Hospitals urge public to seek medical advice elsewhere as coronavirus effort intensifies

A local doctor is asking for the public’s help as hospitals across East Yorkshire intensify their efforts to tackle coronavirus.

Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Dr Alastair Pickering, says nursing staff are being taken away from caring for the sick by members of the public calling for advice or to ask about loved ones.

Dr Pickering explains:

Dr Alastair Pickering

“We understand it is incredibly difficult for patients and their loved ones right now, at a time when social distancing rules mean we have all but stopped hospital visiting altogether.

“The decision to restrict visiting wasn’t taken lightly, but it was taken to help limit the spread of coronavirus within our community and, crucially, to protect vulnerable patients and the invaluable frontline health workers whom we need to care for them.

“What we have seen in recent days and weeks is a growing number of calls coming in to the hospital, either asking for patient updates because of the visiting restrictions, or simply asking for general medical advice.

“While coronavirus is a worry for all of us, we would really ask for the public’s help in keeping these kinds of calls to a minimum. This will enable our healthcare staff to focus on the patients in our immediate care who really need us the most right now.”

The call comes as Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, has outlined its plans to respond to the expected increase in COVID-19 positive patients requiring hospital care.

Among other things, the trust’s surge plan will see specialist wards created, critical care capacity tripled and staff retrained and redeployed to bolster areas in need of support, such as critical care and respiratory medicine.

Simon Nearney, Director of Workforce and Organisational Development at the trust, said:

Those seeking medical advice should contact NHS111

“We understand that people need clinical advice about symptoms and how to treat them but members of the public should contact NHS111.  Our frontline staff do not have the time at present to deal with general medical queries or multiple requests about the same patient in our care.

“Our receptionists and switchboard staff are also experiencing high levels of calls but can only redirect people seeking medical advice to the most appropriate service which is NHS111.

“Please help our staff to do what they do best, and that’s care for the sick and vulnerable. If you are concerned about coronavirus or any other medical condition, please use the NHS 111 online service or telephone 111 direct, or contact your GP surgery. Please do not call the hospital.”

Here’s how you can help:

• If you have a loved one in hospital, agree between all of that person’s family and friends on one named individual who will be the single point of contact. It will then be for that person to contact the hospital to request updates, and then share this information among the patient’s friends and family.
• If you believe you have symptoms of coronavirus, visit the NHS 111 online service to check your symptoms and for advice on what to do next. If you do not have internet access, you should call 111. Do not visit the hospital, your GP surgery, pharmacy or other healthcare facility.
• If you would like the most up to date clinical information about coronavirus, visit the NHS.UK website: www.nhs.uk/coronavirus Other information such as confirmed numbers of cases in the UK and advice on employment, travel and educational issues can be found at www.gov.uk

A dedicated entrance has been opened at Hull Royal Infirmary for patients requiring urgent care or treatment.

Work has been ongoing to create the new entrance, located to the right of the main tower block doors, since December, during which time visitors to the site will have seen contractors working behind metal fencing.

Now complete, the entrance comprises a glass canopy and entranceway, surrounded by bright red directional signage, and will enable patients to go straight through to the right person for triage.

Duncan Taylor, Director of Estates, Facilities and Development for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust says:

“The new entrance provides a clear and direct way for patients to access urgent healthcare and treatment.

“By using this entrance, there is no longer any need to find your way to the Emergency Department through the main hospital. This means patients can save time by going directly into the urgent care streaming area, but also in light of current coronavirus concerns, it enables us to reduce footfall through Hull Royal Infirmary and further reduce the risk of the virus circulating through the hospital.”

Anyone arriving with urgent healthcare needs, i.e. those who would normally be seen within the A&E ‘Minors’ department, should use this new entrance. All ‘blue light’ patients coming into the hospital by ambulance will still arrive at the back of the building, under the dedicated ambulance canopy.

And while the new entrance makes access to urgent care more direct, Duncan is still keen to stress how important it is for hospital services to be used appropriately:

“Our hospitals are under significant pressure right now, so patients should only attend the Emergency Department if they have an urgent health need which requires immediate attention.

“For the protection of our patients and our front line staff delivering their care, it is especially important for anyone displaying symptoms of coronavirus to stay at home. Patients should not come to hospital or visit their GP surgery, but should check their symptoms and seek advice using the NHS111 online symptom checker first for their own safety and the protection of those around them.”

