Care Matters: 20 April 2024

Spring vaccination programme, PPE Transition, LBS Green Enterprise Partnership, Community Equipment Guidance, New contact details for dementia and more. Please share.

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• Spring COVID-19 vaccination programme
• Personal Protective Equipment Transition
• London Borough of Sutton Green Enterprise Partnership
• Community Equipment in Care Homes Guidance 2024
• New contact details for dementia support
• Fire Safety – 4 May International Firefighter Day
• Briefing Subject: Medical and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA): National Patient Safety Alert
• Outbreak contact
• NHS Health and Care Volunteer Responders: How to make referrals for people receiving care.
• Have your Say
• Good Infection Prevention Control

Spring COVID-19 vaccination programme 

The COVID-19 Spring 2024 is being offered to those at high risk of serious disease and who are therefore most likely to benefit from vaccination.Vaccination continues to help protect against severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths from COVID-19. The following groups will be offered a COVID-19 vaccine this spring:

• Adults aged 75 years and over.
• Residents in a care home for older adults.
• Individuals aged 6 months and over who are immunosuppressed (as defined in tables 3 or 4 in the COVID-19 chapter of the Green Book).

The National Booking System for eligible cohorts opened on 15 April 2024 with vaccinations commencing from 22 April 2024. Residents in care homes for older adults and eligible housebound individuals will start to receive their vaccinations from Monday 15 April.

Personal Protective Equipment Transition

The Department of Health and Social Care’s scheme to provide free COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to health and care providers ended on 31 March 2024, meaning that NHS Supply Chain PPE orders must be made through the Catalogue from 1 April 2024 onwards. The last order date from the Foundry platform was on 31 March 2024.

PPE Portal – Community, Non-Acute, and Primary Care Healthcare Partners

The PPE Portal is an online platform that was set up originally to distribute PPE to eligible primary care, social care and public sector organisations, free of charge to meet demands that had arisen from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Paid for PPE will continue to be available via this platform until 23 May 2024 with the last delivery date occurring week commencing 27 May. Customers will be able to purchase these items using a credit or debit card. We will be accepting VISA and Mastercard cards, but American Express card will not be accepted. 

If customers have an NHS Supply Chain account (current or lapsed), and have previously ordered through the NHS Supply Chain catalogue, they will be eligible to purchase PPE through this platform via invoicing. This can be accessed here .

Following the closure of the PPE portal on 23 May, local arrangements will need to be made to purchase PPE. 

https://www.supplychain.nhs.uk/resilience/ppe-transition

London Borough of Sutton Green Enterprise Partnership 

The Go Green Scheme for the Care Sector Pilot – Removing barriers for the care home sector action on climate.

Apply for a 70% discount on your business rates bill by joining the Go Green Scheme.

Overview 

The London Borough of Sutton created the Green Enterprise Partnership (GEP) for businesses in Sutton. The GEP helps businesses to thrive while also helping them to take advantage of the benefits of the sustainability agenda, such as reduced energy bills and increased customer engagement.

You can find out more about Green Mark here.

Apply to join the Go Green Scheme by completing the form below. 

https://forms.gle/pJJtvnCC4ZBusRxs7

Read more here: https://www.sutton.gov.uk/w/gep

Community Equipment in Care Homes Guidance 2024

New contact details for dementia support

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/sutton/our-services/dementia-wellbeing-support/

From April 2024, dementia support in Sutton will be provided by Age UK Sutton. To access support, please contact 020 8078 0002 or email [email protected].

Carers of people with dementia can also contact the Sutton Carers Centre directly via [email protected] or 020 8296 5611.

Fire Safety – 4 May International Firefighter Day

Briefing Subject: Medical and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA): National Patient Safety Alert

Outbreak Contact

If you have a suspected or confirmed outbreak of COVID-19, please report it to the health protection team. Advice for outbreak management latest guidance can be found on the care hub.

Health Protection Team:

• HPT Email: ([email protected]) or call: (0300 303 0450)

Have your Say

We want you to have your say. This is an opportunity to ask questions that will be answered by Sutton’s Commissioners or Public Health Team. Please also use the link to the form below if you have any good news stories or activities your residents have taken part in that you would like to be shared on the Carehub.

https://forms.gle/6fY1pHirsC1gnDFAA

Infection prevention control for Adult social care sector

Good infection prevention and control (IPC) practice remains important throughout the year.

Good infection control practices can help reduce the risk of outbreaks occurring. It is important that adult social care providers refer to the guidance on infection prevention and control:

• Infection prevention and control: resource for adult social care
• Infection prevention and control in adult social care: COVID-19 supplement
• Winter-readiness (infection prevention) information for care homes winter pack 2022/23

If you require any infection control support or advise please contact the London borough Sutton public health team: [email protected]

Guidance changes? Help from London Borough of Sutton Public Health team

If you need any help or advice on the changes please contact the London Borough of Sutton Public health team. Send them an email [email protected] 

Webinars and training

IPC training can be found on Eventbrite

Skills for care – Care Certificate
Care Courses Online – Infection Prevention and Control in Healthcare
Social care institute for excellence – Infection control e-learning course

Care home information sharing webinar

Fortnightly on a Tuesday 1:30 – 3pm

The webinar link;
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 357 180 495 149
Passcode: uHrJiP
Download Teams | Join on the web
Learn More | Meeting options

Sutton Care Hub Job Portal

To support Sutton’s care providers to recruit the best staff for all positions from management, to clinical staff, carers and administrative support, we have created the Sutton Care Hub Job Portal.