Agenda item

Up to 10 minutes is allowed for this item.

Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum.  The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda.  Public Forum items should be emailed to democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk and please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:-

Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by 5 pm on Thursday 22 October.

Petitions and Statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting.  For this meeting this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12.00 noon on Tuesday 27 October.

There were none.

The Chair invited Christina Gray, Director Public Health to present the Situation Report.

The Board was provided with a presentation that shared the current direction of travel of the pandemic in the Bristol region.

·       That although the City remains at tier 1 a number of factors has led the Mayor & Partners to issue a new designation of Tier1 plus to enable direct action.

·       That at present; infection rates had risen to 340.8 per 100.00 in 7 days; 14% positivity; that LA was ranked 34 out of 149 authorities; 84 Covid19 patients in hospital; low number of care home residents are positive; 55% of the cases are in those under 30 years, students and children in school; a steady increase in adults of working age 27% (30-60).

·       Bristol Covid19 Local Outbreak Management Plan was shared; Multi agency group convened because of the changes in the growth of the infection over the last two weeks, chaired by Mike Jackson and attended by key agencies dealing with the pandemic; that the change in the spread of the virus has resulted in the region moving on to the national watch list.

·       Work is being done to ‘Keep Bristol Open – Safely’; reduce the spread of the virus; protect at risk groups; prevent harms to health from job loss; enable young people to engage in education; promote mental health and wellbeing;

·       Tier 1 plus targeted actions from local outbreak plan -  launch local Marshalls; increase local testing; effectively use data to target local breakouts for specific action.

·       Seven Areas for enhanced joint action namely;  to understand; to engage; to support; to protect; to contain; to restrict; to enforce.

The following was noted from the discussion that arose:

a)     North Bristol Trust reported that as of Friday 23^rd October there were 37 patients being treated and now up to 55; that the hospital continued to experience the standard seasonal pressure on beds, not only as a result of patients with Covid19; that the loss of bed space results in less capacity to deliver other service provision.

b)     University Hospital Bristol:  they had a lack of capacity and had to declare a major incident; that they were moving forward to maintain service and manage the backlog in treatment; that they are determine to keep services operational;  that an operational plan was in place to manage when and how the Nightingale Hospitals come on line.

c)      Questions were asked on whether the Nightingale Hospital could be used for covid19 patients thereby removing them from the mainstream to a specialist setting.  In answer the Board was advised that; the staff required to deliver services in the Nightingale hospital would be drawn from current resource impacting the overall deliver of care; that the Nightingale was for those patients very poorly requiring critical care whilst unconscious.

d)     Reassurances were given that hospital had capacity in the ICU for those requiring critical care.  That Primary Care & GP practices have reported high demand and additional pressures across all areas of health care.  That joint working continues across the partnership to deliver services.

e)     Elaine Flint explained that access to good data would support those local networks supporting those families in communities at higher risk of transmission;  For example data for Lawrence Hill & Barton Hill that house families in high rise flats and homes occupied with multiple generations.  There is a need to know what is actually happening to enable the networks to share the right information with these communities.

f)      Chair shared that the work undertaken community volunteers continues to be important; that they were also experiencing the fatigue similar to health professionals because of the extended length of the pandemic.

g)     The Chair thanked the DPH for the updating the Board with the Situation Report.