As clinics close due to coronavirus, our hearing specialists are making every effort to keep patients in the loop

Hospital hearing specialists have been pulling out the stops to ensure their patients do not miss out on vital services during the current coronavirus outbreak.

In recent weeks, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has been forced to cancel face-to-face appointments and outpatients clinics across many of its specialties, to try and halt the spread of the virus.

But while many services have been able to stay in touch with patients through telephone consultations, the trust’s audiology team have had to be a little more inventive when it comes to meeting their patient group’s needs.

Audiologist, Ziomarie Diaz

Audiologist, Ziomarie Diaz explains:

“Since March 23^rd, on the Government’s advice, we began cancelling our clinics in order to protect our staff and our patients from the spread of coronavirus.

“In total, we have cancelled around 20 audiology clinics per week which, ordinarily, would run at Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill Hospital and in other community locations such as Bransholme, Beverley and Hornsea¹.

“Some hospital services are now carrying out telephone consultations, but the problems experienced by our patient group can make it difficult to conduct appointments over the phone. Instead, we’ve decided to make use of both old and new forms of communication to ensure our service continues running as normally as possible.

“For example, it’s helpful for people with hearing difficulties to be able to access written information which they can read and digest, so we have set up a text messaging service for patients to be able to send through any queries and receive a reply. Many patients will wait to ask questions at their appointment, but as we’re not physically seeing our patients right now, we don’t want people to feel that they have to wait if there’s something worrying them which we can help with.”

The audiology team has also launched a facebook page to keep in touch with its patients and parents of children who use the audiology service called Audiology Department HUTH. The page, www.facebook.com/audiologyhuth will be used to provide updates and generic advice, and accept direct messages from patients.

Crucially, the online medium will also allow audiology staff to upload pictures and video.

“We often rely on pictures and being able to show things to our patients in clinic because of their hearing difficulties, so being able to make and upload a video, or signpost to short clips of a hearing aid being fitted or general hearing aid maintenance, for example, will be invaluable for ourselves and our patients,” Ziomarie continues.

The audiology team will be keeping Royal Mail staff busy, as the team is operating a postal service for hearing aid batteries and repairs. Those living out of town can drop hearing aids which require repair or maintenance into one of ten community drop off points such as Alfred Bean Hospital and Hessle Town Hall², while replacement batteries can be requested via post, addressed to the team at Castle Hill. Around 70 repairs were sent through to the team in the first week of operation. Meanwhile, for residents living in the Cottingham area, the team is operating a ‘doorstep to doorstep’ collection and delivery service for hearing aid repairs, in order to avoid the need for patients to leave their homes to drop off their devices at Castle Hill Hospital.

Patients suffering with debilitating tinnitus are being offered their consultations and treatment advice remotely either by telephone or Skype by the tinnitus counsellor, based at East Riding Community Hospital.

The screening of newborns for hearing loss is continuing

And where direct contact remains essential, namely screening of newborn babies, the team – wearing appropriate PPE – is still making sure that babies identified with hearing loss are fitted with hearing aids promptly and can access speech and language services to aid normal speech and development.

Ziomarie continues:

“We know we’re not running our normal level of service at the moment, but these are unusual times and we fully appreciate the need for social distancing to protect our patients and frontline staff.

“We hope our patients will see that we’re trying to maintain continuity of care for them as far as possible, and that until normal service can resume, we’re only a message or a post away if they need us.”

Philip Vokes, Head of Audiology for the trust, says:

“I’m very proud of the whole team; they have come up with so many innovative solutions to help ensure hearing aid users in the community stay safe and have access to the speech and language services they need to support them during this period of social isolation.

“With the help of our IT Team, we’ve even continued with recruitment to the team by carrying out interviews for audiologists and an apprentice on Skype; this is so important at a time when we need as many hospital staff as possible at work to support the coronavirus effort.”

For regular updates on the audiology service, visit and either ‘like’ or ‘follow’ the trust’s audiology facebook page – www.facebook.com/audiologyHUTH

Notes

¹ Community clinics have been temporarily cancelled in the following locations: Bransholme, Withernsea, Marfleet, Driffield, Beverley and Hornsea.

