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Welcome to our February 2022 Bulletin
Dear Colleagues
As we head into February, I always feel a sense that Spring is on its way – there are just little things as the days get lighter that brightens my day and the signs of new beginnings appear. The Network is no different and want to draw your attention to item 1. It’s time for Services to renew your Network membership for the year ahead. Membership fees have been frozen and you get a £200 discount by taking advantage of the early bird offer. Subscribing to the relevant membership package is also the only way you can guarantee your place at our excellent annual conference in September.
We have an exciting new venture as the Network launches on two social media platforms - our Facebook group and Twitter account. Please get involved and join/follow these groups.
I am sure that whilst OH is not the key ‘owner’ of the ‘Vaccination as a Condition of deployment’ work in many Trusts, most of you will be continuing to support your staff and organisations in implementing this challenging policy. Thank you to those Services who have already shared aspects of practice in this area. Let’s continue to support each other as this policy becomes a reality over these next few weeks.
Best wishes
Hilary Winch
Chair, NHS Health at Work Network
In this edition:
- 2022/23 NHS Network Membership – Renew Now!
- Growing OH Breakfast Club Meetings
- NHS Network Social Media Launch
- Member Benefit Discount of £200 + VAT: At Work Partnership Courses
- Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment
Advertorial: VaccinationTrack
6. New PPE Rules
7. MoHaWK: Member Benefit
8. NHS Staff Health & Wellbeing
9. HSE Statistics
10. Useful Resources
1. 2022/23 NHS Network Membership – Renew Now!
Over 90% of NHS occupational health teams in England subscribed to our Network in 2021. You can now renew your Network membership for 2022/2023. Check out the fantastic range of membership packages and complete either the Full Member application form or the Associate Partner application form. Full membership is the only way to guarantee your place at our highly acclaimed annual conference in September 2022. Contact admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk if you have any questions.
Renew now to take advantage of our early-bird offer and save £200!
2. Growing OH Breakfast Club Meetings
NHS England and Improvement have scheduled a series of breakfast sessions to hear your thoughts and vision in helping to shape the future strategy for NHS OH. Hear and learn from national leaders and system wide OH improvement programmes; and help craft the future of a new NHS service and develop our OH people.
The next sessions are both 08.30 – 09.30 on Thursday 10 February and Thursday 24 February. Click on the links in the attached flyer to book your place.
3. NHS Network Social Media Launch
We are delighted to launch our new social media channels! You can now keep up-to-date on all of our latest news and updates around occupational health on both Twitter and Facebook. Don’t forget to follow us at the links below!
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4. Member Benefit Discount of £200 + VAT: At Work Partnership Courses
The At Work Partnership are pleased to offer NHS Health at Work Network members a discount of £200 + VAT for places on their Certificate in Managing Occupational Health Services course from 9 – 11 May 2022 (venue London/Watford tbc). This three-day Certificate programme is designed to equip you with the essential management tools to deliver a successful occupational health service. The programme builds on professional training, and develops the additional skills needed to function effectively in the working environment in the private or public sector.
Book and pay by 28 February 2022 to qualify for the early bird rates. To book or for more information visit: https://ohaw.co/CMOHS22
The At Work Partnership are delighted to offer a discount of £200 + VAT to NHS Health at Work Network members for places on their Certificate in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy skills for OH professionals course. This intensive five-day virtual course will equip you with the skills and understanding to apply CBT to the workplace management of common mental health problems, in order to increase staff retention and promote return to work from long-term sickness absence in a cost-effective way.
Part One of the course runs from 9-11 March 2022; Part Two: 28-29 April 2022.
Book now to receive your NHS Network Members discount! For full course details and to book online please visit: https://ohaw.co/CBT2022
5. Vaccination as a Condition Of Deployment
In December 2020 the first COVID-19 vaccine was approved by the Medicine and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The vaccination programme has been a major component of the UK’s response to the pandemic since then, alongside the other measures, based on risk assessment and application of the hierarchy of control, which aim to reduce the risk of virus transmission and infection.
It is now national policy in England that those working in health and social care, who have contact with patients, should be vaccinated. The aim of this FOM Guidance is to provide background information which may assist Occupational Health practitioners.
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Advertorial
How is your planning for VCOD going?
Quantum Health Solutions are the suppliers of VaccinationTrack, the market leading vaccination campaign management system. Our software has supported more than 400,000 flu and Covid vaccinations for healthcare workers.
We know that trusts are busy getting ready for ‘vaccination as a condition of deployment’ (VCOD). Tracking and recording accurate information on staff vaccination status is complicated and time consuming.
