Agenda item

Mark Adams, Director of Public Heath (South Tees) and a representative from Tees Valley CCG will be in attendance to provide an update on COVID-19 and the local Public Health / NHS response.

The Head of Planning and Assurance and the Commissioning and Delivery Manager for Planned Care at Tees Valley NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (TVCCG) were in attendance to provide an update to the panel on the Vaccination Programme and Covid Oximetry at Home Service.

 

The panel was advised that TVCCG was experiencing issues in receiving locality data in respect of vaccination rates and the information released from the data warehouse nationally was currently very high level. Data was being reported at an NHS region and Integrated Care System (ICS) level and was yet to be produced at a STCCG or locality (Middlesbrough) level.

 

Currently the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority list, included nine priority groups (as of 7 January 2021), as detailed in the presentation and vaccinations were being administered in line with these requirements. A number of vaccination offers were in place including a local vaccination service, hospital vaccinations service, pharmacy vaccination service and mass vaccination programme. 

 

The local vaccination service included 13 Primary Care Network (PCN) vaccination sites across the Tees Valley covering 14 PCN’s. There were two sites in Middlesbrough including:-

 

·         Holgate/Greater Middlesbrough Primary Care Network – North Ormesby Branch – Linthorpe Surgery

·         Central Middlesbrough Primary Care Network – Thorntree Surgery

 

The hospital vaccination service focused on providing vaccinations for Health service staff and Care workers including care home staff. This service was in place at South Tees hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust and County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

 

The local pharmacy vaccination service was operating from 2 sites; Acklam in Middlesbrough and Fairfield in Stockton. The large scale vaccination service (mass) vaccination programme was also in place. 

 

It was advised that the number of vaccinations administered in North East and Yorkshire, up to 14 February 2021, was now over 2.1m. On 13 February 2021 77,229 vaccinations had been administered in the region. In terms of cumulative comparisons, as of 7 February 2021 18.9 per cent of the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) ICS population had received its first vaccine. In addition 93.8 per cent of the population aged 80+ in the NENC ICS had received their first dose. The NENC ICS was above the national average in both ‘% population received first dose’ and ‘% of 80+ received first dose’. The national average for these figures were 17.4 per cent and 90.2 per cent respectively.

 

It was explained that the vaccination programme had been a massive undertaking both regionally and nationally. Locally STCCG was in a really positive position. The national requirement for individuals in the top 4 priority groups to have received their first dose of the vaccine by 1 February 2021 had been achieved.

 

The Chair congratulated TVCCG, as well as the regional and national NHS teams, on the delivery of the vaccination programme to date. Positive comments were also expressed by Members in respect of the testing facilities that had been established locally.

 

It was queried as to whether a decision had been taken as to the location that may be considered for the delivery of the mass vaccination programme. The panel was advised that the Riverside Stadium was one of the sites currently being considered and once confirmation had been received an update would be provided. Reference was made as to whether Middlesbrough Bus Station could be considered as a possible location and it was advised that there were national constraints on the type of site that could be used and any approved site needed to be available from 8am – 8pm seven days per week.

 

A member of the panel queried as to the date by which TVCCG anticipated all 9 priority groups would have been offered their first dose of the vaccine. It was explained that nationally the target date for all over 50’s had been set for 30 April 2021. This would be a massive challenge, as inevitably these would need to be administered at the same time as many people older people would be receiving their second dose of the vaccine. However, fantastic progress was being made and currently those in priority groups 5 and 6 were being offered their first dose of the vaccine. 

 

In terms of the Covid Oximetry at Home Service 876 people in the Tees Valley had been referred to the service and 693 had been admitted. The service was proving effective in monitoring an individual’s progress following either discharge from hospital or referral from a GP. It was estimated that as of 9 February 2021 64 hospital beds had been saved as a result of the provision of this service.

 

The Director of Public Heath (South Tees) was in attendance to provide an update on COVID-19 and the local Public Health response.

 

The panel was advised that in terms of the current number of COVID-19 cases in Middlesbrough, the latest data showed that 49 new cases had been added to the system today. 426 new cases had been detected in the last 7 days and the current rate per 100,000 population in Middlesbrough was 302.2. In respect of hospital admissions at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (STH NHS FT) 129 in patients had positive COVID-19 lab results. This figure included 7 new admissions / diagnoses in the last 24 hours, 28 patients in critical care, 30 patients ventilated and 30 patients on oxygen.  

 

With regard to community (asymptomatic) testing a number of targeted community testing sites had been established. These included the following sites:-

 

• Middlesbrough Sport Village (5 test booths) – live from 10 February

• North Ormesby Hub (3 test booths) –live from 15 February

• Newport Hub (5 test booths) – live from16 February

 

In addition “essential worker” tests were being provided at two sites including MAIN and Phoenix House (Independent Living Service) and both went live on 27 January 2021.  The Public Health Team was also developing an approach to testing non-Council “essential workers” (i.e. those that cannot work from home and have high levels of contact with members of the public and are therefore at increased risk. Finally, proactive work was also underway with local taxi companies to ensure taxi drivers were able to access the community testing sites. In total 576 tests had been carried out at the community testing sites since 27 January 2021, with only 1 positive result. The current low level of detection was promising, as the Public Health Team was not uncovering hidden infections. However, it was anticipated that higher numbers would be recorded with more positive test results reported.

 

Work with other high risk business settings had also taken place and 10 businesses in Middlesbrough had attended the Lateral Flow Testing training.

 

Finally, in relation to the South African variant a single case had been identified locally but the individual had had very limited movement.

 

AGREED that the information provided be noted and the fantastic efforts of the local NHS and Public Health Teams recognised.