Being safe from COVID-19

Ellern Mede is taking every precaution to ensure the safety of patients, staff, and visitors by implementing the official prevention guidelines issued by Public Health England (PHE). We have a business continuity graded response plan which, in terms of current guidance, will enable the hospitals to continue to care for non-infected inpatients throughout the outbreak.

Stringent infection control measures include hand sanitisation stations, regular deep cleaning of the premises, and forehead temperature testing for staff and visitors entering the building.

We are warning potential visitors of PHE guidelines about recent travel from listed infected countries and about recognising symptoms and reducing visits in and out of the units by cancelling non-essential activities requiring travel by staff and patients.

We have implemented COVID-19 Risk Management care plans for each inpatient to identify safe ways to reduce their non-essential clinical routines such as ward rounds and case meetings according to graded levels of response to potential lower staffing levels.

We recognise that during the outbreak there will be days when our staffing levels may come under pressure and we have a graded response action plan as follows:

At 85% usual staffing, our normal ‘short staff protocol’ will permit us to function as usual. If it falls to 80%, ‘Plan A’ response will involve a sharing of some patient-facing duties by Multi-Disciplinary senior clinical staff.

Healthcare facilities by their nature may be more susceptible to infection and for this reason, we have planned for the event that up to 40% of our usual staff may be unavailable, in which case ‘Plan B’ response will involve a reduction of external outings for patients.

If staff available to work falls below 60% of the preferred level, we will implement ‘Plan C’ which involves all of the above with the addition of increased home leave for those patients who can safely have this and distance learning for schoolwork at Ellern Mede School.

Managing Director Peter Curtis said: “Our stringent infection control measures taken within our wards and units have been successful in preventing the infection from entering our hospital site. We continue to maintain high alert on all infection control measures and to ensure our patients, families, staff, and visitors are safe.”

“We realise that this is an anxious time for patients, their families, and staff. Should anyone linked to our service be affected we will seek to support them in every way we can, following national guidance.”

For more information please contact the Communications Team on 07908 080300