“It helped us through a difficult journey” - The legacy of the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre

This week, the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre has published its final report showcasing two years of work which helped ministers make vital health and social care decisions during the pandemic.

The “legacy” report discusses how the Centre, funded by Welsh Government through Health and Care Research Wales, addressed issues which were important to the public, playing a crucial role in ensuring COVID-19 research, which informed how the pandemic was handled in Wales, was up-to-date and relevant to the population.

Members of the public were essential to the Centre’s work, with the report highlighting how the public have supported the creation of evidence reviews and new research studies by giving their opinion on research priorities and writing easy to understand report summaries.

Professor Adrian Edwards, Director of the Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre, said: “scientific research and data are vital tools to enable informed decisions about how we tackle some of the most challenging issues.

“We are really pleased to have been able to provide the best evidence available to support Welsh Government, the NHS, social care and others in good time to inform the decisions they made during the pandemic to help us all.”

Director of Health and Care Research Wales, Professor Kieran Walshe, said: "“The Centre helped us provide the best evidence-based health and social care services to patients and communities during the pandemic. We are proud to have established and funded the Centre.

“Ending the pandemic relied fundamentally on research delivering solutions to diagnosis, treatment and prevention, and I am really grateful to Professor Edwards and his team for the work in addressing some of the far-reaching impacts of COVID-19.”

Providing research evidence

Since its launch in March 2021 to its transition into the Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre in April 2023, the Centre has published 43 reports compiling research on topics such as the pandemic’s impact on young people’s education, the mental health impact on key workers, and the risk of COVID-19 transmission in vaccinated communities.

A significant review, completed in the Centre’s first year, into the effectiveness of face masks underpinned Welsh Government’s advice to keep wearing face coverings on public transport, in shops and in health and social care settings.

Through another important research review, the Centre provided evidence about vaccine safety during pregnancy to support Public Health Wales in its campaign to encourage pregnant women to have the vaccine after it was revealed that vaccine uptake in pregnant women was low, contributing to increased hospital admissions.

Sir Frank Atherton, Chief Medical Officer for Wales, said: “having the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre available to pull the research together has been imperative for Wales. The Centre has informed equity discussions and helped us through a difficult journey … when I think about what the Centre did … I think it excelled. The work they’ve done is fantastic.”

Building on success

COVID-19 demonstrated how essential research evidence is to decision-making at every level and decisions about wider health and social care also need to be informed by robust evidence. Following on from the achievements of the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre, the new Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre will provide crucial evidence on topics such as long term conditions, domestic violence and abuse and children’s social care.

Professor Edwards continued: “building on the experience and skills developed in the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre, the new Centre aims to make sure health and social care policy and practice in Wales is based on the best possible evidence.

“It’s critical we understand the most effective ways to do things, what’s best for public, patients, staff and what’s best value for money. The evidence the new Centre can provide is essential.”

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