We have further developed VaccinationTrack to be your single point of accurate information for monitoring vaccination compliance. The software now includes:
- A dynamic compliance dasboard to see your compliance rate and quickly view and download lists of non-compliant staff
- The ability to bulk upload data from existing NHS systems
- The recording of exemptions for clinical or short-term reasons such as maternity
- Can be updated regularly to account for leavers, new starters and inactive staff
The system is intuitive and easy to use and can be deployed quickly even if you haven’t used the software to manage your flu and/or Covid campaigns this season
We are offering a 6 month free trial for new customers NOW, so get in touch for a demo and discussion about how VaccinationTrack will transform the way you manage staff vaccination in your organisation.
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6. New PPE Rules From April
The regulations and accompanying impact assessment extend employers and employees duties in respect of personal protective equipment to workers. The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 place a duty on every employer in Great Britain to ensure that suitable PPE is provided to ‘employees’ who may be exposed to a risk to their health or safety while at work.
The PPER 2022 extends this duty to workers and comes into force on 6 April 2022. Employers need to carefully consider whether the change to UK law apply to them and their workforce and make the necessary preparations to comply.
If a risk assessment indicates a worker requires PPE to carry out their work activities, the employer must carry out a PPE suitability assessment and provide the PPE free of charge as they do for employees.
7. MoHaWK: Member Benefit
Remember, Network Services signing up for package 2b or 3 receive a MoHaWK license as part of that package. The normal MoHaWK licence fee is £475 + VAT, so this is a great way of having the system available at a considerably reduced rate – a fantastic benefit in supporting clinical audit and your quality improvement journey!
Round 20 opened at the start of January and will remain open until the commencement of the Round 21 in the summer. This gives you total flexibility around when you submit your data.
The briefing notes for Round 20 are available here.
If you have any specific queries then get in touch with hilary.winch@nnuh.nhs.uk .
8. NHS Staff Health & Wellbeing
Investing in the Health and Wellbeing of NHS staff is key Priority A for the NHS in the plans for the coming year. More information can be found in the 2022/23 priorities and operational planning guidance published by NHS England and NHS Improvement.
9. HSE Statistics: 2020/21 Work-Related Ill-Health and Non-Fatal Workplace Injuries
The annual report by HSE found that in Great Britain 1.7 million working people are suffering from work-related ill health and that 142 workers were killed at work in this time period.
Their statistics website provides detailed commentary on these figures and is supported by:
- a comprehensive set of data tables
- an annual infographic-style summary booklet (PDF)
For more information you can view a press release, which includes comments from Sarah Albon, HSE Chief Executive.
10. Useful Resources
Defining the value of accredited specialists in occupational medicine working in the National Health Service and exploring future opportunities for enhancing the provision of occupational health services in England. A project commissioned by NHS England / NHS Improvement November 2021.
The Covid-19 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to showcase the skills and attributes of an Accredited Specialist working in the NHS particularly those of strategic and specialist leadership. The 2 key recommendations from this work include:
- using the skills of the accredited specialist at a strategic level across the 42 newly formed integrated care systems (ICS) across England to provide consistent, high quality OH provision across the NHS
- creating a National Chief Medical officer role sitting at the NHSE/I level to co-ordinate the work across the ICS’s and provide national leadership for the biggest employer in the UK as supported by the Growing OH programme run by NHSE/I
Dr Shriti Pattani, Specialist Clinical Advisor in OH NHSE/I
The full research report is available here
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Ask-A-Question is available to all Network Members. There are great some resources available in this section of our website, including East Kent University Hospital’s VCOD Policy and FAQs in response to a question last month (scroll down the page for the link).
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Given the relative lack of knowledge about the interface between long COVID and work, HSE commissioned a study to consider the scientific evidence. The researchers summarised the evidence on the impact of long COVID on work, the workplace, and return to work interventions. They made initial recommendations for guidelines to facilitate workers suffering from long COVID to return to work.
Professor David Fishwick, HSE’s Chief Medical Adviser commented: 'Drawing together the evidence base is really important to define the best way forward for workers suffering from long COVID, in order to best help them feel better and return to work healthy.'
View the report: Return to work after long COVID (PDF)
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The NHS Health at Work Network brings together all OH teams providing health and wellbeing services to NHS OH staff. It is dedicated to providing consistent, high quality health at work services to all NHS staff through collaborative working.
Members of OH teams in NHS Health at Work Network member organisations can receive the bulletin and access the restricted areas of the website as a membership benefit – if you are not sure of your login details email admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk
Please share this bulletin with colleagues and encourage them to register to receive it regularly. Non-Network members can also register to receive the monthly bulletin here.
You can contact the Network through your regional representative or as shown below. Please get in touch if you have any queries or comments, if there is anything you would like to see in future issues of the bulletin, or if you have news to share.
Hilary Winch, Chair hilary.winch@nnuh.nhs.uk
Andrew Gilbey, Network Manager admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk
Postal address: NHS Health at Work, PO Box 857, York YO31 6FR