A POWYS Covid campaigner has described her experiences of losing a loved one to the pandemic during the public inquiry hearings into the government’s response.
On June 13, the hearings for public inquiry to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, began.
Catherine Griffiths from Machynlleth, one of the five core members of the group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, was featured prominently in the opening of the hearing as part of a video in which numerous people spoke about their experiences of losing a loved one to the virus.
The group was granted core participant status in Module 1 by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry Chair, inviting them to participate in the proceedings, and were represented by Kirsten Heaven at the hearing.
Ms Griffiths recounted losing her father, RAF Group Captain Harry Griffiths, to Covid-19 in November 2020.
She said: “My father died, aged 86, in a care home from Covid. The only thing we could do was be outside his window, unable to hold or be near him.
“I’m relieved the inquiries have started. I know there’s not time for appropriate scrutiny that the people of Wales deserve but I hope at the very least this will lead the Welsh and UK Governments to take the need for preparation seriously and determine better protocols to care for the people of Wales.
“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail and that’s reflected in what we have seen from these hearings so far."
She added: “We will not stop campaigning for a separate Welsh inquiry, in the same way that Scotland has been granted its own public enquiry into what happened.
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“With responsibility comes accountability and the Welsh Government hold responsibility for the health and wellbeing of the Welsh people.
“My father was in the RAF his whole life, so he worked for the government and in the end it was the government that let him down.”
The first module of the hearings will address the examine the resilience and preparedness of the United Kingdom for a pandemic.
The enquiry’s chair, Baroness Heather Hallett, has said key questions that the hearings should aim to answer include whether the UK was properly prepared for a pandemic, whether its response was appropriate, and what was can learn for the future.
Ms Griffiths also said that she felt the Welsh Government gave the group very little time to prepare with late evidence submissions and repeated refusals to consider an enquiry looking into Wales’ specific preparedness for a pandemic.
Ms Heaven told the hearing: “Many of those bereaved people feel they were let down by their government, they feel let down because they have experienced the consequences of what they consider to be the catastrophic failure of the Welsh Government to adequately prepare for and respond to a pandemic in Wales.”
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