Ambulance Service's Covid-19 symptom checker is a big hit

An online symptom checker to help people determine whether they may have contracted Coronavirus has had a million visits since its creation.

The Welsh Ambulance Service’s Covid-19 Symptom Checker, which went live at the start of March, was designed not only to signpost users to the most appropriate care, but also to ease the pressure on its 111 service.

To supplement the self-assessment tool on the NHS 111 Wales website, the corresponding NHS 111 Wales Facebook page has this week launched a ‘ChatBot’ to enable the public to check their symptoms via the social media platform too.

Andy Haywood, the Trust’s Director of Digital Services, said: “The Covid-19 Symptom Checker is a fantastic new tool when it comes to managing demand through the pandemic.

“It has answered over a million questions without the need for a call to our busy control rooms, it has helped people understand what to do if they have symptoms of Coronavirus, whether that’s self-isolation and self-care, a call to their GP or at worst, a call to 111 or 999.

“The ChatBot facility on the Facebook page will act as a second platform for the symptom checker, which makes it more accessible and can direct people to the advice and information they need even quicker.

“The ChatBot will also be available on the NHS 111 Wales website.”

The Trust enlisted the support of Senseforth.AI and FinTech Wales to build and implement the ChatBot, both of whom offered their services for free.

Work has been underway for several weeks get the ChatBot facility up and running on the NHS 111 Wales Facebook page, and in the Welsh language too.

Gavin Powell, General Secretary of FinTech Wales, said: “It’s been amazing to offer our services for free to help put something together that will make a real difference straight away to the Covid-19 response.

“Now this initial offering is in place, it paves the way for Senseforth.AI to offer other smart AI functionality to the chatbot service to further support and enhance the experience for the people of Wales when they engage with the 111 service.”

Cardiff Bay-based Errol Finkelstein, Managing Director of Senseforth.AI in the UK, Europe and Africa, added: “This ChatBot will guide people through the NHS Covid-19 Symptom Checker quickly and easily, whilst adhering to NHS clinical guidance.

“The ChatBot will also directly reduce the workload on call centres, and aid ambulance workers and other support staff too, helping all round. 

“It is a pleasure working with NHS 111 Wales and FinTech Wales. We wish the wonderful NHS staff all the very best.”

Welsh Government has played a key role in bringing Senseforth.AI, FinTech Wales and the ambulance service together to help develop the idea.

Lee Waters, Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport, said: “This is another example of the Covid crisis fuelling innovation to ease pressure on the healthcare system and to improve the way people get information. 

“This has the potential to save lives and free up resources to be used where they can make the biggest difference.

“I’m delighted that we’ve been able to draw on the expertise of our thriving FinTech ecosystem, and I’m keen to see how we can use this example to encourage smarter use of digital technologies across all our public services.”

Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething, added: “I want to applaud business across Wales who are using their expertise and skills to support our NHS and care sector.

“Businesses like Senseforth.AI and FinTech Wales have risen to the challenge and diversified in order to help protect the NHS and save lives.”

County to re-open household waste recycling centres in late May

UPDATE: Llangollen County Councillor Graham Timms said: "County Councillor Mel Mile and myself have already been putting pressure on DCC to reopen the service at Llangollen Pavilion car park on Saturday mornings. 

"Whilst appreciating the difficulties in opening the service safely at the moment we are concerned that there will be a further increase in fly tipping as we move into the summer. 

"We will continue to press Denbighshire on this issue so that the collection from Llangollen Pavilion will be able to be resumed as soon as possible." 

Denbighshire County Council has announced it will re-open the household waste recycling centres during the week commencing 25^th May.

The date will be confirmed in the coming days and the three waste and recycling centres at Lon Parcwr (Ruthin), Colomendy Industrial Estate (Denbigh) and Marsh Road (Rhyl) will re-open for the public to dispose of small amounts of household waste, if it is essential to do so.

The “pop-up” Household Waste Recycling Centres services in Corwen and Llangollen are still suspended until further notice. This is because the Council is not able to ensure that social distancing would be maintained, and it is therefore not safe to open these.

Councillor Brian Jones, Cabinet Lead Member for Waste, Transport and the Environment, said: “Our teams have been working hard during these unprecedented times to keep as many of our services as possible operating, including recycling, food and waste collections. 

“We recognise that the closure of the recycling centres will have caused a lot of disruption and we thank residents for their patience and understanding.  We were following the national guidelines and due to the fact that some staff needed to self-isolate or were unwell, we took the decision to close the sites.  That position has been under review daily and we have been involved in discussions regionally to re-open the sites as quickly as possible.

“We are expecting a very high demand for use of the sites and we are finalising the details and will make a further announcement in the coming days.