² Hearing aid repair drop off points are currently located at:

• Alfred Bean Hospital, Driffield (reception)
• Hessle Town Hall
• Wilberforce Health Centre (entrance lobby)
• Bransholme Health Centre (reception, second floor)
• East Riding Community Hospital (outpatient entrance, between sliding doors)
• Hornsea Cottage Hospital – outpatient reception
• Longhill Health Centre (community services reception)
• Morrill Street Health Centre (community services reception)
• Withernsea Community Hospital (reception)
• Hull Royal Infirmary – admissions desk (ground floor)

Contact details for the Audiology Department:

Phone: 01482 468356
Text (SMS): 07799 895033
Email: huth.audiology@nhs.net

Hull’s hospitals have drawn up a plan to deal with significant surges in demand during the COVID-19 outbreak.

COVID-19 is expected to have a major impact on Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital over the coming weeks if national forecasts prove correct and thousands of patients with the virus require hospital admission.

However, staffing levels may fall at the same time as more NHS staff fall ill or have to self-isolate in line with national recommendations.

Now, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) has produced detailed plans of how it will keep essential services running  at the height of the outbreak in Hull and the East Riding.

Chief Operating Officer Teresa Cope said: “Members of the public should be reassured that we have been working on our Surge Plan for weeks to ensure the organisation has a robust and detailed strategy to do whatever we can to prevent our hospitals being overwhelmed by demand.

“We all know this is an unprecedented challenge for the entire NHS, not just us here in Hull and the East Riding, and there will undoubtedly be difficult times ahead.

“Although we have our plan in place and we are ready to act, the public has a major role to play in helping us all through this.

“Stay at home, follow the Government’s advice to maintain social distancing and only go outside for essential travel and we’ll be in a much stronger position to get through this and begin our recovery.”

As part of the trust’s Surge Plan

• Testing of staff or relevant family members showing symptoms of COVID-19 is being increased to ensure frontline staff can return to work as quickly as possible
• Routine outpatient appointments and operations have been cancelled
• 60 per cent of all our beds to be used for positive and suspected cases, with some wards changed from their usual specialties to accept patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19
• Specialist wards will be protected to care for patients with strokes, heart problems, brain injuries and illnesses and cancer throughout the outbreak
• Our plans would allow us to triple our critical care capacity
• Retired and former members of staff are being retrained and recruited
• Extra beds and equipment have been secured from the Spire Hospital in Anlaby
• Additional staff are being retrained and drafted in from other local NHS organisations
• Medical, nursing and clinical staff as well as non-clinical staff will be redeployed to support key frontline services

Training is also being introduced to ensure clinical staff have the required skills to support colleagues in priority areas such as the Emergency Department, Intensive Care and Medical wards where COVID-19 patients are being cohorted.

Teresa Cope said: “Each and every member of staff at the trust will be called on to go above and beyond our normal duties in the coming weeks and months.

“Regardless of our role in this organisation, we are all essential staff and we continue to turn up for  work, day in and day out.

“We know the NHS is asking a lot of staff, to come to work when everyone else is being asked to stay at home with their families to keep safe.

“We are equally grateful for the support of health and care partners during this time including Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Groups, City Health Care Partnership, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust and Yorkshire Ambulance Service. We’d also like to thank wider partners such as University of Hull, both Hull City and East Riding of Yorkshire Councils, local businesses which have been supporting us with equipment and donations for staff, care homes and GPs throughout East Yorkshire.

“By working together, we will get through this and provide the best possible care for our patients.”

A young boy from Hull is showing coronavirus and the NHS workers who are battling it that ‘he means business’.

Moved by recent events and aware just how hard NHS staff are working, seven-year-old Tommy Henry from north Hull decided to do something to show his support.

Tommy, who also has relatives working in healthcare, opted for a sponsored head shave. He then enlisted friends and family to help him raise money to buy treats and essentials for frontline NHS staff.

In a few hair-raising seconds, his locks were gone, but he’d managed to raise a whopping £130 to say thank you to the people, in his words, “protecting the people”.

Tommy’s mum, Nicole Henry, said:

“Tommy asked of his own accord to raise money to buy products for NHS staff. He said he wanted to shave his hair off because he ‘meant business’ and he said he wanted to help the people ‘protecting our people’.

“I am so proud of Tommy and his compassion for NHS staff at such a hard time.”

Tommy’s trolley-full of goods was recently delivered to staff working in Hull Royal Infirmary’s Emergency Department.

