Daily Archives: 13 Dec 2021

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13 Dec 2021

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Boostered: did Boris “bounce” the NHS with his vaccine booster speech?

[And would he have reasons other than Omicron to grab the headlines right now? – Owl]

Yesterday he announced the “Omicron Emergency Booster National Mission” to encourage everyone who is eligible to “get boosted now”.

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Government discussing Covid Plans D and E

Possible Plans D and E are being discussed by the government should current measures fail to bring the Omicron variant under control, Whitehall insiders have said.

Meanwhile it’s the vote on Plan B tomorrow, Plan C possibly on December 21. – Owl

Clare Busch www.devonlive.com

The Mirror reports the tougher Covid-19 plans being discussed include another lockdown.

MPs have already been told they may have to return to Parliament for a vote on tougher restrictions should Omicron infections hit the expected million mark.

A vote on Tuesday, December 21 could move the current Plan B rules to Plan C, which would require masks in all indoor establishments and the use of Covid app for pubs and restaurants. Vaccine passports could be required for smaller venues.

Plan C would also include a return to table service only and a required self-isolation after contact with someone infectious.

The possible Plan D could mean all pubs and restaurants stopping indoors service with only outdoor service allowed.

A Plan E would see a return to lockdown with all pubs, cafes, restaurants and non-essential retail closed.

Individuals would only be able to leave their home for essential reasons such as work, medical appointments and to buy food.

Schools would be the last to close.

Plan B includes masks for public transport and most indoor settings, vaccine passports for large events and advice to work from home. The plan came into effect today (Monday, December 13) just as Boris Johnson confirmed the first death associated with Omicron in the UK.

The Prime Minister said at a vaccination clinic in west London: “Sadly yes Omicron is producing hospitalisations and sadly at least one patient has been confirmed to have died with Omicron.

“So I think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that’s something we need to set on one side and just recognise the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population. So the best thing we can do is all get our boosters.”

Boris Johnson said that Omicron now represents about 40% of coronavirus cases in London. He added: “tomorrow it’ll be the majority of the cases” there.

Plan B will stay in force for at least six weeks, with a review on January 5.

A Health Department source told the Mirror: “If you follow the science, we should really be doing Plan C now. The PM is gambling with the NHS to save his leadership.

“But we all know the PM can’t let anything hit Christmas. That really did him damage last time round. To do it again would be killer.”

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Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 29 November

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Good Law Project threatens legal action against Met Police for its refusal to investigate No 10 parties

Good Law Project has today written to the Metropolitan Police asking it to justify its failure to investigate reports of an unlawful party being held at No 10 Downing Street on 18th December 2020 – and threatening legal proceedings if it fails to do so.

www.thelondoneconomic.com 

There have been multiple reports from people who say they were in attendance on the night that a party of 40 – 50 people took place in the prime minister’s own home. This would have been a clear breach of the “tier 3” restrictions in place at the time.

Yet – unbelievably – the Met claims there isn’t enough evidence to open a criminal investigation.

Apparently, this wasn’t even the only unlawful gathering held at Boris Johnson’s home during this period.

Further reports have now emerged alleging there were gatherings at the prime minister’s flat on 13th November 2020, a leaving party at No. 10 held on 27th November 2020 for former aide Cleo Watson, and a party at the Department for Education on 10th December 2020.

Good Law Project’s lawyers have today sent a pre-action protocol letter to the Met asking it to open an investigation, or to set out the full and detailed reasons behind its refusal to do so.

The pre-action protocol letter also asks the Met to provide details of its policy ‘not to investigate retrospective breaches of the covid regulations’, referred to in its statement of 8 December 2021.

If the Met refuses, Good Law Project will consider suing.

The Met is due to respond by 31st December 2021.

Jo Maugham, Director of Good Law Project said: “Now we know what Boris Johnson and his advisors think about the awful sacrifices people up and down the country have made. They think sacrifices are for the ‘small’ people – but not for ‘Great’ people like them.

“But the law says we are all equal. Great and small alike, subject to the same laws. That’s what the law says – and the Metropolitan Police need to apply it.”

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EDDC Strategic Planning Committee to discuss Local Plan Consultation – Tomorrow

Agenda for Strategic Planning Committee on Tuesday, 14th December, 2021, 9.30 am

Online meeting to discuss:

Infrastructure Funding Statement PDF 336 KB

And:

Working draft of the proposed East Devon Local Plan 2020 – 2040 PDF 441 KB

Details here.

