Dear All,
Although there is uncertainty about the Omicron variant, what we do know is that it more transmittable. The best protection is still the vaccine and non-pharmaceutical measures e.g. face mask, social distance etc. We expect the peak to be in early January, so need to act now and yesterday the COVID-19 committee met regarding the current changes in government guidance. The conclusions are outlined below:
Day Hospice
Continue with Day Hospice Christmas parties next week with patient numbers, staff and volunteers in line with guidance and risk assessment
Continue with social distancing of patients
Staff / volunteers to continue wearing masks
Continue with LFT testing and showing results
Community Team
Continue with current precautions
Reintroduce symptom checking questions with patients and their households if any COVID-19 symptoms exist before visiting and following risk assessment.
FST
Continue with current precautions for one-to-one sessions with individual risk assessments
Discontinue non-essential meetings
Bereavement visits in people’s homes rather than JBH where possible
Ask attendees of group sessions/Men in Sheds to wear masks (Christmas is often the worst time of year, particularly for bereavement clients, so if possible we are keen for these to continue)
Encourage attendees to funerals held by Karen to wear masks
Volunteers to continue lateral flow testing
Plan to rotate people in JBH to have two in office over the next three weeks
IPU
Continue with visiting times of 11am – 8pm
Limit number of visitors to 2 at a time and 3 per patient per day, case by case exceptions can be made
For patients close to end of life, special dispensation will be shown for visitors (in these cases access through patio doors to be preferred)
Carers lounge not to be used as communal area, but flexibility will continue to be shown for special occasions and enhanced housekeeping
Volunteers to continue in line with risk assessment
Visitors to use ambulance bay doors and not come through main reception
Visitors to continue lateral flow testing and wearing masks in the corridors
Limit the amount of visits by maintenance (try to do a number of jobs on one visit)
Discontinue kitchen staff entering patient’s rooms where possible
All students and non-essential visitors stopped
Reception
Only two people in reception at a time
Retail
No change
Reintroduce mask wearing in shops and encourage (not challenge) customers to do the same
Trading hours to remain the same
Lone working shop managers to close for 30 minutes at lunch, if required
JBH
Reduce the number of people in JBH as much as possible to one or two people depending on size of office and encourage those able to work at home or rotate with colleagues, being aware most departments will have one member of staff daily if possible, please speak to your manager if you need clarity
Meetings that can be held via MS Teams to be introduced again, but to continue with face-to-face interviews
Reinforce the use of the cleaning schedule for meeting rooms
Masks to be worn in all communal areas, rooms such as the upstairs kitchen, photocopying room limited to one person
Continue with thorough hand washing, social distancing and ventilation
Staff and volunteers who are feeling unwell (including non-COVID illnesses) to stay away from JBH if at all possible, this may need to be overridden by manager and risk assessment to cover direct patient care
If a member of a household tests positive, to stay away from JBH
Due to present uncertainties, it was felt that staff coming into JBH will do daily LFTs
There is no updates at present regarding national Infection Control Prevention guidance, but this is likely to change and this guidance may need to adapt rapidly in light of that.
Thank you and keep safe,
John