COVID-19 Bulletin: Friday 8 October

October 8, 2021

Numbers not statistics: This week (last week)

1. New: Our chief nurse has had her flu jab and COVID-19 booster – get yours too!

With the winter months fast approaching, it’s more important now than ever to protect yourself against flu and COVID.

Both vaccines are safe to have together and are now available for co-administration in our onsite vaccination hubs. Our Chief Nurse, Mel Roberts had both jabs on Wednesday – administered 15 minutes apart.

Should you not wish to have both vaccines at the same time this can also be accommodated by booking two separate appointments. COVID-19 boosters will be Pfizer booster vaccines and those eligible include those who have had their second COVID-19 vaccine (including Pfizer or Astra Zeneca) and have no contraindications to the Pfizer vaccination.

Please be aware that there must be at least six months (180 days) between your second dose and booster dose of your COVID-19 vaccination. If you are receiving both jabs they will be issued 15 minutes apart.

Do you have a question? Click here to read the FAQ document.

Note: Peer vaccinators will also be visiting clinical areas to administer flu jabs but due to infection control procedures in place this provision may be limited.

The flu jab and COVID-19 booster is available to all SWB colleagues including students and temporary staff. Flu jabs are only available for Trust employees and you will need your NHS number to register for your vaccines. To find your NHS number, click here.

Receiving your COVID booster/flu jab elsewhere?

If you receive your COVID booster and/or flu vaccination elsewhere please ensure to have your place of work recorded as Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust on the system at the time of vaccination. This will help keep your occupational health records updated and avoid any further chasing for having the jabs.

Remember you can still get your first COVID jab: City Hospital vaccination hub in Sheldon Block is open for those 18 or older who would like their first jab. The hub is open daily for both walk-ins and bookings via the national booking website.

Boost your immunity this winter – get your flu jab and COVID-19 booster.

2. New: Third primary vaccination to immunosuppressed patients

This week clinical leads were alerted to the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation guidance to vaccinate immunosuppressed individuals with a third primary dose. This will overlap with patients who will be invited for their booster dose.

The difference is that the third primary dose is any time after eight weeks of the second dose, whereas the booster is six months after. Therefore we need to advise our immunosuppressed patients of the opportunity for them to have a third dose potentially earlier than their booster is due. Hence the predicted overlap.

This task will need combined medical, nursing, administration and operational teamwork to deliver. For now as a matter of relative urgency it is asked that colleagues review their shielding list, looking against the needed criteria in your specialty areas and adding any additional patients who meet the criteria, removing those who do not. This should be done by Wednesday 13 October.

For further information please speak to your clinical lead who has been sent more information if specific action is needed.

3. Reminder: Antibody treatment for COVID patients

As we learn more about COVID-19, treatments for the virus continue to develop.

One new drug which will soon be available to inpatients is Ronapreve, a neutralising monoclonal antibody treatment. Monoclonal antibodies are like the antibodies your body makes to fight viruses and other bugs, but are made in the labs of pharmaceutical companies. They are designed to target the coronavirus spike protein.

A webinar took place last week which explained more about the treatment rationale, pathways and prescribing information.

Panel members on the webinar included colleagues from the Medical Director’s office, Pharmacy and the Clinical Advisory Group.

In case you missed it: To learn more about the treatment you can watch the webinar below.

See below for treatment pathway and add on request process:

• Blood Sciences – Add on process v2.0
  
• Neutralising Monoclonal Antibody (nMAB) (Casirivimab and Imdevimab) Ronapreve Pathway V4

If you wish to review the evidence that has informed this treatment please see RECOVERY Trial – Antibody Based Therapy Outcomes.

4. Reminder: Complacency kills – don’t drop your guard

After months donning masks, washing hands and keeping two metres away from everyone, the almost relentless focus on infection control can become exhausting but the fact remains that whilst the national lockdowns have subsided and face masks rules relaxed, there still remains a very real risk of catching COVID-19 or passing it on to your patients, colleagues and loved ones.

Colleagues should ensure they stick to the infection control practices that we have established, respectfully challenge colleagues and patients who fail to adhere to them and keep themselves and those around them safe.

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 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 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.
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.

5. Reminder: Use it, clean it, store it

The regular cleaning of shared patient equipment is key to reducing the risk of cross infection between patients and staff. Patient and staff equipment can harbour potentially harmful bacteria that is unseen to the naked eye.

By performing regular cleaning of equipment and using the green ‘I am clean’ labels  this will help to give both patients and our staff, confidence that equipment is clean and ready for use!

Remember that you need to clean patient equipment after every use and between each patient. Please do not put a sticker on any equipment that has not been cleaned.

To keep equipment fully charged or to help to keep your ward or area neat and tidy, once you have cleaned, store it in the appropriate place.

So the next time you use a work station on wheels or a dinamap… clean it and store it….use it clean it store it!

Instructional videos on how to ‘Use, clean and store’ equipment is available on the following link:

• UCS – WoW
• UCS – Commode
• UCS – Patient Hoist
• UCS – Dinamap Blood Pressure Machine
• UCS – Blood Glucose Monitoring Box

6. Reminder: Masks: If you’re in, they’re on

It’s still important to remember COVID-19 hasn’t left us. Whilst we all wish to return to pre-COVID times, we must not lower our guard, we must stay cautious.  As such, our current arrangements for colleagues, patients and visitors at the Trust continue.

Colleagues, patients and visitors are expected to continue to follow social distancing rules on site as well as using face masks and other personal protection equipment.  For colleagues, the wearing of a mask is important and this is the case regardless of whether you are in within the main spine of the hospital, an outlying building or an administrative office. If you’re in a shared space you must wear one.

Fighting COVID-19 is a team effort, it needs the cooperation of everyone at our Trust to ensure we keep the virus at bay, keeping us safe and well and ensuring we are able to continue safely caring for our patients.

7. Reminder: How to safely package your saliva test

Many of you have signed up to the weekly saliva (LAMP) testing programme – which is a speedy and accurate way of determining whether you have COVID-19.

You can book a kit collection slot for the weekly test which simply requires you to spit into a tube in the morning before you brush your teeth. If you forget to take your saliva sample on waking you can do it later in the morning but you must ensure that nothing is consumed for at least one hour before.

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.

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

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.

 You can also watch a video on how to do your saliva test here. 

The latest data by group is below:

8. Reminder: Visit the Sanctuary

Would you like to take 30-90 minutes to look after yourself? We very rarely take the time, so why not book now!

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

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

Dr Michael Blaber, Wellbeing Lead for Junior Doctors is one colleague who recently attended the Sanctuary:

“The staff were exceptionally friendly, though not at all intrusive. Colleagues were enjoying guided mindfulness and music therapy, learning de-stress techniques and benefiting from skilled listening and clinical supervision. Whether I wanted to offer my ‘expert analysis’ of the football or discuss the difficult situation I had just encountered on the ward, there was freedom to simply unwind… I highly recommend it to you.” 

You can read Dr Blaber’s full article on Connect.

Dr Michael Blaber is encouraging colleagues to use the Sanctuary
Note: Social distancing measures are in place and PPE and sanitisation is provided on site.

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

The Sanctuary is only 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.

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

• 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.