In their opening statement for module 2B of the Inquiry, focussing on Welsh government decision making, the DPOs identified that 68% of those who died of Covid-19 in Wales were Disabled people, an even higher ratio than the 59% of deaths across the UK as a whole. They also cited government statistics which showed that Learning Disabled people, when age is taken out of the equation, were still between 3 and 8 times more likely to die of Covid in Wales than non-Disabled people.
The DPOs questioned Welsh government decisions delaying the imposition of testing in care homes which happened later in Wales than in other UK nations and that, shockingly, even the Care Inspectorate for Wales confesses in its Inquiry evidence that it cannot guarantee that all deaths in care homes have been notified to them.
While acknowledging that the Welsh government was unique in commissioning the DPO led Locked Out report, and that the quality of its engagement with Disabled people was “fundamentally different” from the poor situation in Westminster, the DPOs criticised the decision to acquiesce in the passing of Part 2, Sch. 12 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. They highlighted a letter sent by Jane Hutt, Deputy Minister and Chief Whip to Julie Morgan, Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services in November 2020, in which she lamented: “we passed an Act which singles out Disabled peoples' most basic rights as something that can be switched off when expedient to do so.”
The DPOs highlighted the fact that Disabled people across Wales were either inappropriately asked to consent to Do Not Resuscitate notices so that health resources could be targeted on those considered “young and fit” as identified in a BBC report in April 2020, or had these notices imposed without consent.
Finally, the DPOs called for a dedicated Minister for Disabled People in Wales, compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People and emphasised the urgent need for economic redistribution to Disabled people.
Rhian Davies, Chief Executive of Disability Wales said:
“The Covid-19 Inquiry Public Hearings in Wales are enabling us to highlight the stark reality of life for Disabled people during the pandemic: the isolation, loneliness, and confusion as well as the loss of power, voice and citizenship.
There was nothing inevitable about the 68% of deaths from COVID-19 among Disabled people in Wales. As the Locked-Out Report revealed, it was social factors that contributed to this grim statistic, including discrimination, poor housing, poverty, employment status, and institutionalisation together with lack of PPE, poor and patchy services, inaccessible and confusing public information.
We want answers as to why the lives of Disabled people appeared so expendable and moreover to ensure that never again do we face ‘the mass death and real suffering” experienced by so many during the pandemic."