COVID-19 bulletin: Wednesday 18 March
March 18, 2020
The Trust is now publishing a daily bulletin. This will take all guidance and information and tell you which changes we are implementing when and how. Please use this bulletin and daily cascade arrangements within clinical groups to guide local action. Remember KINDNESS is our watchword in implementing these changes.
1. We continue to implement our plans to seek to separate query Covid and asymptomatic patients – the details will evolve this week
We have explained before that we have separated our wards. We have now also separated Sandwell theatres. Attached is initial guidance for any staff member going into such areas. We know that some staff, other than nurses and doctors, may not have had access to all the PPE that we wish them to have. Please read this guidance. Meetings with ancillary staff are taking place tomorrow and Friday to make sure that this guidance is implemented.
Discharging patients with suspect or confirmed Covid is important where that is possible. Attached is a simple guide to how to do that into our community based services in both Birmingham and Sandwell.
2. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) stores have been established on both hospital sites
The guidance on PPE has been issued, and single use products should be used in line with that guidance. In particular your duration of use of an item should reflect that guidance. Please avoid wearing PPE in communal areas other than when looking after a query Covid patient being transferred in your care.
The PPE stores are on D18 at City Hospital and Bryan Knight Suite at Sandwell.
3. We attach Trust interim guidance on attendance at work for some groups of staff
Interim Staff Guidance on Absence from Work – 19 March 2020
Further guidance on home working will follow tomorrow morning. People needing to stay off work to look after loved ones, including children, can take their first day off as carers’ leave. Please make arrangements as best you can to support your family. If you are concerned about exposure through co-habitation with friends or family we will make arrangements to help you to get hotel accommodation at our cost.
From Thursday 19th March we will have open an HR queries line for you to ask workforce professionals about staffing matters related to this pandemic. This is separate from Occupational Health.
If you need to self-isolate please do so and inform your line manager. You can obtain Occupational Health advice but you do not need to report to Occupational Health that you are self-isolating.
4. Our staff swabbing services are open
We did not manage to open both site swabbing services as promised today, but both our bungalow at City and our drive through in the Little Lane car park at Sandwell Hospital are open tomorrow. If you have been experiencing symptoms for three days and are self-isolating you can book an appointment for a test by calling the community contact centre on 07817 397 533. Please do not just turn up!
You will then either be given an appointment over the phone or you will receive a text with your appointment details. Appointments are available 7 days per week 9am – 4pm on the Sandwell site and Monday – Friday 9am-4pm and 9am-1pm on Saturday mornings at the City Hospital bungalow.
For any staff who are unable to attend our sites, arrangements can be made for you to be swabbed at home via the community van.
5. All staff survey
Thank you to all the colleagues who have completed our survey telling us what carer responsibilities you have, whether you have an underlying health conditions and what your clinical experience is for people currently working in non-clinical roles. We are reviewing all the results to help inform:
- The likely impact on our workforce if there are school closures and as staff need to self-isolate
- The number of people who could be redeployed into different areas with the right training
- Provision we may be able to set up to help with childcare arrangements
Tomorrow we will publish details of:
- Frequently asked questions arising from today’s Chief Executive briefing sessions and
- Details of the clinical queries email line to provide specific patient pathway support