Care Matters Weekly: Friday 22 January 2021

This is the Care Matters Weekly update for Friday 22 January 2021, including information on:

• Homecare update: Hospital admissions guidance
• Rapid testing fund for care homes
• Rapid testing sites
• Sutton Care Hub survey
• Calendar reminder: submitting COVID-19 test results online
• Information about the COVID-19 vaccine for residents in LD/MH Care Homes
• Supported Living and Extra Care webinar: 27 Jan
• Supported Living and Extra Care update
• Weekly Q&A with Care Homes
• Weekly Information Sharing FAQs, regular update from CCG
  • Webinar on LFD testing
  • COVID-19 Vaccine
  • Q&A sessions for staff
  • Incentive for weekend admissions from hospital
  • Infection Prevention and Control Information Sharing Webinar for Care Homes

The latest guidance on Testing, PPE and Training can be found in the relevant sections on the Sutton Care Hub website.

Homecare update: Hospital admissions guidance 

Due to the increased pressure on Hospitals at the moment, please ensure that all your staff follow the Hospital admission guidance. Providers must inform the Brokerage team immediately by email, with as much information as possible, such as name of hospital and the reason the person has been taken to hospital. If you have any difficulties delivering care  to  a service user in the community contact Encompass brokerage, who will pass your concerns onto Adult Social care, who can arrange to contact you directly to discuss further and offer support to resolve the issues. If someone is not accepting the care that you have been commissioned to provide, please report to [email protected]

Rapid testing funding for Care Homes

The government has announced the funding allocations for the new Rapid Testing Fund to support Care Homes with the rollout of the Lateral Flow Device testing. The allocation for Sutton is £527,142. Care Home providers will receive allocation and conditions letters next week.

Rapid testing sites

There is a rapid testing site at the Civic Centre in Sutton. It is now open to all staff working in or for the London Borough of Sutton to book a regular weekly test.

Rapid test appointments can be booked online. The Civic Centre site is open weekdays between 8.00am-8.00pm (Monday-Friday).

Please be aware that lateral flow tests are for people who do not have symptoms of coronavirus and have not received a positive test for COVID-19 within the last 90 days. They are a self-administered nose and throat swab and this short video explains how the testing process works. 

There’s more information in a recent news update on the Sutton Care Hub.

Sutton Care Hub survey 

We launched the Sutton Care Hub in November 2020 as the single point of access for guidance, resources and information for all staff working across all Sutton’s provider services.

As we move onto phases two and three, we would like to get your feedback to ensure we are developing the site in a way which is most useful for you.

Please complete this short survey to let us know your thoughts.

Reminder: Submitting COVID-19 test results online

All Care Homes must complete the Sutton Online COVID-19 testing results form every time they test residents and staff, as part of regular testing. This will help us to:

• Support homes with regular testing
• Provide timely advice on any infections or outbreaks
• Mitigate issues in accessing testing

We have added a weekly reminder to the Sutton Care Hub calendar each Monday. This is also a condition of the new Rapid Testing Fund mentioned earlier.

Information about the COVID-19 vaccine for residents in LD/MH Care Homes

This is a short video by NHS England which describes what a vaccine is, how vaccines are made, why you should get a vaccine, whether a vaccine can make you ill and how to decide whether to have a vaccine.

Supported Living and Extra Care webinar

The Department of Health & Social would like to invite providers to an Extra Care and Supported Living testing webinar. It will take place at 11am on Wednesday 27 January 2021 and will last one hour, giving detailed information about all aspects of testing and will include a live Q&A.

Sign up to attend the new Extra Care and Supported Living testing webinars.

Supported Living and Extra Care updated guidance

Government guidance has been updated to reflect that if you have had close contact with someone who has COVID-19, you must self-isolate for 10 days. For people in supported living arrangements, this 10-day period should increase to 14 days based on a risk assessment if the setting is considered high risk.

Weekly Q&A with Care Homes

We are holding a weekly Q&A session for all Care Home Providers, every Wednesday 11am – 12pm, via Google meet. The session will give you an opportunity to ask questions and discuss situations arising due to COVID-19. The session is optional, and you can drop in and out of the session as you are available.

