COVID-19 Bulletin: Thursday 16 December

December 16, 2021

Numbers not statistics: This week (last week). 

(Note: Percentages may decrease due to changes in the number of inpatients and in the number of staff members (starters and leavers).

1. New: Christmas parties – caution advised

As the UK has moved to ‘Plan B’ and Omicron has been identified as the latest, highly transmissible variant of COVID-19, we must remind colleagues of the need to be cautious and follow appropriate infection control practices, both at work and when you are outside of work.

Please consider during the festive period how you can best protect yourselves and those around you to reduce the risk of catching COVID-19 or passing it on.

If there are Christmas parties and events arranged, please consider:

• Can these be postponed to another date when COVID-19 cases in the community are lower?
• If you are going to attend, can you keep a reasonably safe distance and use additional precautions such as face coverings?
• Can you do a lateral flow test before attending and encourage others to do so?

The Trust advice is to avoid large, indoor gatherings where there is high risk of transmission of COVID-19.

2. New: Booster rollout – know where to grab your jab

As you can imagine, vaccination remains our priority to combat the rising rates of COVID-19 that we are seeing and expect to see with the arrival of the Omicron variant.

To ensure we are supporting our colleagues and communities, we are expanding our capacity at our vaccination hubs from Monday, 20 December 2021. Walk-ins and appointments will be available at all sites. Appointments can also be booked through the national booking service.​

You can get your first and second doses too – not just boosters. If you have not yet had either dose please do so now.

We know that the vast majority of colleagues stepped forward and received their first two doses, when the vaccines were first released, but to stand a fighting chance against the Omicron variant, we are asking colleagues to ensure they book their booster vaccination as soon as possible.

When and where to get your vaccination this week:

• City: The City vaccination hub in Sheldon Block is open seven days a week between 8am – 6pm for walk-ins
• Sandwell: The next pop up clinic will take place on 16 December at the Berridge Suite between 9am – 4pm.

This is where you can get your vaccinations from next week at our Trust vaccination hubs:

• Tipton: Walk-ins from 08.00 – 20.00 every day including weekends from Monday. Booked appointments from 08.00-21.00
• City Hospital: Walk-ins from 08.00 – 19.00 every day including weekends from Monday. Booked appointments from 08.00 – 20.00
• Sandwell Hub: Opening to staff from next week with additional pop-ups planned.

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has also released an open letter to all NHS colleagues thanking them for their unwavering commitment and hard work but asking for their help and support to get Britain boosted.

3. New: Lending your support to Critical Care – join the ICU Reservists Team

Thank you to everyone who stepped forward and supported colleagues in Critical Care during our previous surges of COVID-19 cases in the last 18 months. Many of you will have stepped in several times and we are very grateful to you for doing this.

As you are all aware cases are increasing across the country and  in light of this we need to ask you again to support us.  We are now looking to welcome nursing and health care support colleagues from across the organisation into our ICU Reservist Team.

With cases of COVID-19 beginning to once again increase, we are likely to need to increase the size of our ICU service significantly at short notice to cope with the additional clinical needs. To cope with this, we need people like you to make sure we do it quickly and safely.

If you have previously worked in Intensive or High Dependency care, have other skills that you think you could offer or just a wish to be part of the Intensive Care response to COVID-19 then please register as an ICU Reservist.

Your contribution could vary from occasional Bank shifts to full redeployment for the duration of the pandemic and the team will work with you and your current managers to facilitate that. You will be offered training and support to help you become an essential part of our team.

Register to join the ICU Reservists Team

4. Updated: Trust guidance on working from home

As of this Monday, (13 December 2021), those who can have been advised to work from home. This approach will help to reduce the risk of infection to the wider workforce and our patients, while maintaining core functions and supporting ‘at-risk’ colleagues.

Colleagues are now expected to follow the below in order to keep themselves and others safe:

Work from home:

Essentially, if you can work from home, please do so. We know that most of our clinical roles will require on site working on a full-time basis and your ability to continue attending on site to support colleagues and care for patients is greatly appreciated. All managers are expected to make an extra effort to keep in touch with team members who are working from home. You can read the latest working from home guidance here.

Face to face meetings:

Any face to face meeting should be changed to a virtual meeting unless it is essential for this to be face to face (such as clinical huddles). 1:1 meetings are acceptable between colleagues who are on site.

