Coventry & Warwickshire COVID-19 Portal

Sent on behalf of the COVID-19 Primary Care Incident Management Team for Coventry and Rugby, South Warwickshire and Warwickshire North CCGs

 

Primary Care Coronavirus briefing – Coventry and Warwickshire – 18 May 2020 

 

**Please find below the latest primary care coronavirus briefing.**

 

Information provided by NHS Coventry and Rugby CCG, NHS South Warwickshire CCG and NHS Warwickshire North CCG in line with Public Health England guidance.

 

This information may change rapidly as the situation develops. For the latest information for primary care, visit: https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/primary-care  

 

Today’s topics – use the links to jump to each section

 

**Latest local picture**

**Local updates** 

**Latest updates for each PLACE (Coventry and Rugby, South Warwickshire, Warwickshire North)**

 

Latest national picture

Communications from NHS England

Actions for Primary Care

 

TODAY’S ATTACHMENTS 

 

• Local picture updated charts and projections 2020-05-18.pdf

 

• Item 10: The Stroke Association has provided an update on their Stroke Recovery Services: Stroke Recovery Services - Stroke Association.docx

 

• Item 3: Sexual Assault Referral Centre update: SARC Services - COVID-19 - West Mids CYP.pdf

 

• Item 4: Age UK Coventry and Warwickshire update: CORONAVIRUS SERVICES UPDATE.docx

 

LATEST LOCAL PICTURE

Please remember: we are issuing the briefing three times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) communications via: warnoccg.covid19primarycarecommunications@nhs.net. We would also ask that if you have questions or concerns relating to the current situation around coronavirus and COVID-19 you use the same address: warnoccg.covid19primarycarecommunications@nhs.net. Please keep us updated with any issues that you may be having so we can try to address them.

 

Coventry and Warwickshire COVID position up to 18.05.2020

• 2,149 cases now confirmed in Coventry and Warwickshire (+32 / +1.5% from Friday)

• 103 of these are currently admitted (-12 / -10.4% from Friday)

• 800 beds still available (+104 / +14.9% from Friday)

• 7 ITU beds occupied by Covid patients (+2 / +40.0% from Friday)

• 447 reported deaths in a hospital setting (+11 / +2.5% from Friday)

 

Care Home current position as at 18.05.2020

• 197 Covid related deaths in care homes (+6 / +3.1% from Friday, note some of these deaths may have occurred outside of the home and so may be counted in the figure above)

• 511 Care home deaths in total (+13 / +2.6% from Friday)

• 613 confirmed cases (+37 / +6.4% from Friday)

• Confirmed care home cases broken down by CCG:

o Coventry & Rugby: 307

o South Warwickshire: 199

o Warwickshire North: 107

 

• (Attachment: Local picture updated charts and projections 2020-05-18.pdf) 

 

LATEST LOCAL UPDATE

1. New information about coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms has been announced

 

Statement from the UK Chief Medical Officers on an update to coronavirus symptoms issued on 18 March 2020. From today, all individuals should self-isolate if they develop a new continuous cough or fever or anosmia. Anosmia is the loss of or a change in your normal sense of smell. It can also affect your sense of taste as the two are closely linked. Full details in the statement.

 

2. Domestic abuse during COVID-19: a reminder of advice for NHS staff

 

Domestic violence, also called domestic abuse, includes physical, emotional and sexual abuse in couple relationships or between family members. Domestic violence can happen against anyone, and anybody can be an abuser. During the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic abuse charities and other organisations are reporting an increase in cases.

 

The DHSC website has a resource that looks at how health professionals can support adults and young people over 16, and dependent children, who are experiencing domestic abuse. The document helps health staff to identify potential victims, initiate sensitive routine enquiry, respond effectively to disclosures of abuse. Full details are online.

 

3. SARC Services

 

Our SARC (Sexual Assault Referral Centre) services are still available during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mountain Healthcare provides Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) for children and young people across the West Midlands. We are still operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, with all services being carried out in line with current guidance and with additional health and safety measures in place. Full details are attached. (Attachment: SARC Services - COVID-19 - West Mids CYP.pdf)

 

4. Age UK Coventry and Warwickshire

 

The briefing is an update on the services being provided during the current pandemic. (Attachment: CORONAVIRUS SERVICES UPDATE.docx)

 

5. Website update – now live

 

The new CWCovid website has been established to put the information sent via the daily updates into one convenient archive and reference site. We are still making some tweaks so if a link doesn’t quite work do let us know via warnoccg.covid19primarycarecommunications@nhs.net. If you have any comments we would love to hear them.

 

6. Bank Holiday Monday (25 May)

 

We understand that, as announced in the recent primary care webinars that it is anticipated treating 25th May as a normal Bank Holiday. This is dependent and conditional on local arrangements being made as normal to provide cover.

