Issue - meetings
Local Authority Covid-19 Test and Trace Support Grant
Meeting: 02/02/2021 - Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board (Item 3)
3 Local Authority Covid-19 Vaccination Programme PDF 35 KB
The Board will be provided on how the vaccination programme is administering vaccines to residents, NHS and social care staff of Tower Hamlets.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Board noted (i) that the local GP Care Group had been given the green light to commence COVID-19 vaccination in Tower Hamlets from Monday 14th December, 2020 as the first wave of the primary care based COVID vaccination programme; (ii) the details of the types of vaccinations available in the Borough; (iii) who had had the COVID vaccine first and in what order; (iii) the details about the vaccination centre in Mile End and new centres; (iv) the experiences of people receiving the vaccine; and (v) the ongoing support from partners and next steps.
The main points of the discussion on how the vaccination programme is administering vaccines to residents, NHS and social care staff of Tower Hamlets is summarised below:
The Board:
v Noted that the programme aims to complete the following priority groups 1-4 by 14th February 2021: (i) residents in a care home for older adults and their carers; (ii) all those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers; (iii) all those 75 years of age; and (iv) all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals.
v Noted that there are currently 3362 Individuals outstanding with over 4000 appointments available via primary care (excluding pharmacy and mass vaccination centre)
v Were concerned that although overall that there is a high level of willingness to take up the Covid-19 vaccines, marked differences do exist by ethnicity, with the Black population the most likely to be Covid-19 vaccine hesitant followed by the South Asian community.
v Commented that people are having concerns about the currently available vaccines or that they are intending to wait for the introduction of other vaccines that are more effective against later strains of the virus.
v Commented that it is important to recognise that a key factor for residents in the older age groups that they want to go to community-based vaccination sites.
v Noted that going forwarded it is intended to use the community-based venue such as the: (i) Mile End Leisure Centre; (ii) London Muslim Centre; (iii) GP Practices; (iv) care homes; and (v) visits to housebound residents.
v Noted that those individuals who are not taking up vaccine will be contacted to talk through if they have any issues about the vaccines and how those issues can be resolved.
v Stated that Board Members should ensure that their agencies are utilising their networks to promote effective communications to overcome vaccine hesitancy and to encourage increased an uptake of the available vaccines.
v Noted that from the 1st of February 2021 a Vaccine Helpline funded by LBTH and supported with training and resources by GP Care Group has been established and is now open 7 days per week, between 8:00 am to 8:00 pm with multilingual staff to (i) answer queries; (ii) contact those who are vaccine hesitant; (iii) book appointments to local clinics and mass vaccination centre.
v Agreed that the impact of COVID-19 on communities would rely ... view the full minutes text for item 3
Meeting: 01/12/2020 - Health & Adults Scrutiny Sub-Committee (Item 5)
5 Tower Hamlets Local Test and Trace Briefing PDF 179 KB
Additional documents:
- ITEM 5.1 (2) - THs Local Test and Trace Briefing, item 5 PDF 406 KB
- Webcast for Tower Hamlets Local Test and Trace Briefing
Minutes:
The Committee received and noted a briefing on the Local Test and Trace. A summary of the discussions is set out below:
The Sub-Committee noted that:
- NHS Test and Trace is a national programme which ensures that anyone who develops symptoms of Covid-19 can be tested quickly. It also helps trace close recent contacts of anyone who tests positive for coronavirus and notify them so that they can stay at home (self-isolate) and help stop the spread of the virus.
- Residents must take the following steps if they have coronavirus symptoms or are contacted by NHS Test and Trace and told that they have been in close contact with someone with Covid-19. If they have one or more symptoms of Covid-19, which are a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss of, or change in, their normal sense of taste or smell, they must immediately self-isolate.
- They must then book a test through NHS.UK or call NHS 119. Testing being available for anyone who has symptoms.
- If they test positive, they will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace who will help them identify who they have been in close contact with and will ask for their contact details. They must then isolate for 10 days, whilst people identified as having been in close contact with someone who has a positive test must stay at home for 10 days, even if they do not have symptoms.
- One of the key things to say about the programme is that it was introduced as a national model and there were always going to be issues about how effectively it would work at the local level and particularly with local populations which are remarkably diverse and deprived like that in Tower Hamlets.
- As the programme was implemented what became apparent that was that it was not effectively contacting everyone in the resident population who was testing positive and so generally it was contacting about 80 percent of those who were testing positive. Therefore, when they were significant outbreaks after the first wave in cases such as Leicester and Blackburn the national programme was not managing to contact all positive cases and not being able to limit transmission in those areas. Therefore, a local test and trace programmes has been developed to complement the national programme.
- Tower Hamlets was one of the early adopters of such a programme and it is important to say that when talking about local test and trace programmes the focus of the programme is only on contacting those positive cases that the national programme has been unable to contact.
- Tower Hamlets programme is a little bit different to other programmes that have been developed across London in that it has commissioned from the Tower Hamlets GP care group. Therefore, once somebody with symptoms gets notified of the test results the GP care group contact those people to (i) check-up that they know that they have tested positive; (ii) collect information about their contacts; (iii) make sure that ... view the full minutes text for item 5
Meeting: 17/11/2020 - Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board (Item 3)
3 Local Authority Covid-19 Test and Trace Support Grant PDF 227 KB
Additional documents:
- Covid 19 Test and Trace Support Grant_areas of spend (2), item 3 PDF 293 KB
- Webcast for Local Authority Covid-19 Test and Trace Support Grant
Minutes:
The Committee received a report from Somen Banerjee – Director of Public Health regarding Local Authority Covid-19 Test and Trace Support Grant. The main points of the discussion are summarised as follows:
The Board noted that:
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- The Borough has implemented a local test and trace programme which has been commissioned from general practice.
- The other real priority is the clinically extremely vulnerable since going to lock down the advice to then has changed so they were previously advised they could go to work with precautions but now the advice if they do not go to work. Therefore, it is important to be clear about what the advice is going to be for them.
- Tower Hamlets had amongst the lowest levels of testing in London, so it was an important priority that local testing sites are developed.
- Testing sites need to be in those areas where there were lower levels of testing e.g. Shadwell was identified as such a location.
- There are limitations on the places that can be used as local testing sites as they need to meet certain criterion and the Ideas Store in Shadwell was one of those places which has met the criterion of the Department of Health.
- In other places they had been difficulties around queueing therefore there is an exceptionally good queue management but also that people could only attend the site if they had booked a test.
- When you book a test, you are given very clear advice about how you protect yourself and how you protect others e.g. wearing face coverings.
- There has been an issue around access by families to their relatives in care homes and the mental health impact that is having not just on the families but their elderly relatives as well. Accordingly, there has been a pilot in which they are using a rapid testing to enable visitors to see their loved ones.
In conclusion, the Chair thanked Somen Banerjee for his presentation.
The Chair then Moved, and it was RESOLVED to note:
1. The current use of the Grant; and
2. The Equalities Impact Assessment.