Agenda item

Councillor Shah MOVED and Councillor Jabbar SECONDED a report recommending that the Covid-19 Recovery Strategy 2021-2022 be adopted by the Council as attached to the report at Appendix 1.

 

Members were reminded that as a Co-operative Council, Oldham was committed to tackling the impact of Covid-19 and protecting our most vulnerable residents and communities.  Members were also advised that building on the learning so far, and the anticipated events to come, a comprehensive Recovery Strategy had been developed, which would help to shape approach and vision for Oldham over the next 18 months whilst continuing to respond to an ongoing critical incident.

 

It was reported that the objectives and approach to the Recovery Strategy were rooted in our vision, the Oldham Model, ensuring as we adapt to a changing world that we remained focused on building thriving communities, an inclusive economy and to delivery co-operatively.

 

It was reported that to develop the new Covid-19 Recovery strategy priorities, consultation had taken place at Directorate Management Team Meetings (DMT), with Cabinet, and through engagement with Overview and Scrutiny.

 

Key priority areas in the Strategy were reported as:

 

Driving equality, Investing in quality housing, Championing a green recovery, Creating and protecting jobs and supporting businesses, Prioritising education and skills and Promoting health and wellbeing and supporting the most vulnerable.

 

Details of each of the above priority areas were outlined within the report.  It was reported that each of the above focus areas formed a key strand of the Covid-19 Recovery Strategy, with individual actions attached to each priority area.  The Strategy reflected the difficult and challenging times ahead and the opportunities that were arising as we recover from the pandemic as Team Oldham.  The Strategy also set out how we can embrace the ‘new normal’ to build a stronger local economy, increase community resilience and public participation, support our local health system, and support our most vulnerable residents.

 

Details of monitoring of the Recovery Plan were outlined within the report and Members were advised that following Full Council approval, the Recovery Strategy would be launched, ensuring that the priorities are embedded across Team Oldham.  This would include creating a full communications and engagement programme, both within Team Oldham, with stakeholders and residents.  An online tool would also be created to regularly update on progress.

 

The financial implications of delivering the Strategy were also outlined within the report. 

 

Councillor Jabbar extended thanks and appreciation to all staff and NHS partners and volunteers who had dedicated their time and hard work to support the residents of the Borough to get us through the pandemic period.  

 

Questions from Councillors:

 

Councillor Hamblett:

 

Supporting patients with long-COVID

 

“ equal my thanks to all the staff and Members within the Council and Oldham Cares and all health teams.  On Page 29, under Driving Equality, I would like to see some commitment to providing support to the many residents in our borough who will be suffering from the impact of long-COVID.

 

Last month, the Government-funded Reach-2 study revealed that more than 2 million adults have experience COVID-19 symptoms lasting more than 12 weeks and in May, the Cumbria and Lancashire Public Health Collaborative estimated that over 140,000 people in the North West had long Covid last year, with the Collaborative identifying that: “The impact of long Covid is likely to be greater in the North due to employment and economic inequalities and variations in health care access due to the pandemic.”

 

Please could the Cabinet Member tell me how many cases of long-COVID there have been in this Borough and identify what support and treatment packages will be made available to patients suffering from long-COVID under this recovery?”         

 

Councillor Zahid Chauhan, Cabinet Member, Health and Social Care responded:

 

 

Before I formally answer your question, I would like to say, I was one of the first ones across the country who spoke about the long covid and recognised that and thank you for bringing this here as well.  It is a very important issue.  I can tell you in Oldham that obviously we are very committed and have a personal commitment in this administration to ensure that not only people who are suffering from long covid are being treated, but people who also have other symptoms exacerbated and conditions exacerbated due to covid are also dealt accordingly. 

 

We have adopted something called MDT approach which is a multi-disciplinary team approach and as at 31^st January 20201 we had 20,000 patients diagnosed with covid positive.  8.1% of them were admitted and 91.9% were not admitted.  From those around 872 were identified has having symptoms of long covid.  We also have to remember that we are learning as we go along.  We know much more than we knew about covid on day 1 and about long covid also.  I can confirm that out of these patients there are only 64 remaining patients who have not yet been discussed in our MDT clinic.  I am sure you will appreciate whilst there is long covid, there is still covid on-going as well.  We have full commitment to ensure that patients with long covid are treated appropriately and they receive full support.”

 

Councillor Howard Sykes, Leader of the Liberal Democratic Group:

 

“I would like to seek an assurance which I’ve had privately and publicly that covid whether we call it the recovery plan or covid report or what we’ve had at every Council has been a welcome opportunity for Members to both receive updates on what we are doing.  This thing is going to be with us for months if not years as we have already debated, and I just seek an assurance that in this bit of the agenda or elsewhere something around covid whether it’s about the recovery plan or the progress report or whatever will be on future Council meetings as it is the number one issue in terms of the impact on our Borough.