Prime Minster predicts Llangollen Railway has "fabulous future"

* The Prime Minister answers a question about Llangollen Railway.

Boris Johnson says Llangollen Railway has a “fabulous future” ahead of it after the coronavirus crisis.

He made the prediction during today’s Prime Minister Minister’s Questions after Clwyd South MP Simon Baynes invited him to ride one of its steam trains when the lockdown ends.

The exchange between Mr Johnson in Parliament and Mr Baynes online came after the railway announced on Facebook this morning (Wednesday) that its public appeal and share issue to help it survive the closure made necessary by Covid-19 had reached about £75,000.

* Simon Baynes MP asks his question.

In his question Mr Baynes said: “The hospitality and tourism businesses in my constituency are vital for the health of its local economy, of which a very good example is the Llangollen steam railway.

“Will the Prime Minister join me in congratulating them on their current a fundraising campaign designed to see them through the coronavirus crisis and after that crisis is over would he please pop on board one of their steam trains when he is next in Llangollen?”

The Prime Minister replied: “I have a picture at home of myself and William Hague aboard the Llangollen Steam Railway, I am proud to say, and I congratulate them on what they are doing to raise funds and I have no doubt they have a fabulous future ahead with his [Simon Baynes’s] support.”   

* Boris Johnson on his visit to the railway during the 1997 general election campaign. 

Later, Mr Baynes said: “The PM has very fond memories of the Llangollen Steam Railway from his time as a parliamentary candidate for Clwyd South in 1997. 

"I’m delighted that he has praised the steam railway for all their fundraising work in the current crisis and I know he shares my strong support for all the tourism and hospitality businesses in Clwyd South and across the rest of the country.”
    

Railway general manager Liz McGuinness posted on Facebook on Wednesday morning: “Following eight weeks of uncertainty we wanted to give everyone an update on what has been happening here at Llangollen Railway.

“Firstly, we would like to thank everyone that has donated and purchased shares over the last few weeks. We have now received approximately £75,000 in share purchases and donations, including gift aid, which is amazing!

“We have also applied for the Resilience Grant from the Welsh Government and a Bounce Back Loan from the bank backed by the Government but have yet to hear regarding either of these applications.

“Your generosity will help us to keep covering our overheads during this time. With listed buildings to maintain and engines needing regular servicing, like all heritage railways we are reliant upon our customers for an income and our income this year will be very much reduced.

“Our donations page will remain open for the foreseeable future and if you are in a position to help us further we would be very grateful.

“Regarding our events, so far we have cancelled all events and bookings to the end of June, we have rescheduled the Gin Train until September and the June Murder Mystery to November.

“With regards to other events, we are currently working a month at a time and will update these when we receive updates from the Welsh Assembly.

“Following the Government announcement at the weekend we do not think we will be open before the 4th July, we all have to wait and see and hope things improve. The safety of our volunteers, employees and customers is paramount but, rest assured, we are working as hard as we can to ensure Llangollen Railway is still here for you to enjoy once life returns to normal.”

Responding to the Prime Minister’s Questions exchange on Facebook she posted: “Simon, thank you for your question during Prime Minister’s Question time, it was great to hear and also great to hear the Prime Minister has a picture of him on Llangollen Railway.”

The railway's appeal page is at: https://llangollenrailway.charitycheckout.co.uk/…/covid-19-…

Major roadworks which may affect Llan drivers

Essential resurfacing work is to take place on both directions of the A55 carriageway between Junction 33 Northop and the A494 St David’s Interchange, beginning on 17 May for three weeks.

This is part of a series of essential resurfacing work which needs to take place on the A55 in the Ewloe to Broughton area and A483 Wrexham to Pulford area over the next few years.  The first phase took place in February this year between Junctions 35 – 34. Exceptionally it is being carried out in May and June this year as traffic levels are currently extremely low, because of the requirement for essential travel only.   Originally this work would have been carried out after the summer embargo.  Workers will be following strict social distancing at all times, and will be adhering to the relevant regulations.  Welsh Government says the work needs to be done to maintain the condition of the carriageway, protect the safety of the travelling public and to remove the risk of increasing unplanned closures. It adds that not carrying out this work would lead to further deterioration of the carriageway resulting in unplanned emergency closures causing more disruption and inconvenience than planned works.  To minimise disruption as much as possible the work is being carried out at weekends and at night. For the safety of motorists and to allow the work to set one lane will be closed on weekdays. The work is scheduled to begin on 17th of May and is programmed to last for three weeks, depending on weather conditions, but every effort will be made to finish ahead of schedule if that is possible, says the government.  The work will consist of three weekends of 24 hour working with a full A55/A494 closure of each direction in turn from J33 of the A55 Northop to St David’s Interchange of the A494 with diversions in place.   During the week there will be full overnight A55/A494 closure of each direction with diversions.  A full closure allows work to be carried out on both lanes at the same time, reducing the amount of time needed to complete the work. Transport and North Wales Minister Ken Skates said: “Our aim is always to carry out essential work while causing the least disruption possible to the travelling public while keeping them safe.  The very low traffic levels at this unprecedented time means this important work can be carried out with minimal disruption for those undertaking essential journeys.  “The contractors are able to do this essential work while observing the physical distancing rules and they will be complying with other strict guidelines to help protect them against coronavirus while they carry out this work.  I am very grateful to these critical workers who are maintaining the road network at this time.”  * To find out more about the work and for regular updates visit https://traffic.wales/ or follow @TrafficWalesN

