Introduction
As part of efforts to keep you informed, NHS Fife is issuing updates dedicated to our response to the coronavirus pandemic. This briefing is circulated to NHS Fife Board members and Fife’s MPs, MSPs and local Councillors. Updates are currently made available on a fortnightly basis.
This update includes information on matters including planning and resilience, operational updates, along with signposting to the latest media updates issued by NHS Fife to ensure clear, consistent and timely sharing of information. Updates are also issued on our new public facing Coronavirus micro site (http://coronavirus.nhsfife.org) which provides a hub of information and advice as well as our established, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.
Hot Topics
Gradual reintroduction of services
On Wednesday 24th June we published the draft plan on how we intend to restart a range of services that were placed on hiatus at the height of the response to COVID-19. The plan outlines how hospital and community-based healthcare services intend to safely resume in the period up to the end of July. The short term focus will continue to be on urgent and cancer care, with a phased stepping up of non-urgent treatment expected to recommence in the following weeks. Another important element of the plan will focus on the sustained management of in-patient numbers to ensure there remains sufficient capacity to manage any potential future increase in the numbers of patients requiring care after contracting COVID-19. As services start to resume patients should expect to see many of these services delivered in a very different manner than they would have been previously. The need to ensure physical distancing means that the number of face-to-face consultations will be reduced, however, both urgent and non-urgent consultations are now being supported by technological innovations such as video consultations. Since the accelerated rollout of NearMe video software back in late March, more than 10,500 video consultations have been carried out in Fife. You can read the plan in full here. Our Medical Director, Dr Chris McKenna, recorded a short video for social media, which can be viewed here.
Test and Protect – helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19
We are urging people in Fife with any symptoms of coronavirus to access testing as part of the effort to reduce the spread of the virus. The Scottish Government has announced the launch of the ‘Test and Protect’ programme, enabling anyone in Scotland who developed symptoms of coronavirus to be tested. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are a high temperature; a new, continuous cough; or a loss or change to sense of smell or taste. Those with symptoms must get tested as soon as possible and this can be requested using the UK Government Citizens’ Portal at: https://www.nhs.uk/ask-for-a-coronavirus-test or by calling 0800 028 2816. Individuals can choose whether to attend one of the UK Government testing sites or request a home testing kit to be delivered to their home. The lockdown has helped contribute to a reduction in the transmission of infection. The easing of lockdown measures may to lead to a gradual increase in the numbers of those developing the virus. The close contacts of those who contract the virus will then require to be traced in order to limit onward transmission. Contact tracing is an established method of reducing transmission of communicable disease and NHS Fife’s Public Health Team is well-versed in carrying out the process. The numbers of contacts traced across Scotland is published by Public Health Scotland here at 12pm each Wednesday.
Compulsory use of face coverings in hospitals
The Scottish Government has issued new guidance that will require members of the public to wear face coverings when visiting adult hospitals or care home settings from the 29th June. These will be the same coverings that are required to be worn on public transport. A face covering does not have to be a surgical or other medical grade mask but must be a facial covering of the mouth and nose. Face coverings worn over the mouth and nose may include a scarf, face mask, protective visor, or any other type of appropriate covering. It will not be acceptable to pull a shirt, blouse, jumper or coat up to try and cover the nose and mouth. If a person chooses to wear a face visor it must cover the nose and mouth completely. In clinical areas, surgical masks will require to be worn and will be provided.
