Cornwall Partners in Care News

Cornwall Partners in Care hold weekly briefings with Cornwall Council and Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation trust. These meetings involve Jonathan Price (Joint Director Adult Care and Health for Cornwall Council and NHS Kernow) and Phil Confue (Chief Executive of Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation trust), as well as David Smith (CPIC Chairman) and representatives from the CPIC Committee.

Daily update - 2nd December 2020

The meeting today was with Jonathan Price, Phil Confue and Val Smith.

We discussed the following;

1/ The Pfizer vaccine has been approved and will be rolled out to NHS staff via vaccination centres at Stithians showground and RCHT. It was stressed that it was not the intention to prioritise NHS staff above Care Homes but that practicalities had prevented this - ie it is a live vaccine which needs to be stored at -70 degrees and also the fact that it cannot be easily transported.

The Oxford vaccination is not far behind and the logistics of rolling this out to Care Homes was being worked on. The side effects were now considered to be minimal, although there will be a rolling programme to avoid all staff being given the vaccine at the same time. Information on the efficacy of the vaccine along with any side effects will be issued prior to the rollout so that staff can make informed decisions. There will be measures to deal with possible adverse reactions.

2/ The pilot visiting project was likely to be rolled out to all care homes in the very near future.

There had been no formal evaluation of the project, in particular the effectiveness of the lateral flow test, although feedback had indicated that it was more likely to produce False Positives rather than False Negatives.

3/ Recruitment initiatives to address likely issues over the next 6 months were discussed, and that a proposal to utilise Agency staff at a fixed price was showing promise. There had also been some positive feedback from Mary about recent Proud to Care referrals. Val also stated that there was support resources available to help upskill candidates to improve the conversion rate. A possible Internship Project involving Health and Social Care in Cornwall was also being considered along with recruitment opportunities coming through the Kickstart Project.Short term staffing provision through Kernowflex could also be a possible further source. Phil was asked if there could be more consolidated training for the sector in the short term.This could be made available, although it was noted that the main limiting factor was "backfill costs" which would be incurred by Providers.

4/ Previous discussions regarding financial support for Providers with large number of hours being provided through a small number of clients had not resulted in any firm proposals. Jonathon stated that Kate Alcock was drawing up a paper on this matter.

5/Phil asked why there was a reluctance for Care Homes to take on Positive Covid cases. There had been initial expressions of interest but specific support had declined as the CQC had indicated that specific inspections would be required prior to this taking place.

6/ Winter pressures around the Christmas/New Year period were likely to intensify. Jonathon agreed to send out a paper in the near future asking for expressions of interest in providing an "on call" service over this period in return for some sort of retainer. This mutual aid provision could be through some form of cluster arrangement.