Staff Bulletin 14 June 2022

Mask wearing reminder

Masks are now no longer required in 'public' areas in our hospitals, including entrances, waiting areas, corridors and restaurants. Staff and visitors who choose to continue to wear masks (or due to a risk assessment) in these areas should do so, and we will keep providing masks at our entrances for this purpose.

Mask wearing for visitors and staff will remain in place in all inpatient (ward) areas, as well as in clinic rooms and in our urgent and emergency care settings, eg our emergency departments, urgent treatment centres, same day emergency care (SDEC) facilities.

Further reductions in mask wearing are being agreed across the Dorset Integrated Care System and will be announced as soon as possible.

Major incident standby - stand down

Due to the decreasing number of Covid-19 patients on both sites, we are officially standing down our 'stand-by major incident' status. Our hospitals are still very busy so thank you all for your continued hard work.

Put the date in your diary for the next staff briefing

The next all staff briefing by our new chief executive Siobhan Harrington will take place in Poole lecture theatre at 8.30am on 6 July. You can also join on teams here. If you missed the previous briefing, you can catch up here.

Preparing for warmer weather

High temperatures are now expected for the next few weeks and it is important to be prepared. Please take a look at our updated heatwave plan on the emergency preparedness pages of the intranet. The plan helps minimise risk and allows us all to take care of our patients and ourselves.

Take part in clinical audit awareness week

Clinical audit awareness week (CAAW) is an annual national campaign to promote and celebrate the benefits of clinical audit. Clinical audit is a quality improvement process that measures current practice against best practice and addresses any shortfalls.

Activities planned include:

• A '5-a-day' audit, with the opportunity to win a £25 M&S gift card. Do you eat the recommended five portions of fruit and veg a day? Click this link to take part – it only takes a minute 5-a-day audit
• Our clinical audit trolley will be out and about promoting CAAW – we will have various goodies available, so please say hello if you see the team.

For further information about clinical audit and if you would like to register a project, please visit our intranet pages or call 8748 (Poole) or 4127 (RBCH).

Personal safety information

To increase our support for you, we've brought together a range of personal safety information on this new document. It's also available on the @UHD app in the 'Support for you' section. You can download our app here.

We have 250 panic alarms available at Poole and RBH free of charge for anyone who would like one. They are available from the general cash offices between 9am-3.30pm Monday to Friday. You will need to bring your trust ID badge with you to collect the device.

Leadership skills development for HCSW and nursing associates

Do you want to develop your leadership skills? The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is running a free online leadership skills session on 28 June from 2-4.15pm. This is available to everyone including non-RCN members. Sign up here.

Employees moving roles within the trust

Before you terminate an employee on ESR please check they are not moving to another role in the trust, including a bank role. If they are moving internally, you do not need to end their contract as this can cause issues, including the employee being emergency taxed, loss of IT access, delay in them receiving their salary, and emergency tax being applied.

If an employee is moving to another role at UHD and their start date in the role is delayed, please retain them in their current role until they are ready to start in their new role. The end date for an employees' current role should be the day before their start date in their new role.

POOLE: using a wheelchair

Due to increased footfall in our hospitals, we would like to remind all staff that wheelchairs are a trust resource and should not be claimed and kept on wards or departments. Please contact the porters on ext. 2340 or leave them outside your department for collection so they can be used by our patients.

Emergency incidents on site

To report any emergency incident across our sites please call extension 2222 from an internal phone. You can also dial 0300 019 2222 from your mobile phone. Please do add this in as a contact number on your phone.

RBH: reduced DAIRS capacity this week

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the DAIRS team are working at reduced capacity. The team are working hard to review inpatients as quickly as possible.

Take on 13.1 miles of fun for TeamUHD

The Big Half promises to bring an unmissable festival atmosphere to the streets of London and you could take part for our charity! The Big Half takes place on Sunday 4 September and is a community running festival, starting by Tower Bridge in central London and finishing at the famous Cutty Sark in Greenwich. It's the perfect challenge for runners or walkers who want to soak up the atmosphere of a marathon in our capital city but don't want to take on the full 26.2 miles.

Sign up here.