Llan musician helps put together charity video for London

* Louise Redknapp features in the film Jack Found helped put together.

A young musician from Llangollen has helped produce a video to promote a charity which is delivering meals across London to the NHS, the homeless, children and key workers.

Feed Your Community, which comprises hospitality industry colleagues, has so far sent out meals worth a total of £30,000 around the capital.

To help promote the cause and raise more money to pay for the meals the charity recently arranged for a short film featuring media personality Louise Redknapp.

And Jack Found, who comes from Llangollen and now lives in London, has written the backing music and recorded the video.

* Jack Found performs on stage.

Jack, who came back home to play at Llanfest with his band, said: “It was lovely to be asked to put together a video and write some music for Feed Your Community, which is an amazing initiative.”

His proud father Alan Found said: “He did the video for no fee in conjunction with Louise Redknapp.”

* You can see the film Jack helped to create at: https://www.facebook.com/jackfoundband/videos/3482150788466490/

MP welcomes extension of jobs furlough scheme

Clwyd South MP Simon Baynes (pictured) has welcomed the Chancellor's announcement that the coronavirus jobs furlough scheme will be extended.

Rishi Sunak said that the scheme, which pays the wages of workers on leave, will be extended for a further four months.

The Chancellor said: “Until the end of July, there will be no changes to the scheme whatsoever. From August to October the scheme will continue, for all sectors and regions of the UK, but with greater flexibility to support the transition back to work. 

"Employers currently using the scheme will be able to bring employees back part-time. To change their incentives, we will ask employers to start sharing, with the government, the costs of paying people’s salaries.

“Workers will, through the combined efforts of government and employers, continue to receive the same level of support as they do now, at 80% of their salary, up to £2,500.”

Simon Baynes said: “This is great news for furloughed workers in my constituency of Clwyd South and the rest of Wales, and it shows the UK Government’s level of support for people hard hit by this terrible pandemic.

“The Chancellor and the UK Government are taking a sensible, measured approach as we begin our return to normality, and that is absolutely the right course of action.

“As always, if there’s anything I can do to assist workers or employers in Clwyd South, I urge them to get in touch with me at simon.baynes.mp@parliament.uk. I’m here to help in any way I can.”

Garden waste collections to re-start from Monday

Denbighshire County Council has announced that its garden waste collections service is set to resume on Monday, 18^th May.

The garden waste bins will be collected on the usual collection days and residents that have subscribed to the service are asked to put their bins out by 7am on collection day. Those that have already subscribed have received the relevant information.

 People who have not renewed their garden waste subscription are being asked to do so immediately online:

or by phoning 01824 706000.

Residents are also being informed of the following information:

·        Collections may run late due to the high demand, please leave your bin out if it appears that the Council team has not attended your property (teams will work late and at weekends if necessary);

·        Make sure your green bin(s) only contains garden waste;

·        No extra waste will be taken so please do not leave any out;

·        No missed collection reports will be accepted during this two-week period;

·        The Council will not be charging subscribers for collections made in May;

·        Subscription charges will begin again on 1st June;

·        Please clean the handles of your green bin before and after collection;

·        Make sure you wash your hands before and after touching your bins;

The Council will extend subscriptions by a period equivalent to the length of the current stoppage (residents have not been charged during this break in service);

Councillor Brian Jones, Cabinet Lead Member for Waste, Transport and Recycling, said: “We fully understand that there has been disruption to the service and we would like to thank people for their understanding.

“The national restrictions meant that some staff needed to either self-isolate or were feeling unwell and we needed to make the difficult decision to suspend the service. However, we have had daily discussions around the earliest point we could reintroduce the service and we have drafted in external contractors to help us.  We have also been involved in regional discussions and now is the right time to be reintroducing the service.

All our staff will be working to social distancing guidelines, for their own safety and that of others”.

Discussions are still being held at regional and national level about household recycling centres and the Council will inform residents of developments when information becomes available.