Working on site:

When we are working on site we must adhere to our infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance. This means wearing a mask at all times in shared spaces and keeping a distance of 1m+. The only exception to this is when eating and drinking.

5. Reminder: Don’t let your guard down now

Colleagues should ensure they stick to the infection control practices that we have established, follow social distancing of 1m+ and respectfully challenge colleagues and patients who fail to adhere to them to keep themselves and those around them safe, both at work and outside work.

Seven rules of infection control:

1. Hand hygiene: Make sure you take the time to practice good hand hygiene, this means make sure your sleeves are rolled up, rings and watches are off and you take the time to carefully wash your hands.
2. Wear your face masks: It’s critical to ensure that when you are in shared areas and in clinical spaces you wear your face masks and ensure you take the time to put them on properly, ensuring a good seal around the masks.
3. Bare below the elbows: Good hand hygiene and safe care can only be achieved by being bare below the elbows. This means that you must not wear watches or bracelets or jewellery that interferes with your ability to effectively wash your hands. This also includes removing ties, and accessories that pose a cross contamination risk moving from patient to patient. Please remember lanyards should not be worn.
4. Right PPE in the right environment: Make sure you take the time to wear the right PPE suitable for the task you are undertaking.
5. Test yourself for COVID-19 regularly: Weekly LAMP testing for COVID-19 is available for all staff which involves a painless saliva sample being submitted. This can provide you with proof and assurance that you are COVID-19 free and proof that your infection control practices are successfully keeping you safe from harm.
6. Regular patient swabbing is critical to providing the right care: It’s important that colleagues involved in the delivery of clinical care take the time to understand the swabbing pathways in use. These documents describe in details the schedules of swabbing that should apply to each patient depending on their circumstances. Swabbing ensures we are able to provide the right care to patients as well as ensuring that we are able to protect colleagues and patients around them. See the guidance on Connect.
7. Clean equipment is key to being able to provide safe and effective care: Follow the rules of the Use it, Clean It, Store it programme to continue providing safe care to our patients.

6. Reminder: Prioritise your wellbeing by visiting the Sanctuary

Our Wellbeing Sanctuary gives you the chance to de-stress and relax in a confidential safe place.

As we head towards Christmas, and news of Omicron arriving on our shores, now may be the time  for you to take stock of the year we’ve had and take some time out for yourself to visit the Sanctuary.

The sanctuary has a variety of offerings including:

• Massage
• Chill out downtime over a tea/coffee and a biscuit
• A chat – a listening ear to hear anything you want to talk about in confidence
• Meditation
• Mindfulness
• Relaxation hypnotherapy
• Music therapy.

Please contact the wellbeing team on 0121 507 5886 to book your free session.

The Sanctuary is a five minute drive away from City Hospital and a 10 minute drive away from Sandwell Hospital (Learning Works on Unett Street, Smethwick, B66 3SY) with free secured parking right outside.

For further details please see daily Sanctuary information sheet. Please note, social distancing measures are in place and PPE and sanitisation is provided on site.

Additional support, if you need to talk to someone in confidence is available:

• Counsellors: The NHS direct counselling service: 0800 06 96 222 (7am – 11pm, seven days a week)
• Bereavement support: 0300 303 4434 (8am – 8pm)
• Trouble sleeping: Click herefor help and guidance
• Just need a confidence conversation?  Book a one to one at the wellbeing Sanctuary by calling 0121 507 5886
• REACT practitioners: Talk to colleagues who have been trained to have a confidential conversation with you near to where you work. Emailwellbeinghub@nhs.net to find out who is your nearest REACT practitioner
• SHOUT service: Text SHOUT to 85258 confidential TEXT support
• Chaplaincy team: All our chaplaincy team are trained listeners and people who care for you. You can email causer@nhs.net or call either 0121 507 3552/4055 or 07972 572854 to get in touch with the team.

7. Reminder: Keeping us safe is between you, me and the LAMP post

With the growing concern about the Omicron variant, we are, of course, reminding you once again of the importance and ease of the LAMP (Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) test.

The saliva test is a speedy and less invasive way of detecting COVID-19. You can book 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.

You can find drop off points and more information by clicking here.

Here’s a pictorial guide on how to package your swab:

Even if you are vaccinated it is vital that you register and carry out the weekly tests as they will help identify if you’re asymptomatic. Your saliva sample is ONLY used to test for COVID and is disposed of after testing.

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: