COVID-19 Bulletin: Wednesday 17 June

June 17, 2020

This is our weekly bulletin and will be issued every Wednesday. Please use this bulletin and cascade arrangements within care and corporate groups to guide your actions. Throughout June 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.

Numbers not statistics: Today’s totals (Wednesday 10 June’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 staff who have had antibody tests	Number of our staff absent due to ill-health or isolation today
1319 (1306)	877 (864)	379 (377)	149 (144)	63 (65)	5942 –	523 (553)

Face masks – updated guidance for colleagues and patients

We now have some updated guidance on face masks and the areas where they should be worn. From Monday 22 June everyone entering the main entrances to all our hospital buildings where clinical services are delivered should wear a face covering. We will supply people with Fluid Resistant Surgical Masks if they do not have one. Our security team will monitor each entrance to ensure guidance is being followed and PPE wardens will track supplies.

In non-clinical office buildings, where clinical services do not take place, no masks or face coverings are required as long as your office is COVID-secure, meaning that you can safely work there and remain 2 metres apart from other colleagues. A health and safety squad are assessing all offices over the next fortnight and will advise on the number of people who can safely work there in line with current social distancing guidelines.

For more information see our FAQs here.

Improving care with research

Research has been at the centre of efforts to improve care for people with COVID-19 infection. At the start of the surge in the UK, there were a number of potential treatments, which were being tested around the world. The NHS is a particularly good environment for conducting research and Trusts around the country were able to quickly direct their research teams to opening COVID-19 studies and recruiting patients. Our Trust has opened a broad portfolio of studies for patients with differing severity of symptoms.

The RECOVERY study is a randomised controlled drug trial for patients who are ill enough to be admitted to hospital. To date 11,579 patients have been recruited in 179 Trusts around the country. The unprecedented speed with which this study has recruited has resulted in two of the treatment options reporting results. Last week it was announced that the hydroxychloroquine arm would stop recruiting as there was no benefit for hospitalised patients taking it. In contract dexamethasone, one death would be prevented by treatment of around eight ventilated patients or around 25 patients requiring oxygen alone. There was no benefit among those patients who did not require respiratory support. A press release with more information can be found here. We have recruited 108 patients to this study, this has been a team effort with recruitment taking place in most COVID wards and multiple teams.

Staff participation in COVID-19 research

The Trust is often approached to help facilitate researchers to reach out to NHS staff. There are two opportunities to participate in current COVID-19 staff research below.

Communication & Work Life Balance – Impact of COVID-19

Researchers from a collaboration group led by Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust would like to invite you to take part in a short questionnaire exploring the impact of work related communications on our staff wellbeing, before and during the coronavirus pandemic.

The aim of this study is to better understand how work life balance is being affected by newer forms of communication and potential communication overload as the coronavirus induces both more communication and has forced remote working. The study team hope to find out what may help staff during this time and in the future.

If you wish to know more about this study or want take part, you can do so by clicking this link.

STAT-STRESS COVid19 Staff Survey: The mental health impact of Covid-19 on hospital workers

A group of clinicians in Birmingham including Mr Chris Thompson have developed an online survey evaluating the incidence of self-reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression and post-traumatic growth amongst all NHS hospital workers (secondary, tertiary care, including mental health workers), from the county of West Midlands, UK, who were working during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Employees, volunteers and students on placement (clinical or non clinical) at a NHS hospital in the West Midlands, during the Covid-19 pandemic are invited to take part in this survey. For more information and to take part click here.

Rainbows which mark stories of kindness

Many Trusts are creating memories of COVID-19 due to the far reaching impact that it has had on so many of our families, colleagues, teams and communities. People have made amazing contributions in extraordinary times. We would like to create a Rainbow of Kindness to reflect so many stories that have appeared throughout the past few months. It is really important to us that we get as many colleagues as possible to contribute to this. Your stories of kindness will be used to create a rainbow that will be displayed across our sites.

You can share your stories of kindness either by email or in writing. Postcards to capture these will be circulated shortly or in the meantime a sheet has been included in today’s QIHD pack that can be printed and written on.

Please send your stories to Claire Hubbard either by internal post to Trust HQ or email Claire.hubbard2@nhs.net.

NHS staff convalescent plasma donation

Colleagues who have recovered from COVID-19 are being prioritised for convalescent plasma donation.

Convalescent plasma is the antibody-rich plasma of people who have recovered from COVID-19, which can be transfused into people who are still ill.

Dr Zahid Sarfaz, one of our A&E doctors based at Sandwell Hospital became one of the first to donate his plasma to NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) after he had recovered from COVID-19. He said: “Everybody has been playing their part. I am hoping that by donating plasma I can help too, plus it’s easy to donate. NHSBT primarily contact potential convalescent plasma donors directly. It is important that potential donors have recovered and that they have had time to develop a good antibody response. If people have a confirmed positive test result and they are willing to donate, they can also provide details via a form on the NHSBT website.”

NHS colleagues should call 0300 123 23 23, say they want to donate convalescent plasma and explain they work for the NHS. They will then be given priority. They can also provide their details by going to www.nhsbt.nhs.uk

Many early convalescent plasma donors have been GPs, hospital doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and allied health and clerical professionals.

UV cleaning

We are now using a portable ultra violet light system to decontaminate clinical areas as part of our infection control programme.

The Ultra-V emits UV-C light and is proven technology for the reduction of biological contamination. The technology uses monitors and adjusts the process to ensure consistent results in the reduction of surface contamination. Areas will be deep cleaned first and then the machine will be used by trained operators from an external company.

Initially all rooms will be cleaned, including staff areas on the second and third floor at Sandwell Hospital to assess its effectiveness of deep cleans on occupied ward areas.