Agenda item

Report attached, Valerie De Souza, Consultant Public Health will report at the meeting

Valerie De Souza, Consultant, Public Health introduced the Coventry and Warwickshire Covid-19 Health Impact Assessment, which was a comprehensive assessment of the immediate impacts of responding to the pandemic. The report acknowledged that a further review of evidence would need to be considered in order to understand the longer term implications, especially on the groups at risk of a double impact.  

The report highlighted that it was no understatement to say that the Covid-19 pandemic and response to prevent and mitigate the harm that it could cause radically changed how society functioned. On 23rd March a series of lockdown measures were announced in the UK which restricted most travel and shut down non-essential businesses and schools. These actions successfully interrupted the spread of the disease. In Coventry and Warwickshire, a peak in

the number of hospital beds occupied by patients with Covid-19 was reached in early April and the overall trend since then had been an ongoing reduction.

Whilst much harm from Covid-19 had been prevented, it was important to develop a shared understanding of the impact of the events over the last few months to support and sustain a recovery. The report had been written to do just that. It was part of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) programme in Coventry and Warwickshire and had been overseen by a project group including members from both Warwickshire and Coventry Business Intelligence and Public Health teams, as well as members from the NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG).

The report had been structured using the Kings Fund ‘population health’ model. This highlighted four interacting areas that influenced the health and wellbeing of people in Coventry and Warwickshire:

·  Wider determinants of health

·  Our health behaviours and lifestyles

·  An integrated health and care system

·  The places and communities we live in, and with

The connection between these four pillars of population health was important, and underpinned two key high level findings from the report:

1) An integrated recovery: The analysis showed that health and wellbeing had been deeply impacted on by changes across all four quadrants of the model. The implication was that recovery couldn’t just be contained to one sector and had to be connected across all four to have the biggest chance of success. An integrated recovery was one where we look across traditional boundaries to understand the wider impact of services.

2) The double impact: The report referenced that the harm from Covid-19 had been unequally distributed across the population and was likely to continue to be so whilst still circulating. This analysis showed that the wider impacts from the pandemic and lockdown would fall more heavily on communities most directly affected by the disease itself. This analysis showed the potential harm for more deprived areas of Coventry and Warwickshire and, as more evidence developed, it would be important to understand the impact on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups and on most vulnerable individuals facing multiple deprivation.

Members acknowledged the work that had been undertaken by staff to produce the report and that it was ‘a moment in time across Coventry and Warwickshire’. The Sub Group was informed of the intention to produce an annual report and that the report was to be considered by Scrutiny in due course.

RESOLVED that the Coventry and Warwickshire Covid-19 Health Impact Assessment be noted.