Monthly archives: March 2022

COVID-19 Bulletin: Thursday 10 March

Numbers not statistics: This week (last week)

Note: Percentages may decrease due to changes in the number of inpatients and in the number of staff members (starters and leavers). 

1. New:  General visiting entry restrictions to be eased from tomorrow – Lateral flow testing only required in maternity

From tomorrow (Friday 11 March) we will further ease our general visiting restrictions to remove the need for visitors to inpatient areas to show evidence of a negative lateral flow.

The following points summarise our rules and are for those wards where visiting is allowed (amber wards only). Visiting red and green departments is only allowed on compassionate grounds (this is where a visit by a carer or family member is central to ensuring that the patient’s fundamental care needs are met). All wards regardless of COVID status should ensure robust systems remain in place to support regular communication between patients and their loved ones.

To visit a patient on an amber inpatient ward:

All visits must be booked in advance by telephoning the ward to allow wards to limit the number of visitors on a ward/bay at any one time. Ward staff should ensure that visitors are given the following information prior to visiting:

1. All visitors must be free of COVID-19 symptoms, and must not attend if they are a household contact of a COVID-19 positive case. We regret children (under 16 years) or those who are immunocompromised are currently not allowed to visit.
2. Patients in amber areas should be supported to receive one visitor for up to 30 minutes per day. Patients can nominate two individuals who can visit for the duration of their stay, ideally from the same household. There should be no more than 2 visitors per bay.
3. Visitors must use hand sanitiser and wear a fluid resistant surgical face mask on entry.
4. All ward areas must ensure adequate supply of PPE for all visitors and recheck they are wearing a mask on entry to the ward and have sanitised their hands.
5. Staff should continue to strongly advise patients to wear their masks and ensure a minimum of one metre distancing is in place at all times.
6. Bay/ward areas should be well ventilated.
7. Weather permitting – visiting can be conducted in the hospital grounds as long as the patient is medically stable and can be kept safe.

The current visiting arrangements for paediatrics, maternity and ICU remain in place. Our usual exemptions apply for inpatient children, those at end of life and people who lack mental capacity.

We continue to review visiting arrangements based on a risk assessment taking into account COVID-19 case rates in the community and numbers of COVID-19 cases in our hospitals.

For more information see the visiting information here.

2. New: Moving from LAMP to lateral flow from Monday

From Monday 14 March we will be moving our testing for COVID-19 away from LAMP testing and over to lateral flow testing. Colleagues must complete two tests a week at home before arriving at work.

We all know how important testing is and as restrictions have eased, we must remember that as healthcare staff, there is still a chance that we will come in to contact with those suffering with COVID-19 and vulnerable patients – so it’s critically important that we continue to test and report.

Lateral flow testing kits can be ordered online from the following website with colleagues either having them delivered directly to their home address or alternatively collecting from community locations.

Order your lateral flow kit online here: https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests.

All completed lateral flow tests must be reported on the Trust Lateral Flow Test reporting form which can be found on Connect, the myConnect app and linked below:

To submit results, colleagues will be required to login with their NHSmail email and password.

3. New: #WithAllOurHearts: A minute’s silence

NHS Charities Together are asking everyone to observe a nationwide minute’s silence at 11am this coming Friday, 11 March. Which is the second anniversary of when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

This will be a part of a remembrance event, livestreamed via both YouTube and Facebook from 10:45am. The event held at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, will host NHS staff representing all nations of the UK and all areas of healthcare will be in attendance – including ambulance, hospital, mental health, community, social care and primary care services. Wanika Simpson, Acute Medicine Health Care Assistant will be in attendance representing SWB.

The event will feature personal readings and testimonies and NHS colleagues will be joined by patient representatives to lay blue heart wreaths as a symbol of gratitude and remembrance.
Colleagues at the Trust can congregate outside the main entrances to observe the minute’s silence if they wish to and are able to do so. However, please continue to observe our social distancing guidelines.

