COVID-19 Bulletin: Tuesday 19 May

May 19, 2020

This is our seven days a week bulletin. Please use this bulletin and cascade arrangements within care and corporate groups to guide your actions. Throughout May 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.

We are talking through and have almost finished the plans for ‘red beds’ for the rest of the summer.  In other words, how we look after patients with COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19 whilst re-starting most other services from July.  We need to balance infection control with practicality around staffing and community acceptability.  You will hear more about this as we go through the week.  But whatever system we adopt we will see higher rates of cross infection if gloves are not changed (and other PPE is not switched) between patients. There is no system we can design that can withstand those kind of ‘COVID-19 never events’, behaviours which spread infection.  Make sure where you work that it is really clear that that is not what we do round here….

Numbers not statistics: Today’s totals (Yesterday’s totals)

1. Birmingham’s Treatment Centre picks up pace

The Birmingham Treatment Centre has this week picked up pace, both in the number of patients who are attending our facilities and the number of services we have operating.

Whilst much of our outpatient care has moved to online virtual clinics through Visionable, there are occasions when patients need to come to a site, from a simple blood test to a more involved procedure. As a Trust, we have been working hard to ensure that we have facilities available that are clean and safe for patients to access.

The BTC now hosts a growing list of clinics including Neurophysiology, Medical Infusion, SCAT, X-Ray Imaging and Cardiology.

Patient Helen Hale visited the BTC earlier this week and was amongst the first patients to experience the new entrance and exit cleanliness procedure. Having her face mask fitted, she said, “I’ve come in today for bloods and it’s great to see there is lots of care and attention being placed on keeping people safe.”

2. Staying alert and keeping on top of handwashing and social distancing

Stay alert is the government’s strapline for May and June. For us that means getting our basics right.

Handwashing and social distancing are essential parts of our work to make sure COVID-19 is not spread inside our organisation, between us, or from us to our patients. We know that cross infection is a real risk, so all of us need to be part of role modelling and challenging behaviours or practices that do not support our work on public health.

Please play your part and help others to do the same. It’s ok to ask someone whether they have washed their hands, it’s ok to say don’t stand so close to me.

3. Looking after your mental health – Don’t suffer in silence

This week is Mental Health Awareness week and the national theme fits in perfectly with our guiding principle of managing COVID-19 – that being kindness.

As a Trust, we want to support all colleagues with your mental health and wellbeing. If you do want to talk or need help please don’t suffer in silence. The Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has launched a new, 24/7 helpline which is open to residents of all ages across the Black Country and will give access to urgent mental health, learning disability and/or autism support.

The helpline is staffed by specialist mental health staff who will provide advice and support and can also signpost to other mental health services if these are required.

Please do not think you are alone – it is ok to not be ok, and if you aren’t, then please do pick up the phone and speak to someone.

Phone line details:

Monday – Sunday, 24 hours a day – call 0345 6460827 – press 1 in you live in Sandwell or Wolverhampton and press 2 if you live in Dudley or Walsall.

You can also access the full range of health and wellbeing support on Connect.

4. COVID-19 new symptoms – loss or change to your sense of smell or taste

Every day we learn something new about COVID-19 and our response to the virus is adapted to improve our patient care. Recently national research has shown that increasingly patients have been reporting a loss of their sense of smell and taste alongside their other COVID-19 symptoms. This new symptom has now been adopted as part of the clinical case definition for COVID-19.

The main symptoms of coronavirus are:

• High temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• New, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• Loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Most people with coronavirus have at least one of these symptoms. If you have these symptoms please do not attend for work. You and members of your household can get tested. Call the telephone line on 0121 507 2664 and choose option 5 to book your test.

5. Looking after your health and wellbeing on a night shift

Working night shifts can have a particular impact on your health and wellbeing. To add to the range of support available take a look at this latest film from our clinical teams with guidance and tips on keeping well. The full range of support films is available on the video and podcast library.