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COVID-19 Bulletin: Friday 8 January

January 8, 2021

  1. New message: COVID-19 Vaccinations: Appointments available this weekend

As the vaccination programme continues to roll out there will on occasion be opportunities for colleagues to book in to free slots at short notice to ensure we are able to use all of our available vaccine effectively. This weekend (Saturday 9 January and Sunday 10 January) we have slots available for colleagues who have scored moderate or high in their COVID-19 risk assessments or those who work in high risk and red wards in the acute hospitals or red services within community.

Colleagues who meet the risk assessed criteria and those working in high risk areas in acute and community services should contact the booking team on 0121 507 4112 to book in to an available slot.

  1. New message: Temporary service change regarding imaging

Due to significant pressure on inpatient flow within our acute sites we have temporarily reduced routine imaging outpatient work in Rowley Regis Hospital and Neptune Health Centre in order to fill gaps and support flow throughout the hospital. This is a temporary measure effective immediately, and will be reviewed on a weekly basis to identify the earliest time with which they can be brought back online, however currently the expectation is that this will be in place for the next 2-3 weeks as a minimum.

Routine imaging outpatient services are still available at Sandwell and at City hospital in the Birmingham Treatment Centre both of which provide a greater range of diagnostic services in one location and allows for greater flexibility of staffing. If you have a patient who requires an x-ray please contact the SWBH booking centre 0121 507 3339. Any further changes in service will be communicated as soon as possible.

  1. New message: Rise in issues around correct completion of death notices

All colleagues who complete death notices for patients who are transported to the mortuary should be aware that by not completing the paperwork correctly they are putting their colleagues working in the mortuary at risk, completely unnecessarily. Please consider your colleagues and the consequences of not noting hazards such as whether the deceased was known to have had an airborne infection. There is also an unfortunate trend in patient demographics being missing from the paperwork. Now is not the time to let our standards slip, so we’d appreciate your urgent attention to improve this.

You can find more information here in the government’s updated ‘Guidance for care of the deceased with suspected or confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19)’ which was designed to assist people who are required to manage the bodies of deceased persons during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  1. New message: Moderna makes third vaccine approved for use in UK

Yesterday we said that we had no positive news for you, but today a glimmer of hope is that the third COVID vaccine – the  Moderna vaccine – has become the third coronavirus jab to be approved for use in the UK – with an additional 10 million doses ordered. The US-based company’s vaccine was shown to have 94% efficacy against COVID-19 in final trials. Seven million doses had already been ordered by our government with a further 10 million expected to follow – but it is not expected to become available until March.