COVID-19 Bulletin: Thursday 3 February

February 3, 2022

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: Taking time out with your teams

We understand that due to restrictions over the past few months many of you were unable to take up the opportunity for time away as a team to refresh and reflect. If you had already booked time out and were unable to go, you will be able to reschedule that time to after 31 March should you not be able to fit it in before then. Any new applications for time out can still be made between now and 31 March.

Taking time out is important for both mental and physical health and wellbeing, particularly after the difficulties many of us have experienced during the pandemic. Away days 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 experiences.

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

If an away day or something similar is of interest to you and you team, please visit Connect for further details. On site activities should be carried out in line with our Trust infection prevention and control guidance. If you are having your event off site, then please follow national guidelines.

2. New: SWB – the perfect place for your wellbeing: Don’t just take our word for it

Managing our stress and mental health is as important as our physical health and our Wellbeing Hubs and Wellbeing Sanctuary are the perfect places to do both.

Don’t just take out word for it – we recently caught up with Colin Beardsmore, Security Officer and Susan Paling, Rehab Support Worker who both used the wellbeing services.

Colin said: “This is my first visit to the Wellbeing Hub and I was not disappointed. A nice massage, which was needed and appreciated. All staff should take advantage of this amazing service.”

Susan said: “An amazing opportunity to look after your own wellbeing, mind and body. So nice to experience and very much enjoyed and appreciated. Would like to see the service to continue at Rowley. Staff are lovely and very accommodating and is a pleasure to see them and the benefit of the service weekly.”

The Wellbeing Hubs are an opportunity to have a relaxing massage, mediation or a confidential chat. These are all free services available to all our colleagues and you can book several sessions at once.

The Wellbeing Hubs are a regular weekly service across all the sites listed below between 8am – 4pm:

• Every Monday at Jayne Wright Therapy Room, Trinity House, Sandwell
• Every Wednesday at Rowley Regis Hospital – therapy room Archer, 1st floor, Rowley Regis Hospital
• Every Friday Wellbeing Hub, above Arches, 1st Floor, Corridor A (old physiotherapy corridor) Room B002/F/049 situated to the right of the corridor, City Hospital

At the Wellbeing Sanctuary we are here to support you with the following Monday – Friday:

• A confidential conversation – A totally private conversation to support you
• Relaxation hypnotherapy – a chance to unwind and work on improving unhelpful behaviour
• Single session therapy – a chance to work on something that concerns you
• Meditation– unwind let go and escape to exotic places to unwind
• Massage– Tracey really helps ease those tension spots to relieve stress
• Mindfulness– helps you to relax in the here and now and it’s a chance to let go
• Relaxation pod– massage from your head to the tips of your toes

The Sanctuary is only a 5 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. To book please call 0121 507 5886/3854.

3. Updated: Mandatory vaccination update

Colleagues will have seen information in the media about a review of the Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment legislation. The Secretary of State for Health announced in parliament on Monday that the legislation is being reconsidered. The Government’s decision is subject to a parliamentary process and will require further consultation and a vote to be passed into legislation.

At the present time we are continuing to confirm the vaccination status of all our staff. Please ensure that you confirm your status to the HR email advice line swbh.hr-advice-for-covid-19@nhs.net if we have written to you to say we have no record of you having 1^st and 2^nd doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Managers will also continue to have conversations with staff regarding their vaccination status.

We are expecting additional information on the review to come to the NHS in due course and we expect to take a consistent approach with other Trusts in the country, and particularly within the Black Country and West Birmingham Integrated Care System.

NHS England have advised all Trusts not to issue notice of termination of employment this week to those staff who are in scope of the legislation and are as yet unvaccinated.

Thank you to everyone who continues to step forward to be vaccinated which remains the best way to protect yourselves, our patients and your loved ones. Vaccination appointments and walk-in sessions remain available through our Trust hubs and also in locations across the region.

Thank you too for everyone who has been speaking to colleagues to confirm vaccination status and feeding that information into our workforce hubs, as well as the people working in our workforce hub, collating and reporting all of that information. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Still need to get your vaccine? Visit one of our vaccination clinics:

Note: Our Sandwell vaccination hub will be closed from Monday 7 February meaning the last day to get your COVID-19 vaccination at Sandwell will be Sunday 6 February. We will be running pop up sessions at Sandwell that will be advertised at a later date. Our City hub and the Tipton vaccination centre will remain open.

