COVID-19 Bulletin: Friday 5 June
June 5, 2020
This is our last daily bulletin. Next week we will send out a once a week bulletin. Please use this bulletin and cascade arrangements within care and corporate groups to guide your actions. Throughout June we are determined to reduce avoidable harm and death in the people we are taking care of. Kindness remains the guiding principle of all the actions in our work to tackle the virus – kindness in how we look after patients, visitors, and one another.
The R rate remains high. We continue to look after many people with COVID-19. 80% of our staff do not have antibodies. Changes in societal lockdown create new conditions to be managed. So changing the bulletin does not reflect less risk. What it reflects is that the story is not going to change. There are not five messages every seven days. There is the same message all week: Thank you for your hard work, we have to stay distant, we must wash our hands, it is ok to not be ok – and kindness matters most.
Look out for the new bulletin and thanks for spreading the word and not the virus.
Numbers not statistics: Today’s totals (Yesterday’s totals)
| Number of our patients confirmed with COVID-19 during the pandemic | Number of positive COVID-19 patients who have been discharged during the pandemic | Number of patients who have died in our hospitals who tested positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic | Number of patients entered by the Trust into a COVID-19 research trial to date | Number of COVID-19 positive patients who are inpatients with us today | Number of our staff absent due to ill-health or isolation today |
| 1290
(1287) |
845
(843) |
368
(367) |
141
(140) |
77
(77) |
554
(548) |
- Risk assessments for colleagues now published
We have finalised the new COVID-19 risk assessment tool for Trust staff. This covers assessment of the risk level within the current service / work setting as well as individual risks including gender, ethnicity, age and underlying health condition. The outcomes of that assessment lead to clear actions to reduce the risk of COVID-19 for individuals. You should undertake this risk assessment via Occupational Health if you consider you are in a higher risk group. This can be organised by email on swbh.riskassessmentoh@nhs.net or via phone on 0121 507 3306. Read the risk assessment document here.
The Trust is determined to build on our successful work to prioritise workplace safety. That is all protections stay in place but PPE is now truly personal.
2. Shielded patients – change to patient advice
A new letter is available for shielded patients that reflects updates to shielding advice. This letter should be used when communicating with patients you identify as having a high risk of a severe illness should they contract COVID-19, and therefore need adding to the Shielded Patient List. It provides advice on shielding up to 30 June, but also recognises that, with lower levels of the virus circulating in the community, people may choose to go outdoors providing social distancing is maintained. The letter and advice guidance for healthcare professionals are listed below:
Looking after shielded patients is hugely important in the weeks ahead. Changes in lockdown do not mean that everyone can behave in the same way and we need to support shielded residents who may be disturbed or confused by their place in the guidance.
3. Alerting Lymphopenia: Saving Lives
It is recognised that in some patients having a low lymphocyte count could be suggestive of COVID-19, so to make this easier to spot in Unity we have changed the title of the alert to Lymphopenia, from COVID-19. Our physicians are thinking through this measure as a key indication of asymptomatic risk.
4. Guidance on awake proning: Saving lives
We are working every day to save lives. Please make sure you do two things:
Our guidance on awake proning covers length of time, positioning and the importance of consent. You can also watch a demonstration of the positioning in the video above.
If you have any questions about our Proning Policy please contact Chief Nurse, Paula Gardner directly. Let’s not miss any more moments getting this right.
5. Process for approval of other paid work
During our pandemic response we took the exceptional decision to introduce a temporary ban on colleagues undertaking secondary paid work. This included private practice and agency work as well as other jobs. This restriction did not apply where a role at the Trust was itself a second or third role.
From today, 5 June, we are removing the ban but have introduced new authorisation arrangements so that any such paid work is registered and pre-approved, along with registration of any gifts, hospitality and conflicts of interest. You can read the arrangements here.
The email address to register other paid work and ask for endorsement is swbh.paidwork@nhs.net