Paula Bradshaw of Alliance asks about the provision of scrubs for front line healthcare workers.

She's concerned that some staff are having to bring scrubs home to boil wash.

Rodney Morton says he can't comment on the number of scrubs as he doesn't have the information with him.

He says local manufacturers have been making a significant contribution to providing scrubs for hospitals.

He says some of the products are reusable and there is advice for staff on how to safely decontaminate equipment.

Image source, NI Assembly

Orlaithí Flynn asks the panel about PPE orders.

Rodney Morton replies that MLAs will "of course all be aware that there are significant challenges across the world in relation to PPE".

He says "we in Northern Ireland have been working extremely hard" in relation to sourcing "additional levels of PPE".

He adds that "over 29m of items of PPE have been pushed out to our health and social care" teams, and that "91m items ordered in relation to PPE".

He says he is sharing those numbers to "indicate the level of scale of trying to secure PPE".

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The SDLP's Colin McGrath asks about essential workers who are based in open office environments and whether they will require PPE.

Prof Hugo van Woerden says that is an "important question" and that the "essentialness of an essential worker varies".

He then outlines the difficulties facing a surgeon and a nurse when it comes to performing their job at a two metres distance.

He says for office teams, it is the "responsibility of managers to consider individuals team need".

Pam Cameron asks about the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) requirements for treating "mentally unwell people".

Rodney Morton says all health and social care practitioners should carry out a risk assessment.

If they have any concerns they should wear PPE.

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Sinn Féin's Pat Sheehan says "more and more" countries are instructing people to wear masks while out in public.

He wants to know if plans have been put in place to ensure sufficient numbers of masks can be supplied.

Prof Hugo van Woerden says there is an awareness of the World Health Organisation's investigation of this issue.

He says his personal reflection is that if anybody wants to wear a home made mask or one from a source that won't reduce the supply to health and social care workers then he couldn't envisage a situation where he would say "that is an unwise thing to do".

In response to a question around a "lack of uptake on testing" from members of the public, Prof Hugo van Woerden says there is a belief that the gap is "about people who might make the referral not wanting to overload the system".

He says the PHA would encourage "people to come forward who might be holding themselves back".

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Responding to SDLP MLA Colin McGrath's question about the parameters for testing and all-island basis for contact tracing - Prof van Woerden says guidance is being reviewed on a weekly basis.

"There is close working with health protection teams here and in Ireland," he says and that work is being done around the "sharing of data for research purposes and informing policy".

Paula Bradshaw of Alliance asked about cultural and linguistic sensitivities being taken into consideration for patients.

Prof van Woerden replies that there has been "work to ensure translators are available" and that the "immediate focus" has been on the top 10 languages used in Northern Ireland.

Prof van Woerden then moves to answer the questions.

He joins by audio link and says it's "important concerns are taken very seriously".

"Northern Ireland is in the best position of the five countries when one looks at the numbers," he says, and references the level of testing, admissions to hospitals and says those are falling.

"We are discharging more people than we are admitting," he tells the MLAs.

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In relation to testing, he says "these tests are not tests where one pushes a button and has an answer - they are challenging to undertake".

He says the Belfast laboratory "has used a variety of different tests" adding that "we’ve had machines break down at times".

"We've done very well at keeping that ramping up," he says.

He then outlines the different types of tests, including those where a blood sample is taken and says that while "this isn't a blood infection" but rather an "infection of cells" it "only spills into the blood when there is a lot of virus".

As a result, he explains "a negative test does not necessarily mean that that person doesn't have the virus".

He adds that such a test is "one tool in the tool box".

Mr Gildernew invites the committee members to ask two rounds of questions on testing and PPE guidance.

Deputy chair Pam Cameron of the DUP asks about the reliability of testing and getting doctors back into work, and about the timeline for antibody testing.

Sinn Féin's Pat Sheehan asks about contact tracing. He says a decision was made, presumably by the minister, Robin Swann, to stop contact tracing and wants to know why.

