What to do if you are a contact of a Covid-19 case

The guidance for staff who have been identified as a contact of a Covid-19 case has now changed:

1. Staff can now return to work as long as they are fully vaccinated (currently two doses), have a negative PCR result following the contact and can complete daily lateral flow tests for the 10 day period following identification as a contact.
2. A risk assessment must also be completed to help line managers document this and is available on the IPC pages of the intranet here.

Symptomatic staff should continue to follow the guidance regarding staying away from work, seeking a test and only returning when the negative PCR test is reported. All staff should complete a lateral flow test twice a week, reporting them here: https://mytest.uhd.nhs.uk/.

Any updates to this guidance will be highlighted in the Staff Bulletin and available on the intranet.

Latest Covid-19 workforce Q&A out now

The latest HR Q&A covering a range of Covid-19 related topics is out now.

The document has been updated to include new information on self-isolating, and maintaining services and staff absences.

The document is frequently updated to reflect the latest Government advice as more is known about the Omicron variant of concern and the increasing number of cases being detected.

There will be a continuing need to maintain essential service requirements, potentially with an increased workload in a number of areas. Staff who remain clear of the virus and are not required under PHE guidelines to self-isolate should continue to attend their usual place of work.

Obtaining new lateral flow kits

NHS England is no longer supplying the trust with lateral flow testing kits for us all to use. This means when our stock runs out, you need to order your tests via www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests. If there are no tests available to be posted to you, please continue on the government website and you will be advised on where you can pick up lateral flow kits from a local pharmacy.

These tests are really important, especially with the increase in cases of the Omicron variant. Please remember, every time you take a test you need to upload your results to our portal – mytest.uhd.nhs.uk.

Lateral flow kits are being distributed to care groups to be allocated to frontline staff. There are also limited supplies available to collect at RBH and Poole. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Poole) or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (RBCH).

Your mandatory vaccination questions answered

The Q&A from last week's staff briefing on Covid-19 mandatory vaccinations is now available to read on the intranet. Thanks to all who attended the session, which was an opportunity to hear about why the vaccine is important, how it is set to become mandatory, its effectiveness and what may happen for staff who choose not to become fully vaccinated by the 1 April deadline.

An expert multidisciplinary panel then took questions from staff on a range of topics – you can read the Q&A of this part here.

If you wanted to catch up on the whole session – briefing and Q&A - you can watch it again here.

• First, second and booster vaccinations are still available for staff through the national booking system – click here. Appointments for over 18s are available at the Outpatient Assessment Clinic, at Beales, Poole, all week.

Join our chief executive for the final all staff briefing of 2021 tomorrow

Join Debbie Fleming, chief executive, and David Moss, trust chairman, tomorrow (22 December) from 12.30 to 1.30pm.

Debbie and our executive team will be reflecting on the busy winter period so far, outlining our plans for the next few weeks, and acknowledging the incredible efforts of staff to support our patients and each other.

Click here to join the meeting.

Outpatients Assessment Clinic @ Dorset Health Village welcomes our first patients

Our Outpatients Assessments Clinic at Beales in Poole officially opened yesterday. We welcomed ophthalmology and breast screening patients to the clinic and gave 750 Covid-19 vaccinations. You can watch a BBC report on the clinic here.

Royal Mail will be collecting all mail from the trust at 11am on Friday (24 December).

All mail leaving the trust needs to be at the post room no later than 10am to ensure that franking is completed. Any mail received after 10am will not leave the Trust until Wednesday 29 December.

Free staff parking over the festive period

The car parking barriers will be raised over the Christmas and New Year period so that we can park on site for free.

The barriers will be raised, and charges will be suspended from:

• 5pm on 24 December to 7am on 29 December.
• 5pm on 31 December until 7am on 4 January.

Thanks from Prime Minister

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has thanked NHS staff for their "extraordinary" efforts this year in a personal letter to staff. You can read his message here.

RBH: Congratulations to the EPMA team

Congratulations to our EPMA team, who despite our current clinical pressures have deployed EPMA to wards 4,5,9 and 14 and the older persons assessment unit.

These wards have adopted the new system well and have brilliantly supported this important quality improvement in their areas.

The EPMA team is pausing deployment until the New Year and will then start introducing the system to the Macmillan Unit, the stroke unit and ward 11. These plans will be kept under close review to reflect the pressures on the organisation.

Visit the self-help section on the EPMA intranet pages for useful resources, tips and guides for all healthcare professionals using the system - it can be found at.

Workforce team offering appointment-only service

To keep everyone safe and to keep the number of office visitors low, the workforce team will be operating an appointment only based service until further notice for all services on both sites.

To limit the amount of Smartcard unlocking the team need to support, please ensure you are signed up to the self-unlock service. See the HR pages on the Poole intranet for guidance on how to do this.

If you would like to book an appointment to visit the team emailL

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Poole)

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (RBH)

RBH: Hoist slings with expiring lifting operations and lifting regulations (LOLER) inspections

Some hoist slings LOLER inspection will expire on the 31 December.

Some slings with expiring inspections are still in circulation and must not be used after this date– these will have a red label attached to the sling with the date 12.2021.

Recently inspected slings will have a white label with an expiry date of 05.2022.

Please check ward areas for any slings that are due to expire or have expired and ensure they returned to the equipment library via the in-house laundry ready for inspection on 4 January.

Please continue with your pre use hoist sling checks.

RBH: Medical photographer annual leave

Our medical photographer will be away from 23 December - 3 January.

An emergency camera is available from the site office.

Modified moving and handling sessions available from January

From January, we are offering modified moving and handling sessions, which can be booked through ESR. These shorter sessions are an hour long and are for staff who are not ward based.

Staff who do not undertake do not undertake lateral transfer movements or hoist patients within their daily roles can take this new training.

If you have a bank contract alongside your normal contract you must book and complete the full moving and handling training sessions not the modified versions.

RBH: Outbuildings fire alarm testing moved

Fire alarm testing will move from 28 December to 29 December due to the bank holiday.

If you have any questions please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or ext 4296.

Join today's ProAbility meeting – focus on peer support

We are all welcome to join the ProAbility network session today (21 December). The open session will be offering peer support from the network following the developments of the new Covid-19 variant.

The session runs on Teams from 1.30-2pm click here to join.

If you missed out on our talks with Dr Hannah Barham-Brown and Dr Liz O'Riordan you can find them on the ProAbility page on the intranet.

New code for More Bus staff discount

Our local bus service More Bus has shared their 2022 staff discount with us. The new code is UHD22YR and will be valid for twelve months on the More Bus app.

Your wellbeing weekly

Get yourself ready for the new year by taking advantage of all of our wellbeing offers, including mindfulness in work taster sessions, meditation sessions and Improving Self-Care and Wellbeing: Webinar for NHS Professionals.