COVID-19 Bulletin: Wednesday 13 May
May 13, 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.
A quick reminder that outpatient care at the Trust is changing. Face to face clinics will happen, under certain circumstances, but almost all clinics will take place through Visionable (with telephone options too). Talk to your Group Director of Operations about the plan. After the Clinical Leadership Executive has met on May 26th we will publish the process for considering and agreeing exceptions to this New Normal. If you have not used Visionable check out Nick Makwana’s video on Connect or contact Mark Whitehouse.
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 |
| 1152
(1152) |
766
(760) |
322
(320) |
108
(108) |
64
(72) |
553
(531) |
1. GPs lead the way with COVID-19 treatment trial
All of the Trust’s COVID research recruitment so far has been to four research studies recruiting patients who have been admitted to our wards or intensive care units. There is now a treatment trial open for patients being seen by GPs in Your Health Partnership. This includes residents of care homes who are able to consent to participate.
The trial is open to people with COVID symptoms who are over the age of 65 with or without other health problems and for patients who are between 50 and 64 who have one of a number of pre-existing health conditions. Dr Abdul Tabassum is the principal investigator for this study. The study is currently evaluating whether a seven-day course of hydroxychloroquine, a well-known drug used for acute malaria and certain types of arthritis, can reduce the severity of symptoms in vulnerable groups and help avoid hospital admission. The antibiotic azithromycin will soon be added to the trial.
If you are registered as a patient with Your Health Partnership and meet the criteria for this study you may get a text inviting you to join if you develop COVID symptoms. Alternatively if you think you could take part you can take a look at the website. You can look and see if your GP is part of the trial on this page.
2. Sampling for COVID-19 – Temporary changes to swabbing process
As the demand for COVID testing has increased, it has become evident that there are emerging issues with supplies of reagents in some laboratories. Therefore in an effort to ensure we are able to continue testing and reporting on COVID-19 results in a timely manner, we have decided today to move our COVID-19 testing to a new laboratory for a few days.
The new move means that we are no longer asking colleagues to use dry black swabs to take samples, but to move to using white oropharyngeal swab kits for the time being until supplies of reagent are restored.
Further details of the new process to take swabs is available in the attached poster. Please ensure this process is followed carefully as failure to do so will result in samples being rejected and discarded.
3. Birmingham’s Treatment Centre setting the standard for recovery
If you have been down to the Birmingham Treatment Centre lately, you will have seen a new entrance and exit process in place, amongst a whole swathe of changes. The BTC is our flagship site for supporting patients to begin returning to our Trust for care. On arrival, all patients are asked to sanitise their hands, they are supported to remove any old masks and gloves they may have and offered fresh surgical masks to wear for the remainder of their visit.
Remember if you work in the BTC or you are visiting, ensure you follow the same processes, set the standard for our patients and lead by example. Stop, sanitise your hands, and take a moment to ensure you are COVID free before you come in and the same before you leave the building.
4. Unity: Flagging suspected and screened COVID-19 patients
Did you know that COVID-19 results are flagged in Unity? When patients are screened and a test is carried out, you’ll see a ‘COVID-19 Screened’ flag in Unity and when a result returns from the lab, you’ll see clearly from Unity whether the patient is ‘COVID-19 Confirmed’.
5. Returning patient property red bags
Patients being admitted from a care home will often arrive with their personal belongings stored in a red bag. This bag contains their paperwork, medication and any personal belongings they bring with them. The bag stays with the patient throughout their hospital stay and should return with the patient on their discharge.
Red bags remain the property of the care homes and should at all times remain with the patients belongings. Where a patient passes away, the red bag should be returned to the property store at Sandwell Hospital or City hospital where it will be returned to the care home.
Property Stores:
- The Berridge Room, in the corner of the courtyard next door to Occupational Health (Sandwell Hospital).
- Anne Gibson Rooms, Shuttle bus pick up point (City Hospital).
If you are unsure about the process managing patient property, you can find further details in the following guidance document
TOMORROW IS OUR FIRST RECHARGE BOOTH. YOU CAN JOIN IN! GET IN TOUCH WITH CLAIRE HUBBARD