Staff briefing roundup

Here’s a summary of what was covered in today’s staff briefing…

Rob Gerlis

• The new Joint Accountable Officer and ICS lead Dr Jane Halpin has started and will join staff brief next week

Andrew Geldard – Regional position

• The current overall situation is calming down significantly
• We are still operating at a level 4 emergency
• End of day report for the whole eastern region:
• New admissions for COVID – 6
• In-patient diagnosis – 27
• ITU beds occupied with COVID – 69
• Total bed occupied with COVID – 564 (this is down from 1,600 at peak)
• Numbers have decreased heavily compared to the past months
• Some demand is coming back
• The daily statistics for PAH are regularly above 250
• The low point 2 months ago was 120 a day
• We are nowhere near peak – 400 per day
• We are currently in phase 2 – the restart
• Phase 3 – will be the consolidated recovery phase from August – December 2020
• We are planning much more in advance – working with county council regarding care home capacity
• What’s happening regarding unlocking the country is still unknown
• There is a relaxing of the lockdown guidance as of yesterday – which means you can now meet with other people in public spaces and private garden
• Airlines are planning to schedule flights but possibility of travellers being in quarantine on return to the UK
• Doubles tennis is now allowed
• Still unknown as to when second wave will be or if it does happen

Eleni Gill, Counter Fraud Awareness Manager – Fraud and Pandemic

• There are extra fraud risks to be aware of that have come to light as a result of the pandemic

View Eleni Gill’s full presentation

Ian Tompkins

• For the CCG externally and internally – it will be a process of a ‘restart’ and ‘rethink’ new ways of working
• We are planning to do things differently and use this as an opportunity to make things happen
• Government guidance remains that staff will continue to work from home unless they cannot work from home
• The CCG will continue following this guidance
• Detailed risk assessments of the building and individual working from home assessments – almost finalised and going to Exec community this Thursday
• We still need to retain flexibility
• Corporate risk assessment will be carried out for every individual – rolled out through line managers
• We need to ensure the building is safe
• We need to install hand sanitisers, supply hand wipes, install aperspex screen – these are in high demand as you would expect
• Colleagues at PAH are helping us to get sanitisers quicker than our usual suppliers
• We will ensure that it’s of the right quality and standard
• We need to considerably declutter the building – phased basis over coming weeks – remove stuff we don’t need
• Fans will not permitted and social distancing measures will be in place
• Waiting for stock on signage – will update over coming weeks
• Staff workplace questionnaire –we had over 130 responses, so thank you to everyone who completed it. The information collected will not be shared and remains confidential. It has only been shared with Jeneva Allison, our HR Business Partner and the HR team
• Any follow ups will be completed by line managers if need be – this will help inform our risk assessment

Schools

• Some children have returned to school but many have not
• This situation may be difficult for people who care for children
• Staff who have caring responsibilities (children, other dependents) can apply for Special Leave if they feel they really cannot work at this time. This scheme has been extended to 30 June.

Annual Leave

• Encourage people to take annual leave, as it’s important to take time off to relax
• We urge you to plan some time off over the next few months to avoid everyone trying to take leave at the same time later in the year

Test and trace

• This will continue to ramp up over next three weeks
• Linked to local outbreak control boards – put plans in place where necessary to control any outbreaks

Antibody testing

• This will start in hospitals with staff and patients and roll out to primary care.
• Eventually all NHS staff will be able to have the antibody test
• However taking an antibody test does not mean you cannot catch the virus again and social distancing measures must remain in place.
• Antibopdy testing will be added to the list of what is checked in routine blood tests
• We willlet you know, when it becomes available and how and where you can take the test

Jane Kinniburgh – Care Homes 

• Delivered a presentation on care homes
• Good work being done on training and very productive relationships with Essex County Council and EPUT means training has been delivered quickly and efficiently
• Joint working means there is now a good understanding of the level of risk of infection and staffing levels in care homes in West Essex
• There is a lot more work to be done to help care homes going forward
• Thanks go to the CCG team, EPUT and Essex County Council for a system-wide approach. This work has been recognised nationally.

View Jane Kinniburgh’s full presentation and data sitrep update.