Skip to content Skip to main menu Skip to utility menu

COVID-19 Bulletin: Thursday 31 December

December 31, 2020

As we enter 2021, we’d like to wish all our SWB family a Happy New Year.

Celebrations won’t be the same this year due to the tighter restrictions as Sandwell and Birmingham, along with the rest of the West Midlands has now moved into Tier 4.

We urge everyone to stay safe as they look to bring in 2021 and thank each and every one of you for your hard work during what has been a very challenging year.

Numbers not statistics: This week (Last week)

No. of our patients confirmed with COVID-19 No. of positive COVID-19 patients who have been discharged No. of COVID-19 positive patients who have died in our hospitals No. of COVID-19 positive patients in inpatients No. of participants to date entered by the Trust into a COVID-19 research trial No. of staff logging lateral test results No. of our staff absent due to ill-health or isolation
Pre-Sept:
1,398 From 1 Sept:
2025(1,843)		 Pre-Sept:
1,218 From 1 Sept:
1,914
(1,754)		 Pre-Sept:
392 From 1
Sept:
291
(273)		 205
(159)		 Total:
970
(970)		 1,965
(1,830)		 COVID+/
symptomatic:
(43)Total:
435
  1. New: Vaccinators thanked for hard work in delivering jab to colleagues

Thank you to those who have helped to deliver the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine this week and to colleagues who attended their appointment to receive their jab.

We have successfully used the supply allocated to us on Tuesday to vaccinate colleagues and are expecting a second delivery next week when we will also begin to protect patients who are aged 80 and above.

If you receive an email inviting you for the jab, please call the booking line on ext. 4112 for an    appointment. Please note:

  • The vaccination booking line is closed today, (Thursday) and New Year’s Day, (Friday).
  • The booking line will be open again daily, including weekends from Saturday 2 January, 8am – 8pm.

Can you help administer the vaccination?

We also still require the help of volunteer medical staff at ST3 and above to support the vaccination hub.

Volunteers will need to be on site and support with prescribing and enhanced assessment for the rare occasions that this may be required.

Vaccinations will be administered between 12.30pm and 10pm and then from 8am on Wednesday and Thursday. Volunteers are required to do 4-6 hour stints. If you are ST3 or above and are willing to help, please contact your Group Director as below:

  1. New: Enhanced bank rates to continue until 28 February 

Rates for several bank levels have been temporarily enhanced so that we are favourably benchmarked against our neighbouring Trusts and to help reduce our reliance on agency staff . The enhancements that were brought in earlier in the year for some bank levels for booking five or more shifts are now awarded regardless of the number of shifts booked. The new rates are as follows and are already in effect and will remain in place up to and including 28 February:

All AHP Bank duties are increased by £2 per hour – continuing from March 2020.

WTD will be added to the basic rate @ 12.07%.

If you would like to sign up to the Trust Bank there is a fast-track process in place. Call 0121 507 3600 or email swb-tr.trustbankrequest@nhs.net for a pack.

  1. New: Guidance for vulnerable colleagues as we enter Tier 4  

Today marks the first day in Tier 4 for Sandwell and Birmingham. This means that colleagues who are clinically extremely vulnerable will need to work from home because the risk of exposure to the virus may be significantly higher for people in this group. If you are in this group, you will previously have received a letter from the NHS or from your GP telling you this.

If you are clinically extremely vulnerable:

  • You are strongly advised to work from home. If you cannot work from home, then you should not attend work.  Members of staff should speak with their manager about taking on an alternative role or make a change to current working patterns temporarily to enable you to work from home where possible.
  • The formal shielding letter you receive must be shown to your manager, who will share it with HR so that accurate records are maintained. This also supports our requirement to report nationally on COVID-related absences.  Your manager will maintain contact with you while you are shielding at home.

How to identify if you are defined as clinically extremely vulnerable:

  1. You have one or more of conditions listed below, or
  2. Your clinician or GP has added you to the shielded patient list because, based on their clinical judgement, they deem to you be at higher risk of serious illness if you catch the virus.

If you do not fall into any of these categories, and have not been contacted to inform you that you are on the shielded patient list, follow the general Tier 4 guidance.

If you think there are good clinical reasons why you should be added to the shielded patient list, discuss your concerns with your GP or hospital clinician.

People with the following conditions are automatically deemed clinically extremely vulnerable:

  • Solid organ transplant recipients
  • People with specific cancers
  • People with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • People with rare diseases that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), homozygous sickle cell disease)
  • People on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection
  • Problems with your spleen, for example splenectomy (having your spleen removed)
  • Adults with Down’s Syndrome
  • Adults on dialysis or with chronic kidney disease (stage 5)
  • Women who are pregnant with significant heart disease, congenital or acquired
  • Other people who have also been classed as clinically extremely vulnerable, based on clinical judgement and an assessment of their needs. GPs and hospital clinicians have been provided with guidance to support these decisions.

We have updated shielding guidance which has a full list of the conditions. It can be found in section four of the resource pack for managers.

           4. New: SIREN study comes to a close 

Thank you so much to everyone who has come forward to take part in the SIREN study. The Research and Development (R&D) team have now exceeded their target of 500 participants so have ended recruitment.

If you signed up to the study, you will continue to be involved for another year,  attending for a swab test every two weeks and a blood test every four weeks (every two weeks for eight weeks if you have COVID). You will also need to complete the short questionnaire when prompted.

All of these tests will be carried out by Phlebotomy, so please book appointments via ext. 6104 or email swbh.phlebotomy@nhs.net. We hope now that you will all become research participation advocates and help our patients understand the role of research in their care. If you would like directing to materials to help you with this, please contact Gina Dutton, Head of R&D, Gina.Dutton1@nhs.net.

The Trust is still recruiting patients to a wide range of COVID-19 studies and has research underway involving new treatments, new tests for the virus, sampling for genomic sequencing, as well as returning data on the majority of our admitted patients and research into hospital acquired infections. The full list of studies can be found on Connect and downloaded with links to individual study websites here. Over 600,000 participants have taken part in COVID research nationally in just eight months, which is an amazing achievement.

We are delighted that so many colleagues who don’t have research in their job title have supported the Trust’s research studies at the same time as coping with other changes and workload pressures. Thank you all very much.