The Board has invited three representatives to come and talk about how Covid has impacted on them and the people they serve in Salisbury, measures taken to cope during imposed restrictions and how they have adapted to meet the needs of the community.
· Katy Gillingham – Salisbury Medical Practice (communications and engagement lead)
· Gareth Jones – Sarum Academy (head of 6th form)
· Matthew Airey – Wessex Care
Minutes:
The Board had invited representatives from some of the services in Salisbury to share how Covid had impacted on their organisation and what measures they had needed to take to cope and meet the needs of the community during the pandemic.
Katy Gillingham - Salisbury Medical Practice.
Katy ran through a presentation which detailed how they have coped at the practice and some of the steps taken:
Impact and adaptations
• Branch site changes
• Pre-booked appointments only
• New appointment system
• Hot and cold sites
• Working with other Practices
• Referrals/Minor Surgery
• Adapted flu clinics
· Fisherton House site was closed to walk in patients
· Bemerton Heath surgery recently re-open
· The min impact had been a review of the appointment system, and the adaptation to a telephone system.
· Introduction of same day GP telephone appointments - morning and afternoon.
· Video consultation – triage could view symptoms such as rash etc.
A huge amount of calls were received especially in the morning, so the phone lines were increased to 60, resulting in patients getting through a lot quicker.
There had been the introduction of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ sites, where people with certain symptoms could be separated and then seen in the hot site.
There had been a big impact on the flu clinics, these were held at Sarum Academy and there had been wonderful feedback following these.
It was hoped that here would be more information to circulate on the Covid Vaccine clinics soon.
Covid-19 Procedure
• Cleaning high touch areas three times a day
• Screening patients before attending appointments
• Wiping chairs down after each patient
• Open windows to ensure ventilation
• Socially distanced waiting rooms
• Patients arrive 5 minutes before their appointment
• Face coverings/PPE
Positive Outcomes
• Staff working from one site –teamwork
• Same day appointments for patients
• Introduction of video consultations
• Uptake of online services
• Engagement with our local community
Thank you to all of the businesses and individuals that donated PPE at the start of the Covid pandemic. We are still open for business
Questions and comments:
Matthew Airey from Wessex Care.
We are a strategic partner of the local authority and the NHS our provision ranges from nursing care through to specialist dementia care
Main challenges
Some of the equipment needed and its availability, however we had pre- considered this and had been purchasing PPE from Nov/Dec the previous year, to be ready.
As a strategic partner we were asked to set up a hospital discharge support unit in direct support of the hospital, very quickly when the first spike was identified around the Easter weekend.
During modelling it was seen there was a risk to the hospital, so units were set up as Covid Hot units. All patients discharged that were covid positive, came to us and we managed it in our setting. We recruited within our team from those that were willing to take on this role.
This service ran through until it was decommissioned at the end of July. All of those that were supporting us did an amazing job.
The support and things we received from the community from scrubs, pizzas, beauty products showed outstanding support which was much appreciated.
Wanted to ensure that contact between residents and their families continued until the guidance came in.
Focus was always to allow as much visiting as was safely possible. Staff were tested every 7 days and the residents tested every 28 days. This would change to staff being tested twice a week and residents once a week. With some of the new tests available, this may allow us to increase some of the visiting contact.
The new normal for us is a testing regime, support to our residents and the hospital with discharge.
Little Manor care centre had recently opened and was a dedicated rehab unit, to get people out of hospital and keep those beds free for further need.
Winter planning for the south of Wiltshire was the next big test, we feel prepared and well equipped. Had no positive covid identified in our units or community services. That was testament to all of the members of staff in doing a fantastic job in maintaining high standards and good use of PPE.
We are expecting to be very busy with lots of challenges.
Questions and comments:
· Do you feel confident that the hospital had it organised so that the care homes did not have to accept any patients that came out? Answer: In Wiltshire they quickly responded to put a stop to that and it helped to prevent an outbreak of covid in Wiltshire. Covid tests were taken within 48 hours of discharge, patients were initially isolated and monitored. I am confident but never complacent
· There was mention in the media about mental health issues for both patients and relatives, was there an increase? Answer: It was difficult to say, as we recognised there may be a rise early on and had put in measures to mitigate that. Where it was recognised, we had been able to give increased support to that individual. However, all ages were susceptible to not seeing family, the older generation are incredibly resilient. Yes it was something that we watch out for. I think the issue we were more concerned about was the anxiety of individuals and family members. We had a member of staff who was in contact with families, we see it as part of our community roll to support the family members. Staff had been amazing, but this has come at a cost, they are tired. We have clear support mechanisms in place.
· In the beginning was it difficult to get hold of the test kits for care homes? Answer: Yes, as the test kits didn’t exist at all in the beginning. What we did was we got involved with the early pilots.
Gareth Jones – Sarum Academy was unable to attend.