Latest update to self-isolation guidance

The latest guidance on self-isolation following the onset of symptoms or following contact with someone with Covid-19 is now available on the latest news on the intranet.

Please note that this guidance is frequently updated so please check the bulletin or the intranet regularly for the latest version.

Suspending choice on discharge from wards

With immediate effect, the latest national guidance needs to be put into practice across UHD. This means that where a package of care, or care home, is found for a patient, there is a requirement to move the patient there without delay. It is recognised that each individual will have specific preferences and they or their families may wish to make alternative arrangements at a later date. However, given the current significant increase in Covid-19 cases, it is imperative that patients do not stay in hospital any longer than is absolutely required, and that beds are released swiftly to allow other acutely ill patients to receive the care and treatment that they need. With this in mind, packages of care or care home placement that become available should be taken up as they become available, with patients and their relatives free to explore other choices later on.

These are exceptional times, with the number of Omicron cases continuing to rise and very high levels of staff sickness across health and social care. Because of the national situation, the policy of choice on location of discharge has been suspended. This will need to be explained to patients, their relatives and usual carers in advance of the day of discharge – click here for a patient leaflet providing further details which will help with this.

If there are situations in which patients or their relatives need further explanation as to why it is imperative to take the package/care home offered, please escalate this before the day of the move where possible - firstly to the discharge team, who can then escalate to the executive on call where required. In extremis, we will move patients and continue any conversations afterwards, such is the importance of freeing beds.

By following the national policy and getting patients swiftly to a location that meets their care needs, we can make a small but very important difference to the overall safety of all our patients.

Thank you for your ongoing incredibly hard work and professionalism in caring for all our patients

- The integrated discharge services team

Covid-19 vaccinations for staff – time is running out

To meet the Government deadline of 1 April to be fully vaccinated – ie had first and second doses – staff should have had their first dose by 3 February.

Covid-19 vaccinations for staff are still available through our occupational health teams, whether that's for your first, second or booster jab. Please contact them to make your appointment, which are offered on these sites on the following days:

• Monday - Poole
• Tuesday - Poole
• Wednesday - Royal Bournemouth
• Thursday - Royal Bournemouth
• Friday - Royal Bournemouth

Bookings can be made by calling occupational health on extension 4217, or emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., with your:

• Name
• NHS number
• Date of birth
• Preferred site

You will then be able to choose from the appointments available.

For more on staff Covid-19 vaccinations, check the occupational health pages on the intranet.

Lateral flow kits available to collect

Public Health Dorset will be parking a van at RBH and Poole once a week so you can collect lateral flow kits without the need to order them online. The packs of seven tests will be available from the Village Hotel car park opposite RBH, and in between the Patient Experience Centre and multi-storey car park at Poole at the following times, starting this Thursday at Poole:

• RBH (Village Hotel): Monday, 8am-7pm
• Poole: Thursdays, 9am-7pm

Please take your ID badge when collecting.

A message from Debbie Fleming, our chief executive on responding to the anticipated increase in Covid-19 cases and impact on staffing

You will probably have heard in the media about forecasts showing significant increases in Covid-19 cases among the public and the NHS workforce, and an increase in admissions to hospital, largely as a result of the new Omicron variant. You will likely hear terms like 'surge' and 'super-surge' more and more in the coming days to describe these forecasts.

Our hospitals routinely plan for scenarios in which our limited resources and staffing are very challenged, and we wanted to assure you that this escalation planning continues now, and takes account of these latest estimates. Our hope of course is that these escalation measures need never be called upon, but it is important that we make provision for a range of scenarios in order to ensure our hospitals continue to function for those patients that need us most.

In the event of extreme pressures, our duty to the public is first and foremost to preserve our core 'life and limb' services by continuing to provide emergency care to our most vulnerable of patients.

If we do find ourselves needing to enact these enhanced escalation plans, we will focus our efforts in these areas - reducing or temporarily suspending routine services as necessary, in order to use our available staff and bed stock as efficiently as possible. We will of course seek to maintain the most clinically urgent planned care services, for example, urgent cancer surgery/treatment.