4.   Reminder: Flu is in the air, so don‘t forget your vaccine

The Trust continues to strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to receive both the COVID-19 and flu vaccinations. We are seeing a notable increase in inpatients with flu, and community cases of COVID-19 are rising too. Vaccinations remain key in helping to manage the impact of infectious illnesses, protecting the health and safety of our staff, patients and the wider community ensuring we can continue to provide safe health and care services.  

With restrictions eased people are mingling more, so the increases in COVID-19 and flu are expected.

Don’t get caught out – get vaccinated at one of our hubs. The vaccination hubs are still open daily at City and Tipton, offering both the flu and COVID-19 jabs. No appointment is necessary, just drop in.

Here are the latest opening hours:

Tipton Sports Academy Vaccination Centre (*walk-ins)
City, Sheldon Block (*walk-ins)
8am – 7pm (*6pm)
8am – 7pm (*6pm)
There is also a pop-up clinic taking place at Sandwell Hospital in the Berridge Suite (courtyard area) on Wednesday 16 March from 8am – 4pm. This clinic is for staff, members of the public and children aged between 12-15 years old. COVID-19 vaccinations, the COVID-19 booster vaccination and the flu jab will be available.

5.   Reminder: It’s safe to meet face to face – as long as you follow the rules

After almost two years of moving to online meetings and virtual conferences, we are now in a position to plan a return to face-to-face meetings, but there are some rules to keep you safe – particularly given the situation with flu mentioned above.

Colleagues can begin to book face-to-face meetings but the following precautions should be taken to do so safely:

·        Ensure that your office/meeting room is accommodating a safe distance of at least 1 metre between colleagues.

·        Colleagues should continue to wear fluid resistant surgical face masks when in a shared space, this includes when meeting with team members and close colleagues.

·        One metre social distancing space should be adhered to to ensure colleagues remain safe.

Colleagues should continue to risk assess their surroundings and ensure they take appropriate precautions to protect themselves and those around them.  

Annual leave carry-over arrangements and sell back scheme 2021/22

Colleagues now have the option to carry over or sell back as detailed below:

• Colleagues will be allowed to carry over leave to the next leave year (1 April 2022 – 31st March 2023). Statutory minimum leave that must be taken is 20 days of AL, plus 8 bank holidays (28 in total). The maximum leave that can be carried over will be the number of days over the statutory minimum.
• Colleagues will be able to sell back 50% of their remaining annual leave over the 28 days Statutory minimum.

Statutory leave provisions still apply, so you will still need to take at least 28 days of leave during 2021/22 and 2022/23. This is important for supporting the health and well-being of staff at this challenging time. This arrangement also applies to colleagues whose leave year is different to the Trust’s financial year. Full details are in the guidance.

Is it imperative for the Trust to have oversight of the management of annual leave, therefore it is a requirement to ensure that all planned and taken annual leave is recorded on ESR/eRoster or the Doctors Leave System as appropriate – your application to sell back your annual leave to the Trust will not be accepted unless your records are up to date.

For further information or to apply for this scheme please click here. The request form is also included at the end of the guidance.

The annual leave sell back scheme is now open and closes on Friday 18 March. Any approved sold annual leave will be paid in April 2022.

If you require further guidance, please talk to your line manager. You can also seek confidential advice from the trade unions swbh.unioncollective@nhs.net.

ACP forum: 14 March

An advanced practitioner forum for ACPs and trainee ACPs in the Trust has been set up with the intention to create a common platform for ACPs and trainee ACPs with the following purpose:

• To provide peer support
• To inform the development of Advanced Practice within SWB
• To ensure coordination and collaboration between Advanced Practitioners from different specialties/professions
• To prevent duplication in protocol and guideline developments for Advanced Practitioners
• To share good practice and training
• To feed ideas into the Advanced Practice Steering Group and disseminate information from the Steering Group
• To provide CPD, educational and networking opportunities
• To create a communication channel for ACPs.

The first ACP forum meeting is Monday 14 March. The from to join can be found by clicking here.

For more information please email sajansathyan@nhs.net.