Dental practices reopening for urgent care
On 18 June 2020, the First Minister announced the move into Phase 2 of the Scottish Government’s route map out of the COVID-19 pandemic. This enabled NHS Dental Practices throughout the country to begin re-opening to provide urgent dental care. Over recent weeks NHS Fife has been working closely with all practices providing NHS dental services to assist them to prepare to re-open safely, and ensure that vital personal protective equipment (PPE) is available to all staff that requires it. As some practices will be required to make adjustments to the physical environment, not all dental practices will be open initially. As the phased reopening of dental practices commences, patients will notice considerable differences in the way that services are delivered. Ahead of an appointment, the practice team will contact patients to advise on the changes to how services are delivered in their individual practice. On arrival at the practice patients may be asked to wait outside the building or in their car until they are called to enter. Once inside, patients will also be asked to cleanse their hands thoroughly with alcohol hand gel. In many practices new perspex screens have been installed to provide additional protection for patients and practice staff. Patients will also be asked to attend alone unless the appointment is for a child or a person with additional needs who requires support. To maintain social distancing, practices will be making very limited use of reception areas and these will be wiped down and disinfected much more regularly. Ahead of treatment patients may be asked to put any personal belongings in a box whilst your treatment takes place. Perhaps the most visible change will be that the dental team caring for patients will be wearing additional personal protective equipment including masks and full face visors. Importantly, the full range of dental treatment will not be available initially with aerosol generating procedures, such as the use of the high speed drill or ultrasonic scaling, restricted for the time being. Furthermore, treatment may take a little longer than usual due to the additional precautions in place meaning it is even more important that patients arrive on time for appointment. Once the treatment is complete, if payment is required then patients are asked to use card payment wherever possible. Whilst dental practices transition towards full re-opening, NHS Fife is continuing to provide an urgent dental care service in 10 urgent dental care centres throughout Fife. Those requiring urgent dental care should contact their own dentist in the first instance, which will provide advice and initial assessment, and can refer on to an urgent dental care centre if required. For the latest information on coronavirus-related changes to dental and other healthcare services, please visit coronavirus.nhsfife.org. We have also produced a short video around the changes, which can be viewed here.
Testing in care homes
NHS Fife’s specialist team has been undertaking testing of residents and staff across Fife’s care homes. Testing is currently carried out in homes whenever a resident is displaying symptoms. Samples are taken the same day or next day when suspected cases are reported, and results are usually available within 24 hours. Where there are any confirmed cases of staff or residents, enhanced testing is carried out meaning all care home staff and residents are tested regardless of whether they are symptomatic or not. Furthermore, a new testing portal has been launched to enable local care homes to request weekly covid-19 testing for staff.
Updates
Call for updated patient details
We are currently contacting patients in order to update their personal details. Some patients will be contacted by text message and those who have not provided us with a mobile number will receive a call to their landline. This call is to ensure NHS Fife has accurate and up to date information for each patient including a mobile phone number. Telephone calls from NHS Fife will appear as 08006783393, and when the team call they will identify themselves. If a person is concerned about providing NHS Fife with this information at this time and would like to verify the call is from NHS Fife, they can call us back on 01592 729497. During the current pandemic it is extremely important that we are able to contact patients as quickly as possible to inform them of any changes to their appointments. The quickest way for us to provide these types of updates to patients is by sending a message to their phone. Health Records are therefore be contacting patients in order for us to update their details.
Maternity notes app
WE are encouraging parents-to-be who are not already registered to sign up to the Maternity Notes app at their next midwife appointment. NHS Fife offers all pregnant women and new mothers access to Maternity Notes, which allows secure, real-time access to their maternity records online. Maternity Notes also provides access to local and national information regarding the pregnancy and childbirth journey, all in the one place. Maternity Notes also provides weekly updates of pregnancy, relevant leaflets, and video links. Our Maternity Notes Project Midwife, Elizabeth Cameron, has recorded a video about the app and how it works here.
Free condom scheme extended
Sexual Health Fife has extended its free condom initiative to include a postal service, which is free and confidential. If people live in Fife and are over the age of 16 they can be sent condoms direct by post to their home. The pack will contain 12 condoms and some water-based lubricant. It will arrive within 10 days in a plain, unmarked envelope. Those requiring the service should email fife-uhb.condomdistribution@nhs.net with their name, address and information relative to any allergies i.e. latex. Used correctly and consistently condoms help prevent HIV, sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies.
Warning around COVID-19 Scams
We have encouraged people across Fife to be aware that COVID-19 tests are free and that there are scammers advising otherwise. If our Test and Protect Team contacts a person because they or someone they know has tested positive for COVID-19, they won’t ever ask for payment or bank details. We’ve heard of a number of scams where people are calling up to say that people need to take a test. A genuine Contact Tracer will never:
- Ask for personal details i.e. bank details/medical records
- Try to sell you anything or ask for payment of any kind
- Tell you the identity of the person who is infected
- Ask you to download something by clicking on a link
- Ask you to set up a pin number
- Ask for social media login details
- Ask for remote access to your compute
Potential contact tracing scams can be reported to Advice Direct Scotland on 0808 800 9060 or www.advice.scot
Fife teams part of Dexamethasone research success
Clinicians, researchers and patients from NHS Fife have contributed to the breakthrough discovery of an effective treatment of COVID-19. A low dose steroid, dexamethasone, should become standard of care for hospitalised patients with COVID-19 receiving oxygenation or ventilation. NHS Fife is delighted to have been a part of the UK-wide RECOVERY trial, which has been testing pre-existing medicine such as steroids, antivirals and antimalarial agents. This is one of several clinical trials NHS Fife is taking part in as part of the response to COVID-19.
