Agenda item

The Chairman invited the following to the meeting:

·       Dr Tamara Djuretic, Director of Public Health, London Borough of Barnet

·       Dawn Wakeling, Executive Director, Adults and Health, London Barnet of Borough

Dr Djuretic reported that Coronavirus cases in Barnet have been decreasing, standing currently at 140 per 100,000 population. We are out of lockdown and in Tier 2 but there are still certain social distancing measures in place and these need to be exercised and followed, especially if there are up to three households in a Christmas bubble.

Dr Djuretic continued that the current average hospital admission of patients with Covid in Barnet is ten patients per day. The latest data as at 17 November shows 69 Covid patients in general beds and 22 on mechanical ventilation across the whole Royal Free Group. Approximately one third of these patients are Barnet residents.

Barnet has good access to PCR Covid tests, with two local sites as well as mobile testing units. The Government has introduced ‘Lateral Flow’ testing initiatives across five national programmes. One is for Care Settings including residents, care workers, and visitors, one programme is for university students, one is for work places although it is not exactly defined which ones, another is for hospital staff and the last one is for Directors of Public Health to utilise Lateral Flow Tests (LFTs) as and when they are needed. The LFT is a new technology producing results in 30 minutes although its specificity is high sensitivity is not as good, resulting in a few false positives but there are more false negatives. At the moment, there are two large Care Homes in Barnet which have received the tests in the first wave. Barnet has ordered 8000 tests and will use them initially in places of worship, schools and day centres. As the results cannot be guaranteed with LFTs, protective measures still need to be in place and Barnet has communicated this to Middlesex University and Care Homes.

Dr Djuretic reported that Barnet has recruited around 100 champions from a variety of communities to help to disseminate messages around Covid, including building trust in the vaccine as well as social distancing.  In addition, Barnet will begin contact tracing to support NHS Test and Trace on 4 December. Preparations are underway for a vaccination programme to be run by the NHS. Barnet is supporting North Central London (NCL) to identify sites for mass vaccination. Vaccination will also be carried out in Primary Care and mobile sites. The Pfizer BioNtech vaccine has been approved with Astra Zeneca/Oxford next in the queue and the third will be Moderna. Two doses of each of these vaccines will be needed and there will be priority tiers starting with Care Homes.

A Member asked whether Care Home residents who have been treated in hospital with Covid, but have recovered, would be given the Lateral Flow Test so that they can return to Care Home. She also expressed concern that it may not be in the best interest of patients with severe dementia to be moved from hospital to a community health bed.  Ms Wakeling, Executive Director, Adults and Health, LBB reported that a North Central London discharge pathway has been agreed for the discharge of Covid positive patients who are ready to leave an acute hospital. Community health beds have been provided so that they do not have to return to the Care Home until they are Covid negative. These beds are suitable for isolating Covid positive patients and there are measures in place to support the cohort who also have dementia. The average length of stay for this group of patients is around seven days.

RESOLVED that the Committee noted the verbal update.