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COVID-19 Bulletin: Tuesday 15 December

December 15, 2020

If a message is in the bulletin, then it means all colleagues need to know about it. It is your responsibility to read the bulletin every day and if you think of a way to improve the bulletin, please let us know by emailing swbh.comms@nhs.net.

 All the messages that are published in the bulletin are signed off during our daily Trust tactical meeting, and you can find the latest information about our COVID response on Connect here. Please take the time to keep yourself updated and safe.

  1. New message: Opportunity for colleagues who are very high and high risk to receive COVID-19 vaccine

Just over two weeks ago we informed you of the roll out of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine with Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust being announced as the first hospital hub in the Black Country and West Birmingham to start administering the vaccination.

The order in which people will receive the vaccine is decided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and they have advised that age is the single greatest risk of mortality from COVID-19. Patients aged 80 and above who are already attending hospital as an outpatient, and those who are being discharged home after a hospital stay, will be among the first to be vaccinated. Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust are working with care home providers to book their staff in to vaccination clinics. Appointments not used for these groups are being made available for healthcare workers who are at highest risk of serious illness from COVID.

Some of these vaccination slots are now being reserved for SWB colleagues. Our occupational health team have already started to contact colleagues who were deemed very high or high risk as part of their COVID risk assessment. In order to book you will require your NHS Number – which you can find on any letter or document you have received from the NHS, including prescriptions, test results, and hospital referral or appointment letters. If you cannot find your NHS Number at home, you can ask your GP practice to help you.

If you believe you are very high or high risk and have not been contacted by occupational health, you can contact the team on swbh.occyhealthcovidvaccine@nhs.net.

If you have not completed your COVID risk assessment you can still do so via this link http://sw-web04/CovidRiskAssessment/CovidRA.aspx

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust have produced guidance on the vaccination programme which you can see on Connect. Further information is also available in the FAQs.

We will soon share further information on how colleagues traveling to Walsall for their vaccines can claim time back for their time and travel arrangements

2. New message: D25 – now set up as a step down unit from AMU2

We are piloting D25 as an AMU step down at City Hospital for patients who have been triaged through the red stream and have had a negative COVID swab result. Colleagues are to use this step down unit for patients who have been through the red stream on AMU 2 at City Hospital and had a negative result. Patients can move from D25 to the Amber base wards once they have had a second negative swab result 72 hours after the first swab.

Any known contact of a positive patient will need to isolate for 14 days (irrespective of the negative result).

Please note – If clinical suspicion is high, continue to treat as suspected COVID-19 and repeat COVID-19 testing. A sputum sample is preferred for repeat testing. However, if you are unable to obtain sputum then send combined throat/nose swab 72 hours after initial negative result.

3. New message: Are you putting your swabs in the correct bin?

We must remind all colleagues that COVID swabs must be put in the COVID bin found outside the pathology departments across both City and Sandwell. You should not put blood samples in these bins as it will result in a delay in blood results.

4. Updated message: Swabbing update for patients in red areas

We know that the evidence for the duration of viral shedding varies in severely unwell and immunosuppressed individuals, and that this patient group can continue to shed viable virus for longer with a real risk of cross transmission. Hence it is important that we minimise the movement of patients out of red areas in acute settings unless clinically necessary.

Before moving patients who are persistently or intermittently COVID positive, please discuss plans to move the patient to an Amber ward with infection control or microbiology so they can advise on any potential risk. If a patient develops new COVID-19 symptoms after a 90 day period, they should be treated as a re-infection and must be isolated and tested again.

If the patient is improving (Afebrile for two days and is showing improved respiratory symptoms) but unable to go home for other medical or social reasons then they could stay on the Red ward.

After 14 days following a positive COVID-19 test, and with complete resolution of symptoms, if the patient needs to be transferred to an Amber ward for a longer stay in hospital due to rehab (stroke and neuro pathways) the patient would need two negative swab results 24 hours apart or one negative lower respiratory sample e.g. sputum, to be considered an acceptable risk to stepdown to an Amber ward.

If repeat testing remains positive after 14 days, the patient should routinely be tested after a further seven days if they remain in hospital.

Transferring patients to nursing homes

  • All nursing/care home residents must be swabbed 48 hours prior to discharge before discharge from hospital and the discharge swab summary must state the swab result.
  • If the patient is discharged from a Red ward to a care home/EAB bed or home with domiciliary care please advise 14 days isolation.
  • If the contact /exposed patient are discharged from an Amber ward to a care home/EAB bed or home with domiciliary, please advise 14 days isolation.