Visiting & Service Update
Changes to services/visiting
The latest information around changes to services, access and visiting can be found in a new area of our new micro site: https://coronavirus.nhsfife.org/changes-to-services/
Public Health Update
Covid-19 local data
You can find the number of confirmed cases, people in hospital and ICU in Fife here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
Local information around deaths is published weekly by National Records Scotland at 12 noon on a Wednesday; this includes a breakdown by setting, and is sourced from all death registrations. This data can be found at: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/covid19stats
We have produced a handy info graphic that we publish every week on the Know Fife website summarising the above data: https://know.fife.scot/
Experiences of parents during lockdown
Public Health Scotland is looking to gain insight into the experiences of life at home for parents during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this may have affected the health and wellbeing of families. The organisation has produced a short survey, which should only take 10-15 minutes to complete, and aims to help them understand more about the health and wellbeing impact of Covid-19 on younger children in Scotland. Feedback can help to ensure that children’s services can best respond to families’ needs when they re-open. Please click here to take part and find out more about the survey. It closes on 6th July.
General Information
Stay in touch
NHS Fife tries at all times to be open and transparent with elected members. However, we need to manage enquiries to ensure that urgent work is not disrupted. To help you and to help us we are asking that all emails are directed in the first instance to a central email address. To ensure accurate and timely responses all political enquiries – letters and emails – should be directed to the NHS Fife Chief Executive Office for response and co-ordination. Enquiries should be emailed to a dedicated email address: fife-uhb.chiefexecutive@nhs.net
The Chief Executives’ Office will formally acknowledge receipt of all letters and emails and coordinate a response from services to ensure that all enquiries are responded to in a timely manner. Elected members are politely asked not to approach services directly for responses and instead direct all enquiries to the Chief Executive’s Office. Also, during this busy period can we ask that you make use of the excellent public information available on NHS Inform and the Scottish Government website and only come to us if the request relates specifically to Fife.
Accessible information and translation
NHS Fife continues to provide interpreting and translation services for patients despite there being no face to face interpretation at this time. Along with nationally allocated assets, we have published a suite of COVID-19 resources in a number of formats, including:
- British Sign Language
- Easy Read translation
- Foreign language leaflets
- SMS text service for those who may be deaf, hard of hearing, or are unable to speak in the phone due to impairment.
These assets and further information can be found here.
Donations and offers of support
An updated section of the NHS Fife Coronavirus micro site has been launched to outline the process for members of the general public and organisations wanting to assist NHS Fife’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic in relation to donations and offers of help – including supplying PPE. For more information, visit: https://coronavirus.nhsfife.org/donations-and-offers-of-help/
Board papers accessible online
Board papers from previous meetings can be accessed online here.
Helping us to spread messages on social media
We appreciate the support of elected representatives in helping us ensure as many people as possible are aware of key messages and guidance around COVID-19 and its impact on our services. As such, please feel free to use any of the national or locally produced assets that we use on our social media channels.
| National Guidance Health Protection Scotland Guidance Available at: www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/a-to-z-of-topics/covid-19 |
| Information and Guidance for Non-Healthcare Settings https://hpspubsrepo.blob.core.windows.net/hps-website/nss/2973/documents/1_COVID-19-Guidance-for-non-healthcare-settings.pdf |
| Information and guidance for social or community care residential settings www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/covid-19-information-and-guidance-for-social-or-community-care-residential-settings/ |
| Ready Scotland Information https://www.readyscotland.org/coronavirus/ |
| NHS Inform www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/infections-and-poisoning/coronavirus-covid-19 |
| NHS Inform Covid-19 translated materials NHS Inform has created a toolkit of accessible versions and translated Coronavirus information. Download the Coronavirus (COVID-19) communication toolkit (ZIP, 20 MB) Download translated versions of our COVID-19 posters (ZIP, 22MB) |
| Free Helpline for those who do not have symptoms A free helpline has been set up for those who do not have symptoms but are looking for general health advice Tel: 0800 028 2816. |
| Helpline for small businesses A helpline providing businesses across Scotland with advice and guidance on COVID-19 is open Monday to Friday, between 8.30am to 5.30pm. Tel: 0300 303 0660. |
Issued by NHS Fife Communications
