COVID-19 Update 34

Vaccinations and remote working update

Introduction

I am writing to you whilst we continue to see a decline in the number of COVID-19 patients in our own organisation and partner NHS organisations, as the national lockdown and vaccine programme appears to be taking effect on the most recent wave of the virus.

Today I want to update staff on a number of key issues:

Vaccination Update
Second Vaccination Scheduling
Remote Working / Working From Home
Ward 5 – A Thank You

Vaccination Update

I’m delighted to let you know that over 87% of our Trust’s staff have now received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, 100% of our Clinically Extremely Vulnerable staff and 72% of our BAME staff have now had their first dose of the vaccination. This is a tremendous result and on all counts significantly above the national averages for these measures. However, there is further to go and I would urge all staff who have yet to be vaccinated to book their appointment as soon as possible.

I would like to thank all of those involved in ensuring our staff received their vaccinations, whether that be the clinical teams who have vaccinated, the administrative staff who scheduled the appointments or the teams that have coordinated the whole effort. Thank you very much for working so hard to ensure the safety of your colleagues.

Second Vaccination Scheduling

We are now starting to see staff start to be called for their second dose of vaccination, in line with government guidance for this to be around 12 weeks after the first dose. When you are contacted, please make yourself available to attend your appointment.

As a general rule, it is expected that the location or service that gave individual staff their first vaccination will also deliver the second vaccination dose. Many hundreds of our staff were vaccinated on three consecutive Sundays in January and we expect staff to be called for their second doses in a similar manner in mid to late March. Please do not be concerned if you have not yet been contacted, you have not been missed and we will communicate further on this subject closer to the time.

Remote Working / Working From Home

Our previous directive that staff should work remotely if they are able to do so, was put in place to the end of March 2021. Staff will be aware of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown starts to ease restrictions from the 29th March however the guidance to remain working remotely if you are able to do so will remain in place until the final restrictions are lifted in June.

We are therefore extending our request for staff to work from home until the end of June 2021.

As and when restrictions begin to lift, we will engage with individual teams about longer term working arrangements.

Ward 5 – A Thank You

During the most recent phase of the pandemic, we have put arrangements in place to take additional patients and discharges from our acute partners, in order to ensure resources are available for those patients with COVID-19 who need acute and urgent treatment.

During this time, Ward 5 has acted as surge capacity for older people’s care and worked closely with Ward 4 to accommodate higher numbers of patients through the shared care pathway. As we plan our return of the ward to the Neuropsychiatry specialty, I would like to put on record my immense gratitude to the staff on Ward 5 for stepping up in this respect and the commitment, resilience and determination to ensure patients are cared for and kept safe. The whole ward team should be very proud.