This week is World Glaucoma Week

World Glaucoma Week is a global initiative of the World Glaucoma Association which aims to raise awareness on glaucoma. Through a series of engaging worldwide activities, patients, eye-care providers, health officials and the general public are invited to talk about sight preservation. The aim of the week is to alert everyone to have regular eye (and optic nerve) checks in order to detect glaucoma as early as possible.

To find out more about World Glaucoma Week, please visit https://www.worldglaucomaweek.org/.

One Health and Care coming soon!

One Health and Care is a confidential shared care record which is being launched for people registered with a GP in the Black Country and West Birmingham.

Health and social care colleagues from GP practices, hospital Trusts, community and mental health Trusts and social care will soon be able to access digital shared care records for patients they are directly involved in caring for.

Having shared records available to view will help us to provide better, safer care by ensuring that we have access to the most up-to-date information about our patients.

For more information please see One Health and Care information sheet.

The new service is expected to launch in 2022 – be sure to stay up to date with staff communications for further details.

New guidance for members who may hold or have held fixed or enhanced protection from lifetime allowance charges

Message from NHS Pensions:

To colleagues who hold enhanced or fixed protection on their lifetime allowance please see the links below:

Following new HMRC guidance for public service scheme members with enhanced or fixed protection which was issued on 28 February 2022, NHS Pensions have made some amends to the lifetime allowance webpage.

The guidance relates to members who will be affected by the changes to public service pension schemes as a result of the McCloud judgment and may hold or have held enhanced or fixed protection from lifetime allowance charges.

Leicestershire Healthcare inequalities improvement Doctoral training programme: Applications close 8 April

This prestigious PhD programme will look to address the unique health issues faced by Leicester and Leicestershire’s ethnically and culturally diverse population, recently amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The programme is open to:

• Allied health professionals
• Nurses
• Midwives
• Junior doctors
• GPs

The programme will offer:

• Various projects to support nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and doctors
• Funding will cover three years’ salary for each Fellow, as well as experimental research costs and training
• Total of 25 awards over 5 years (may be taken on a part-time basis – can be discussed at interview)

Note: Applications for this programme close on Friday 8 April with the programme starting on Saturday 1 October. 

For further details and to apply please click here.

weLearn Wednesdays – positive patient identification and airflow meters

It is vital that we learn from experience: Incident/near misses, complaints, litigation, claims and audits and lessons learned are widely shared.

Learning 1: Never events (including near misses) have occurred when the wrong patient has/nearly received the wrong surgery.

Never read the patients details out to the patient and allow them to positively agree.
Complete your WHO checklist and be audit compliant

Ensure you have read and understood the Trust policy relating to patient identification here: Positive Patient Identification Policy

Learning 2: Never events have occurred of patients unintentionally connected to air instead of oxygen.

These incidents have happened in quick succession, the sixth happening despite all flow meters asking to be removed. No patients came to harm as all errors were noticed and rectified immediately.

Patient Safety Notice
Air Flow Meters

• Ensure medical air flowmeters are removed from terminal units (wall outlets) and stored in an allocated locked place when not in use.
• Ensure unused outlets all covered buy a removable spigot (until permanent ones are sourced).
• Ensure when air flow meters all in use they all fitted with a labelled movable flap.

The national safety alert regarding airflow meters can be found here: National Safety Alert

Oropharyngeal airway – change of colour

Certain sizes of oropharyngeal airways may be changing colour – please see guedel flash card graph for details.

Note: This is for information only and should not impact on use, as the procedure for insertion remains unchanged. We ask that you do not rely on colour to identify size but instead size correctly using patient anatomical landmarks.

Still need to get your COVID-19 vaccinations?

A pop-up clinic will take place at Sandwell Hospital in the main entrance area between 8am – 4pm, Thursday 17 March. The clinic will be for colleagues, members of the public and children aged between 12-15 years old. COVID-19 vaccinations, the COVID-19 booster vaccination and the flu jab will be available.

Can’t make the pop-up clinic? The vaccination hubs are still open daily at City and Tipton, no appointment necessary, just drop in.

Here are the latest opening hours: