COVID-19 Bulletin: Saturday 9 May
May 9, 2020
This is our every night bulletin. Please use this bulletin and cascade arrangements within care and corporate groups to guide your actions. Throughout May we are determined to reduce avoidable harm and death in the people we are taking care of. Kindness remains the guiding principle of all the actions in our work to tackle the virus – kindness in how we look after patients, visitors, and one another.
On Wednesday 13th May we hold our latest virtual QIHD. In April 30+ teams took part. This month we will be focusing on ‘learning from COVID-19 @SWBHnhs; so far’. This is your chance to shape your future and our plans. Please get involved, talk to your QIHD lead, your group management team, or the governance team. The Trust’s final plan for Restoration and Recovery is being developed this month for approval at June’s Trust Board. There will be #nogoingback so please do grab this chance to say what works best.
Numbers not statistics: Today’s totals (Yesterday’s totals)
| Number of our patients confirmed with COVID-19 during the pandemic | Number of positive COVID-19 patients who have been discharged during the pandemic | Number of patients who have died in our hospitals who tested positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic | Number of patients entered by the Trust into a COVID-19 research trial to date | Number of COVID-19 positive patients who are inpatients with us today | Number of our staff absent due to ill-health or isolation today |
| 1116
(1116) |
726
(723) |
312
(307) |
105
(103) |
78
(86) |
605
(605) |
- Recharge: Let’s learn from you #welearn
Getting involved with the booth can be in two ways: Listening in, or volunteering to share your story. These stories are important learning for all of us. Please consider if sharing your experience would help you or us.
The Recharge Booth will be open every Thursday from 2pm for 20-30 minutes to hear a different story each time from a colleague who has put themselves forward to share an experience that they want to talk about – it can be anything but likely to be COVID-19 related to begin with. We start on Thursday May 14th – get in touch with Claire Hubbard and Richard Burnell if you want to be involved.
2. Big Clean washes into Rowley Regis
Today saw the continuation of our recent Big Clean programme, this time at Rowley Regis Hospital. Teams volunteered to get things cleaned up as part of Restoration work the Trust is undertaking with partners in Ladywood, Perry Barr and across Sandwell #greenshoots.
Our programme is all about restoring public confidence in care in order to ensure that those in need seek help. This will help us to get moving with services like endoscopy, cardiac physiology, some surgical procedures and infusion treatments. During May, and through to the end of the summer we expect to be providing services ringfenced for Covid-19 patients, but also restarting our work.
You will find new hand hygiene requirements on entry and a general ‘tight regime’ around infection prevention and control. Please work with staff implementing those rules, they are there to protect us all. And they apply to everyone.
The Big Clean at Rowley continues tomorrow. Thank you to everyone involved.
3. Do you know what to do if someone discloses domestic abuse?
Tragically, during lockdown we know that domestic abuse is more prevalent with less opportunity for people to find help. Some testing sites across the country and other locations where people have been attending for health care needs have had cases of people presenting to disclose a domestic abuse situation.
Support services remain open including Black Country Women’s Aid with a 24 hour helpline and whatsapp message service. Information on how to get help is on the gov.uk site that includes free, confidential helplines as well as West Midlands Police information https://www.westmidlands-pcc.gov.uk/no-excuse-for-abuse/.
4. Proning patients with COVID-19 to improve clinical outcomes
We are working every day to save lives. One of the recommended ways that we can make a difference to patient outcomes is to consider proning in our acute medicine and general ward environments, as well as in intensive care. Our guidance on awake proning covers length of time, positioning and the importance of consent.
We must also record patient proning in Unity using the Awake Prone Position (APP) PowerPlan. A Quick Reference Guide (QRG) has been developed to guide you through the steps you need to take to record proning. Please make sure you read this guide so that you can record when patients are receiving this intervention.
If you have any questions about our Proning Policy please contact Chief Nurse, Paula Gardner directly.
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