Newsletter #20 – Monday, 3rd August 2020

We remain at Implementation Level Two for both Homes and HomeCare with no Symptomatic Residents, Clients or Staff.

However, a colleague of the person who recently Tested Positive for Antibodies also Tested Positive for Antibodies, and both continue to test Negative for the Virus itself. Neither were customer-facing, and both were Asymptomatic throughout. We are grateful it did not spread further, and wonder if the Ionising Filters were playing their part in this regard. We do not believe there is currently any Risk of Infection from either person.

Garden Visits and Post-Summer Visiting

A number of you were kind enough to comment supportively about our continuing with Garden Visits, but not yet moving on to visits within the Homes save where there is a Justifiable Exception. This continues to be our opinion although we will monitor the situation for any meaningful changes to the Risk Level.

Leo is continuing with his research into how we can mitigate the effects of the Autumn and Winter Weather to allow Garden Visits to continue, and is hopeful we will have solutions in place at both Homes before the weather is likely to change sufficiently to make unprotected Garden Visits untenable.

Testing, and Test & Trace

The Press were reporting at the weekend that the Government have abandoned, or at least delayed their Carer Testing and Resident Testing Targets as only One-Third of Care Homes have so far received their Test Kits. We are pleased to say that Nettlestead and Priors Mead are amongst the third who have, we’re sure in no small part due to the relentless chasing of Holly and Kirsty. These are now being processed, with all results so far coming back negative.

Nettlestead

• We have a New Resident, Kenneth who has moved in and is currently going through his quarantine.
• Silvia returned her own home after staying with us for two weeks Respite Care; she enjoyed her stay so much she may return!
• Lisa Jackson will be returning to work on Friday after shielding since March.

Priors Mead

• We have enjoyed Arts and Crafts in the Garden, including watching the Beautiful Wildlife. It’s been very therapeutic.
• Kirsty is taking some well-earned annual leave this week and we would like to thank Kay and Tenniece who will be covering her shifts.

HomeCare

• One of our Reigate Colleagues is returning back to work today after Self-Isolating since March.
• Paige is currently unwell and will be returning back to office near the end of the week. If you have any queries please speak to either Lauren, Kim or Becky.
• 34 HomeCare Staff have now been booked in for Antibodies Tests, and we are encouraging all staff to have this completed.

Resilience

• We continue with all previous initiatives to Increase our Resilience, including Auditing our Pandemic Procedure We had anticipated that this and our other Coronavirus-Related Initiatives might get in the way of our normal Quality System Audits, but thanks to the Management Teams’ efforts, these are up to date too.

Suggestions

Suggestions continue to be welcome. Please share them with us by emailing covid-19@nightingales.co.uk.

Thank you all for your continued support and understanding.

Nick & Sarah Bruce

nick.bruce@nightingales.co.uk

sarah.bruce@nightingales.co.uk