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Number of healthy patients ‘stranded’ in English hospital wards rises by 80%

The number of patients stuck in hospital in England despite being medically fit to leave nearly doubled between February and November this year. The rise is worrying health experts, who say it is more evidence that the crisis in the adult care system is creating backlogs in the NHS.

Chaminda Jayanetti www.theguardian.com 

NHS England data shows that the number of times hospital trusts were unable to discharge a patient who no longer met the criteria to stay in hospital increased from 223,593 in February to 402,211 in November – a rise of almost 80%.

The data shows the extent of “stranded patients” – people who are clinically fit to leave hospital but cannot be discharged, often because of a lack of adult care or NHS community health provision. As a result, patients find themselves stuck in an environment where they pick up infections, while hospitals are unable to free up bed space for new admissions.

The Observer has also obtained data on “delayed transfers of care” (DTOC), which measures the number of days individual patients stayed in hospital after they were ready to be discharged.

NHS England stopped collecting DTOC statistics at the start of the pandemic, but a freedom of information request found 26 hospital trusts that are still recording these figures – with DTOC numbers rising by nearly 75% between February and October.

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, the membership body for NHS trusts, said: “Trusts do all they can to reduce delayed transfers of care, given its impact on patients. However, with the latest performance figures showing more than one in 10 beds are occupied by patients who are medically fit to leave hospital, there is a pressing need to invest in social care and care in the community.

“In addition, urgent investment is needed in the social care sector including in home-care services – which is why we have called for retention payments to support people to remain within the care workforce over these critical winter months.”

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust saw acute care DTOC numbers increase from 2,701 on 1 April to 4,452 on 1 October. DTOC cases caused by problems securing care packages at home doubled in that time, while those arising from difficulties in finding beds in community hospitals more than doubled.

Dr Tristan Richardson, clinical director for medicine at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, said: “If we have a patient who can’t leave hospital because a package of care is not available to support them at home, or there is not a place in a care home, for example, that means a patient can’t move from our emergency department on to a ward.”

He added that this “fills up our emergency department, which in turn means other patients are waiting to enter the emergency department in ambulances, and consequently those ambulances can’t then be attending an emergency in the community. The knock-on effect presents a clear compromise to all patients.”

A report from Dorset council in November described the link between the crisis in adult care and delayed discharges from hospitals: “The shortage of home care and therapy support is… having an adverse impact on the local hospitals; people are waiting for packages of care… to be available before they are discharged. Therefore increasing length of stay and decreasing hospital capacity.”

The report identified “significant gaps in workforce capacity such as the lack of home care and therapy workers”, and noted that the workload of hospital social work teams had tripled but that the “workforce has not increased to match the demand”.

David Fothergill, of the Local Government Association, said: “Councils and care providers are doing all they can to ensure people are able to safely return from hospital to their homes and communities as quickly as possible, despite multiple and ongoing pressures.

“These include, but is not limited to, significant shortages in the social care workforces, with more than 100,000 vacancies available on any given day, and extremely high turnover rates.

“Recent extra government funding for care workforce retention and recruitment will help, but this falls well short of enabling an immediate significant uplift in pay, which is the single biggest factor behind staffing shortages.”

NHS England did not respond to a request for comment.

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Be ‘adult’ about who you mix with

Torbay health boss advises caution

Joe Ives, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

Torbay’s health boss wants residents to take an “adult,” risk-based approach to social activities as covid cases rise across the Bay.

Latest complete figures (the week to Sunday 5 December) show covid infection rates across Devon have risen for the fourth week in a row with all parts of the county having an infection rate higher than the UK average.

Torbay recorded 934 new cases, up 57 on the previous week. The seven per cent rise takes the infection rate in the Bay to 686 per 100,000 of the population – almost 30 per cent higher than the national average of 496.

With the rising cases and concerns over the new Omicron variant, Torbay’s director of public health Lincoln Sargeant advises residents to take precautions when meeting other people. 

He said: “I think rather than saying ‘don’t’ I think it’s a matter of people working through what kind of activity is it? How many people are involved? Are there any vulnerable people that are there? And based on those kind of questions, decide whether you should go ahead or not and if you’re going ahead [think about] how you’re going to make it as safe as possible – is there an option to meet outdoors for example? 