Vaccination Q and A sessions:

We held a number of vaccination question and answer sessions over the past two weeks providing a safe space for colleagues to raise concerns. Thank you to everyone who found the time to join in and ask questions. We want to continue to ensure you are supported as much as possible to enable you to make the decision about having the vaccinations. Do you think further sessions would be of use to you? What would you like to see covered at the events? Please let us know by emailing swbh.comms@nhs.net.

4. Reminder: Enhanced PPE requirements remain in place

At the start of the year we enhanced our PPE requirements having risk assessed COVID-19 infection rates and outbreaks within our hospital ward areas. At the time we said the requirements would remain in place until the end of January. After further assessment, it has been decided that the requirements should continue for the foreseeable future.

Here is a reminder of the requirements.

For all inpatient areas where there is direct patient contact (in both red and amber/green wards), clinical and non-clinical staff who are having patient/bed space contact should wear as a minimum:

• A silicone mask/FFP3 mask – these can be sessional use. Single use gloves and aprons (please ensure you have been fit tested for an FFP3 mask before use). Visors may be necessary in some clinical circumstances as per risk assessment for each individual patient.
• You should wear a fluid-resistant surgical face mask if you do not have direct patient contact. Non-direct patient contact includes walking on a ward area, clerical staff, estates and facilities staff. Disposable gloves/aprons should be worn for contact with patients/immediate environment. Porters who are transferring patients should wear FFP3/silicone face mask when transferring patients to red and amber wards.
• If you are visiting the ward from another area, a minimum requirement when entering the unit will be to wear a fluid resistant surgical face mask.

We have also made the wearing of surgical masks mandatory for all inpatients and outpatients. This means that all patients must wear fluid resistant surgical masks whilst they are under our care. Masks do not need to be worn whilst patients are sleeping, eating or drinking. Exceptions are for patients who are under clinical exemptions. Other exceptions include women in labour, patients without capacity, including those who are not able to put on or take off their own mask, and for children under the age of 12.

Staff must follow their individual risk assessment for PPE. Occasionally this will recommend a higher level of protection depending on your individual assessment.

We will continue to risk assess our infection prevention and control guidance regularly in light of changing COVID-19 restrictions, hospital rates, outbreaks and community infections.

Do you need a disposable FFP3 masks?

• If you require disposable FFP3 mask please call ext. 4938 (City) or ext. 2824 (Sandwell).
• If you are in charge of a clinical area, please ensure you have an ample supply of these masks.

Note: We must remind colleagues they should not be reliant on their silicone mask only.

If you have not been fit tested for a disposable masks please book an appointment via ESR. If you have issues booking through ESR, please call ext. 5195.

Are you concerned about your skin whilst wearing PPE masks?

The tissue viability team is available to see colleagues who are concerned about their skin whilst wearing PPE masks. Please ensure that your ward ‘PPE skin protection stations’ has sufficient stock to care for your skin: barrier film, adhesive remover and duoderm.

Guidance on ‘preventing facial skin damage beneath PPE’ has previously been issued to all wards and can be accessed by clicking here.

You can contact the team as follows:

• Email: tissueviability2@nhs.net (you can send a message and/or photo of skin damage)
• Telephone: 0121 507 3278
• Mobile: Lesley McDonagh, Clinical Lead Nurse Tissue Viability – 07976 133 426 or Pat Flaherty, Specialist Tissue Viability Nurse – 07976 133 427

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

All colleagues must do a weekly LAMP test. If you are not registered for LAMP you must do a lateral flow test twice a week. This is the national requirement and all staff must comply. With this in mind, please ensure you have adequate stock levels. Need to order lateral flow tests kits? Click here to order.

Did you know saliva testing (known as LAMP – Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) 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.

If you are still unsure how to complete your LAMP test, be sure to check out the step-by-step guide in the video below:

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:

We highly recommend all colleagues LAMP test once a week. If this is not possible, we encourage colleagues to do lateral flow tests twice a week. With this in mind, please ensure you have adequate stock levels. Need to order lateral flow tests kits? Click here to order.