Ealing Council Needs to Set Up Its Own Test & Trace System
The government have yet to deliver promised Test and Trace system
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As I pointed out in Issue 7 of this newsletter on 12 May 2020, Ealing Council cannot rely on the Government's flawed £10 billion Test and Trace system. Various authoritative reports peg the success rate of the gold plated Serco run system are only tracing 50% of Covid-19 suspects. Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has already done this with Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees Councils soon to follow suit.
Covid-19 local outbreaks can happen anywhere, any time. Ealing Council Public Health, the 200 Ealing GPs, Ealing CCG staff, Ealing Hospital, Ealing's 48 care homes, the West London NHS Trust and motivated volunteers all working together can surely out-perform private, remote call centre handlers.
Some 1,500 Ealing Tenants in Arrears Face Threats of Eviction as from 23 August 2020
Private renters who have been in arrears for eight weeks or more on 23 August 2020 could be subject to eviction orders. Shelter, the housing charity, estimates 250,000 private renters in England are in this position. A rough estimate is that some 1,500 people facing these threats are renting in Ealing.
Ealing's Recovered Covid-19 Residents Urged to Donate Plasma in Case There is a Second Wave
There is an on-going emergency in the NHS Blood and Transplant collection service. Donations are down 50% from recovered Covid-19 people. Plasma from recovered Covid-19 sufferers is being used in a trial to see if its transfusion can help those patients struggling to build up their immune response.
To donate:
Telephone 0300 123 23 23
Visit www.nhsbt.nhs.uk
Ealing Covid-19: Recent Numbers
408 Covid-19 related deaths to 27 July 2020.
1,611 Covid-19 cases to 31 July 2020.
5 Covid-19 cases /100,000 people (this is the same as the average across England).
16 new Covid-19 cases, 21 July 2020 to 27 July 2020 (4 fewer than the previous week).
If You Think You Have Covid-19 Symptoms
Telephone: 119
Go to: www.nhs,uk/coronavirus
If you have speech or hearing difficulties:
Telephone 18001 119
Ealing Registered a Peak in Excess Deaths During 11 to 17 April 2020
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has produced a new map highlighting how Covid-19 has affected death rates across London. ‘Excess Deaths' is the difference between actual mortality rate compared to the average rate one might normally expect (averaged out over previous years).
Ealing's Excess Deaths peaked during 11 to 17 April 2020 at 318%. It was one of the highest in London. The highest was Brent at 357.5%.
‘Eat Out to Help Out' in Ealing
During August 2020 you can get 50% off food and soft drinks up to £10 at 100 Ealing pubs, restaurants and cafes. This applies on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The discount is not available on takeaways.
Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group (ECCG) Finally Answers Some Questions
In 2013 ECCG was set up to commission (i.e. purchase) NHS services for Ealing residents. It grew steadily and in 2019/20 it employed 151 people and annual staff costs alone exceeded £10 million. In 2019 ECCG was hit by an NHS re-organisation plan and in March 2020 by Covid-19. Its response in recent months has been for its Governing Body to hide away from the public. In a belated response to a recent Freedom of Information request we discover that ECCG is slowly falling apart. Staff number are down to 82 and role sharing with Hounslow CCG is in place for communications and engagement, governance, finance, human resources, contracts, commissioning, performance, business information, health and care partnership team, quality, safety and information technology.
I am in no doubt that many ECCG staff have worked tirelessly from March 2020 to date in supporting all NHS efforts in Ealing helping Covid-19 sufferers and over-worked NHS front line staff.
Formally ECCG will still exist until 31 March 2021. Local commissioning is disappearing with DHSC and NHS England running the purchasing and attempted service delivery of Covid-19 response initiatives – frequently utilising private outsourcers. Informally Ealing is now part of the NHS North West London (NWL) Integrated Care System (ICS), which theoretically purchases NHS healthcare services and Local Authority social care services for the 2.4 million GP registered patients in NHS NWL. Not only does the ICS purchase these services, it is also in charge of service delivery. Now all these informal arrangements drive a coach and horses through the 2012 Health & Social Care Act, which formalised the commissioner/supplier split. To add to this regional care farce, the NHS NWL ICS will only come into even informal existence on 1 April 2021. Johnson and Cummings will have to shove through some enabling legislation to formally kill off local commissioning using CCGs and replace it throughout England with regional commissioning /service delivery by 42 ICSs by 1 April 2021.
Eric Leach
eric.alan.leach@gmail.com
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August 5, 2020
