Agenda and minutes

Councillor Sid Garg (Councillor Phoday Jarjussey substituting).

None.

Agreed as an accurate record.

To confirm that the items of business marked Part I will be considered in public and that the items marked Part II will be considered in private.

It was agreed that all items of business were considered in public.

This second witness session was to focus on the issues which had been raised at the last meeting which were namely:- communication, schools and their business and resilience plans, the vaccination programme and the possible prioritisation being given to healthcare and social care workers, the carrying out of vaccinations in the Occupational Health Suite and the implementation of additional hygiene measures.

Steve Smith – Head of Facilities Management, LBH

Members were provided with a written submission which provided details of action taken during the flu pandemic. This included:-

·        Additional cleaning had taken place. The cleaning specification in the Civic Centre had been varied within the terms of the cleaning contract at no additional cost to the Council. This had involved additional touch cleaning of all wc facilities, over and above their usual daily clean

·        Notices have been displayed at various locations, particularly in toilets, advising staff to regularly wash their hands and providing details on the correct way of doing so.

·        £10,000 has been spent on additional preventative measures which included the procurement and distribution of desk and surface wipes across the Council. This included areas such as Civic Centre Phase reception and toilets plus all Civic Centre public facing toilets.

·        Hand gels have been installed in over 40 locations across the Borough in reception areas.

·        Sterilisation had taken place in all office areas where there had been confirmed cases of swine flu, using a mist of anti-viral chemicals

·        Work was taking place with the Council’s Facilities Management provider to ensure they had robust business continuity processes in place to cover for staff absences.

·        The Council had offered to provide the swine flu vaccination service to essential Facilities Management employees or those of their partners, providing front line services in key areas such as Children’s residential premises, Special Schools and Early Years Centres, recognising the role these staff groups play in the daily functioning of ‘life and limb’ services to residents of the Borough   

Kevin Mullins – Executive Director for Flu Resilience, Hillingdon Primary Care Trust

Members were provided with a presentation on the present swine flu pandemic. The main issues raised were:-

• There was an anticipation of a second wave of swine flu in the autumn and preparations were under way with vaccinations ready in mid October
• There were 22 community pharmacists and there would be a number of street pharmacists
• The current planning focuses on workforce issues, communications, prevention, prioritisation and recovery
• Reference was made to the Department of Health planning assumptions which provided details of the potential effects of the infection and the stand out figures were that the projected case fatality rate was up to 0.1% of clinical cases
• The projection was that 700 plus people would end up in hospital. The treatment of children would be challenging as there was less specialist paediatric staff  
• The severity of the pandemic had been downgraded
• Heathrow Airport had their own contingency plans and the PCT was geared up to support them
• The vaccination programme would initially be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

The work programme was amended to reflect the witness session for 14 October 2009 meeting.

 Resolved –

1.  That the Work Programme as amended be noted.

Noted.