COVID-19 Update 19

Social Distancing and Staff Testing

Introduction

This week has seen the first of the antibody tests being made available to the Trust and the progression of some of our work on how we manage the recovery from COVID-19. As we now move through June we will be increasingly talking to teams and staff about future ways of working, recovery of our services and re-opening some of our units safely. This week we gave the go ahead to reopen the only service we fully closed during the pandemic period – Dragon Square respite. The team, led by Tracy Flanagan, Unit Manager, have done a brilliant job in finding ways that the service can operate safely and continue to provide their much needed respite services. The level of assurance that we require on safety to open such a service is clearly very high and the unit should be very proud of how they have approached this.

However, the other issue that I need to raise in communications today is the issue of social distancing. We fully understand the desire of people to get back to normal. I don’t think anyone wants to come back to work every day as much me! This is not the time to do so. This week we have seen increasing numbers of staff attending bases and in particular in Harplands Hospital. I need to ask you all directly not to do this unless your attendance is essential. All staff should continue to work remotely where possible and only attend Trust sites if the work you need to do cannot be done at home. Working patterns should be the same as they were in April and May. Please respect this social distancing and if you need to come onto a Trust site, also respect social distancing principles when present. This is for your safety and that of our service users.

Today I therefore wish to cover:

Maintaining social distancing – Health & Safety Principles
Antibody Testing – Access for Staff

Jonathan O’Brien, Director of Operations & Deputy Chief Executive Officer

Maintaining social distancing – Health & Safety Principles

It is important that all staff continue to observe social distancing and appropriate good practice in this regard. To reinforce our most fundamental instruction - if staff can work from home they should continue to do this.

To help you, here are some handy hints and tips which have been produced by Frazer Madonald, Health & Safety Lead. Can I ask that everyone please takes five minutes to read these carefully and make sure that you are adopting all of these in your own working arrangements? It may be useful to also review these at team meetings and with your line manager, to ensure everyone is aware of what is required.

Who should be coming to work?

Consider who is needed on site – workers in roles critical to business and operational continuity.
Plan for minimum number of people on premises
Understand staff individual risk by completing demographic COVID-19 risk assessment

Social Distancing – workplaces

Stagger arrival and departure times to prevent congregations of staff
Consider marking indicators for staff on social distancing
Introduce one way systems where possible and consider entry and exit points. Can these be increased or alternatives used?
Hand wash facilities or hand sanitizer should be provided (particularly at the entrance and exits)
Reduce the number of touch points (unlock coded keypads where safe or manageable to do so).
Evaluate the maximum number of staff per room (including toilets)
Specify maximum occupancy for lifts and make hand sanitizer available
Consider the maximum occupancy of each building to reduce the use of high traffic areas such as corridors i.e. a maximum number of people in a building at any one time.
Review cleaning schedules to include enhanced cleaning for busy areas

Workstations

Limit hot desking and where this is unavoidable ensure that there is regular cleaning particularly of regular touch points (keyboards, Phones, do not share headsets etc )
Review layouts to allow people to work further away from each other (2m minimum)
Where it is not possible to move workstations at least 2m apart, arrange for workstations to be side by side or back to back and screening is to be used between stations.
Remove waste and personal belongs at the end of your shift.

Meetings

Continue using Microsoft Teams and if staff must gather for a meeting they must adhere to 2m social distancing
Provide hand sanitizer and ensure cleaning after a meeting (make sanitizer and wipes available).

Common Areas

Work collaboratively with landlords in multi-tenant sites to ensure consistency across common areas (receptions, corridors etc)
Stagger break times to reduce pressure on kitchens and break rooms
Use safe outdoor areas for breaks weather permitting
Reconfigure seating and furniture to maintain social distancing
Encourage staff to not bring personal items to the workplace and where these must be bought in place them in safe storage where provided (desk drawers etc)
Consider enhanced cleaning schedule

Visitors and patients

Encourage remote meetings to reduce visitors to site
Signs informing patients/visitors - if unwell, do not attend or inform staff and go straight home
Limit the number of visitors at any one time
Re-arrange receptions and appointments so patients are not waiting or are unable to socially distance
Implement signage or floor signs/marks to indicate places to stand/sit to maintain social distancing
Review entry and exit points to reduce person contact – this may be managed through appointment times
Explanation of measures and expectations should be provided before attendance to site.

Staff Groups/Shift Patterns

As far as practicable, where staff are split into smaller groups/teams, fix these teams or groups so that where contact is unavoidable, this happens between the same people, thus creating a ‘social bubble’.

PPE

Workplaces should not encourage the precautionary use of extra PPE to protect against COVID-19 outside clinical settings
The Trust has adequate supplies of PPE which will be provide to community sites for use in clinical settings where 2m social distancing cannot be maintained (for example in the depot clinics etc)
The Trust does not encourage the use of PPE (masks/gloves etc) in general office areas.

General measures

Where possible increase ventilation by opening windows
Ensure cleaning regime and hand sanitizer availability at regular touch points – printers, whiteboards, coded locks where these cannot be disabled
Only business deliveries allowed to work sites
Consider drop off points so staff do not have to physically pass items to one another and can maintain social distancing.

Antibody Testing - access for staff

Antibody testing has now gone live for all NHS staff. An antibody test can tell someone whether they have had the virus that causes COVID-19 in the past, by analysing a blood sample. The test is entirely voluntary and booking one is being made optional to all staff – it is your choice and no one will be specifically asked to have one. If you choose to have the test it will not affect what you are asked to do at work.

We have been working with to organise the first antibody tests that will be available to the Trust. After initial testing of the processes this week, we are now in a position to offer the test to all staff. We have developed an online booking system which will go live on Monday 8th June 2020 to allow you to book your test. The link is below and whilst we have limited capacity to start with, we will add more capacity if demand indicates it is needed. The test will be undertaken by a member of staff qualified to do so and appropriate PPE will be used.

A positive antibody test demonstrates that someone has developed antibodies to the virus. You should leave 28 days from being symptomatic to have the test, otherwise your immune system may not have produced the antibodies that the test will detect. The presence of these antibodies signals that the body has staged an immune response to the virus.

COVID-19 is a new disease, and our understanding of the body’s immune response to it is limited. We do not know, for example, how long an antibody response lasts, nor whether having antibodies means you can’t transmit the virus to others. Our understanding of the virus will grow as new scientific evidence and studies emerge and in particular we establish how many in the population who have staged an immune response to the virus.

In order to give consent and book a test please follow the link; fusion-bpm.sshis.nhs.uk/app/NSCHT_Covid_19_Antibody_Testing this site will be live at 9am on Monday.

If you need any more detail please find the FAQs by clicking here.