 

My specific question, Madam Mayor was regarding care home residents, their relatives and staff have had a torrid time since the start of the pandemic.  Many times, over the last 15 months, the Liberal Democrat group has asked questions and raised concerns about the experiences and treatment of some care home residents and their relatives/carers and usually, the excellent support made available to them and to staff.  Could the appropriate Cabinet Member what support will continue to be made available by the Council and its health partners to care homes in this Borough, its residents and staff after the so called promised lifting of the remaining covid 19 restrictions on the 19^th July and what is the plan going forward.”

 

Cllr Zahid Chauhan, Cabinet Member, Health and Social Care responded:

 

“Thank you Councillor Sykes and thank you for your on-going personal interest in this matter.  I know you always speak about this issue and seek assurances and also assisted.  Whilst you were asking the question, the Leader has assured me that this issue will be on the Council agenda and we will be providing regular updates.

 

As you are aware, I really feel very proud to be part of Oldham Council because this was one of the first Councils to set up this hub, our ppe store.  We said we would supply ppe. I personally as a cabinet member went around the care homes and met some great key workers and support workers who moved in to care homes to look after the patients.  The first questions I asked them, and that was a time that on the national media, it was shown that people were using plastic bags and things instead of ppe.  I asked them if they had enough ppe and took me around and showed me extra supplies of ppe.  This was thanks to this Council care staff and Members who constantly asked the right questions and sought assurances. 

 

Throughout the pandemic, the Social Care team have been working pro-actively so we had this approach of working proactively.  We had daily calls to care homes to ensure that they were ok, including how they are dealing with staff sickness and various issues.  We had a specialist team, public health and STICH team (Supporting Treatment in Care Homes), community nursing services and various other services.  Let us not forget that was at the time on a national level this Government made a huge blunder and set up the policy of saying that patients should be discharged from hospitals to care homes without being tested.  This was the time that we were trying to pull everything together and support people at care homes.  Most importantly was the distribution of key information, we ensured that as commissioners as social care department that we had regular newsletters providing all the necessary information to care homes, regular virtual forums and most recently with the vaccinations, I know that some of my colleagues had been holding sessions with care home staff to explain to them the importance of vaccinations and why staff need to have the vaccinations. 

 

We received money towards supporting some aspects of infection control and various other drugs which was passported to care home staff and as more money is being made available, we will do that.  To be honest and frank, when the money was not available, we helped and we will continue to help and support our care homes in whichever way we can”. 

 

Councillor Murphy

 

“Walk-in services at the Integrated Care Centre have been closed to patients for many months and GP services have been very difficult to access; both of these factors have led to more pressure being put upon our already strained Accident and Emergency Service at the Royal Oldham Hospital upon Community Nurses.

 

Can the Cabinet Member please tell me whether the early restoration of ICC services and face-to-face appointments with local GPs will be made a priority under this recovery plan”?

 

Cllr Zahid Chauhan, Cabinet Member, Health and Social Care responded:

 

“Thank you Councillor Murphy for your question.  I can reassure that integrated care services and GP practices have never been shut.  They have been operating in a covid safe environment which is the telephone triage and if they need to be seen they have been invited to the surgery.

 

What was done as a walk in centre, in line with national guidelines, a covid safe digital hub was established to assist patients when they don’t need to be in A/E, they can be seen in a more covid safe environment because we could not bring covid patients into the normal practice because of the risk of spreading the infection.  Essentially what happened in car homes, this could have been duplicated in general practice as well.  Following public consultation in the past, it was decided by the CCG governing body to in 2018 to close the walk-in centre.  The walk-in centre is not going to come back instead it was established as an urgent care hub.  I don’t see any reason why based on the clinical needs why patients should not be offered face to face appointments and there is a national directive.  This is a discussion between clinician and the patient.  Quite happy to look into that if you have any specification.  It has never been the case that due to covid you are not allowed to see a patient, except to see them in a safe environment.  If you have any specific examples or issues, please bring it and I will personally look at it.”

 

Councillor Kenyon

 

“On page 35-36, the strategy references ‘Creating and Protecting Jobs and Supporting Businesses’. I would like to ask the Cabinet Member a question about this borough’s hospitality industry.

 

Prior to the pandemic, the national hospitality industry employed 2.4 million people in 150,000 businesses.  Recent data suggests that 6,000 licensed premises have closed permanently ibn 2020, and I am sure that many more will have closed so far in 2021.

 

Can the Cabinet member please tell me how many businesses in the hospitality sector have been lost in this borough and do we have any estimate as to how many jobs have been lost with them?”

