News leaks out about vaccinations in Ealing
My own GP practice says it has been promised good supplies of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in less than two weeks. It plans to work around the clock to vaccinate as many priority patients as fast as it can. Let’s hope all Ealing GP practices soon receive good supplies of vaccines. It’s clear that the Pfizer vaccine has been in short, unreliable supply at the two Ealing mass vaccination centres (Ealing Town Hall and Dominion Centre, Southall). My surgery was offered few time slots for its patients.
Apparently 16,000 vaccine doses are expected to be ‘delivered’ in Ealing this week. Ealing Council says that 34% of the borough’s over 80 year olds have been vaccinated with their first jab. 4.8% of the nation’s population are over 80. 441,683 patients are registered at Ealing’s 75 GP practices. That gives us 21,200 over 80s. If 7,208 of them have already been vaccinated that’s quite an achievement.
There is also an ’expectation’ that a third mass vaccination site could open in West Ealing – venue as yet unknown.
In NHS North West London (NWL) 56,000 people in Priority Groups 1 – 3 have received their first vaccination. These are elderly patients and their carers in care homes, frontline health and social care workers and over 75 year olds. Apparently there are 130,000 in these priority groups still to be vaccinated, but NHS NWL is confident they will all be vaccinated by mid-February 2021. No ‘town’ vaccination numbers are available and it’s clear that the controlling authority is NHS England.
Nationally details about vaccine supply are apparently State secrets. This is not encouraging at all and makes us all suspicious about exactly how many vaccine doses are coming to Ealing – and when.
Covid-19 Infection Rates Remain High But are Falling in Some Neighbourhoods in Ealing
Rates are volatile across Ealing. However comparing day-by-day rates 14 January 2021 to 17 January 2021 is quite encouraging. Of the nine neighbourhood rates I check every day, more of the rates had fallen each day rather than risen. Of those rates which have risen the rises were relatively small. On 17 January six of the rates day-by-day had fallen. The highest rate is at Whitton Avenue West Northolt at 1,356.3/100,000. The lowest is Ealing Broadway West at 529. Ealing’s overall rate is 1,006.7 and it’s the third worst in London. All London boroughs have falling rates.
Over 200 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Beds Being Deployed Across North West London for Covid-19 Patients
At the NHS North West London Joint Health & Overview Scrutiny Committee meeting on 16 January 2021 it was announced that two thirds of the 320 ICU beds in the region were occupied by Covid-19 patients. Ms Lesley Watts, the NHS NWL Integrated Care System boss said that Covid-19 cases were plateauing across the region except for Brent and Ealing.
An Overflow, Temporary Mortuary is Opened in Ruislip
The facility, close by the Breakspear Crematorium, can hold 217 bodies, but will reach a capacity of 1,300 by 20 January 2021. The cost of building the mortuary is £4 million.
All 30 Covid-19 Response LTN Road Blocks to be Monitored by Ealing Council Using ANPR Cameras at a Cost of £600,000
With the Government imprisoning us all in our own homes, vehicle traffic flows are abnormally low. The Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) seem to me at the moment an annoying irrelevance. Ealing Council’s relentless pursuit of LTN Fines (Penalty Charge Notices - PCNs) during this stressful time seems obsessive bordering on demented. With its well publicised financial problems, the Council’s installing fixed Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras at each of the 30 road blocks at a cost of £20,000 might seem expensive. However a recent Freedom of Information response tells us that between 7 December 2020 and 11 January 2021 in LTNs 30 and 21 alone, 5,920 PCNs have been issued for those driving through. Each PCN has a maximum fine of £130. One can only conclude that ANPR camera monitored Ealing LTNs will be revenue generators for Ealing Council.
University of West London (UWL) Nursing and Midwifery Lecturers Are Training Students as Vaccinators
UWL, with campuses in Ealing, Brentford and Reading, has also raised over £35,000 to support its students struggling with the pandemic.
Eric Leach
eric.alan.leach@gmail.com
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January 19, 2021
