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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Teams Meeting

Contact: Karen Strahan / Stephanie Lewis  Email: karen.strahan@devon.gov.uk / Email: stephanie.lewis@devon.gov.uk

Note: This will be a virtual meeting - to view the livestream please copy and paste this link into the browser : https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZTE0Mzc4OWEtNzQyYi00YzgzLWI1OTktM2FhZTFiZmJmZjky%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%228da13783-cb68-443f-bb4b-997f77fd5bfb%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22092932fc-d274-4b6c-91b5-90e690141c3b%22%2c%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3atrue%7d&btype=a&role=a 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Notes of the Previous Board Meeting - 21 October 2021 pdf icon PDF 325 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The notes of the previous Board meeting on 21 October 2021 were endorsed.

2.

Urgent Items from the Health Protection Board

The Director of Public Health or their representative to report.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Director of Public Health advised that there were no urgent items for escalation from the Health Protection Board.

3.

Report / Presentation from the Health Protection Board

A Report from the Health Protection Board on current issues, data and matters for information.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board received a Report from the Health Protection Board on current issues, data and matters for information.

 

The Director of Public Health advised that Devon was seeing a rise in the numbers of positive cases, with some areas of North Devon and Torridge particularly high in numbers.

 

The pattern was generally the younger age group amongst school and college age children and students. This appeared to be filtering through to the working age groups, particularly parents of children who had tested positive.

 

Matters included in the Report presented by the Consultant in Public Health were as follows.

 

  • UK summary of cases which showed a small weekly increase in cases and a decrease in deaths;
  • The local picture which showed 4541 cases in Devon in the last week (560 cases per 100k population) which was above the England rate. There had been 12 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, however, for the last 3 or 4 months, the number of deaths per week had remained fairly static;
  • Local Authority trends including age profiles and the impact of half term;
  • Heat map showing the profile by age; and
  • Interactive map of cases, drilling into the data for Torridge and North Devon and the high concentrations of cases in the Bideford, Barnstaple and Northam areas.

 

The dashboard pages can be found here.

 

UK summary: Daily summary | Coronavirus in the UK (data.gov.uk)

Devon Dashboard: Coronavirus dashboard and data in Devon - Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Devon detailed age breakdown: Cases in Devon | Coronavirus in the UK (data.gov.uk)

Interactive Map: Interactive map of cases | Coronavirus in the UK (data.gov.uk)

 

The Director of Public Health added the work that had been done with schools and the schools commissioner in terms of measures to reduce transmission, which was felt to have had an impact and cases would certainly have been higher without such intervention.

 

Moving forward there would be a focus on national messaging in terms of ventilation, fresh air and also testing. The focus was expected to change slightly and encourage people to test before going to ‘high risk’ areas which would be those that were crowded and / or indoors with little fresh air.

 

The key public health measures in terms of social distancing and good hygiene measures were also still key.

 

Members asked questions about the testing regime for holiday makers, particularly those who had holidayed in Europe.

4.

Local and National Updates

The Director of Public Health or their representative to report on any pertinent issues or updates.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no local or national updates for the attention of the Board.

5.

Care Homes - COVID Impacts and Staffing pdf icon PDF 786 KB

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care & Health and Locality Director will report on the current position in Care Homes, including the impact of the virus,  the requirement for staff to be vaccinated and any staffing implications of this.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care & Health reported on the current position in Care Homes, including the impact of the virus, the requirement for staff to be vaccinated and any staffing implications of this.

 

A copy of the full presentation is appended to the minutes.

 

Of particular note was the importance of unpaid carers and the support this group required.

 

Members also noted the Covid 19 Self Isolation Grants to parish and town councils, voluntary, community groups and social enterprises to develop activities to give practical and emotional support to people self-isolating.

 

6.

NHS Update

The Chair of the CCG will report on vaccinations, booster jabs, staffing implications of vaccines, occupancy rates, access to GP’s, impact of seasonal flu and other viruses as well as other general pressures being experienced.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair of the CCG highlighted there was lots of evidence of the infection still circulating in the community and highlighted the impact of that for hospitals and staffing.

 

Across the County, there was just under 140 patients in hospital (the numbers fluctuating over last several days), however initial modelling data suggested a peak towards the end of this month, but then a hope to see a gradual reduction in numbers in hospital.

 

There were approximately 17 people in high dependency which were distributed equally across the County, however tights spots had been experienced as there were other high need cases including recovery from surgery etc.

 

Number of staff off sick was in the region of 2500, but this was the sort of figure expected at this time of year, given winter pressures. However, staff numbers off work related to COVID were lower than expected.

 

There were still intense pressures across the system, both for hospitals, GP’s and the ambulance service, which meant a backlog and it was limited as to what could be done about this at the present time.

 

The Chair of the CCG gave the latest data on vaccination numbers, highlighting that 90% of over 40’s had received their 1st and 2nd doses.

 

Work continued with the younger age groups and the update of the booster was positive with 58% of those eligible having received it (others would have booked but not had the booster yet). Whilst the vaccine must be done at 6 months, people could book from 5 months.

 

From the 1st April, all health workers in face-to-face contact needed to have had both doses of the vaccine.

 

There were concerns nationally regarding vaccine hesitancy and impact of this on the workforce. Nationally, it was 10% of staff who had not been vaccinated, falling to 7% for the South West and Devon was slightly better than the 7%.

 

Whilst a small number were medically exempt, there was optimism that more could be done to manage those waiting for a vaccine.

 

7.

Public Questions / Other Questions for the Board

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no questions for the Board.

 

8.

Key Messages to be Communicated pdf icon PDF 217 KB

The Board and Head of Communications and Media to consider any key messages to be communicated.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board and Head of Communications and Media considered the key messages coming from the meeting.

 

These included rising case levels, key public health messages, hospitals and the health service, mass vaccination, care homes and vulnerable people, schools and education, local community testing and contact tracing.

 

A full script is attached to the minutes for circulation by Board Members.

9.

Date of Next Meeting

Scheduled for 16 December 2021 @ 2.00pm

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members noted the date of the next meeting as 16 December 2021 @ 2.00pm.

 

Dates would be arranged for January, February and March 2022 and dates shared in due course.


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