THE CHAIR OF Harlow Council’s Covid-19 taskforce has questioned whether enough information is coming out of Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH).

Deputy leader of Harlow Council, cllr Eugenie Harvey made the comments on a virtual meeting on Friday night.

The meeting was convened as infection rates in Harlow continue to increase and it was held 24 hours before the country was placed on Tier 4.

Leader of the Harlow Conservatives, cllr Andrew Johnson first asked: “Have we any figures published by PAH?

“Numbers of cases from wards, number of people on ventilators?

The chief executive of Harlow Council, Mr Brian Keane replied: “No, there have not been any published figures.

“My understanding is that there is a significant number of Covid cases. Many of them are from the Broxbourne area…and there is clearly cases amongst the staff

“But the numbers are nowhere near what Basildon has. I will say no more than that…

“We may need to get some published figures as it might get the public to understand what a serious position we are in.”

Cllr Johnson agreed: “Perhaps this group need to write to PAH and ask them to be open and transparent.”

Cllr Harvey went further. “There is a resounding silence from the hospital.

“Is it standard practice to publish figures?”

Cllr Johnson said: “It is in other places but not here (PAH)”.

Cllr Harvey said: “We need to demand it. It is totally unreasonable for our residents not to know that..I think we have a duty of care to our residents.

The chief executive then interjected “I’m not here and I am sure you are not here to criticise the hospital” but Cllr Harvey stressed: “It is a route for public awareness and not beating them with a stick”

Since March, YH has been asking PAH to supply the number of patients who had been admitted with Covid-19 and subsequently released.

Recently, we asked a number of questions regarding how many members of staff had contracted Covid but we had not received a reply.

A number of sources had told YH that close to 400 members of staff had been off sick (for a wide variety of reasons).

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