Cllr John Spence: Health and social care in Essex in the time of Covid

Last week we were addressed by a City Councillor. Today it was the turn of a County Councillor, John Spence, who spoke about Essex’s response to the Covid-19 crisis.

We were all completely unprepared for the first Covid outbreak and there is no doubt that mistakes were made. However, there has been a lot of progress since then in the detection and treatment of Covid. For example, proportionately fewer Covid sufferers now need intensive care.

The County Council has liaised with statutory and voluntary groups and commercial organisations in tackling the problems caused by Covid and the subsequent restrictions. Initially it was thought that it would be helpful if Council officers could improve their links with care homes by phoning every week. It was soon realised that this did not always have the desired result. The phone would be picked up by a member of the care home staff but he or she might not be the appropriate person to speak to and might not have time to engage in conversation anyway. Senior staff members were not always available.

This has now changed to a situation where care homes are organised into “care home hubs”. Each care home is also now in contact with its local GP surgery and the local social care staff.

At one point John was investigating the reasons for the non-appearance of PPE. He ended up in a three-way call with the local MP and the responsible government minister, who had insisted that the PPE had been despatched. It was eventually discovered that the PPE had been diverted to a local hospital to cover a severe shortage there. The supply of PPE has improved since then.

The effects of Covid-19 on the health service have caused delays in treatment for other conditions. At one stage the local hospitals had a backlog of around 50,000 appointments but this has now been reduced to around 7,000. Even so, it could take until the middle of next year to catch up with cancer treatments.

Before the second lockdown was mooted, the City Council asked the government to move Essex from Tier 1 to Tier 2 restrictions. This was only done after considerable heart-searching and discussion. Essex was moved into Tier 2. The proportion of people in Essex suffering from Covid-19 is now lower than it is in adjoining areas that remained in Tier 1.

Last week a team from the Cabinet Office visited Essex to look at the way it had coped with Covid-19. They gave a very positive report. They also praised the public in Essex for their generally positive attitude to the restrictions and safety precautions, as shown by a street survey the team conducted.