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COVID-19 Bulletin: Wednesday 17 February

February 17, 2021

1. New: Listening in to your views on COVID-19

The  Black Country and West Birmingham Sustainability Transformation Partnership is seeking views from its colleagues to truly understand what it is like to work in the health and care industries in the area.

In particular, we are interested in understanding inequalities at multiple levels. To find out more about the work of the Black Country and West Birmingham STP please click here

https://www.england.nhs.uk/integratedcare/stps/view-stps/the-black-country-and-west-birmingham/

As many of you are aware, events throughout 2020 – including the unprecedented socio-economic crisis created by COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter movement has shown the extent to which inequalities and discrimination impact our communities and society. These events have highlighted institutional and socio-economic discrimination which discriminates against or limit opportunities for too many of our staff and communities because of their race, disability, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation or class or a combination of these characteristics.

Listening events are taking place on

  • 19th March, 10.00am
  • 22nd March 6.00pm
  • 26th March, 11.00am

To attend the listening events please click on the  Microsoft team links in the flyer and save them in your outlook calendar. All of the listening events will take place on line  and will be facilitated by external partners and are 100% confidential.

If you are not able to attend please take the time to complete the short survey by clicking on the link within the flyer. The survey  is open until the 26th March 2021.

Click here to download the flyer

2. New: COVID-19 vaccination second doses at Walsall

If you were one of the colleagues who received your first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Walsall in December you will be aware that your second dose has been re-arranged for between 10 and 12 weeks after your first dose. Second doses are currently taking place at Walsall Manor Hospital. Please ensure you know the date and time of your second jab and set yourself a reminder to be sure you don’t miss it.

If you don’t know when your appointment is for your second dose at Walsall, you should contact their vaccinations team on covacc.enquiries@walsallhealthcare.nhs.uk or 01922 444023 (9am-5pm, 7 days per week).

3. Reminder: Keeping you safe by shielding, isolating and working from home

You may have seen in the press recently that the 1.7m people nationally have been added to the shielding list, encouraging them to safely remain at home to protect themselves. At the start of the pandemic, our Trust was quick to adopt remote working, allowing teams and departments to keep themselves and each other safe, this rule remains in place and we have over the past 12 months demonstrated that we can continue to deliver safe and effective services, by using technology and remote working.

Whilst remote working is encouraged, we have to be clear that this must be done with the agreement of line managers and risk assessments regarding working practices completed.

  • If you are working from home you must have the written agreement of your line manager and work in a non-clinical function
  • If you are self-isolating because of your own symptoms or those of your loved ones, you must contact your line manager who will register your absence on ESR / eRoster.
  • If you are shielding because of a notified condition having received a letter from your GP or NHS England, please make sure your line manager has updated your record on ESR.

If you are not sure if you qualify to work from home or if you feel that you have reason to be shielding, please contact the HR department on extension 3116 or email swbh.hr-advice-for-covid-19@nhs.net