COVID-19 Bulletin: Wednesday 5 August

August 5, 2020

This is our weekly bulletin and will be issued every Wednesday. Please use this bulletin and cascade arrangements within care and corporate groups to guide your actions. 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.

Numbers not statistics: Today’s totals (last week’s data)

1. Our biggest enemy now is complacency

Whilst we all want to return to pre-COVID normality, it is also clear we are far from achieving that goal. You are no doubt aware of the evolving situation at home and abroad with Coronavirus outbreaks, and the continued concern within the Sandwell region in particular.  It is vital we continue to abide by social distancing measures, washing and sanitising our hands thoroughly, wearing PPE (and doing so correctly) in the workplace and masks outside of it where required. This protects you, our patients and the public at large.

Studies have shown that nurses and doctors are the most trusted by the public. Please make sure that the message about COVID-19 and the importance of these measures are clear to friends, family and those you know within your communities. It is easy to be complacent with death rates down, but complacency is exactly what will cause further rises and we must combat it where we can.

2. PPE Hubs at City Hospital and SGH soon to close

The PPE distribution hubs have been experiencing significantly reduced activity over recent weeks and the decision has now been taken to return to normal distribution led by the procurement team. This will occur from 14 August.

A continued daily delivery of PPE will continue for those areas already receiving such. Any new areas requiring a daily delivery can email the Procurement Team and this can be set up as required. Please email Lisa.Southall1@nhs.net.

An additional ‘adhoc’ delivery service will also be established with the Procurement Team.

For Sandwell please email swbh.ppe-bryanknight@nhs.net
For City please email swbh.ppe-d18@nhs.net

3. Safe and secure parking at our Trust

Earlier this year our Trust raised the barriers to its car parks and suspended car parking charges for staff, patients and visitors in response to government guidance and risks associated with COVID-19. Unfortunately this has seen an increase in both inconsiderate parking and security incidents in our car parks. As our hospital service get back to normality there is a need to ensure the safety and security of all. So the barriers will return from 15 August 2020.

Parking remains free until further notice, however staff with valid parking permits must only park on designated bays on staff car parks. Visitor spaces are for our patients and visitors to use. Staff who park at New Square are asked to resume doing so.

Much like the one at City, a new afternoon car park for staff working late shifts opens at Sandwell on 15 August. Parking is allowed between 11.30am and 8am (the next day) only. Vehicles must have left by 8am – vehicles parked outside of these hours may incur a £50 parking charge.

4. Staff who are shielding

Staff members who are currently shielding at home will all be contacted to consider how and when they are able to return to their substantive roles. This will be based on the individual risk assessments that are carried out along with consideration of their role and whether an area with lower risk is possible for them to work in. Alternatively it may be possible to return to work with certain adjustments such as enhanced PPE. If you are currently shielding please ensure you have a conversation with your line manager who can talk to you about your individual health risk assessment and the options that we can support you with to enable you to continue working.

Additionally you can still use the risk assessment calculator to help if you have concerns. For more information please call 0121 507 3306 or email swbh.riskassessmentoh@nhs.net.

5. SIREN calls for additional R&D participants

You will have seen mention of the SIREN study in briefings in the last couple of weeks. The study is now open and we are ready for staff to register to take part. You can read more information about the study in the participant information sheet and register to your interest here.

Registering an interest is not committing to taking part, a member of the research team will talk to you about what it involves and if you want to be involved you will complete an online consent form. One of the research team will get back to you to arrange an appointment to discuss the study and take your first samples. These can be taken at City in the BTC or at Sandwell in the Clinical Research Facility. You can choose which suits you best.

The study is open to all workers in a clinical setting where patients are present, so if this applies to you and you think that you may be interested, please register your interest. This important study aims to answer the question of whether having COVID-19 confers immunity from you getting it a second time and you will have regular swab and antibody tests.

The PRINCIPLE study is open to recruitment too. This study is recruiting people with symptoms of COVID-19 and who are over 65 or, alternatively, over 50 with a number of pre-existing conditions. Dr Abdul Tabassum is principal investigator for the study for staff who are registered at Your Health Partnership. The study has now extended to allow self-registration via the website, so you do not need to be registered at a practice that has the study open. The study is looking to see if treatment can reduce the severity and longevity of symptoms. The treatment in the study may change as new evidence becomes available and the current treatment being studied is Azithromycin.

The Trust continues to have an extensive portfolio of research open and recruiting. There is an increase in the number of requests to carry out small scale research, which R&D fully support. Please do make contact with Gina Dutton, Head of Research and Development, early in your study development so that guidance can be provided on applying for permission before you start.

6. Advice to patients before surgery

The Trust is producing a leaflet for patients setting out guidance on what is required before attending for a planned procedure. This is based on the NICE guidance that was recently published. We will be expecting patients to maintain strict social distancing for 14 days prior to their procedure. They will need a swab taken three days before surgery and then will need to self-isolate from that date prior to coming into to hospital. The patient information that will be produced in leaflet form can be found here.

If you have any queries about these arrangements please raise them through your link on the Tactical COVID-19 group.

7. Updated guidance on returning from Spain

If you are returning from Spain and you were there prior to the government’s revised announcement on quarantine requirements make sure you discuss your return with your manager before coming back to site. You should follow the national guidelines and self-isolate for 14 days. You will need to discuss work that you can do from home with your manager.

Non-essential travel to Spain is now not advised by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and any travel insurance is unlikely to cover you. Travel to Spain is therefore not recommended.

You must discuss this with your line manager before you travel as it may not be possible for your service area to allow you to self-isolate for 14 days on your return. If you are unable to work from home for this 14 day period you may need to use this 14 day period of self-isolation as either annual leave or unpaid leave. There are clearly exceptional circumstances that will need individual consideration which is why it is important to talk to your line manager prior to travelling.

8. Do you know when and how often you should be swabbing patients in Red, Blue and Lilac wards?

It is vital that inpatients are not only placed in the right care environment (Red, Lilac, Blue ward) but also that swabbing is carried out appropriately and effectively in each environment.

Remember:

Red wards are for COVID-19 patients, Blue wards for non COVID-19 patients and Lilac wards are areas where patients have been swabbed and are negative for COVID-19 but have had contact with COVID-19 positive patients.

1. Every patient MUST be swabbed on admission.
2. Patients on Lilac wards MUST be swabbed every 3 days.
3. Patients on Blue wards MUST be swabbed every 5 days.

Follow the Trust’s pathway here.

Guidance for those being treated at the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre and surgical patients is as follows for patients undergoing the following procedures:

1. Emergency life/sight threatening then proceed as high risk – result unknown, screening in place
2. Elective  (Aerosol Generating Procedure – AGP) – swab required
3. Any AGP process – full PPE must be worn
4. Local (i.e. injections/eye/joint) – no swab required but screening should be undertaken and patients risk assessed and determined safe to proceed.

Alongside swabbing at the right time, it’s critical that swabbing is carried out using the right swabbing kit and collected in the right manner.

Black swabs are only for urgent testing in pre-agreed areas (red ED, red AMU and symptomatic patients on wards). White\Green\Yellow swab kits should be used for all other admissions and for routine testing in blue and lilac areas.

Guidance on how to collect samples is available in the linked document.

COVID-19 Patient Swabbing Guidance

Where swabs are taken, colleagues must ensure that they are hand delivered to the pathology departments as soon as possible so that they can be tested and reported without delay. Samples must not be left on wards for extended periods of time as this significantly delays the time taken to report results and ultimately puts patients and colleagues at risk.

Triple bagging swab samples for safety

Remember when you are bagging your swab sample, you must ensure the red topped bottle is first put in a clear specimen bag, this should then be placed in a clear zip lock bag and finally packaged in a blue specimen bag alongside any paperwork.

 9. Mental Wellbeing – It’s good to talk…

The Trust has launched its Level 1 mental wellbeing training which focuses on supporting colleagues through the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic recovery. Part of the wellbeing support plan is the provision of training for all line managers, plus any volunteer colleagues, to have initial conversations with colleagues and, where appropriate, open the door to further services that may help. This is the Level 1 supervisor training which is in the form of e-learning material. Please follow the attached information on how to access the course.

e-Learning Registration – Level 1 Mental Wellbeing Supervisor Training

A range of other mental health support is on offer that can be seen on our Connect Wellbeing pages. The recharge booth returns tomorrow (Thursday 6 August 2020) with a story on isolation and working from home. To join please email swbh.rechargebooth@nhs.net. A WebEx invite will be sent to your outlook diary, and you will simply need to click on the ‘join’ button to enter.