Arlene Foster platform: I do not underestimate the frustration our announcement caused, but the position in our hospitals has worsened

Our survival rates are the best in the UK and that’s a credit to our frontline staff.

As a champion for local business and as someone of faith, I would have loved for our high streets and places of worship to remain open. I regret that in light of the evidence presented to us by the health minister on Thursday that simply wasn’t possible. The position of our hospitals has worsened.

The R-number whilst at 0.8 last week, is now above 1 and there are more people in hospitals with Covid-19 as well as the normal treatments and seasonal pressures.

To simply roll over the restrictions which were already in place over half-term was not going to produce a different outcome. Indeed, over the last five weeks when partial restrictions were in place, the number of cases amongst our most vulnerable in care homes more than tripled.

The situation has changed at pace. This is reflected in the tougher set of measures proposed by the health minister on Thursday to drive down transmission.

With significant numbers of frontline staff isolating, we could not ignore the Health Minister’s warning that our hospitals were in a precarious position.

I do not in any way underestimate the frustration Thursday’s news will have caused to those whose livelihoods rely on being open and trading. The Executive has agreed additional support and this must be swiftly paid to those impacted. There is, however, no substitute for being able to trade.

We recognised the inevitability of this two-week circuit-breaker because the health service and its staff are stretched and burdened but we have made clear to others in the Executive and the Department of Health in particular, that the surge plans have not worked and simply locking down will not increase capacity in our hospitals.

Lockdowns buy time, cause other negative outcomes and do not solve the capacity problems in the health system.

The health minister, alongside the other ministers, must use this period to urgently plan and agree solutions which create an additional buffer for the pressure points in hospitals.

We have identified five areas in particular:

1. Daily rapid testing of staff in hospitals and care homes. 2. Mass widespread testing of NI population which also disrupts transmission rates. 3. More staff for tracking and tracing. 4. Appointment of a chief vaccination officer who specialises in logistics. 5. An enforcement Tsar to drive compliance.

The DUP has proposed to the Health Minister that the Executive pursue daily testing of all staff in our care homes and hospitals as well as seek mass testing for Northern Ireland.

We need to expand contact tracing and recruit more staff. Professional expertise should be appointed to ensure the Northern Ireland vaccine is available to frontline staff and vulnerable first at same time as rest of UK. We also want more data being made available to the public.

Putting in the hard yards now can prevent further disruption to society in the future and the risk of a tsunami of poverty, mental illness and a crisis in routine illness.

As we have signalled this week, the DUP will not shirk difficult decisions when the evidence dictates it is necessary to protect the vulnerable and our NHS.

What we cannot and will not endorse, however, is a plan based solely on continuous lockdown without any other long-term plans until we get to the vaccine rollout.

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