A MEMBER of the Senedd has raised concerns over vaccination delays in North Wales.

North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has congratulated all those involved in the vaccine rollout in Wales, but called for assurances from the Health Minister that issues raised with him by constituents will be quickly resolved.

Responding to yesterday’s Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services on COVID-19 Vaccinations, Mr Isherwood applauded the progress that has been made in Wales, but highlighted vaccination delays in Chirk and called for assurances that a young elite Paralympic F20 world champion shot putter will be vaccinated in time to compete in Poland at the end of May to qualify for the Tokyo Paralympic games.

He said: “I congratulate everybody who is involved in not only closing the initial first-dose gap with England and Scotland, but also now closing the second-dose gap also. So, well done.

“But what assurance can you give to the constituent whose daughter is an Elite Paralympic F20 World Champion Shot putter, hoping to go to Tokyo to the Paralympic games this summer, who may need to go to the Europeans in Poland at the end of May to qualify for Tokyo, but who is in vaccination priority Group 6, has not yet had a vaccination, and where her Mother rightly states ‘it would be a real shame if she missed the opportunity to go to Poland and therefore jeopardise her chances of a gold medal in Tokyo because she has not been vaccinated in time’?

“And secondly and finally, how do you respond to the Chirk patient who contacted me yesterday, stating that ‘contrary to the Welsh Government's proclamation about getting all of its over-70s vaccinated a day before England, Chirk Surgery only completed the last of the first doses for people in this category today’ - i.e. yesterday, that ‘people in younger age groups who would already have been vaccinated if they lived in Shropshire’, 100 yards away, ‘are facing a two to three-week wait’ that “Chirk's flu vaccine service is consistently excellent, so it plainly isn't their fault’, that ‘the political borders in this area often don't match other lines, such as the divisions between GP practices’, and that ‘in this particular instance, the problem is with the supply of vaccines to Chirk Surgery, which is in Wales and part of the Welsh NHS system’.”

In his response, the Health Minister said: “In terms of your constituent and her concern that she's in group 6 and has yet to have her vaccine, I expect that we will match the pace in England where they think they can complete all groups up to priority group 9 by the middle of April. So, I don't think that your constituent will have to wait very much longer.

With regards to vaccine supply, he said: “I think within Wales, within England, within every country, you could have vaccine delivery centres that have a slightly different supply compared to each other, but overall, we're going very fast.”