Agenda item

Covid-19 - Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

[To receive a verbal update from Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust on work undertaken during the COVID-19 emergency]. 

Minutes:

Chris Masikane, the Chief Operating Officer of the Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust gave a presentation on the Trust’s response to Covid-19.  He thanked all of their stakeholders and in particular the acute Trusts for the support that they had given to them during the Covid-19 pandemic.  They had established an operational structure to manage the response.  This included a Gold Command, Silver Command, an Incident Management Team (7 days a week) and an Ethical Decision Making Group.  Due to the sheer amount of guidance the Trust had received they had to make considerable changes to their normal ways of working.  This had led to the creation of the Ethical Decision Making Group, as the changes they had to quickly make could not go through their normal governance process.  The pandemic had led to improved relationships with the acute Trusts and the CCGs. 

 

The Chief Operating Officer stated that in March 2020 they had 15 - Covid-19 positive inpatients, 16 in April, 12 in May, zero in June and 1 in July.  This was a total of 44 cases.  He presented a slide on what had worked well for the Trust during the pandemic.  He was particularly pleased with how well patient testing had gone, working in conjunction with partners.  Whilst the guidance surrounding PPE had been initially confusing, the Trust had eventually got to grips with its appropriate use.  Managing the anxiety of patients was a particular challenge.  The Trust had to change the way beds were configured into red (Covid-19 Positive or Symptomatic) and green zones.  Enhanced training had to be given staff regarding physical health.  Visiting restrictions had to be applied in accordance with national guidance.  A total of 66 service changes were introduced during the course of the pandemic.  One of these had been to introduce a 24 hours a day seven days a week helpline.  The pandemic had demonstrated how changes could be made fast when there was a will to do so. 

 

The Chief Operating Officer paid tribute to the work of the staff of the Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust during the course of the pandemic.  A staff self-isolation process and staff testing programme has been developed.  They had developed a staff health and wellbeing offer across the Trust and also to Primary Healthcare partners.  This included activities such as Yoga, exercise sessions and Zoom sessions on coping with isolation and stress.     

 

The Chief Operating Officer commented that Support Services played a key part in the Trust’s response to the Pandemic.  He cited enhanced cleaning, a central process for PPE, improving remote IT access and distributing laptops for staff.

 

The Chief Operating Officer stated at the time the slides had been produced, 2020 staff had received a Covid-19 antibody test.  275 (13.5%) of them had tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies.  They were currently still not permitting visitors to the Wards, due to the continued risk.  They were however supporting patients by using innovative IT solutions such as Skype.  The Trust were increasing their admission threshold to ensure they had capacity in the future.  They were undertaking building risk assessments and adapting sites to increase Covid secure status.  The Trust were working on restoration and recovery but also the Reimagine Programme.  The Reimagine Programme was trying to ensure that good practice developed during the pandemic remained.  Risk Assessments had now been completed for approximately 90% of Trust staff.  The CCG had been most helpful in creating extra local bed provision to ensure that patients were not placed out of area.  The Trust were mindful that Shielding was expected to stop from the 1 August 2020.  They were aware that there had been a recent increase in Covid-19 cases in Sandwell and so they were carefully monitoring the situation. 

 

The Chief Operating Officer presented a slide on lessons learnt during the pandemic.  He stressed the importance of clear communication, which he thought the Trust had done well, but it had been a challenge with the extent of information coming through to the Trust.  With reference to the BAME response, he felt organisations had waited to be told what action to take, rather than pressing on with what they thought was right for their staff, meaning that the response was too slow on a national scale.  The pandemic had proven that change could happen quickly when it was wanted.  He didn’t want to lose the momentum for change and partnership working, which the pandemic had accelerated.  He cited managing the human dimension of change and supporting staff as being very important.  The pandemic had shown that the resilience of Trust staff at all levels was very high. 

 

A Member of the Panel asked how the practice of ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) had been reviewed, which had been referenced on the slides.  The Chief Operating Officer responded that the Trust had received extensive guidance on the practice during the pandemic because it was an invasive procedure.  The Trust had therefore had to review how they carried out the procedure to ensure they were in compliance with the new guidance, such as wearing the correct PPE equipment. 

 

A Member of the Panel asked for the figures of how many Wolverhampton residents who were a patient at the Trust had tested positive for Covid-19.  The Chief Operating Officer responded that he could provide the figures directly to her by email.