The NHS website with guidance for clinicians is being updated regularly. Please look here for the latest advice.
If an individual on our inpatient wards starts to show potential symptoms of COVID-19, please inform your immediate manager and ASM and alert our infection control lead Richard Morrow. Please ensure you continue to use our universal PPE (personal protective equipment), including gloves and aprons.
Colleagues can now see an option in Datix where they can record a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19. Please make sure you use this, so we can accurately record any potential or confirmed cases.
We are planning to write to all patients, and template letters will be available for all teams as soon as possible. Please speak to your line manager about this.
The posters are being updated on a regular basis. They can be found under 'Posters' on the Clinical Information page. Please also display the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ poster and the ‘wash your hands’ poster. There is also a new handwashing poster in Easy Read and large print format. Other new posters which should be displayed include the ‘Symptoms and get tested’ poster and the ‘Face covering must be worn in this hospital’ poster.
We have reviewed our inpatient visiting arrangements in line with national guidance. From 29 June the Trust policy has changed to allow patients to have single visitors on a system of booked appointments. A summary of the visiting guidance for members of the public is available on our website.
There is more detail on the process for visiting at each inpatient facility within the Trust, including which room is to be used in specific settings and the timings of visits, in the new visiting guidance document.
Please also download the poster from Connect, print out, then add in relevant contact details and display in patient-facing areas. If you have access to Publisher software, you can download the poster template and add contact details to that before printing out.
It is important that no visitors should come on to our wards or any other health care settings if they are:
- Unwell, especially if they are showing symptoms of COVID-19 (a high temperature, a new, persistent cough or loss of taste or smell); or
- Vulnerable as a result of their medication, a chronic illness or because they are over 70 years of age.
In addition, if any ward has confirmed COVID-19 cases, visiting on that ward will be temporarily suspended.
We will continue to offer patients access to telephones and other technology to remain in contact with their families.
The resuscitation procedures for both ‘in hospital’ (inpatient) and ‘out of hospital’ (community) settings have been simplified in line with Resuscitation Council (UK) guidelines.
Please ensure you are familiar with them, by clicking on the links below:
Ward/department managers – please ensure these are printed and available with all emergency equipment Trust-wide.
‘AED’ refers to automated external defibrillator. Please ensure that, when placing an emergency call from the Hartington Unit, 2222 is dialled as opposed to 999.
Should you require further assistance please contact Kate Pears, Resuscitation Lead for DCHFT/DCHS: kate.pears@nhs.net
Within the Trust, our children’s services are working extremely hard with a reduced service, with safeguarding being prioritised in all areas. We continue to work with local authorities and other relevant agencies to have robust multi-agency child safeguarding arrangements in place during this time.
Society/professionals need to remain vigilant to see, hear and report concerns. Be curious in all situations; ask for advice and support from statutory agencies were necessary.
For counter terrorism, MARRAC and MAPPA - please continue with all agencies sharing relevant information and protection plans being developed on individual cases. Please continue your normal referral processes.
As a Trust we continue to champion that ‘safeguarding is everybody’s business’, even though meeting arrangements, systems and processes may be slightly different. Support and advice is available, please do not hesitate to contact the numbers below. No question is too small to ask.
Please report any concerns you may have to the relevant agency.
The Safeguarding team and multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) are available for support and advice.
Contact numbers:
- If someone is immediate danger call 999
- DHCFT Safeguarding Team: 01332 623700 ext 31537
- Call Derbyshire (adult & children concerns): 01629 533190
- Adult MASH (Derby City): 01332 642855
- Initial Response Team (Derby City Children concerns): 01332 641172
- Careline (Derby City Social Care - out of hours): 01332 786968
- DHCFT COVID-19 mental health support line: 0300 790 0596.
The Trust’s ‘Thinking of you’ scheme is complemented by ward access to iPads, to help patients maintain contact with their loved ones while visiting opportunities are restricted. One iPad is available on each ward, to enable video calls between patients and their family, friends or carers over apps like Skype.
A Standard Operating Procedure for the use of iPads on inpatient wards is now available, to facilitate appropriate, private contact with family, friends and carers. Please review this procedure if you are working on a ward.
Ward staff will need to individually assess the most appropriate way for a person to utilise the iPad, giving consideration to their mental state, safeguarding and privacy and dignity for example. Consideration should be given as to where the iPad can be used, for example in a quiet room or the dining room, where visits would usually take place. It may be appropriate for the iPad to be used in a single bedroom; however, it would usually not be appropriate for a video call to take place within a shared bedroom (dormitory).
Where patients would struggle to use the iPad independently, colleagues will need to schedule time into ward routine to enable video calls to take place with their help.
As with the ‘Thinking of you’ scheme, a poster has been produced for display on the ward.
A briefing document has been prepared to provide advice and guidance to colleagues on our inpatient units, to ensure that all colleagues:
- Consider patients’ capacity and consent to agree to restrictions placed on their movements by the government’s social distancing advice
- Feel confident in managing patients who, for whatever reason, do not comply with the government’s guidance on social distancing
- Are aware that the Mental Health Act should not be used to enforce treatment, restrictions or isolation unrelated to the management of a person’s mental health.
Please read this document: Capacity and consent to agree to COVID-19 social distancing / movement restrictions on the inpatient units
Care homes have become a significant topic of discussion and concern during this pandemic. Every older adult patient discharged from a Trust inpatient ward to a care home is swabbed prior to discharge. Care homes are given a clear care plan about the length of time for quarantine. Where needed, the Trust has provided PPE to care homes.
If a test result is still pending on discharge, we need to clearly communicate to the care home that this is the case and that the care home will need to isolate the patient for 14 days.
The national guidance makes clear that the right thing to do is to discharge older adult patients to care homes after periods in our care or in A&E/hospital, both because recuperation is better in non-acute settings, and because hospitals need to have enough beds to treat acutely sick patients. Local providers and the local authorities have confirmed that they will continue to support this approach.
A number of local organisations, including our own, have joined together to establish a small team seeking to improve palliative care for people living with advanced dementia in care homes or supported living who have complex mental and physical health needs.
The team, which is working together as the Dementia Complex Palliative Care Resource, will focus on ensuring that the person remains at home (wherever home is) and avoids unnecessary acute care admission. The team will also support discharges from acute hospital beds.
The service will deliver consultation, advice and multi-disciplinary team support to care homes, primarily through digital means but in a small number of highly complex cases through face-to-face assessment. This team has developed as a collaborative resource in response to a gap in the current pathway of care for people living with advanced dementia with co-morbid conditions.
This resource is scheduled to be operational for 16 weeks, from 17 April 2020 until 31 July 2020. The contact number for the Dementia Complex Palliative Care Resource is 01332 980124.
Learn more by reading the briefing document about the resource.
