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COVID-19 Bulletin: Tuesday 17 November

November 17, 2020

To keep up to date with the pace of change we will be sharing a bulletin on a daily basis. There’s a lot of change taking place at the moment so please make sure you catch up with the latest bulletins throughout the week, as even if some points seem familiar you may find the details have been updated a great deal.

During this second lockdown period, we must ensure we look after ourselves and others within our community. Make sure you keep in touch with those you love and your neighbours. People may well be feeling anxious, lonely and scared at this time.

Thank you for looking out for one another.

1. New: Palliative Care and the Supportive Care Plan

We all have different ideas and thoughts about how we would want to be cared for in the last months and days of life. Clinicians can access the supportive care plan to do this, which is an end-of-life plan that is used to ensure that anyone with an advanced life-limiting illness receives the best possible care during their final days. It ensures that their wishes are at the centre of all decision-making in the last months, weeks and days of their life.

It is set out in a document, in either paper form (for community colleagues), or electronically (Unity or SystmOne1) which is used by healthcare professionals as a guide to how care is planned and delivered. The document shows healthcare professionals how they can consider, with the patient, if some treatments are beneficial or not and to plan care appropriately. There is a guide clinicians can refer to in order to help with those decisions.

Colleagues are able to access further guidance about how to fill out the document correctly on Connect.

 

2. Updated: Face masks to be worn in all Trust buildings at all times

The Infection Prevention Control team at City Hospital is preparing for a visit tomorrow from the Health and Safety Executive, which will involve the inspectors checking how we are ensuring safe working in light of COVID-19 including social distancing, safe working spaces and use of PPE. This will include visiting a number of areas at City Hospital – both clinical and non-clinical. As we have previously mentioned, it is essential that you wear the right PPE, whether you are in a clinical or non-clinical settings, such as an office, catering venues or whether you are simply walking in the corridor.

This is alongside social distancing and stringent hand hygiene.

Face masks should be worn in all Trust buildings at all times.

 Steps for all colleagues to take:

  1. All colleagues will need to wear a fluid resistant surgical face mask while inside all SWB buildings. Masks are available at the welcome stations in the main entrances to each clinical building. Alternatively departments can order and collect masks from stores.
  2. A mask needs to be worn throughout the duration of the time spent in the SWB buildings.
  3. When leaving work it is essential that masks are disposed of safely when finished. In non-clinical areas they can be disposed of in a black bag waste bin. PPE disposal process in clinical areas remains unchanged. Remember to maintain frequent handwashing/ sanitising at all times.
  4. Face masks must be worn at all times unless you are working in a room on your own. If you leave that area for any reason, you MUST immediately wear a mask. This includes corridors, communal areas.

Wear your mask properly

Masks only work if they are worn properly, we have all seen people wear masks in some truly bizarre ways.

The instruction here is simple – your mask should cover your mouth and your nose.

Protecting your skin from damage beneath PPE

If you are finding that your masks are uncomfortable or are causing you issues with your skin, please take the time to read the helpful guidance produced by the tissue viability team for colleagues to protect and treat skin from damage beneath PPE.

 

3. Reminder: Hand in your scrubs and get a chocolate bar in return

Have you been stockpiling scrubs at home or in your locker? If the answer is yes, then now is the time to offload and hand them in, as we’ve launched a scrubs amnesty running today, tomorrow and Thursday between 10am and 3pm.

No questions will be asked, each and every staff member who returns scrubs will earn themselves a delicious chocolate bar. Yes – that’s right a CHOCOLATE BAR!

Currently we do not have sufficient sets of scrubs to meet the increase in demand as many have been stored and stockpiled by individuals, contrary to Trust policy.

A drop off point is now available in the main reception at Sandwell Hospital where returned scrubs can be deposited and once laundered will return back in to circulation.

The systematic supply and laundering of the scrubs is dependent on staff returning them at the end of their shift pattern, when people take scrubs home or store them in their lockers they remove them from our stock and deplete the numbers available for circulation, putting a strain on supplies and our ability to provide scrubs where they are required.

Please support us by taking scrubs to the drop off point at Sandwell Hospital main reception next week, and earn yourself a tasty treat for your journey home.

No scrubs rules:

  • No scrubs should be stockpiled in lockers – they must be laundered regularly on site
  • No scrubs should be worn in undesignated areas
  • No scrubs should be binned, they should be deposited in to the blue trollies situated on the links and in departmental areas
  • No scrubs should be worn outside the hospital or while travelling to and from hospital or taken home for laundering. By doing so you are putting yourself, your family and the public at risk.

Remember, when the amnesty is over, managers and colleagues alike will be challenging colleagues they see arriving or leaving work in scrubs.

 

4. Reminder: Microbiology – change of routine test provision

Due to the pandemic, Black Country Pathology have temporary reduced their test repertoire. They have now ceased processing samples of limited clinical value, with the caveat that they retain the ability to test individual samples if, after discussion between clinicians, it will have impact on the patient’s clinical management.

  1. Mycology – toenail clippings and skin scrapings will not be processed for microscopy or fungal culture. Treat patients on clinical grounds.
  1. Sputum samples – these will only be processed for specific locations such as critical care, respiratory wards/clinics and immunocompromised patient areas such as Haematology/Oncology. Please manage other patients clinically.
  1. Urine microscopy and culture – The majority of BCPS sites had to suspend microscopy early in the pandemic. They now need to suspend culture of clear urine samples. These will be reported with a comment “Urine clear. Infection unlikely. Consider repeat or empirical treatment if symptoms change.” They will only continue to process pre-operative urology urine samples where it is clearly stated in clinical details that the urine sample is pre-operative.
  1. Genital swabs – (except where clinical details specifically state STI or pregnant) will no longer be processed.
  1. Swabs from chronic wounds – (e.g. ulcers) will not be processed.
  1. Catheter specimens of urine – will not be processed unless specifically discussed with a microbiologist that this will change management.
  1. Parasitology – stool samples will no longer be processed unless there are specific clinical details of travel dates and destinations outside of Europe (unlikely now due to COVID-19) or that the patient is immunocompromised.

For more information read the notice in full by clicking here.

Whilst the general principles above apply across the BCPS laboratory sites, we appreciate that some local detail to clarify acceptance/rejection criteria is required. The laboratory on the SWB site will continue to process the above sample types providing this information is clearly included in the clinical details of the accompanying request. Please see further detail on the last page of the notice.