Lincolnshire NHS COVID-19 update (no.4) Thursday 23 April 2020

News - 24 April 2020

This is our fourth COVID-19 update report

OVERVIEW

This is the fourth COVID-19 update report from Lincolnshire CCG.

We are particularly keen to get the message out to people that, in addition to responding to the challenges brought on by the ongoing pandemic, the NHS remains open for non-COVID-19-related concerns. We want to remind anyone with a health concern they feel requires attention the NHS is here for them, and we urge them to contact their GP practice. It is important to emphasise people should initially contact their practice by telephone, not attend in person.

On that note, our GP practices have been innovative in their approach to how they provide services for patients and have moved to supporting patients via remote consulting, typically via telephone, email and online triage, plus a number of practices have also started using video consultations - all positive responses that will help practices to manage their workload and resilience now and after COVID-19.

The NHS is also working very closely with partners in the care home and homecare sector, including LinCA, to ensure we are doing all we can to support this vitally important part of the local health and care system.

The past week has continued to be one of exceptional challenge for the NHS in Lincolnshire, and we would like to pay tribute again to the dedication, professionalism and compassion of NHS staff across the county in these difficult times. We continue to do all that we can to keep them safe and to support them and work together as one NHS team, providing the best care possible for patients.

In addition, the ongoing extraordinary support of the public and our partners means so much to us all in the NHS, thank you.

In the past week we have:

Continued to ensure that service capacity is in place to cope with the projected increase in demand for the care of patients with Covid-19. At the time of writing we have good capacity in Lincolnshire.

Continued to focus on the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS in the county, and we have not experienced any significant problems in relation to this, however, it remains a matter of constant focus for us.
Developed and enhanced capacity to undertake staff testing and now have arrangements in place across the NHS, including general practice, community and mental health services, and with our wider partners in the social care and care home sector.

Please find below a number of updates on specific issues which we hope are of interest to you.

Thank you again for all your support for the NHS at this time, it is really appreciated.

KEY UPDATES:

A new video reminding people to follow the government’s advice to stay home, protect the NHS, and save lives has been launched locally, featuring local NHS leaders thanking everyone for the sacrifices they continue to make to protect NHS – you can watch it here.

LPFT’s Lincoln North community mental health team has achieved the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) accreditation for Community Mental Health Teams (ACOMHS), a Royal College of Psychiatrists programme that helps to assure and improve the quality of community mental health services for people with mental health problems and their carers, meaning all nine of LPFT’s community teams have now signed up to ACOMHS.
The Lincolnshire Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion service is a new service supporting vulnerable people through the criminal justice system, and is the first of its kind in the county. The police are able to refer people they identify as potentially vulnerable to the service’s team, which is made up of six LPFT clinicians and nine Lincolnshire Action Trust (LAT) practitioners. Due to coronavirus, the new service is currently operating in police custody and provides information electronically to the courts and other agencies

A local NHS charity has benefitted to the tune of £32,000 from a national charity donation. NHS Charities Together, which supports more than 160 health service organisations nationwide, has recently donated £32,000 to the joint LPFT LCHS charitable funds. The monies will be spent enhancing the wellbeing of NHS staff, volunteers and patients impact by COVID-19.

Many of you will have seen and heard in the media about the NHS Charities Together as this organisation is the beneficiary of the phenomenal fundraising efforts of Captain Tom Moore, who set out to raise £1,000 before his 100^th birthday, and smashed his own target by raising more than £26 million to date for the NHS.

Further local donations from the charity are anticipated in the future as part of their continued COVID 19 appeal.

Over the past few weeks, ULHT has welcomed hundreds of generous donations from the public and businesses of Lincolnshire, for the benefit of staff and patients, and would like to thank everyone for their kindness and generosity. People are now being urged to ensure they support ALL local communities in need.

“The hospital corridors are eerily quiet. You don’t really appreciate the bustle of the building’s internal thoroughfare until there is such a stark change like the one we are now enduring” – you can read the reflections of Dr Matthew Dolling, an intensive care consultant at ULHT.

LCHS has introduced ‘Contact your loved ones’ – a new service of helping people to get a message to friends and family while they are being cared for in LCHS’ community hospitals, which has been launched as a result of the coronavirus pandemic causing patient visiting to be temporarily suspended.

A reminder that LCHS has temporarily changed the way patients access care from two of its minor injury units. As of 7 April there is no longer a walk in service at the minor injury unit at Johnson Community Hospital in Spalding – access will be provided through NHS 111. The same change was also applied as of 8 April to the minor injuries unit at John Coupland Hospital in Gainsborough. LCHS has made this change to ensure patients are looked after in a way that best protects members of the public, and is focusing its resources on its home visiting and virtual consultation function.