COVID-19 Bulletin: Tuesday 8 December
December 9, 2020
1. New: COVID vaccination programme – can you play a part?
Today you may have seen coverage of 90 year old Maggie – filmed in Coventry, she is the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccination in the UK.
The hospital hub for the Black Country is Walsall Manor and we are expecting additional hospital hubs to be announced in coming days.
Our PCCT team with Your Health Partnership Primary Care Network (YHP PCN) are gearing up to begin vaccinating patients next week. This vaccination campaign will be carried out in addition to usual general practice work and the additional over 50s flu vaccinations. The plan is to vaccinate seven days per week from 8am-8pm. We would therefore welcome any colleague who would like to help us in this fight and help to facilitate and administer vaccinations.
YHP PCN plans to deliver their COVID vaccination programme from Whiteheath Medical Centre. It is anticipated that staff will be required to work six hour shifts. Please register with the Trust bank and send an email to express your interest to help with the vaccination campaign to Davinia George our YHP PCN Head of Nursing – davinia.george@nhs.net.
2. New: Know your lifts
Our estates team have installed new floor signage so that it is clear which lifts should be used for which purposes. It is vital that lifts identified as “red” are only used to transfer red stream patients. They should not be used for other purposes. Staff should also ensure that the correct PPE is being worn in all lifts to reduce risk of infection transmission. You will see the signs on the floor directly in front of the door to the lift. Please ensure you travel safely.
3. Updated: Please log your lateral flow test results
Over 5000 colleagues have now received their lateral flow test kits, yet only 860 have logged their results. If you are having difficulty logging your results please contact swbh.comms@nhs.net and we will help you.
It is essential that all colleagues who have signed for a test kit uploads their results promptly, so the Trust is able to demonstrate that mass testing is working within our organisation. As mass testing further evolves in a bid to keep both colleagues and patients safe, we need to be able to demonstrate that we are keen to be at the front of the queue to receive updated tests.
If we are unable to prove that our workforce are using and recording results promptly, it puts us at a disadvantage when requesting further tests.
You can upload your test results here via Connect, when you are on the Trust network.