If you have any questions you would like to share in advance of the session please send to [email protected] and mark FOR Q&A LOG. Questions may be asked during the session which have not been submitted in advance, however please note we may need to come back to you with an answer at a later date.

Weekly Information Sharing FAQs

Webinar on LFD testing

Thank you very much to those of you who were able to attend this week’s webinar we shared information on LFD testing.

Please find below this week’s FAQs, the presentation on LFDs from this week and the Winter preparedness checklist for your care home.

COVID-19 Vaccine

As you are aware, Care Home staff have been given priority for the COVID-19 Vaccine and we are pleased to have been able to offer this to care home staff. The offer is currently for first dose vaccines only. Second dose vaccines will be offered up to 12 weeks after the first one.

Any member of care home staff who would like to be vaccinated for covid-19 can email us the form at [email protected]

Please access the SWL Health and Care Partnership website where you can download the booking form for the COVID-19 Vaccination.

We will also shortly be sending out individual communication to Care Home about how to book on a new online system.

Q&A sessions for staff

We are putting on a series of live Q&A sessions for staff to attend, ask questions or learn more.

Any member of staff from any gender or background who wants to know more can attend both or either of the following sessions:

Tuesday 26 January 2021 at 1400-15.00

The COVID-19 Vaccination with a focus on Women’s Health with Dr Aditi Shah and Dr Fiona White

Join on your computer or mobile app: Click here to join the meeting

Or call in (audio only)

+44 20 3880 0300,,883869120#   United Kingdom, London

Phone Conference ID: 883 869 120#

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Wednesday 3 February 2021 at 14.00-15.00

The COVID-19 Vaccination with a focus on Allergies and Health Conditions with Dr Vasa Gnanapragasam and Dr Paul Riley

Join on your computer or mobile app: Click here to join the meeting

Or call in (audio only)

+44 20 3880 0300,,676250550#   United Kingdom, London

Phone Conference ID: 676 250 550#

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Please could you share this invite with your staff who would like to ask questions or find out more about the COVID-19 Vaccine.

All staff are welcome to attend.

If you would like to submit questions in advance please email [email protected] but you are also welcome to ask questions during the session via the chat function or audio call.

The clinicians present will be there to support staff in making an informed choice with evidence based information.

A further two Q&A sessions are planned to take place in the coming weeks:

• Young, fit & healthy, Why do I need the COVID-19 Vaccine?

• Race, Religion, Background or Beliefs- COVID-19 Vaccine Information.

We will send out further information and links to these next week.

You can access the previous webinars to watch on the COVID-19 Vaccine at the link below:

• COVID-19 Q&A with Dr Agnelo Fernandes and COVID-19 experience shared by Erik Cortez

• COVID-19 Vaccine Q&A with Dr Agnelo Fernandes, Dr Aditi Shah and COVID-19 experience shared by Vanessa Vyapooree

Incentive for weekend admissions from hospitals

As you will be aware, the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the winter pressures, is placing high demand on all health and social care services.  The hospitals in South West London are under severe pressure and it is important that medically stable patients are discharged quickly 7 days a week and outside of office hours.

We recognise that there are challenges for Care Homes to accept residents from a hospital on the weekend and South West London Clinical Commissioning Group are providing a financial support offer to Care Homes when residents are accepted from hospital on the weekend.  Care Homes are able to apply for a £100 per resident support offer for all weekend returning residents and new admissions. This may be used by the home to support with additional staff or resources to support this weekend work.

The process to claim the £100 is to be confirmed please take note of the residents who are returning this weekend.

This process started on 09/01/21 and will run through until 31/03/21.

We will send out further information on how to claim the money in due course.

Infection Prevention and Control Information Sharing Webinar for Care Homes

We hope to see you at the next Infection Prevention and Control Information Sharing Webinar for Care Homes, where we are delighted to be joined by Jane Ingram who will be presenting on Risk Assessments for LD homes.

Please click link below to access the next Infection Prevention and Control Information Sharing Webinar for Care Homes on Tuesday 26 January 2020 at 11am until 12 noon.

Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

+44 20 3880 0300   United Kingdom, London (Toll)

Conference ID: 855 305 74#

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