His party colleague, Órlaithí Flynn is concerned that the current system of surveillance is adequate to inform the authorities' decision making.

The SDLP's Colin McGrath asks about the criteria for testing.

He also asks about an all-island testing and tracing regime.

Image source, NI Assembly

Colm Gildernew then asks about the "scale and plans to role out contact tracing in a meaningful way" .

Prof Hugo van Woerden replies.

He says, "Northern Ireland is in the strongest position of the five jurisdictions that we might compare ourselves with" and that the "methodology here has been successful".

"We need to use testing capacity and we need to test a lot more people in the community, he adds.

Image source, NI Assembly

Prof van Woerden says there are 50 environmental health officers who have said they are "happy to help with testing", as well as a number of medical and nursing students.

He also adds that "technology is being used to contact trace" across the world and that "mobile phone apps can help us".

He says there are some apps which "spots who you’ve walked close to and been in close contact with over the previous, say, seven days then that gives very useful information about who has been put at risk".

However he emphasises to the committee chair that the PHA would "never rely on an app in itself" and outlines already "established system" for contact tracing.

Colm Gildernew (below) asks for clarification on who's doing the testing in care settings.

Rodney Morton (who joins by audio link) confirms that district nurses will do the job in residential homes and testing in nursing homes will be carried out by the nurses who work there.

"I do acknowledge that we would need to provide additional and further training," he says.

Mr Morton says the PHA has been working with colleagues in the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) to provide additional guidance on infection prevention.within care homes, "and also in terms of swabbing".

Image source, NI Assembly

Committee Chair Colm Gildernew (below) then begins questions for the panel.

He asks about testing in care homes.

Prof van Woerden replies to the question via audio link. He outlines the increase in the amount of testing that has been carried out in Northern Ireland.

He says: "They are very challenging tests and the laboratories have worked tirelessly.

"We are in a good position," he adds and says there are no outstanding waiting lists or staff or patients to be tested.

As a result there is spare capacity, which he says "there is an obligation to use," particularly for the most vulnerable in society.

Image source, NI Assembly

"It's a rapidly changing field," he says.

"We are moving now to testing everyone in a care home where we have evidence of an outbreak," he adds.

He also says there is a working group which the Chief Medical Officer has established which is "working up so we can do large scale contact tracing in society".

He adds it's important that "good advice" is given to care homes around "hygiene, cohort nursing of cases to make sure we minimise spread" within them if there is a case.

Olive MacLeod begins her presentation.

She says the PHA has put together a range of sub-committees to deal with "health protection, surge, PPE, social and community care, human resources to name a few".

Ms MacLeod says they have put together mechanisms "to safely provide testing," have established a system of contact tracing, provided advice on self-isolation, liaised with the four nations health groups to share emerging knowledge and worked with the regional virology labs to establish local testing.

Image source, NI Assembly

The varied role of the PHA also includes co-coordinating critical care and regional proposals for ventilators.

"Much remains to be done as we have yet to reach the peak of the pandemic here in Northern Ireland," Ms MacLeod says.

Image source, NI Assembly

The committee is opened by chairperson Colm Gildernew.

He welcomes the members - including those who are joining by tele-conferencing due to social distancing guidelines.

Mr Gildernew runs through some brief committee business before welcoming officials from the Public Health Agency.

Prof. Dr Hugo van Woerden, Olive MacLeod and Rodney Morton join the meeting by audio link.

Ms MacLeod is then invited to outline an opening statement.

Welcome to Thursday’s live coverage of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

This morning we’re bringing you a meeting of the Health Committee with briefings from the Public Health Agency and the Royal College of General Practitioners.

In the afternoon there’s a meeting of the Ad-hoc Committee on the Covid-19 Response – that’s basically the assembly meeting in stripped-down emergency format.

Education Minister Peter Weir and Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon will be making statements and taking questions.

The Health Committee kicks off at 10:00. Do join us then.

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