Most importantly, we want to look after you - our staff - knowing how challenging all this must feel after all that we have been through already. With this in mind, we are working hard to develop and agree staffing arrangements that give us the ability to deliver the care we need, whilst ensuring that no one feels overwhelmed or that too much is being asked of them. We will need to call on the whole of Team UHD to help us deliver these plans, and support will be available to each and every one of you.

Some acute hospitals around the country are preparing Nightingale-style 'surge' facilities on site, in order to provide additional bed capacity. While we have not identified the need for this or been asked to establish such a facility at the present time, we are identifying places within our hospitals where appropriate care could be provided away from the usual inpatient ward setting. These locations will be very carefully clinically risk-assessed, and would only be open for as long as is absolutely necessary. I should emphasise that this is just precautionary work forming part of our planning and preparations, should we find ourselves involved in a 'super surge'.

Of course, postponing treatment for our non-urgent patients is never a decision we take lightly, and we shall avoid this wherever possible, recognising the impact that further delays might have on our patients. However, it is important that if things do escalate, we take all appropriate action to reduce the pressure on staff - and continuing to try to do everything to the same high standard will simply not be possible. Nevertheless, we know that all the services that we provide are vitally important to local people, and as such, if there is any disruption, we shall continue to "pull out all the stops" afterwards to ensure that our patients are seen as soon as possible. There is no better example of this than the recent opening of the new outpatient assessment clinic in the Dolphin Centre in Poole.

I hope that this update is helpful, and if you would like to find out more about how our hospitals plan and prepare for major emergencies and times of extreme capacity challenges, please see our escalation plans on the intranet. I am sure that you will agree that it is much better to plan for the worst, whilst of course, hoping for the best!

Please look out for further communications on this subject in the coming days in the Staff Bulletin, intranet, app and in emails like this one.

#YouMatter - a message from our health and wellbeing support teams

We know how challenging it is currently for all staff given the increase in Covid-19 cases, increased hospital pressures as well as additional pressures you may be facing at home.

Remember your own health and wellbeing matters too. Please look out for your colleagues and check-in with each other regularly. Our UHD health and wellbeing intranet pages have been updated with emotional wellbeing support, our mental health first aider directory, free apps to help with health and wellbeing and much more.

You can also reach out for urgent confidential support here.

If you have any queries or concerns about your wellbeing, or wellbeing in your working area, please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Congratulations to Debbie Fleming our chief executive

Debbie Fleming has been awarded an OBE for services to the NHS in the Queen's New Year Honours List 2022.

Debbie has worked for the NHS for nearly 38 years and been a chief executive for 20 years, leading the merger of the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospitals and Poole Hospital from January 2019 when she became joint chief executive over both.

Debbie said: "I am absolutely delighted to have been awarded this honour, and was incredibly humbled to receive this news. I am so very proud of the NHS, where it is a real privilege to work with such talented, dedicated and highly skilled people, providing such important services for local people."

"Throughout my time in the NHS, I have worked with many different individuals and teams, and I could not be more proud of our staff. I am grateful for all the opportunities that I have been given over nearly 38 years to develop myself and my career, and would like to say thank you to all those who have supported and encouraged me."

Debbie has a long career with the NHS. She spent seven years as the Chair of the Thames Valley and Wessex Leadership Academy and has led a number of commissioning organisations across Dorset, Hampshire, Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.

In 2013 she was appointed to the post of Area Director (Wessex) for NHS England, responsible for overseeing the establishment of the new 'NHS architecture' in the local area at that time. In 2014, Debbie was appointed as chief executive for Poole Hospital, where she served for five years before being appointed as joint chief executive for both Poole Hospital and the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospitals. She then led the merger of the two organisations and is now very proud to be chief executive for University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust.

Clinical ethics group - supporting staff facing ethical dilemmas

An update in leadership of the clinical ethics group has recently taken place with Peter Grenholm, consultant neurologist, and Sarah Chessell, head of innovation, taking on the role of joint chairs of the newly merged committee, with Martin Schuster-Bruce, consultant anaesthetist, as deputy chair.

