Gold Update from Huw George

Published: Monday 1 February 2021

Hello everyone,

The Gold group met on Thursday 28 January after a week’s break in the usual cycle. I chaired the meeting on behalf of Andrew Jones who was on much deserved annual leave. The first order of business as usual was to assess our response level, and one again we have confirmed that the organisation’s response level remains at Enhanced.

We took some time this week to go through the weekly epidemiology SitRep and heard from the report that there are some indications of a general, slow trend downward in case figures and deaths. Whilst this does give us confidence that the restrictions in place are starting to have some positive effect, the downward progress is slow and we think this might be as a result of the transmissibility of the new variant.  Critically, the overall numbers remain high and so we remain extremely cautious in our optimism and continue to stress the importance of following the guidance and regulations.

The UK Variant of Concern has now taken over as dominant strain as expected, evidence indicates that it accounts for over 80% of cases in North Wales and over 50% in South Wales. Our surveillance and genomics teams continue to monitor for emerging new variants. 

Infection Prevention and Control (IP&C) guidance has been reassessed in light of the new variants and we are confident that the existing guidance remains appropriate – this means that staff should continue to apply the appropriate level of IP&C measures for their individual workplace. If you’re in any doubt as to what this is for your setting, speak to your line manager in the first instance. 

In our role as the national public health body, we continue to support the regional Test, Trace Protect (TTP) structures and support and advise Welsh Government on vaccine rollout in Wales. Whilst doing so, and considering the consistent high degree of pressure on our National Health Protection Response Centre (NHPRC), we are having to prioritise some of the demands placed on us. For example, choosing which meetings to service and which can operate without representation from our teams.

Although workforce remains an ongoing issue, we have made significant progress on a couple of fronts. Firstly, on the recruitment side we have brought in 12 public health practitioners, three bank consultants and two agency administrators to join the NHPRC and 12 call handlers are being recruited to support the National Call Centre (NCC). This extra resource will help us to meet the continued demands of the health protection response. 

Alongside this, we have implemented some innovations which now allow call centre staff to work remotely. This is increasing the resilience of the NCC and also means that we are reviewing our staff mobilisation lists to understand if there are individuals who can now join the NCC rota from home. The People and OD team are specifically reviewing the list of staff who are shielding to consider if they are able to contribute to the NCC from home. 

Whilst the organisation is still very much focused on the health protection response as a first priority, over the coming weeks Gold and the Executive team will be starting to consider proposals for what the organisation will look like three, six and 12 months from now, including how we make a planned return to ‘business as usual’. We need to think about what new work we have picked up that will continue, and what parts of our substantive work will come back online, and when, to inform our Annual Plan for 2021/22. We need to consider too, how we align the right resources to addressing the wider harms of Covid-19 and its effects on overall population health. 

Those of you who are mobilised, or working with staff who are, will know that the majority of the mobilisation agreements run to 31 March 2021. Gold is expecting to review proposals and to consider the process to extend these arrangements to ensure continued stability of the health protection response. I appreciate that uncertainty around this is unsettling for many of you and want to reassure you that Gold and the Executive team are working to get a clear update for you as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, staff wellbeing is and must remain paramount. You might have seen this in the Staff bulletin last week but I want to take another opportunity to signpost the range of support available to staff. If you’re not sure what’s on offer, have a look this document for some pointers on how and when you may want to access support. You can also access information on a range of further support on the staff information web pages – you can view these from home..

I’ll leave it there for this week and sign off by wishing you a happy start to February. We’ve made it through the first month of 2021!

Cofion
Huw