results. It would destroy their credibility as scientists if they did make up results and those results were so out of sync with everybody else who is producing results. So, what we want is to make people believe that it's safe. Have a peer review. Everything is peer reviewed. Why can this not be? I think I'll ask again, and hope that EDF will make that mud available to bona fide academics to peer review it. If the results produced by Cefas are correct, and I have no reason to think they're not, then exactly the same results will be produced by every other scientist who tests it. So that, I think, might give more reassurance to the public than they have at the moment.

MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS CABINET MEMBER FOR FINANCE TO CONSIDER DEFINNG EXPENDETURE WHICH CONTRIBUTES TO LONG TERM GOOD

MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS CABINET MEMBER FOR FINANCE TO CONSIDER DEFINNG EXPENDETURE WHICH CONTRIBUTES TO LONG TERM GOOD

Speaking after the Senedd Question Time to Mark Drakeford, Mike said….. I have long argued that it is better to spend money to prevent something than to deal with something after it has occurred, when it often costs more to remedy. Health expenditure is a good example of this and I strongly believe that more should be put into primary care such as provided by GP’s as opposed to Hospital services when you are often dealing with a problem which might have been avoided if managed earlier.

I made this point to the Minister at Question Time and a meeting I Chaired this morning with the BMA which allowed Assembly Members to have an update on GP services in Wales. Type 2 Diabetes was given as an exemplar of a condition where most hospitalisations could be prevented with better management of the condition at an earlier stage and the condition avoided all together through life style changes before medical intervention becomes necessary. Better resourced Primary Care would provide better quality of life for patients and reduce the need for expensive hospital treatment later on.

Mike Hedges AM  - Does the Cabinet Secretary accept that it is difficult to define preventative spend? For example, spending on home social care is preventative of needing residential care and hospital care. Expenditure on GPs is also preventative of hospital care. Would it not be better to define the expenditure as that which provides long-term good?9

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I thank Mike Hedges for that supplementary question. He will know that, when I was in front of the Finance Committee last week, I set out the new agreed definition that we have used in this budget of what we mean by 'preventative spend', a definition developed by the third sector and Public Health Wales in consultation with the commissioner for the well-being of future generations Act. And it's not perfect, I'm sure, and we'll develop it further, but it is a genuine step forward in having a common language. That divides what we mean by 'preventative spend' into a number of categories, from primary to acute. Any definition only helps us so far in the decisions we have to make, and Mike Hedges's idea of defining expenditure against long-term good, I can well see the sense that that would bring. By itself, it would not avoid decision making.10

Dirprwy Lywydd, I was reminded, listening to that supplementary question, of a day that I spent when I was health Minister. I had two pieces of advice on the table. One was to use a sum of money that would have made a profound difference in the lives of very few people in Wales—fewer than 20 people, each one of them at a very high cost per person. On the same day, I had advice that told me how I could spend the same amount of money on a new cadre of, as I remember, epilepsy nurses around Wales—people who would have been able to do good things in the lives of a far larger number of people but where that difference would have been incremental to services that they provided rather than transformative. Both of those were possibilities that would have promoted long-term good. So, whatever definitions we have, and helpful as they can be, in the end they can't make decisions for us, and decisions are always difficult when you are faced with a finite sum of money and many different ways in which that money could be usefully spent.

Mike Hedges AM asks for statement on Digitalisation Program for the Public Sector in Wales.

Mike Hedges AM asks for statement on Digitalisation Program for the Public Sector in Wales.

Speaking after the Plenary, Swansea East AM Mike Hedges said… I have long supported the Digitalisation Program of the Welsh Government and across the Welsh Public Sector. It is important that we receive statements on its progress so that we can clarify where things are going well –and publicise them – and check where things are not going so well so we can identify solutions. I look forward to the Ministers Statement in the near future.

Questions to the Government Business Manager 9 October 2018

Mike Hedges AM - I would like to ask for two statements. One is a Government statement providing an update on Welsh Government support and progress with the digitisation programme across the whole of the Welsh public sector

Julie James AM - In terms of digitisation, I am actually planning to make a statement on digital transformation sometime before Christmas, so I'll make sure that that gets timetabled accordingly.

Mike Hedges AM asks for oral statement re Closure of Virgin Media and Actions being taken.

Mike Hedges AM asks for oral statement re Closure of Virgin Media and Actions being taken.

Speaking after Plenary, Swansea East AM Mike Hedges said… ‘I am grateful for the written statement which we received yesterday. I welcome the support given to workers are the site. The Task Force is positive development but I remain concerned about some actions by the company. As members however, we need to have the opportunity to ask Questions of the Minister and I welcome the Government Business Manager agreement to discuss an oral statement with the relevant cabinet member’

Questions to the Business Manager

Mike Hedges AM I know we had a written statement from the Cabinet Secretary yesterday regarding Virgin Media closure and action being taken, but I would like to ask if we could have an oral statement on it for me and, I'm sure, you and other Members representing the area. The loss of what is the best part of 900 jobs is a substantial blow to the area. I would hope that we could have an oral question or statement to give us an opportunity to ask questions of the Cabinet Secretary over an issue that is, to you, like myself, a very important one.

Julie James AM - Yes. I will certainly discuss with the Cabinet Secretary the possibility of that, or of how we could communicate where we are with the taskforce on Virgin Media. I share the Member's concern about the actions of the company and some of the stories that are happening there. So, I'll certainly have that discussion with the Cabinet Secretary to see how we can best facilitate those discussions and public information on that.

Mike Hedges AM surrounded by food and household items donated by members of Seion Newydd chapel,  Morriston, as part of the harvest celebration, for  local foodbanks.

On Sunday morning Mike Hedges AM  collected the harvest gifts from Seion Newydd  chapel for distribution to local food banks. Food collections used to be made for Rumania but due to the huge call for food locally this year the food was delivered locally to the  Morriston and Bonymaen foodbanks. Stories abound of mothers who have not eaten for days in order to feed their children and people opening a tin of beans they are given and eating it on the spot.