“As a standard, any meetings that we’re going to with people who are not in our household or general social circles that we’re already interacting with we should lateral flow tests done as a minimum, so I would say it’s more of people thinking about the measures they can take and how they can mitigate risk rather than saying ‘this’ or ‘that’ activity shouldn’t go ahead.

“Let’s be responsible and adult, and look at our activities, do the relevant risk assessments and act accordingly.”

Dr Sargeant will change his advice if infections start rising in the over sixties. He said that although this age group tends to be more prudent than younger ages, he will be keeping a careful eye on hospital admissions, especially as family groups of different generations meet up over Christmas.

He said: “The kinds of triggers to change the advice would be if we suddenly saw a spike in [hospital] admissions and if we began to see the over sixties’ rate of infection beginning to ratchet up. Then it might be a situation of saying we might want to tighten up on our advice and restrictions.”

Leader of Torbay council Steve Darling (Liberal Democrats, Barton with Watcombe) added: “The buck does stop with the government. It’s they who give the national guidance.”

More than five cases of the Omicron variant have been identified in Devon. This more transmissible form of the disease is expected to overtake Delta to become the dominant form of covid.

Health officials are encouraging eligible members of the public to take up ‘’booster’ shots when offered. Vaccination drives are expected in the Bay in the new year.

In Torbay, 85 per cent of residents aged 12 or over have received one dose of a covid vaccine, while 79 per cent have had both jabs. Forty-six per cent have had their third vaccine.

Across Devon, 1,372 people have now died within 28 days of a positive covid test. A total of 206 of these deaths were in Torbay.

People aged 30 and over can now book their booster jab two months after their second dose, a month before becoming eligible to receive the third injection.

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“A man can be judged by the company he keeps”

Full list: the vaccine passport rebels

Coffee House www.spectator.co.uk

On Tuesday next week [tomorrow], a vote will be held on Boris Johnson’s new Covid restrictions to tackle the Omicron variant. They will include vaccine passports for large gatherings, compulsory face masks in more places,  and people being asked to work from home when they can (but told they can still go to parties).

When the health secretary Sajid Javid introduced the measures in the Commons this week, he was greeted with jeers and calls for him to ‘resign’ from his own party members. There is now a growing backbench rebellion against the government’s proposals, with several MPs publicly denouncing the winter restrictions, which they feel are a step too far in a society protected by what Boris Johnson once called the ‘huge wall of immunity’ from vaccines.

Below is the full list of Tory MPs who have so far promised or indicated they will vote against the measures next week. The list will be updated ahead of the vote. At present, it looks as if Johnson will need Labour’s support to pass his measures.

1. Steve Baker

2. Ben Bradley

3. Brendan Clarke-Smith

4. Graham Brady

5. Philip Davies 

6. Richard Drax

7. Simon Jupp

8. Stephen McPartland

9. John Redwood

10. Greg Smith

11. Dehenna Davison

12. Marcus Fysh

13. Gary Sambrook

14. Pauline Latham

15. William Wragg

16. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

17. Iain Duncan Smith

18. Christopher Chope

19. Craig Tracey

20. Robert Syms

21. Anthony Mangnall

22. Greg Clark

23. Esther McVey

24. Liam Fox

25. David Davis

26. Mark Jenkinson

27. Alicia Kearns

28. Mark Harper

29. Darren Henry

30. Steve Brine

31. Craig Mackinlay

32. Simon Fell

33. Andrew Bowie

34. David Warburton

35. Siobhan Baillie

36. David Jones

37. Tom Randall

38. Ben Spencer

39. Andrew Rosindell

40. Charles Walker

41. Douglas Ross

42, Karl McCartney

43. Anne Marie Morris

44. Johnny Mercer

45. Tom Tugendhat

46. Richard Fuller

47. Giles Watling

48. Desmond Swayne

49. Andrew Bridgen

50. Andrew Lewer

51. Christian Wakeford

52. Adam Afriyie

53. Julian Sturdy

54. Peter Bone

55. Chris Grayling

56. Chris Green

57. Tim Loughton

58. Tracey Crouch

59. Miriam Cates

60. Jackie Doyle-Price

61. Lee Anderson

62. Jonathan Djanogly

63. Mark Francois

64. Jill Mortimer

65. Tobias Ellwood

66. Scott Benton

67. Henry Smith

68. Matt Vickers