They each bring a wealth of experience in leading ethical discussions, providing support and guidance to clinicians with dilemmas around patient care. The CEG includes a multidisciplinary team of medical, nursing and non-clinical staff. The CEG meet monthly as well as for urgent case discussions.

Please see the clinical ethics pages on the Poole intranet for further details.

Deactivating implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs)

A video has been developed to demonstrate how to deactivate an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) towards the end of life, you can watch it here.

ICDs and cardiac resynchronisation therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds) are implantable devices that provide protection against sudden cardiac death by treating life threatening arrhythmias.

When people with ICDs are approaching the end of life, advance care planning should include consideration of ICD deactivation. Deactivation involves "switching off" the treatment for ventricular arrhythmias so that the ICD will no longer provide protection against sudden cardiac death. ICD deactivation avoids the potential for the person to receive shocks from the ICD during the last hours or days of their life which can cause physical discomfort and emotional distress for both patients and their significant others

There will be circumstances when emergency ICD deactivation may be required. This may be because a patient has unexpectedly deteriorated, for example in the case of a sudden catastrophic event, or because the subject of deactivation has not been considered in advance. If a cardiac physiologist cannot be arranged to deactivate the ICD immediately, a ring magnet can be placed over the site of the ICD and used to temporarily deactivate the ICD. The magnet suspends tachyarrhythmia detection and treatment but does not inhibit bradycardia pacing.

The magnet will only deactivate shock therapy from the ICD while over the ICD site. In the event of the magnet being removed or becoming displaced the ICD will return to normal function therefore allowing shock therapy to be delivered for VF or VT.

The magnet is safe for all staff to use. Magnets can be located at:

RBCH: cardiac department, critical care unit, CCU, CIU, AMU, ED, main theatres, cardiac wards and the MacMillan unit. Please contact the clinical site management team or the outreach team out-of-hours if have any issues accessing a magnet.

Poole: cardiac department, ACU, ITU, main theatres and Forest Holme.

Following magnet placement, the cardiac physiology team should be informed. They can be reached by:

RBCH: Message for the cardiac nurse specialist ext 6154 or cardiac physiologists ext 2499, bleep 2770 with the patient details and location/

Poole: message for the cardiac physiologists ext 2255

Arrangements will be made to deactivate the ICD with an external programmer as soon as possible. Please refer to the standard operating practice for ICD deactivation towards the end of life and following death for more information.

Free staff bike maintenance this January

Bike Fixed will be returning next week to offer you a free bike tune up and will be on site at RBH on Tuesday (11 January), Poole on Wednesday (12 January) and XCH on Thursday (13 January)

If you suspect your bike may need replacement parts, Bike Fixed may be able to supply these, but they will incur a charge. If something is spotted which may need to be replaced, he'll advise you about this at the time of the service.

A limited number of appointments between 9am-3pm are available on each day.

If you'd like your bike to be serviced, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Get involved with Dry January

Dry January is the UK's annual challenge that encourages us all to abstain from drinking alcohol throughout January and teams and individuals from across UHD are encouraged to take part. There are a plethora of health benefits gained when we give up drinking alcohol from lowered blood pressure and lowered cholesterol all the way to better sleep and reduced stress and anxiety. Each week we will be sharing a fact sheet highlighting one of the benefits of giving up alcohol – this week, find out more about how alcohol can affect relationships.

If you are taking part, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - we would love to hear more about your experience, see pictures of you and your team getting involved, and offer encouragement to complete your challenge!

If you would like more information around alcohol please contact local health services We Are With You, REACH and Live Well Dorset.

Your wellbeing weekly

Start your new year on a positive note by visiting our wellbeing pages on the staff intranet, which are full of offers and information to help you stay healthy in 2022. This week, join mindfulness mediation drop-in sessions and get involved with taster sessions for mindfulness in life and work courses.