Staff Bulletin 24 August 2021

Boosting your immunity this winter – we need to hear from you

Protecting our staff from avoidable harm is a key priority for University Hospitals Dorset, and why we strongly encourage staff to be vaccinated against common viruses where possible. The winter flu vaccination campaign is one campaign that many staff will already be aware of, while more recently we offered the Covid-19 vaccination.

This autumn, we have the option to offer staff both the annual flu vaccine and the Covid-19 booster jab in the same clinic appointment, in separate injections. This method has been evaluated as completely safe by NHS England and would make it far more straightforward for staff to gain the most protection possible this winter.

The same online booking system we used earlier this year would be updated to include additional questions and consents covering the flu vaccination. There will be no requirement for staff to have one vaccination in order to have the other, and while strongly encouraged, participation in either vaccine programme is voluntary.

What do you think? Would you be happy to have both vaccine injections in the same clinic appointment? Let us know on or before 31 August in our anonymous two-click survey here. Your feedback will help shape how the vaccines are offered to you this winter.

Clinics for the Covid-19 booster vaccination – regardless of whether it is offered alongside the jab for flu – will be offered on alternate sites (Poole and Royal Bournemouth) at weekends only, beginning on the first weekend in October at Poole Hospital. Bookings will open in early September.

Look out for more information on our vaccination programmes in the days and weeks ahead.

Changes to accessing trust email on personal devices from today

Our IT department is implementing some additional best practice security measures which will affect those who access their trust emails via their personal phone (including through the @UHD app).

These essential changes will go live today (Tuesday 24 August). From this time, you will be prompted to enrol for Multi-Factor Authentication before you can access trust data on your personal devices. More information and guidance can be found on the informatics pages of the intranet.

Be on the lookout for our first NHS Staff Survey as UHD...

The National Staff Survey 2021 is coming soon, this will be our first survey as UHD. This annual survey is sent to all NHS staff across the country and gives our teams and the wider NHS insight into how we're working.

Have your say, encourage your colleagues to respond and together we can listen to understand and improve our staff experience. Watch out over the coming weeks for more information and how to complete your survey.

RBH: No stoma care service through bank holiday weekend

There will be no stoma care service at RBH from 28 August until 31 August.

If you have any urgent concerns stoma care can be contacted on ext. 4831, bleep 2633 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

RBH: Limited staffing in dietetic inpatient service

Due to illness and planned leave, there is currently limited dietetic staffing until 1 September.

We will be prioritising referrals requiring tube feeding or parental nutrition over this period.

For patients who have a MUST score of 2 or more but are not requiring artificial feeding, or have a category 3 or 4 pressure area, please follow MUST care plans and offer meritene soups and shakes between meals.

Please continue to refer patients via ext. 4732 and leave an answer phone message with the patient name, hospital number and reason for referral.

Please check the RBCH intranet nursing policies page for the care plans for patients with a MUST score of 1 and patients with a MUST score of 2 or more.

Best practice when using EDM and clinical record tracking

The EDM and health records manager would like to remind all staff of good practice when using the systems.

• The cover sheet within the green electronic 'E' outpatient attendance folder should not be marked or have clinical information written on the reverse as it is required for scanning identification purposes.
• The reverse of the sheet is not scanned into Evolve and therefore the clinical information will be lost.
• Write within the margins of the accompanying history sheet in order to ensure the scanners can pick up all the information.
• Outpatient notes should be returned to the scanning bureau immediately following clinic unless being clinical record tracked and sent to the admission offices to ensure the attendance information is scanned into Evolve within 72 hours, and therefore available for follow up appointments or in the event of an emergency admission.
• The health records team do not have the resources to retrieve notes which have not been returned.
• Notes required for admission are held by the admission offices until admission and discharge has taken place, following which the notes will be scanned.
• All note movement should be recorded on clinical record tracking (CRT). If you require CRT training or help contact the scanning bureaus (Poole on ext 8326 or RBH on ext 5735)
• Do not place patient ID labels or any other sticker/result onto the outside cover of the green outpatient folder as this is a breach of confidentiality. The folders are recycled and the labels are difficult to remove.

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

Virtual training dates for blood glucose monitoring

Virtual training dates are available to any staff who monitor patient blood glucose levels using either the networked FFP meter or the non-networked FSONH meter.

It is important that anyone who uses these meters takes part to be up to date with training and to ensure they know how to use the meters safely and effectively.

The training sessions are approximately one hour long. Dates run from August to December and you can register on the Point of Care Testing pages of the intranet.

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

POOLE: Fire dampener testing starting this week

From 23 August two staff from R J Urmson Ltd will be on site for five weeks carrying out annual fire damper tests. Tests will start in the Phillip Arnold Unit and will continue across site.

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

Wellbeing Weekly

Don't forget to check the latest offers on our wellbeing pages. It's your one-stop shop for all the latest offerings from across UHD including Care First sessions, listening services and events and more.

Don't forget to sign up for next Wednesday's childlessness listening event which seeks to support our childless colleagues, creating an inclusive environment through discussion of misunderstandings around the topic.