The Heat is on

We start by urging you to enjoy, but please take care in the heat this week. The Met Office has issued a Level 3 Heat Health Alert from 09:00 Monday 11th July to 09:00 Friday 15th July. There is a 90% probability of Heat Health Alert criteria being met. Temperatures are expected to rise into the low 30s. Hot weather can affect your health. The people most likely to be affected are the elderly, the very young, and people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Val & Mick like Tenerife where the temperature from April till October is 25 plus (regularly getting into the 30s in the South in July/August), but then November to March drops to 20 - 25.

This has been a week of Health matters. Last weekend, Donna and I visited Portsmouth and Southampton Universities to learn about their Nursing degrees because of our daughter's interest. I am always impressed by the evolving use of health technology, remembering hospital visits in years gone by when Donna's 'cared-for', Adrian, was still with us. National events later in the week reminded me that life can seem to go in circles: Adrian was Managing Editor of the Daily Telegraph when Boris Johnson was a young journalist and got to know him pretty well. Apparently, although he spent some time in Brussels, reporting on the then 'Common Market', it was very clear that he had political aspirations himself. Adrian followed his career closely, and wasn't surprised when he became PM.

I was impressed by the Universities last weekend and saw robotic mannequins in simulated wards at Portsmouth, which can replicate patients’ conditions. They can be controlled remotely, allowing students’ to experience fast changes in their ‘patient’s’ condition.  Both Universities also had a human-sized touchscreen that teaches anatomy by peeling away layers of skin & muscle to drill down to our organs - similar to this.  As part of her role at West Sussex, Donna visited Chichester University this week, and was shown around their new School of Nursing. The University is expanding and developing, and she said it was very impressive. 

I came across this interesting read by an immunologist which answers something that has begun to puzzle me; with the vaccination programme and incidence of previous infection, why is Covid resurging so much. 

My second daughter is a paramedic; her partner is training to be one, and a close friend of our youngest daughter, is also one. Today, July 8, is the world's first International Paramedic Day, and without wishing to seem biased, they are a fantastic group of people to acknowledge, particularly given their contribution during the pandemic. To any paramedics reading this, thank you so much for your dedication, commitment and willingness to go the extra mile. You are all so appreciated.

I also learnt this week that there is significant inequality in terms of IVF treatment in the NHS across the UK: in Northern Ireland, all women are eligible for one round; meanwhile in Wales, it’s two and in Scotland, it’s three. In England many women are not eligible for IVF at all. There is a petition calling for fertility fairness you can sign here. 

Meanwhile, Donna heard that Foodbank donations in Selsey have really increased, since their appeal last week. Apart from the baskets in the shops, they took delivery of an order which had been put into Tesco by a couple of residents, and two people took a sizeable donation into the Foodbank personally. Please continue to bear in mind all our Food banks when you're out shopping, they are expecting need to increase. Thank you so much, everyone. You've really helped our community. 

Avian influenza, or bird flu, has been detected in seabird colonies in some areas of the Sussex coastline. The UK Health Security Agency has reiterated that it is primarily a disease of birds and the risk to the public is very low. However, you are advised not to touch or pick up any dead or visibly sick birds that you find and keep dogs away from them too. If you find a dead coastal bird (such as a gull or a tern) on public land, please contact CDC (01243 534619.) If you find a different type of dead wild bird, such as swans, geese, ducks or birds of prey, please report this to DEFRA (03459 335577.) Sick or injured birds should be reported to the RSPCA (03001234999.)

An update on some coastal matters we have previously told you about; CDC has now joined forces with Coastal Partners (engineers, surveyors, project managers, environment and finance experts who deliver a comprehensive coastal management service) to protect our nine miles of coastline by sharing coastal and management expertise and resources; in Selsey, the CHASM (Crustaceans, Habitat And Sediment Movement) project is investigating the reasons why there has been a reduction in the number of crabs and lobsters caught off the Peninsula coastline, as a result of concerns raised by the local fishing community; it will also investigate the reasons why there has been an increase in sediment and solutions to ensure the sustainability of both the fishing industry and the marine environment. Learn about Coastal Partners here.

You can apply to CDC for subsidised trees to plant in your communities from Monday. This is part of the Tree Chichester District scheme, which has already seen 12,118 trees planted since January 2021. The new subsidised tree scheme aims to expand on this work by helping residents, landowners, farmers, community groups, schools, businesses, and charities, to access 12,000 trees to plant in their communities later this year. The scheme is funded by HM Treasury’s Shared Outcomes Fund and aims to test different ways to increase tree cover in rural and urban areas. The funding this year will cover 50% of the cost of the trees.

I learnt this week that Get Safe Online has partnered with Cifas, the UK’s leading fraud prevention service, to launch ‘Check-a-Website’. You can check if a website is safe to use before accessing, which is expected to prevent thousands of people in the UK falling victim to unwanted online scams every year. Criminals target victims, with malicious and spoofed websites designed to steal financial and personal details: of users – the latest data from Cifas has revealed that there was a 43% increase in cases involving identity fraud filed to the National Fraud Database in Q1 2022 when compared to the same period last year, with 9 in 10 instances of identity fraud taking place online. Check a website is easy-to-use: simply type in the address of the website. 

Finally: - 

• CDC’s Climate Emergency Plan

• WSCC's climate newsletter

• The help CDC provide

• CDC Meetings

• WSCC

As always, from the whole Team, stay safe.

Tim