COVID-19 Bulletin: Thursday 17 December

December 17, 2020

Urgent appeal – Have you taken Sundstrom filters from City Hospital by mistake?

Does your filter look like this?

If so, DO NOT use it in your Sundstrom mask.

Infection control colleagues have discovered that some Sundstrom filters have been taken from the City Hospital fit testing hub. These filters are not P3 filters but are vapour/gas filters for the Sundstrom masks and will offer no protection when dealing with COVID-19 positive patients especially AGPs.

If you have the Sundstrom filters pictured above you must not use them as you are putting yourself at risk.

If your filter looks like the one above please contact infection control who will be able to provide you with the correct filter. You can contact the team on 07970023316.

Please share this message with your colleagues.

Numbers not statistics: This week (Last week)

1. Repeat message: COVID-19 swabbing changes in line with national guidance

All acute admissions must be swabbed in ED even if they are readmissions.

 Amber wards – All patients on an Amber ward must be swabbed on the day of admission and again on day 3 and day 6. This change means repeat swabbing every 5 days is no longer required.

Colleagues are advised to have a lower threshold to swab symptomatic patients and also consider patients with mild and atypical symptoms.

Red wards – Patients on Red wards don’t require any further swabbing unless the patient needs to be transferred to an Amber ward for a longer stay in hospital due to rehab (stroke and neuro pathways). This would normally be after 14 days following a positive COVID-19 test, with complete resolution of symptoms. 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.

COVID-19 outbreaks – In cases where there is an outbreak in a clinical area, surveillance screening should take place for patients as well as for staff on the advice of the infection control team.

Exposed/contacts of positive patients – Contacts of positive patients will need to be swabbed every 3 days until they have completed 14 days of monitoring.

Nursing discharges – Nursing home/care home residents must be swabbed 48 hours prior to discharge from hospital. The discharge summary must state the swab result.

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

2. New message: Cosmetic facial hair and FFP3 respirators

If you have been fitted with an FFP3 mask and have then grown a beard afterwards – you will not be getting the protection you need.

Colleagues are encouraged to ensure that hair does not cross the respirator sealing surface. For any style, hair should not cross or interfere with the respirator sealing surface. If the respirator has an exhalation valve, hair within the sealed mask area should not impinge upon or contact the valve.

See the guidance in the graphic below:

3. Updated message: Need a rapid swab? Please use the blue bags – for now

We are almost out of purple bags, so as a temporary measure, colleagues who need urgent COVID tests to be processed are being asked to use the blue bags along with the urgent stickers.

It is the responsibility of wards to ensure that they have adequate stock of COVID-19 swabs and sample bags for the weekends and out of hours. If you need these bags out of hours they can be collected from D18 at City Hospital and the Bryan Knight Suite at Sandwell. The labs are open until 10pm Monday to Friday meaning if you submit samples up to 8pm they will be processed the same day, however they are only open to 5pm at the week-end and there is no overnight service so rapid swabs are not processed overnight but will be done the following working day.

Urgent samples: Please ensure that the ‘Urgent 2 Hour TAT’ sticker is attached to the outer blue transport bag and is hand delivered to pathology reception

4. Repeat message: Remember to go with the (lateral) flow – input your results

Thank you to all of you who have submitted your lateral flow test results onto Connect so far. Lateral flow tests are designed to help to identify any asymptomatic COVID positive cases and helps ensure we are playing our part in keeping patients, fellow NHS workers and our families safe.

Thousands of frontline colleagues have received the self-testing home kits, however only a relatively small percentage of results have been submitted so far. Recording these results could help to save lives, so it’s really important that each time you use the test your results – positive or negative – are submitted.

You can upload your test results here via Connect, but only when you are on the Trust network.

The initial roll out of self-testing home kits for colleagues has now been completed. If you haven’t yet received a kit and work in a patient-facing area, please speak to your service lead and ask if they have included you in the submission that they have made for additional kits required.

Important information for managers distributing kits:

 Please return your completed collected kits proforma to sandwell.adminhub@nhs.net along with the number of additional kits required.

5. Repeat message: Remember to go with the (lateral) flow – input your results

Many staff will be working over the Christmas period caring for our patients. We know it can be a stressful time so it is important that you take a break. The Trust has expanded the Wellbeing Sanctuary onto both City and Sandwell sites, in a bid to offer more colleagues the opportunity to take a break away from wards and clinical areas. These new spaces are open to all colleagues, and provide a place to chill out, relax, unwind and recharge your batteries from 21 – 24 December and 29 – 31 December from 8am to 4pm week days.

The wellbeing rooms are located at:

• Conference Room at Sandwell Education Centre
• The Dining Room at Post Graduate Centre City

Free refreshments including tea and coffee and individually wrapped biscuits and snacks will be provided. Relaxing background music will be playing to help colleagues switch off, enjoy the moment, and get the most from their break. On using the rooms you’ll be expected to adhere to current IPC rules including social distancing, using hand sanitiser and wearing face masks appropriately.