A peer-reviewed account of the interim results of the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine (ChAdOx1) trials has appeared as an article in The Lancet . 23,848 people took part. Analysis of efficacy was based on weekly self-administered postal PCR swab tests in the UK arm of the trial. Altogether 30 participants who had received the vaccine and 101 who received the control had detectable Covid-19. 10 participants were hospitalised, none of them having received the vaccine, and of them one died.

NHS England has published further details of legislative proposals to put Integrated Care Systems on a statutory basis. 

South Reading Patient Voice is surveying older people in Reading to ask how they find digital access to GP surgeries. We have consulted the Berkshire West CCG on our survey. The work is supported by Berkshire Community Foundation and Reading Voluntary Action. Click to take the survey at https://healthsurvey.uk or here in Urdu at https://healthsurvey.uk/urdu or here in Polish at https://healthsurvey.uk/polskie.

The detailed plans for redevelopment of the St Paul's Church site in Whitley Wood Lane, with new church facilities and a substantial surgery building over 3 floors were submitted to Reading Borough Council in October. It is planning application 191265. View the plans for the new South Reading Health Hub

South Reading Patient Voice will meet online at 6pm on Wednesday, 18th November 2020. There will be a short introduction to vaccines against Covid-19, news from local PPGs, and reports from local health providers and their public meetings. Please see the attached agenda for joining details.

The Governing Body of the Berkshire West CCG meets in public from 9.30am to 12.30pm on Tuesday, 8th December 2020. Further details willl apear closer to the meeting.

This meeting has been cancelled. The Berkshire West Primary Care Commissioning Committee meets in public on Wednesday 13th January from 1pm to 3pm. More details to follow.

Pulse magazine has reported that GP practices will be able to opt in to offering self-administered Covid-19 swab testing for symptomatic patients, practice staff and members and their households. As we have a designated Covid-19 Hub for symptomatic patients in Reading this is not likely to be relevant to us, but could be valuable in more rural and remote areas.

Government has mandated local authorities to locate and communicate with those Covid confirmed people and their contacts that the national system has not been able to reach. As a result Reading Public health has assembled a team of contact tracers who will start work before the end of October. This was revealed incidentally in a discussion of Reading Borough Council's risk register, It is at 1 hour and 39 minutes into the meeting whose recording can be found here. Unfortunately, Reading Public Health does not receive contact details for all of those required to self-isolate, so it cannot support, encourage or monitor self-isolation for those people.

Indepedent SAGE on 30th October cited this graph on the ineffectiveness of the "NHS" test, trace, isolate and support system.