 

Councillor Shoab Akhtar, Cabinet Member, Employment and Enterprise responded:

 

“Unfortunately, there is no data regarding closure or job losses to us so we cannot access that level of data but the hospitality industry is a priority for the Council and presumably for the Government as well.  The Council has chosen this sector to receive priority access to the grants scheme.   Average grant has been in the circle of   £34,000 since the start of the pandemic, alongside furlough and other support e.g. bounce back loans.  The Business Growth and Investment team in the Council have been in contact with most of these hospitality businesses and will continue to engage with key stakeholders.  The Council is also working with Sasha Lord, GMCA Night-time economy Tsar to develop a supportive approach for the hospitality sector.  The Council have put forward a request for business support for Retail, hospitality and Leisure from the Government’s Community Renewal Fund.  We are hoping to hear the outcome of this request in September from the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.  Hopefully in September we are hoping for good news.  Get Oldham Working team have been supporting the sector access Kickstart programme that provides 6 months’ salary for new jobs targeting 16-24 year olds.”

 

Councillor Hindle

 

“Regarding the Covid 19 recovery strategy, creating and protecting jobs and supporting local businesses.  As a business-man myself, I am only too aware of the frustration of many businesses that approach me complaining of the lack of opportunity when tendering for OMBC contracts.  This and the complaints from OMBC licensed taxi drivers that vehicles from other licensing authorities are carrying out OMBC home to school contracts seems to tell a different story.  What is the administration going to do to see that much of the local work and local monies from the Council are going to the very business that employ local business who pay their ~Council tax to Oldham Council rather than outside the Borough.”

 

Councillor Shoab Akhtar, Cabinet Member, Employment and Enterprise responded:

 

“This is a detailed question.  I will respond to this in detail when I have the full facts and write to all Councillors.”

 

Councillor C Gloster

 

“The Government are telling us that we are coming out of restrictions on 19^th July.  Councillor Chauhan was telling us about the mistake of people leaving hospital care to go into care homes without being tested.  The question is to seek an assurance from him that once these restrictions are lifted, there is no possibility that it will revert back to that process, if he knows the answer.”

 

Councillor Zahid Chauhan, Cabinet Member, Health and Social Care responded:

 

“I wish I had influence on Boris Johnson and I could give you assurance.  That is the honest answer.  Also, the honest answer that if infection rates are going up, potentially it will make things worse.  We will try our best collectively in this administration and Council to do our best to put systems in place to safeguard people as best as we can.”

 

Councillor Williams

 

When I got Covid 19 on October 5^th, I thought I would have a cold, a bit of a chill.  It felt like I had a backpack on that was full of bricks.  For that week, I thought I would get better and then as the second week occurred, I finished up going to hospital for that night because I had low oxygen levels and then I was told I had pneumonia.  I then thought I would be ok and that long-term I would be fine.  I eventually went back to work on January 14^th.  Coming out today Madam Mayor, all these months later, I feel absolutely burnt out.  I cannot work at home like that can I?  Why?  Because I am old and clapped out and nearly 64.  A couple of weeks something really extraordinary happened.  All of a sudden from nowhere I felt rough.  I went home sick, the only time in 19 years that I have been home sick.  The Manager told me to go for a test.  I had a test which was negative.  I had another test an hour later which was negative.  I visited the Doctor on Wednesday.  I told him how I felt, dodgy mood swings, me getting fed up, niggly and nasty, not my personality one bit.  The shift in personality niggled me.  My Doctor told me it was part of my illness and that it can affect any organ.  Immune system shot at.  I decided I was not going to feel like that.  The Doctor advised that when I feel like that I should just avoid the feeling.  I feel fine now but for months I felt absolutely terrible.  If I call myself a strong-willed person, how many other people are out there really struggling but just cannot come forward because they simply don’t know how to?”

 

Councillor Shah, Leader of the Council responded:

 

“Thank you to all Members who have contributed to the development of this recovery strategy and for your contributions this evening.  It does not need saying again how tough the last year has been for everyone, but it is always worth repeating what an incredible job our residents from Oldham have done to support one another.  Whilst things are opening up, it remains vitally important that we do everything we can to keep each other safe and I hope we will see residents taking this seriously even when sometimes it seems that the Government doesn’t. 

 

The plan we approve tonight is about recovery, but it is also about setting the ground for a better tomorrow.  We all know that Oldham has loads of things going for it, but that people are struggling.  With this plan we are setting the course for better jobs, better health and better lives.   Now we are beginning to see the end of the tunnel, it is time to pick up the pace and push forward.  We have got this far together, and I know with the efforts of everyone in this room and our residents, we will make the next step together to.”

 

RESOLVED – That the Covid-19 Recovery Strategy is adopted by Full Council.