Issue - meetings

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6.1.        The Board considered a report seeking approval of the proposed East Sussex Outbreak Control Plan.

6.2.        The Board asked whether the Pillar 2 testing information had not been available in Leicester and whether it is made available for East Sussex Public Health Team within 24 hours.

6.3.        Darrell Gale, Director of Public Health, explained that Leicester’s Public Health Team had started to look at pillar 1 testing and had raised concerns with the centre that had not been heeded. Pillar 2 data was later made available to the local public health team and within a day Matt Hancock declared the local lockdown, as the centre had seen the data at an earlier date and was responding to it. East Sussex Public Health Team (PH) is now getting pillar 2 data usually within 24 hours, although the weekend can cause delays.

6.4.        The Board asked about the reasons for the difference in the number of cases between Hastings and the rest of the county.

6.5.        Darrell Gale explained that Hastings had the second lowest and now, following the addition of pillar 2 data, has the 13th lowest number of infections in England. The pillar 2 data added a number of positive results from the community, care homes and other settings. Hastings and Rother, however, still have a considerably lower infection rate than the rest of the county.

6.6.        Darrell Gale said that PH is working closely with the local universities on an investigation into why Hastings and Rother have a lower infection rate, especially given the higher health inequalities and Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) population and tendency of these factors to lead to worse outcomes.  Some of the reasons being investigated include the fact the Hastings Borough Council and Rother District Council both cancelled public gatherings sooner than the national lockdown, and the area has poor transport links so was behind the curve in transmission rates when the local moves towards lockdown were made.  The investigation would include direct engagement with communities, including the BAME population.

6.7.        The Board asked whether there is any ethnicity data collected on pillar 2 and if not whether this meant there is no clear understanding of the impact of Covid-19 on BAME.

6.8.        Darrell Gale said he had not seen the most recent figures but it was case that previous tranches of pillar 2 data did not include ethnicity data for local populations or workforce, which are essential for helping to identify the impact of the virus on BAME community. He explained it is possible, however, for the PH to understand the impact on BAME communities via a proxy measure of comparing the postcodes of people with positive results included in pillar 2 data with the known location of BAME populations in the county. 

6.9.        Rob Tolfree, Public Health Consultant, confirmed that the issues with the dataset stem from both how it is collected and how it is distributed locally. Pillar 1 testing by the NHS and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6