COVID-19 Bulletin: Sunday 3 May

This is our every single day bulletin. Please use this bulletin and cascade arrangements within care and corporate groups to guide your actions. Remember KINDNESS is our watchword in implementing our plans.  Throughout May we are determined to reduce avoidable harm and death

FIT testing is still available round the clock.  Masks supplies change.  And it is really important we have staff working in red areas tested for the most up to date stock that we have, estimated for the month ahead.  So if you have not been FIT tested or if you asked to come along to be re-FIT tested, please grab that chance.  We want to be well prepared and not working at the last minute with you to find solutions.  Thank you!

Numbers not statistics: Today’s totals (Yesterday’s totals)

Many colleagues are concerned about patients waiting for our care or waiting to seek our care, whether that is in general practice or other services that we offer.  The Trust is now planning our six week programme of recovery and restoration.  Get involved, for example by letting us know in the May 13^th QIHD, which innovations have worked best for you.

·         Most outpatient consultation will be undertaken remotely using video technology.  Talk through this now with your team about what you need to do differently to make that work.

·         Diagnostic services will be growing volumes in the coming days as we work to make sure we are making triage choices with up-to-date information.

·         Every patient on our waiting list will be contacted to talk through their options and to discuss any anxieties or fears that they have about receiving care.

·         Some surgical procedures will take place in May, with other services continuing off our hospital sites.

A BIG part of the programme will be how we make use, differently to the past, of Birmingham’s Treatment Centre (our BTC).  The separate entrance and lay-out may help us to work with local communities to provide reassurance that services are separated from acute COVID-19 care.  That is why we are starting our #greenshoots work in this place.

This weekend has seen the start of the Clean Up, and over the coming days we will work with staff involved on how the new BTC will operate over a six or seven day week.  It’s a big change for catering staff, ward service officers, reception staff and clinicians.

 Click below to watch the video of the Big Clean Up:

2.  Cancer diagnosis and care – next steps

Using first the Birmingham Treatment Centre and then other facilities, the Trust will be making sure that diagnosis of cancer patients remains a priority.  Endoscopy and imaging services will be towards the front of the restoration queue.  In March we met our waiting time standards, and whilst April/May/June will see delays we are working hard to ensure that virtual MDTs make decisions about patients as soon as it is possible and safe to do so.

Until at least June, and possibly longer, complex surgery will take place in private hospitals, and so will our Chemotherapy Service.  This reflects the need to manage the risks of cross-infection for the most at-risk patients, and the need to ensure that services are available even if we face a second surge in the weeks ahead.

3.  Thank you to our Brigades – keep going

Our blue, green and yellow Brigades are now up and running.  Hopefully those involved are enjoying it, and learning lots from colleagues in our ancillary team.  The next few weeks as we gear up both COVID-19 and non-COVID services will be the point of maximum pressure on our teams, because we need to ensure that PPE is still sufficient when volumes of care rise, we need to make sure we have cleanliness and we have efficiency in how we work as well.  So the Brigades stay with us through to at least the end of May, and your help and enthusiasm is vital to our effort.

This coming week we will finalise the arrangements for both our Red and Purple Brigades which are focused on contact with patients (red) and staff (purple).  It is really important that everyone shielding and isolating has support, and crucial too that we help those working from home to stay connected to the workplace.  We will need lots of volunteers on hand as patients return to environments like BMEC and the BTC and need advice and help to move around and to answer questions that might arise.  Your time has come!  Frances and Phil, Mel and Toby will be in touch this coming week.

4.  Getting paid for your hard work

 Almost 500 clinical colleagues have ended up being redeployed into different places in the Trust since COVID-19 first surfaced locally.  That means new people on new rosters, some doing new jobs, with different pay grades, and altered enhancements.  It is a huge job of work to make sure that every detail of that redeployment is logged and paid for.  Hopefully March work has been reflected in April wages accurately.  If it is not please speak up and we will work with you to get any mistakes remedied.

·         Please check you have been paid correctly for March.  If you have not please let us know.  If it does create any hardship we will work with you to resolve it.

·         Bank payments continue weekly and will reflect the adjusted rates announced in March that run until the end of May.

·         Please check on e-roster for your shifts you are recorded as having worked in April.  This will be the basis for your pay and enhancements in May.  We will also write to redeployees in coming days to double-check we have this recorded correctly.  If you were sent home unneeded from a shift by us, you will be paid.

·         Those asked to work the Easter Bank Holiday should have been paid this month.

·         Arrangements for bands 8a+ have been separately communicated after review.

·         May Bank Holiday is a ‘normal’ Bank Holiday and arrangements will be as in 2019.

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