Meeting documents

To receive the report.

The Board discussed the Somerset Health Protection Assurance Report which documented the progress made during the last 12 months and the identified priorities for the next year.  In summary the Director of Public Health is assured that systems are in place to protect the health of the population, however there are opportunities during 2021 to strengthen these. During 2020 the Somerset response to COVID-19 was prioritised as a matter of urgency and a full major incident response launched nationally and locally. This response impacted delivery of previously agreed health protection priorities.

The Somerset Health Protection Forum and Director of Public Health have identified actions within these priorities as key issues to address in order to be assured that suitable arrangements are in place to protect the health of the Somerset population and reaches vulnerable populations within Somerset The Health and Wellbeing Board has oversight of how learning from the Somerset pandemic response is used to strengthen the Somerset health and care system and inform the development of the integrated health and care system where appropriate. The membership of the Health Protection Forum is revisited based on learning from COVID-19, to ensure sustained improvement in the system approach to protecting the populations’ health.

The Board discussed the priorities and asked if the uptake of the MMR vaccine had dropped off in Somerset in line with reports it had done so nationally. They were told that they had, prior to Covid 19 the MMR vaccine coverage was 90 91% and this had fallen to 86.9%. There is a drive to try and improve this as there are pockets withing Somerset who are resistant to all vaccines. The Board also heard that the number of common childhood infections were lower than normal as children were spending less time with each other.

The Somerset Health and Wellbeing Board:

·         Noted the report, and endorsed the priorities proposed for 2021 covering: -

o   Communicable Diseases,

o   Environmental Hazards,

o   Infection Prevention and Control,

o   Resilience, and

o   Screening and Immunisations.