Hospital staff are really grateful to Tommy

Sister, Emma Jones, said:

“All the nursing and medical team in the Emergency Department want to say a big thank you to Tommy for his kind gesture. We think he was really brave to shave his hair off!

“It’s great to know that we have so much support from the public during these unprecedented times.

“Tommy has brought a smile to everyone’s face. Thank you Tommy, you’re our little hero!”

Bare fruit bowls and empty salad drawers should be a thing of the past for many healthcare workers thanks to a special, six-tonne food parcel!

An articulated lorry load of fresh fruit and vegetables was delivered for staff at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust this week as a gesture of thanks during the current coronavirus outbreak.

The delivery of the produce, which ranged from mushrooms to pineapples, was organised by the Tigers Trust and His Church, and was shared between the trust’s two hospital sites; Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.

The Tigers Trust is a community group, based at the KCOM Stadium who look to engage and improve communities through sport, active participation and education. His Church Charity specialises in providing secure, ethical and sustainable charitable solutions for residual stock, including food, clothing, toys and supplies.

Simon Nearney, Director of Workforce for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said:

“We are completely overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity shown to us by the Tigers Trust and His Church.

“Our staff are working extremely hard at the moment, and it isn’t always easy for them to get out to the shops or to source the fresh food they need to keep themselves and their families going. Receiving donations of this kind shows them that their work really is appreciated.

“So many staff have benefited from this thoughtful gesture, and we would like to thank both organisations for thinking of us during this difficult time.”

An East Yorkshire surgeon is urging those spending time at home due to coronavirus to take extra care to avoid accidents or injury.

Miss Elizabeth Moulder, orthopaedic surgeon with Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, says more time at home due to self isolation, distance working and school closures could see the number of injuries related to home improvement, outdoor play, or even trips and falls soar.

Orthopaedic surgeon, Elizabeth Moulder

And while urgent health needs and emergencies will be treated promptly, efforts to bolster the trust’s coronavirus response mean some specialties, such as orthopaedic surgery, will be operating at a reduced capacity.

Miss Moulder explains:

“Many children are enjoying more time at home, but with this comes an increased risk of injury as children spend more time playing outdoors on trampolines, scooters, bikes and so on.

“The coronavirus outbreak has seen a huge reduction in the number of people attending A&E and our fracture clinic, and we are grateful for people’s cooperation in staying at home, but in one morning fracture clinic this week, half of all the fractures we treated were as a result of children playing on trampolines*.

“Roads are quieter and in recent weeks, we’ve enjoyed a bit more sunshine; these factors could tempt more people into jumping on the motorbike or driving more quickly than normal, increasing their risk of a road traffic accident or collision.

The DIY can wait!

“With more people spending time at home, people could even start turning their hand to the DIY or home improvement jobs they’ve been meaning to get round to for a while. Ladders, steps, cables and power tools are all potentially dangerous at the best of times, so we would really urge people not to take unnecessary risks and to delay any jobs which could wait.

“At this time, our hospitals are rightly gearing up for the coronavirus effort. Routine surgery has already been cancelled and going forward we will not have the resources to provide our normal high level of service within orthopaedics, as specialist staff such as anaesthetists and theatre nurses will be required to help in other areas such as intensive care.

“Nationally and locally, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases is on the rise. To limit the spread of the virus and reduce the risk to our patients, the public and our staff, we need to minimise the number of people in and around Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill as far as possible.

Trampoline injuries are increasingly common

“Hospital staff are working incredibly hard in difficult circumstances, and we have already been overwhelmed by the amount of public support we’ve seen so far. By taking basic precautions while at home – by not going up ladders unnecessarily, by wearing cycle helmets or by limiting trampolines to one child at a time, for example – everyone can help reduce their own risk and reduce pressures on our health services at an extraordinary time for all of us.”

* The average number of clinic attendances averages around 30 people. Tuesday morning’s clinic (31 March) saw six patients, of whom three were patients with fractures associated with play on trampolines.

Chris Long, Chief Executive of Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Sadly, we can confirm that a man has died at Castle Hill Hospital after testing positive for COVID-19.

“The man, who was in his 60s, had underlying health conditions.

“We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family as they cope with the loss of their loved one and request that the media respect their wishes for privacy at this very difficult and distressing time.”

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