Support for colleagues with 'long Covid'

Help is at hand for UHD staff who may be experiencing longer term health issues effects after contracting Covid-19.

Staff can now refer themselves for a rehabilitation and support programme, run jointly between occupational health and the acute therapy teams.

'Long Covid', also known as post-Covid-19 syndrome, is the term used to describe a variety of symptoms associated with people who have had Covid-19, including fatigue, cognitive impairment ("brain fog"), shortness of breath or general muscular aches.

The programme, thought to be the first in the south west run by an acute hospital exclusively for its staff, focuses on education, group support, rehabilitation and exercise at the level each participant is comfortable with.

The course is offered in two ways: either eight weeks of regular group sessions, or a single two hour education-themed session.

An initial cohort of 12 staff are currently taking part in the programme, with self-referrals now invited to take part in the next group, beginning in October.

Places are strictly limited – if you are interested, please download and complete this self-referral form on the occupational health intranet page (under referral form) and follow the instructions within.

The NHS.uk website has a more information on long Covid, a list of common symptoms, and information on accessing further support here.

RBH: New location for drive-through swabbing

Due to building works, the Covid-19 swabbing drive-through service will be moving to the Village Hotel car park opposite the hospital on Sunday 22 August.

The service will operate as usual from car park B up to and including Saturday 21 August. On 22 August, it is scheduled to temporarily move the service to the ground floor of the multi-storey car park. This will be confirmed as soon as possible.

The swabbing team will then operate from the Village from Monday 23 August and signs will be placed on the road to direct patients and staff.

New One Dorset laboratory information system – one week to go

Pathology and IT's new laboratory information management system (LIMS) goes live next Tuesday (17 August).

The LIMS which will provide a single pathology system for Dorset. Please be aware there may be possible service disruption next week as the current LIMS transfers to the new WinPath Enterprise system.

You can keep up to date through the project's Twitter account.

If you have any questions please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

RBH: Paging system replacement live today

As part of the development of the RBH site, the paging system will be migrated to a new service from 12pm today (Tuesday 10 August). The new system will be from the same supplier, using existing paging devices, and should take around 15 minutes to complete.

If you experience problems after this time, please log a ticket via the IT Service Desk, where it will be picked up and addressed with the supplier.

A fully integrated chaplaincy service

From the 1 September the chaplaincy service across the trust will be fully integrated.

A core team will be present at both RBH and Poole 7 days a week from 8am-4pm, and the Christchurch service remains unchanged. After 4pm each day there will be an urgent on-call service with one chaplain available to cover all sites.

The extension numbers remain the same for all sites, but when you are leaving an answerphone message or contacting via the switchboard state clearly which site and department you are requesting a chaplain for.

We look forward to serving our Trust in new ways and please be patient with us as we learn our way across new sites.

Chaplaincy extension numbers:

Poole: 2167 RBH: 4221 Christchurch: 5111

RBH: Changes to dementia and delirium service this week

There will be no dementia and delirium service this morning (10 August).

There will also be no dementia and delirium nurse service on Thursday (12 August) in the case of an emergency please contact liaison psychiatry on 4379.

RBH: No homeless care team service tomorrow

Tomorrow (11 August) the homelessness care team will not be offering a service. In the case of an emergency please contact Lyn Kenyon on 07464 645 272.

Is cold water good for your mental health – volunteer for an MRI study to find out.

If you are aged 18-45, healthy, and do not regularly swim outdoors you could join a collaborative study between UHD, Bournemouth University and Portsmouth University.

Many people have taken up open water swimming during the pandemic and reported mental health benefits. We are investigating this using functional MRI (fMRI) scanning, looking at the effects of cold-water immersion on brain activity. We will be asking participants to have an MRI scan before and after a cool bath.

By carrying out this research we hope to make a first step toward the goal of developing fMRI as a technique to evaluate alternatives to drug-based management of mental health conditions.

If you would like to be involved, and see the effects a cool bath has on your brain activity please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ext.4578.

Recognising your team's hard work

Some teams still have funds left in the team recognition fund.

This charity-funded money has already positively benefitted us in many ways, and all team leads with remaining funds are offered the opportunity to request vouchers by the 30 September.

The trust will purchase the vouchers and then we will distribute them according to each request.

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with subject line Team Recognition Fund if you have any queries.

TempRe is live – one service for all medical, allied health professions and healthcare scientist agency bookings

Our new single direct engagement (DE) platform TempRe is now live.

All system users should have either been trained on the system or sent links to the training videos.

If you are a DE user and still unsure or have any questions regarding this, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Job of the week – emergency department receptionist at RBH

Full and part time admissions clerks are needed to work in the emergency department. The post holders will be expected to work flexibly over a 24-hour period including weekends, nights and Bank Holidays as part of a rolling rota.

Responsibilities include:

• being the first point of contact for visitors to the department,
• being responsible for registering patients in a timely and efficient way,
• providing clerical support for the department,
• Being competent with taking telephone calls,
• having good communication and interpersonal skills.

Click here for more information, the deadline to apply is 30 August.

Your wellbeing weekly

Sign up for your Care First sessions, register you interest for our childlessness in the workplace listening event and more.

Please check the intranet A-Z under W for the wellbeing pages.