Coronavirus Update - Dr Jim Gardner, Medical Director

Vaccination link: https://www.healthierlsc.co.uk/CovidVaccination/vaccination-centres/blackpool-victoria-hospital-blackpool

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, my name is Jim Gardner I'm the Medical Director at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This is my COVID update on Wednesday the 26th of May 2021.

The picture for us is, today we've got one COVID-positive patient in the hospital, within 28 days of the first diagnosis, yesterday we had three, over the last week we've been in single digit numbers, but poorly patients coming and going, so a reminder as ever that COVID has not gone away. We're seeing that in the community figures, so the figures I've got for Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre - cases per 100,000 - are Blackpool 18; Fylde at 19 per 100,000 and Wyre at 12 per 100,000. The good news in that data is that those numbers are basically younger people actually quite often school children who have tested positive and it's understandable that there is still some COVID circulating in that kind of population - that's a reality of of where we are with the situation.

I want to mention the Indian variant, because that's clearly in the national news and is present in certain pockets in Lancashire - we're obviously looking for that variant when we send tests off. What we know with a fair degree of certainty about the Indian variant is that the vaccines work against it or them and particularly if you've had two vaccines, so completing the course of vaccination is incredibly important in this space, and really our collective objective needs to be to get as many people vaccinated as possible. So we're now down to 30 years and upwards, so if you are in that age group and certainly if you would like to have your vaccine done at hospital if you go on the Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria website and we'll put the link in this media and follow that we will be able to book you in for an appointment at hospital. But equally, if you dial 119 or go on the NHS Choices website you will get further information about getting vaccinations through your own GP practice. The vaccination centre at the Winter Gardens is closing down or maybe has closed down, so we've moved some capacity over onto the hospital site to do that.

I'm pleased to say we've had no new COVID deaths to report in the last week, and that's of course very good news from our point of view - that total number stays at 765 since the beginning of the pandemic. So I think we are all looking forward with some optimism to the next stage of lockdown easing up, perhaps the final stage on June the 21st, and it does seem as if vaccination is the way to get us there, so to reiterate the message is as lockdown eases and we see more people moving around the system, then the way to protect ourselves and each other is really to get vaccinated. So we know looking at the data across Blackpool Fylde and Wyre there are still some pockets where residents in older age groups 40, 50, 60 and so on have not been vaccinated - you've not missed the opportunity, please if you haven't been vaccinated or had your second dose, please get yourself forward and get that done, it will protect you and it will protect all those around you as well. It's easy to get a test still if you feel you've got symptoms that might be indicative of COVID, essentially flu-like symptoms and again you'd dial 119 or go on the NHS Choices to get a test arranged.

So I think the final thing is just to talk about access to urgent and emergency services. The whole of the NHS has seen a really extraordinary increase in activity as the pieces of lockdown have eased and GP practices, walk-in centres and in particular Accident and Emergency departments have become incredibly busy and it's hard to keep everybody safe and segregated because of the COVID restrictions so we would feel that that not everyone is perhaps getting the best service they can and are waiting rather too long because of these pressures in the system so it's really important that we all make the right decisions about which services we seek to get the most appropriate treatment. So I'd ask you really to think carefully if you feel you do have an urgent clinical problem that is not an emergency, if it's an emergency it's 999 isn't it, but if you've got an urgent problem to think about the range of approaches that are still available to you - self-care; advice through NHS Choices website; information and support from your local pharmacies; access to GP and Walk-In services and then of course Emergency Departments are available for you if it's absolutely necessary.

So thank you as ever, the story goes on into another chapter - we'll keep going but I think today's message is vaccinations are the real key moment for us to move out of this space. Thank you.

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