Heartbeat July 2020
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Sandwell Council COVID-19 outbreak<br />
plan wins national praise<br />
COVID-19<br />
Sandwell Council’s COVID-19<br />
outbreak plan has been highlighted<br />
as a model of best practice by<br />
Department of Health officials.<br />
The plan, created by the borough’s<br />
public health team in response to a<br />
government instruction to all councils,<br />
has been published and the government<br />
is pointing other organisations to the<br />
Sandwell plan to help with their own<br />
outbreak contingency arrangements.<br />
It sets out detailed plans which will be<br />
immediately activated in case of further<br />
virus outbreaks and includes an online<br />
video summary.<br />
Sandwell’s Director of Public Health,<br />
Dr Lisa McNally said she submitted the<br />
plan to the Department of Health &<br />
Social Care (DHSC) and the feedback<br />
has been very positive. “The local DHSC<br />
coordinator has put it forward to the<br />
national team as an example of good<br />
practice.”<br />
She added: “Our outbreak plan brings<br />
together everything we do into one<br />
place – and will be something we keep<br />
adding to. The latest version will always<br />
be available on the council’s website<br />
along with a short video summary<br />
and other resources to help people<br />
understand more about what we do.<br />
“Our main aim is to be ready for<br />
whatever this pandemic throws at us<br />
next. We don’t know whether the<br />
‘second wave’ will just be a modest<br />
increase in cases or something much<br />
bigger that will once again threaten<br />
health and social care service capacity.<br />
Either way, we’ll make sure that we do<br />
everything possible to protect our local<br />
community.”<br />
The plan sets out in detail how the<br />
public health team, in collaboration with<br />
other local and regional organisations,<br />
are responding to the challenge of<br />
COVID-19 outbreaks. It includes<br />
information on how outbreaks are<br />
managed in schools, care homes and<br />
workplaces by a seven-day-a-week<br />
outbreak response team. There are<br />
explanations about how testing and<br />
contract tracing is managed and how<br />
to protect the needs of those most<br />
vulnerable to COVID-19.<br />
To date, Sandwell has had 1,090<br />
confirmed cases which, for purposes of<br />
comparison with other areas, is a rate of<br />
332.9 per 100k population.<br />
Dr Lisa McNally - Director of Public Health for Sandwell<br />
In the ‘league table’ of case rates, this puts<br />
Sandwell 51st highest nationally and third<br />
highest out of the four Black Country local<br />
authorities.<br />
Dr McNally said there was currently a factory<br />
outbreak where a multi-agency team was<br />
working with the company to manage the<br />
situation and conduct testing across the<br />
workforce.<br />
Two schools have also had positive cases<br />
since they reopened. In both cases, the school<br />
benefited from having excellent infection<br />
control procedures in place, including good<br />
maintenance of ‘bubbles’, which meant that<br />
only a small number of children were exposed<br />
and minimal disruption to the school.<br />
She said: “School staff have done an<br />
awesome job in working with us to get these<br />
measures in place. I must have done over 30<br />
risk assessments with headteachers myself<br />
– so I know first-hand how hard they’ve<br />
worked.<br />
She added: “We continue to see a few cases<br />
in care homes – but it’s greatly reduced, as<br />
thankfully are the number of deaths in care<br />
homes from COVID-19. Overall, across the<br />
pandemic, we have seen a lower death rate in<br />
Sandwell’s care homes than in other areas.<br />
Again, that’s thanks to continuous efforts of<br />
care home staff to work with us in making<br />
care homes as safe as possible. The PPE<br />
supply is now good.”<br />
Sandwell's COVID-19 outbreak plan has<br />
received national recognition<br />
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