Staff briefing roundup

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

Welcome Dr Jane Halpin

Looking forward to bringing blend of experience and interest for the benefit of West Essex and Hertfordshire
Will be continuing to meet with colleagues – getting to know everyone

Last 24 hours – only 16 COVID inpatients across East of England
Total number of beds occupied with COVID – 408 compared to the peak – 1,600 beds
PAH – 5 patients who are on oxygen therapy
PAH – no new admissions of COVID as of yesterday
Tending towards good compliance as a result of social distancing
Numbers of new cases continuing to drop, seeing good improvement
Government on next stage of management of disease – test, track and trace.If people are diagnosed with COVID – they inform whom they’ve been in contact with
Continue with testing of COVID
Antibody testing:
There is still some hesitancy on the extent to which government will unlock the nation
14 day quarantine for people flying into the UK
he government is looking at when to open pubs and restaurants and we’re anticipating an announcement on this soon
Further guidance on social distancing – will it be the 1 metre or 2 metre rule?
If the ‘r’ number starts to pick up – second wave
By the end of June/July – we will know if the downward trajectory continues for COVID or whether we are into second wave
CCG operations – no plans to come back to office yet but we are starting to get business up and running again
Health and care committee – meeting virtually
Private board development session at the end of June – the agenda isn’t dominated by COVID- 19
Making preparations for a virtual Annual General Meeting
Transformation and primary care meetings – virtually getting back on track

Antibody testing

There is no clinical reason, it’s more about observation/surveillance
Hoping to have this up and running by tomorrow or by the end of the week
Waiting on PAH path labs to get everything in place
Offered to all NHS staff over the next 4/5 weeks
Simple system – book appointment on app – carried out in a similar way to the flu vaccination programme
Staff shielding – priority is for them to continue shielding; they are not on initial list to test. When it’s safe to do so then they will
Still unclear how it’s going to be rolled out to the general population
It will be a blood test and not swab – PAH can turn around 600 per day
Full lab test – fingertip alternative, but not proven to be reliable

Test and trace

General decline in numbers of people getting tested at Stansted and Ipswich
Consistently seeing good numbers in mobile sites – run by the army
Turnaround times in labs improved
Seeing good numbers using home delivery tests
If you test positive, you will receive a call from the contact centre
Test and trace app will be introduced – piloted in Isle of Wight
Through the app you identify who you’ve been in contact with
GP practice will escalate and manage on specific basis
Messaging – relaunching campaign internally – wearing PPE when appropriate, social distancing, washing hands etc

Returning to the CCG

Still following government guidance on new ways of working
Government guidance remains staff will continue to work from home unless they cannot work from home
Building – basic things to put in place before they can be put to use before return
We need to install hand sanitisers, supply hand wipes, install perspex screen – these are in high demand as you would expect, but some items have arrived
There needs to be desk decluttering, updating fire doors, increasing ventilation
We’re reviewing our cleaning contracts to ensure a high standard of health and safety, cleaning protocols are in place
Staff workplace questionnaire – we had over 130 responses. It has provided us with useful intelligence and ideas around ways of working and individual concerns
There has been some phishing emails – if you spot anything suspicious report it to our local counter fraud manager Eleni Gill or Comms inbox

Annual Leave

We still encourage people to take annual leave
We are following government guidance which is being regularly updated
if you had to have holidays cancelled, you can carry 10 days maximum leave over to the following 2 years –

Confidence in London and East of England – infection rates are reducing and fewer patients with COVID
Backlog is starting to clear but there is still considerable concern and anxiety on track trace compared to other countries controlling infection better
We are in a better position than we were a couple of weeks ago
Antibody testing: Generally speaking immunity is likely to be a shorter term thing, there is still a lot of uncertainty
There will have to be repeat testing to establish duration of antibody response to help us understand better, currently, we are a long way from knowing

Cycle to work scheme – information on how to apply will shortly be available on AskHUE
Latest risk assessment of CCG will be put onto AskHUE
Virtual staff quiz night – Thursday 18 June – 7.30pm. Book the date. Form your teams and let Comms know asap!