Agenda item
Tower Hamlets Local Test and Trace Briefing
- Meeting of Online 'Virtual' Meeting, Health & Adults Scrutiny Sub-Committee, Tuesday, 1st December, 2020 6.30 p.m. (Item 5.1)
- View the background to item 5.1
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 their isolating; (iv) see if they need any support whilst in isolation.
- The GP care group looked at who was best place to facilitate this work and established a team of people who had worked in social prescribing, trained advocates, and interpreters from within GP practices. Hence they (i) knew the local communities; area and services; and (ii) used locally produced scripts which are appropriate for a particular group.
- The Team contacted individuals through a variety means and as mentioned they talked them through the normal contact tracing requirements to identify their contacts and if they required any help or assistance e.g. financial; clinical; or assistance with shopping so that they can stay in isolation successfully and complete that period at home in the best way possible.
- Once the Team has completed the contact that information is feed back to the National Contact Tracing Team and the Borough’s Public Health Team to make sure that LBTH collects any additional information to help to respond to the Pandemic. This also enables the relevant agencies to see how well the services are developing and partners can learn from each other and share their experiences so that services can be strengthened across the local health network.
The Chair Moved and it was: -
RESOLVED to note the briefing.
Supporting documents:
- ITEM 5.1 (1) - THs local test and trace breifing, item 5.1 PDF 179 KB
- ITEM 5.1 (2) - THs Local Test and Trace Briefing, item 5.1 PDF 406 KB