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We didn't get a call but my daughter did

Posted By Jbee1979

"We didn't get a call but my daughter did"

About: Public Health Agency / Contact Tracing

(as a service user),

I had covid in November 2021, I didn't get a call, I had to fill in my details online.

It was really difficult because I was feeling so unwell. I had a call for my daughter, and gave the adviser my details too.

He was surprised I hadn't had a call. My husband got covid in March 2022, there was no call, no follow up. I thought we were still contact tracing presently?

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Responses

Response from Ruth Haire, Project Team, Contact Tracing, Public Health Agency, Public Health Agency 3 years ago
Ruth Haire
Project Team, Contact Tracing, Public Health Agency,
Public Health Agency

Submitted on 01/04/2022 at 16:30
Published on Care Opinion at 16:48

Dear Jbee1979

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience of the Contact Tracing Service. I hope you and your family all recovered quickly. I am sorry that you did not receive a call relating to your positive Covid test result in November. Normally in circumstances where there is more than one householder testing positive on the same date, we aim to manage this in one call as this is a more efficient use of our service and less intrusive for our clients. I am sorry that on this occasion that did not happen, though we did finally make contact with you through your daughters positive test result and hopefully any questions you may have had were answered at this time.

By way of explanation, the Omicron strain of the virus was beginning to peak at this time and we were prioritising contacting cases that were under 18 as they are unable to complete their details using the online Digital Self Tracing website.

We are carrying out contact tracing cases at this time, however, as I mentioned above, we are still prioritising those cases who do not have the facility to undertake Digital Self Tracing and as a consequence your husband may not have been contacted and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for this call not taking place.

I have passed your feedback to the Contact Tracing Service Managers and to our Quality Coaching department so that it can improve the service we provide in the future.

Once again many thanks, we do value your feedback.

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Update posted by Jbee1979 (a service user)

I tested positive in November and then my daughter two days later, there was no call for me, just for my daughter the following day. The first 3 cases of Omicron in Northern Ireland were not until several weeks later, so I don't think the Omicron peak was responsible for the lack of call to me and about me in November.

My husband tested positive in March 2022 and he had neither a call nor a digital contact tracing request. You must be missing under 18s if you don't identify the adults who come into contact with under 18s, and there have been multiple cases in my childs school, yet we only hear through word-of-mouth, there's never any formal communication.

I think everyone has been doing a marvellous job, but it really feels like now, that we ARE actually in the peak if Omicron and Omicron 2, that we're on our own to deal with it and that contact tracing has effectively finished.

Response from Jane Mullin, Project Team, Contact Tracing, Public Health Agency 3 years ago
Jane Mullin
Project Team, Contact Tracing,
Public Health Agency

Contact Tracing, and projects associated with the Contact Tracing Service

Submitted on 04/04/2022 at 15:25
Published on Care Opinion on 05/04/2022 at 10:43

Thank you for your further feedback. Again, we are sorry that you and your husband did not receive a call at the time of your positive test result. All adults should receive a text from ‘HSC Tracing’ which contains a link to digitally self-trace. Apologies if your husband didn’t receive this text, it is usually automatically-generated by a positive test result.

Contact Tracing within school settings is managed using a different criteria than that which is applied to the general public – this has been guided by Dept of Education and Dept of Health policy.

Currently all ‘Test Track and Trace’ services are at a stage of transition, in line with recent NI Executive policy changes on the management of covid. I appreciate your viewpoint, that a call from Contact Tracing would have been valued by yourself and your husband, and I have passed this feedback on to service managers here at PHA. Thanks for your comment that “everyone has been doing a marvelous job”, and I'd also like to thank you for persevering, even though you were feeling really ill, to complete a digital self-trace.

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