 

7. Primary care wellbeing survey – reminder

NHS England is looking to understand the current wellbeing of the primary care workforce, and invites you to take part in a short survey undertaken by the Institute for Employment Studies to support this and to support the wider evaluation of the #lookingafteryoutoo primary care coaching offer. The survey will take no longer that five minutes to complete and will contribute to their ongoing response to support your wellbeing. 

 

LATEST UPDATES FOR EACH PLACE

UPDATES FOR Coventry and Rugby – 18 May 2020 

8. Update from the Referral Support Service

 

Due to us receiving numerous queries from GP’s and Practices regarding referrals we wanted to confirm the current position which we would ask you to share with others within your Practice.

 

The Referral Support Service is still operational during this challenging time. We continue to review referrals ensuring patients are referred into appropriate services with the relevant information to support the referral.

 

Now that we have entered into Phase 2 of the NHS’s response to COVID, we hope you are aware that Routine referrals (along with all other referrals) can now be processed and should not rejected or deferred until a later date (as per previous communications sent out on the 1st May from NHS England and our local provider- University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust). The Referral Support service is prepared to receive these referrals and will process referrals as normal.  

 

Following the impact of COVID-19, we would encourage you to ensure any previous referrals that were rejected by a provider are now referred, if they still require clinical input from our Secondary Care colleagues. 

 

If you are a Practice that does not currently use the Referral Support Service but wish to do so during this time, please contact me on natalie.fuller@coventryrugbyccg@nhs.uk and we can put the relevant access in place to support you.      

 

Should any Practices/ referrer experience any issue with referrals not being accepted please make contact with us and we will provide the relevant support. 

 

If you have any questions regarding any of the information please use the above email address. 

 

UPDATES FOR South Warwickshire – 18 May 2020 

9. X-ray department update: 

Due to current social distancing rules and the need to protect both our patients and our staff, we cannot offer any walk-in appointments for x-ray’s at any of our sites (Warwick or Stratford). Please advise patients to call the following number to make an appointment at Stratford Hospital only until further notice – 01926 600007.

Should you have any queries please contact the Radiology Department on the same number as above. Many thanks for your cooperation.

UPDATES FOR Warwickshire North – 18 May 2020 

 

10. Stroke Association Stroke Recovery Service - Warwickshire North

 

In Warwickshire North, the Stroke Association is working closely with local partners to ensure that our Stroke Recovery Services are complimenting the local system response to Covid-19. We have adapted our support to provide telephone based assessments, e mailing information and fact sheets and additional, regular follow up wellbeing check telephone calls. Full details are attached. (Attachment: Stroke Recovery Services - Stroke Association.docx)

                             

LATEST NATIONAL PICTURE 

 

• As of 9.00am on 17 May 2020, 1,818,712 people have been tested in the UK, (with 91,206 tests carried out on 16 May) and 243,695 were confirmed as positive. The number of COVID-19 associated deaths in the UK is 34, 636. (Please note: there is now an improved daily reporting system for deaths, so that deaths in all settings are included, wherever the individual has tested positive for COVID-19, rather than just those in hospitals. On the old measure there would have been 28,417.)  

• Business Secretary Alok Sharma gave the 17 May 2020 daily press briefing on the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, available to read online.

• Slides to accompany the press briefing on 17 May are here. 

• Prime Minister's article in the Mail on Sunday: 17 May 2020 is here.

• New guidance for spending time outdoors has been issued here.

• The latest government advice on coronavirus is available online.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM NHS ENGLAND

 

11. NHS England Primary Care Bulletin – new edition – 18 May

 

COVID-19: latest guidance for general practice is issued in the NHS England Primary Care Bulletin (18 May) and in this issue ahs detail on the Government’s recently published update on the COVID-19 care home support package which builds on the Adult Social Care Action Plan, information on referring patients for COVID-19 tests and the letter detailing groups eligible for the flu vaccination this autumn. This regular COVID-19 Primary Care Bulletin is from Dr Nikki Kanani and Ed Waller and you are encouraged to sign up here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/email-bulletins/general-practice-bulletin/. 

 

12. GP Preparedness Webinar

 

The next primary care webinar is on 21 May between 5pm and 6pm and will have a focus on care homes. The link to join, via Microsoft Teams, is here. To submit any questions you have for the general practice webinar in advance using, please use this online form (login required).

 

13. Media enquiries 

Our communications team is here to support you if needed. If you are approached by the media, please forward on to your local communications team: agem.communications@nhs.net. Outside of working hours the communications team can be reached via 01522 537887.   

 

ACTIONS FOR PRIMARY CARE

Review the information about coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms that have been announced. 

Do note the times for this next week’s GP preparedness webinar.

Please take time to participate in the primary care wellbeing survey.

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Please note: This is the designated inbox for all Primary Care enquiries for practices across Coventry and Warwickshire, set up to help support practices and provide a single point of contact to send and receive information about the rapidly developing COVID-19 situation. Please be aware that guidance is changing regularly and we are endeavouring to keep you as up to date as possible.

 

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