On Sunday 23 April 2023: WE’RE DOING A LOCAL SURVEY. OH DEAR! MORE STRIKES TO COME. THINGS GETTING WORSE AGAIN.
We are Surveying our health & welfare services provided by SWF and the Dengie Primary Care Network (PCN) independently & academically. This is your chance to tell us what you think about, and want from, them. WE will use the results to lobby for what is needed. There is a series of four short online questionnaires, the links to which are:
Access to Appointments & Services https://warwick.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9LkpiyOjnvh463A
The Social Impact of Covid https://warwick.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9nmwnKdf3D6mK22
Mental Health https://warwick.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bfQPuCoT9C6vcMe
The Social Impact of the Cost of Living https://warwick.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5aKcSKlKU4nnwPQ
Please contribute as we need a big voice about this and each survey will only take a few minutes to complete; if this isn’t important to you now it will be one day. Deadline for submissions is 2359 Monday 1st May 2023. If you aren’t online ask someone you know who is online to do it with you.
“Living with Covid” is now the policy. That’s because Covid is now regarded as ‘another respiratory illness’, like flu. Whilst that’s reasonable and necessary, is now the right time to cut back on regular infection information? The weekly ONS infection survey stopped with its report of 24 March (see below). At that time the infection rate was still increasing. Testing has been cut back to a bare minimum.
So all we can go on is stale and limited present data, and local intelligence. The latest UKHSA surveillance report indicates decreased Covid and flu infections during the Easter holidays. But students and workers have returned from holidays now, we’ve had the Junior Doctors strike and the weather hasn’t been too good. Anecdotally we know last week has seen increases in local infections with people with them feeling absolutely awful and taking longer than usual to recover. And there’s a possible new Covid strain being talked about.
Deaths with Covid on death certificates rose and hospitalisations remain high, particularly for the over 85s. FLU infections are stable. RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS (RSV) infections are stable and highest for the under 5s. The last reports said: ADENOVIRUS is high for 5-14 year olds; SCARLET FEVER & STREP A infections are higher than normal.
The sickness bug Norovirus has been nearly double the 5-season pre-Covid average, particularly with the over 65s and under 5s. Don’t visit vulnerable people, particularly in care homes or hospitals while having diarrhoea and/or vomiting until 48 hours after symptoms stop. Keep practicing good hand hygiene especially after being unwell, using the toilet or preparing or eating food.
STRIKES of NURSES in the Royal College of Nursing are back and will happen from 2000 on 30 April to 2000 on 2 May over the first May bank holiday. Some other NHS workers have accepted a settlement. The strike by JUNIOR DOCTORS in March led to a reported 175,000 cancelled appointments and procedures; their 4 days strike from 11-15 April went ahead causing at least 200,000 more cancellations. The nurses strike will involve emergency departments, intensive care, cancer and other wards. Some ambulance workers will strike on 1 & 2 May. These disputes must be settled immediately. Serious talks, possibly mediated by ACAS, are the only way to settle them. All these strikes hurt patients, make workloads more challenging, and interrupt tackling the NHS backlogs. 13,000 hospital beds are blocked by patients fit to discharge. 100,101 hospital beds are available (up from 90,621 last year). The cost of agency staff for the NHS in 2021 was £3bn, up 20%.
Spring Covid booster vaccinations will be given to everyone over 75, care-home residents and the most vulnerable people. Older adults in care homes are gettin jabs given by NHS teams visiting them. Other eligible people have started getting their NHS invitations by App, text and letter. Booking at vaccination centres is open. Some GP Practices will be running vaccination sessions, again by invitation. In the Autumn there will be another full programme of Covid and flu jabs, for the same cohorts as in 2022.
The Dashboard says in w/e 24 March in England there were 568 (p/w 531) Deaths with Covid on death certificates and in w/e 17 April 4,207 (p/w 4,556) patients admitted to hospital. Hospitalisations and deaths lag behind infections. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data estimated 1,489,600 (1 in 38) people in England had Covid in w/e 13 March (p/w 1,332,800 = 1 in 40). This was the last publication. Was stopping reporting really such a good idea when infections were growing? Taking the ONS estimate and SWF’s population as 16,000 that meant there were 421 (p/w 400) SWF residents with Covid in w/e 13 March. 2.2m people in the UK have long Covid; 80+ in the SWF & Dengie area. If you think you have long-Covid see your GP for a diagnosis & referral to a local recovery service. Covid testing in England has been scaled back. Most staff and patients in hospitals and care homes are no longer tested unless staff are working with severely immunocompromised patients or there’s an outbreak, for example on a ward, in a hospice or a prison. This can be scaled up again quickly if there’s another big Covid wave or new variant. The “Living with Covid” approach relies on vaccines to keep people safe.
AVOID CATCHING & SPREADING COVID & OTHER INFECTIONS: TAKE CARE; IF UNWELL AVOID VULNERABLE FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES & RELATIVES; ventilate indoor meetings; meet outdoors; wear face coverings in crowded enclosed spaces. If you can stay home; and avoid contact with other people.
SWF Health & Social Care Group provides health & social care information and signposting to people, especially those at risk, isolating, housebound, and without local support. Information is on our website https://swfhealthsocial.co.uk/ . Contact us on swfhealthsocial@outlook.com or leave a voicemail on 01245 322079 which is monitored daily.
SWF Health & Social Care Group 