COVID-19 Bulletin: Friday 13 August

August 13, 2021

Numbers not statistics: This week (last week)

1. New: Black Country and West Birmingham mental health and wellbeing hub

It’s more important than ever that we look after ourselves, stay connected, and keep the conversation going about how we are feeling and how these circumstances are affecting us.

Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHFT) has set up a Black Country and West Birmingham Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub, to provide an entry point into mental health talking therapies and support for colleagues across the Black Country and West Birmingham Integrated Care System (ICS).

Qualified mental health professionals offer priority pathways to confidential telephone, video, or face-to-face support tailored to individual needs, provided by local mental health teams and support services close to home.

Don’t suffer in silence: If you are feeling overwhelmed or need someone to talk to. If you feel that you would benefit from this support, you can self-refer by visiting the BCHFT website. Alternatively, you can email bchft.hub@nhs.net or call 0121 8031444.

Note: This is not a crisis service. If you require urgent mental health support, please call Rethink’s 24/7 mental health helpline on 0800 0086516 or visit BCHFT’s help in a crisis page for a range of options. You can find out more about the 24/7 mental health helpline here.

2. New: COVID-19 vaccinations available for expectant mums

Expectant mums who have not already received their COVID-19 vaccine are urged to get their vaccine after new data shows the overwhelming majority of pregnant women hospitalised with the virus have not had a jab. There are positive signs that no pregnant women with both doses of the vaccine had been admitted to hospital.

Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, Chief Midwifery Officer for England, said: “I am calling on pregnant women to take action to protect themselves and their babies and on my fellow midwives to ensure they have the information they need to do so.”

COVID-19 vaccines offer pregnant women the best protection against COVID-19 which can be serious in later pregnancy for some women. The first dose of COVID-19 vaccine will give good protection and the second dose will give longer lasting protection.

From Monday 16 August, pregnant ladies based in maternity will be directed to the Hub for their COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccination clinics will also take place in antenatal on Tuesdays and Fridays, between 1pm – 6pm from 24 August.

3. New: Isolation rules for staff if travelling abroad

You are aware that national guidelines on self-isolation following travel for those who are fully vaccinated is changing. The government’s guidance on travel overseas continues to change depending on case numbers and the presence of COVID-19 variants. If you are intending to travel abroad you must be aware of the latest guidance and be mindful that there can be changes to the status of a country at short notice. In order to help continue to deliver safe services to patients we have clear guidance in place that you should declare travel intentions to your line manager prior to leaving the UK.

If you travel to a country on the green list which moves to the amber or red list whilst on holiday, and isolation is required you may be required to use annual leave, unpaid leave or homeworking (or a combination of each) to cover any quarantine period upon return. Please talk to your line manager about these arrangements.

If you have booked travel to a country on the green list that moves to the amber or red list prior to the date of travel, you should take a considered approach and discuss this with your line manager if there is a requirement to quarantine on return. Additional annual leave or unpaid leave (for quarantine) should be authorised prior to travel. Therefore, you may wish to consider buying flexible tickets when booking travel abroad. Read more here.

4. New: Self isolation changes from Monday, 16 August

From Monday 16 August, most double vaccinated health and social care staff who are close contacts of COVID-19 positive cases will be able to routinely return to work, provided they have had a negative PCR test. Daily LFD tests will need to be taken for 10 days as a precaution.

Staff working with clinically extremely vulnerable patients or service users will need a risk assessment to be carried out by a designated person in the workplace before they return to work.

For more information, click here.

Public Health England issued further guidance this morning and we are reviewing this to ensure our Trust processes support safe patient care and safety of all colleagues. We are also working with Trusts locally on a consistent approach. Updated guidance will be available next week.

5. Updated: Join the weekly saliva testing programme to protect your patients and loved ones

Did you know we currently offer a weekly testing programme for all colleagues that allows you to get reliable results on COVID testing through a completely pain free and non-invasive test?

You can register for LAMP testing and book in to a kit collection slot for the weekly test, which requires you to spit into a tube in the morning before you brush your teeth or an hour after you have eaten.

When you arrive at work, you can deposit your sample into a red collection box. Many of these are positioned around our acute and community sites. And within 24-48 hours you will get a text message confidentially sent to you alerting you to your results.

For a full list of drop off points and for details on how to register, click here.

Uptake of the weekly saliva test is monitored to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect our patients, the public and each other.

The latest data by group is below:

6. Reminder: Final call for important COVID-19 study
Our Trust is taking part in this important study that aims to examine the relative contribution of occupational, sociodemographic and clinical risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers (HCW) in NHS Trusts in the West Midlands, and how to minimise these risks. The outcomes would also be highly relevant should we experience a different pandemic in the future. The study also considers how things have changed overtime as the COVID-19 pandemic has progressed.

Time is running out as study recruitment closes this Monday (16 August 2021), and we are keen for as many of our staff / students / volunteers as possible to complete the baseline survey by that date.

If you have not already taken part, please access the link below to see if you are eligible for study participation.

https://is.gd/copewmret

Although the research team are not currently able to provide any specific results, they have advised us that preliminary analysis on the exposure data has shown signals suggesting higher risk of infection based on certain exposures. Every member of the Trust that takes part will help to strengthen the study outcomes.

7. Reminder: Take advantage of time out with your team

Taking time out is important for mental and physical wellbeing, particularly after a difficult 18 months throughout the pandemic. Many team leaders have expressed a wish to arrange some time for teams to step away from the work environment and jointly reflect on experiences. This time-out can take a range of formats, but in order to help managers, the Trust is happy to consider centrally funding reasonable costs associated with these time-outs.

This could include:

• Hire of an external venue
• Facilitator/external speaker costs
• Transport to external venue
• Refreshment costs (no alcohol)
• External team building activities
• Backfill costs

Get your thinking caps on and have a think about things you and your team might enjoy while taking some well-deserved time out. Visit Connect for more information.