IPC guidelines as community Covid-19 restrictions ease

Monday (19 July) will mark the end of many Covid-19 restrictions across England.

As with other healthcare settings across the country, and in line with Public Health England and NHS England guidance, our advice remains unchanged. We will continue to ask our staff and visitors to wear face coverings to help protect themselves, our patients and our colleagues. Social distancing and visitor restrictions will also remain in place for the time being.

Please see the infection prevention and control section of the intranet for the latest advice and guidance, and here for a poster you can print for your work area.

Major transformation work continues on the RBH site – please check details to avoid inconvenience

The transformation work on the RBH site escalates over the next few weeks, please follow the guidance below to avoid any inconvenience:

• Major roadworks. These have started on the hospital site this week as part of the major construction works. Please allow extra time for your visit and follow our traffic management system. More information here.
• Planned closure of Eye Unit and Jigsaw entrance for new 'west entrance' construction (22 July). To allow us to complete essential work for the enhanced west entrance, both the Eye Unit/Jigsaw entrances will be closed on the 22 July between 9am and 4pm. During this time there will be no access to the hospital 'street' via this route. Staff, patients and visitors accessing the building during these hours will need to enter via an alternative route. The nearest alternative will be through Outpatients which will be open to during this period. To minimise disruption, staff are asked to advise visitors when booking a visit to either be dropped off at Outpatients or at the main entrance. Signposts from the car parks to the alternatives will be in place over that weekend, together with traffic marshals on site to help direct those arriving.
• Main entrance closure (2 August). As part of the next phase in the transformation work the main entrance will be closed from 2 August. Please use the updated map to find the nearest alternative entrance. Details of relocation of key offices below:

• Patient affairs and cash office – relocated to orthopaedic outpatients department (note, service will be closed 29/30 July and resume 2 August)
• Medical examination office - relocated to orthopaedic outpatients department
• Porters – remain in the atrium area
• Reception – to new west entrance
• PALS – to management suite
• Charity – part move to management suite
• Boots – to new location adjacent to orthopaedic outpatients department
• WHSmith – closing for now, with update on future location due shortly

We apologise for any disruption caused by these essential changes and are doing everything we can to make sure that any inconvenience is kept to a minimum.

Register for multi-factor authentication to continue to use your mobile or personal device

From next week (w/c 19 July), our IT team is adding greater security to your trust user account through an additional security measure - multi-factor authentication (MFA). This is the same type of security precaution you may use when confirming a bank payment or online purchase in which a code is texted to you, for example.

Watch this two minute film explaining MFA and how to set it up.

Who needs to register?

Whilst it is recommended that all members of staff register for MFA it is important you complete this as soon as possible if you access Trust systems or data using the below:

• Offsite using a Trust laptop via GlobalProtect. Although once you are connected to the Trust network via GlobalProtect you do not need to use MFA, sometimes devices connect to Teams or Outlook before GlobalProtect which would prompt an MFA request so it would be preferential to set up MFA in this situation.
• Access Outlook or Teams from a personal device e.g. personal mobile or home computer.

Next steps

After you register, you will be able to add a safe and secure two-step verification method for your online credentials from a range of authentication options (such as phone call, text message, or mobile app notification) to access your applications.

Need help?

• Read how to register for MFA
• Watch this short video
• Or contact the IT Service Desk

Helping our patients leave hospital safely this summer

Timely discharge reduces the risks associated with inpatient stays, and in turn means that we can admit patients who need acute hospital care to the right bed when they need it.

This improves quality of care (which means the care is safe, effective & provides an improved experience) for all our patients.

Next week we will be 'focusing on flow' to raise awareness of actions that support safe timely discharge this summer.

Recognising the pressures ward staff are facing, this is not about being perfect – it's about:

• actions that can be made in real time to support wards with flow and issues
• establishing what the next priority steps are in our improvement journey to help make things better.

Headline areas that we are being asked to focus on improving in the short term include:

• ensuring that inpatients have a Criteria to Reside Reason or Delay Reason recorded on Health of the ward
• completing timely swabbing to support discharge
• ensuring that electronic discharge summaries are completed prior to discharge – check out "Top Tips on eDischarge Summaries".

A series of initiatives will be taking place to support wards with the work they are doing to get our patients home safely this summer, and to listen and gain even greater depth of understanding about the issues being faced in achieving safe and timely discharge.

Keep an eye out for:

• Peer reviews of wards in relation to Board Rounds and Criteria to Reside
• Senior Team visits to wards, teams and care groups, with opportunities for staff to speak directly to execs
• New and refreshed tools to help wards with messaging and support for patients and their families, including "Why, What and How" to help all staff understand why C2R benefits quality of care for all our patients.
• Opportunities to share your ideas and thoughts about glitches and possible fixes
• Feedback and communications about progress and the emerging priorities for next steps.

Hand hygiene audits are now electronic

The clinical audit and infection prevention and control teams have been working behind the scenes to create a trust-wide system for all hand hygiene results. This now means you can complete the audits electronically by clicking this link.

All paper forms awaiting to be submitted should be sent in by the end of the July 2021.

Potential Heat-Health Alert

The Met Office has advised that there is a 70 per cent probability of Heat-Health Alert criteria being met between midnight on Saturday until midnight on Tuesday in parts of England.

The updated heatwave plan is now available on the intranet. Please read this and distribute to your teams - we do expect heatwave conditions at some point this summer and it is important that we are aware of actions and mitigations to be taken. Please ensure patients are kept hydrated and staff encouraged to take breaks and hydrate themselves. Please check the intranet policies to view the updated heatwave plan.

