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Support for Staff hub  – all the support you can access in one place

Advice and FAQs for staff section – including the central number for reporting sickness absence

Working remotely?  We’re making these bulletins available here for staff working remotely

 

• New Staff Shielding Risk Assessment Tool & Training
• BAME Staff Networks/Free Meditation App
• NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter
• SOP: Children and young people with palliative and end-of-life care needs
• NHS boosts support for pregnant black and ethnic minority women

 

 

New Staff Shielding Risk Assessment Tool & Training

 

You will be aware that the national guidance for individuals who have been shielding has recently changed. The Coronavirus Staff Risk Assessment Tool has been updated in line with the latest national guidance, to support line manager discussions with colleagues who are currently shielding. This new tool is being piloted here and in other organisations, and the Occupational Health Team will update the tool as necessary, taking into account any further changes in national guidance and your feedback on using the tool. There is also some supporting guidance for managers and both of these can be accessed here:

• Coronavirus Staff Health Risk Assessment Form (V.1 July 2020)
• Coronavirus Staff Assessment Form Guidance

 

Whilst we need to continue to review risk assessments previously undertaken on an ongoing basis; for example where circumstances change, line managers do not, however, need to immediately repeat any risk assessments (for non-shielding colleagues). Any new risk assessments should be completed using the new updated (July 2020) Staff Risk Assessment tool.

 

Training - To support line managers with the process for risk assessing staff who are shielding, a series of Briefing MS Teams calls (which will last for around 30 minutes each), will be take place during next week, with Dr Furzeland of our Occupational Health Team and a member of the HR team.

 

Available dates and times include:

• Wednesday 8 July (08.30 and 09.15)
• Thursday 9 July (09.30 and 10.15)
• Friday 10 July (09.30 and 10.15)

 

If you are the line manager of a colleague who is shielding, and would like to join one of the briefing sessions, please email your interest and your preferred day/time (with “Shielding Training” in the subject box) to Plh-tr.hrinbox@nhs.net and we will arrange for you to be sent an invite to the session most convenient for you.

 

 BAME Staff Networks/Free Meditation App

 

Our first BAME staff network took place virtually via MS Teams on Thursday 25 June. Thank you to the 25+ of you who joined us and participated. The idea is simple: connect, support, develop. It is not too late to get involved! Please contact us on plh-tr.staffnetworks@nhs.net for more information, enquiries or just to share your valued feedback and ideas.

 

You may also be interested to know that there is a Devon wide BAME Network and if you are interested in contributing to this in some way, please do so by emailing: D-CCG.devonBAMEnetwork@nhs.net for further information. We understand that the next Devon wide virtual network meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday 6 July from 15:00-17:00.

 

Finally, we also wanted to bring some good news that Liberate Meditation have partnered with the NHS and granted free access to their meditation app. The app offers culturally sensitive and diverse meditations curated for the BAME community, aiming to reduce anxiety, alleviate stress and promote rest.

 

To read more about the app and to sign up using your NHS email, please click on the link below, (before installing it on your personal device): https://work.liberatemeditation.com/nhs

 

NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter

 

NHS Chief Executive Sir Simon Stevens told the Health and Social Care committee this week that diagnostic capacity would have to be expanded “in new ways” to deal with an increase in referrals.  He announced the first facility to be converted would be Exeter Nightingale Hospital, which would be re-purposed for non-COVID CT scanning from Monday.

 

Philippa Slinger, the CEO responsible for Nightingale Exeter, said: “We are pleased to confirm that we do not need to use the Nightingale hospital in Exeter immediately for patients with COVID, and while that remains the case we will be using our CT scanner to help local GPs and hospitals provide people with safer and faster access to tests. Subject to final checks of the site we hope to begin offering these tests as soon as possible, and those patients referred to us will receive details in the way they usually would.”

 

Webinar: On Monday 06 July (15.30-16.00), there will be a webinar about Nightingale Exeter aimed at health and social care staff across Devon and Cornwall. Pre-registration required: enquiries.nightingaleExeter@nhs.net

 

 

SOP: Children and young people with palliative and end-of-life care needs

 

NHS England has published a Standard Operating Procedure for children and young people with palliative and end of life care needs who are cared for in a community setting (home and hospice) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This publication is intended to support staff who are providing care or supporting children and young people (and their families) who have palliative and/or end of life care needs in the community (including home and hospice care).

 

 

NHS boosts support for pregnant black and ethnic minority women

 

The NHS is rolling out additional support for pregnant Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority (BAME) women, as new research shows heightened risks facing women from minority groups. Recent analysis shows Black pregnant women are eight times more likely to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19, while Asian women are four times as likely. 

 

Urgent action is being taken by the NHS in England to protect expectant mums, including increasing uptake of important Vitamin D and undertaking outreach in neighbourhoods and communities in their area.

 

Women from ethnic minority backgrounds have long been known to face additional maternity risks, with maternal mortality rates significantly higher than for white women. But now research from Oxford University shows that 55% of the pregnant women admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are from a BAME background, even though they only make up a quarter of the births in England and Wales.  NHS England has written to all maternity units in the country calling on them to take four specific actions which will minimise the additional risk of COVID-19 for BAME women and their babies.

 

The steps include:

• Increasing support of at-risk pregnant women – e.g. making sure clinicians have a lower threshold to review, admit and consider multidisciplinary escalation in women from a BAME background.
• Reaching out and reassuring pregnant BAME women with tailored communications.
• Ensuring hospitals discuss vitamins, supplements and nutrition in pregnancy with all women. Women low in vitamin D may be more vulnerable to coronavirus so women with darker skin or those who always cover their skin when outside may be at particular risk of vitamin D insufficiency and should consider taking a daily supplement of vitamin D all year.

Ensuring all providers record on maternity information systems the ethnicity of every woman, as well as other risk factors, such as living in a deprived area (postcode), co-morbidities, BMI and aged 35 years or over, to identify those most at risk of poor outcomes.