Share your views on rewards and recognition at UHD

Our culture champions team is running a short four-question survey to gather your views on reward and recognition at UHD. We would like to hear from as many staff as possible so that all of our views can help to shape the way that UHD says thank you and recognises hard work across the trust.

Click here to fill out the survey and if you have any questions then do get in touch with the OD team via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Congratulations to our Junior Doctors Awards winners

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners of the inaugural UHD Junior Doctor Awards which took place on the Poole and RBH sites last Sunday evening. Nominations were made by colleagues, supervisors, managers and the public and detailed just what makes our junior doctors so inspiring.

The winners of the awards have demonstrated innovation in medical education and training; supported and shared their skills with peers; shown high levels of commitment to delivering safe and compassionate patient care; and have embodied our UHD values.

We love our junior doctors, and we couldn't be more proud of all of you.

Winners:

Patient Care: Jing Hwai Hiew

Going the Extra Mile: Steve Hau

Leadership Innovation and Research: Ayesha Dalal

Teaching and Education: Frances Barnes

Team Player: Anjnee Shah

Rising Star: Patrick Isola

Runners Up:

Patient Care: Ghassan El-Jaam

Going the Extra Mile: Georgia Cormack

Leadership Innovation and Research: Charlotte Geach and Liz Ewing

Teaching and Education: Dan Robertston

Team Player: Ben Booker

Rising Star: Beth Reed

Winners and runners up RBCH:

Winners:

Patient Care Jess Bailey

Going the Extra Mile: Will Holdich

Leadership Innovation and Research: Carly Slinger

Teaching and Education: Alex Blore

Team Player: Rosie Green

Rising Star: Talea Roberts

Runners Up:

Patient Care: George Read

Going the Extra Mile: Lydia Stratford

Leadership Innovation and Research: Robyn Lee

Teaching and Education:

Team Player: Muhammad Asad

Rising Star: Tom Wardill

'It's more important than ever to have your continued support and understanding'

Ahead of Covid-19 restrictions easing in the community, Professor Paula Shobbrook, chief nursing officer and director of infection prevention and Dr Alyson O'Donnell, chief medical officer have co-signed an open letter asking for the public's continued support in preventing the spread of Covid-19 in Dorset.

You can read it here.

Are you a doctor or admin team member that works with rotas?

The medical staffing systems team would love to hear your views on how accessible and easy to use your current rostering systems are.

One of the aims of the medical staffing team is to improve visibility of rotas and improve the work/life balance of our workforce. By completing this anonymous survey, you will be helping us track our progress within UHD.

• Doctors: click here to complete the survey
• Admin staff: click here to complete the survey.

The HealthRota system is being rolled out for medical staff across the Dorset Integrated Care System, including at University Hospitals Dorset, led by the medical staffing systems programme team, made up of clinical, administrative, and operational staff.

Contact the team by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

New UHD quarterly quality and risk newsletter out now

This newsletter aims to keep us all updated on the strategic developments around patient safety, risk management and quality governance across UHD. Click here to read it.

If you have any questions or comments about any of the content please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., who will be happy to chat and help with your enquiry wherever possible.

Annual allowance scheme pays deadline extended for year end 2019-20

To help support NHS pension scheme members who are continuing to deal with the impact of Covid-19, NHS Pensions has decided to extend the voluntary scheme pays deadline for members with an annual allowance charge.

The previous deadline was 31 July for year end 2019-20, however if you have an annual allowance charge for year end 2019-20 and you wish to use voluntary scheme pays to pay all or part of this charge, you now have until 31 March 2022 to submit your application.

We Can Talk training to help younger patients with mental health issues

The Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) are offering training to help clinical staff learn how to care for young patients with mental health needs. We Can Talk is a one-day training session co-produced by hospital staff, young people and mental health experts designed to support sustainable changes in practice, hospital culture, and relationships between acute hospitals and mental health services.

For more information and to sign up click here.

Late applications to the EU settlement scheme

If you are a member of staff from the EU and you missed the deadline for the EU settlement scheme, you can still contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to make a late application.

RBH: Lakeside marquee

The new lakeside marquee is available for staff use not only as a space to eat and relax away from work but to hold (socially distanced) group activities and wellbeing events. Watch this space for more news on how to you book the space for your own event.

Deadline for applications to the Beyond Difference program next Tuesday

The deadline for applications to the Beyond Difference leadership program is Tuesday 20 July, Please checl the leadership development pages on the intranet for more information and to apply.

More dates for the Leading Teams Through Change workshops

The virtual leadership development workshops are designed to build the skills needed to help lead teams through times of uncertainty. They are also a great opportunity to network with other leaders across UHD.

The new dates available are 19 August, 5 and 28 October and 17 November. If you would like to book, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

NHS Race and Health Observatory survey

The NHS Race and Health Observatory is asking staff nationwide to give their opinions on the use of terms like BAME to describe ethnic groups. The purpose of this survey is to gather thoughts from across our diverse range of ethnic colleagues to ensure everyone feels accurately and positively represented in the terms used across the NHS.

Click here to take part in the survey.

Job of the week – support secretary in community paediatrics

The support secretary post will be a key role in the administrative team, using audio typing skills to produce high levels of patient related correspondence and reports. The post holder(s) will also contribute to the general daily activities of the office such as responding to telephone enquiries, filing activities and other specific key activities that are the responsibility of the community paediatric team.

Click here for more information. The closing date is 26 July.

Your Wellbeing Weekly

Check up on your wellbeing offers page for next week's Care first seminars, a new national listening service for nurses, midwives and healthcare support workers and all of the latest health and wellbeing offers from across UHD. Please check the intranet A-Z under W for the wellbeing pages.