9 March 2020
Corona virus (Covid-19) update for Stonebow House
As we are all very well aware of the current virus going around the world, we want to update and reassure our next of kin that we are constantly assessing the situation. This is in line with the daily advice from the NHS, World Health Organisation and Worcestershire County Council.
As we know from constant news reports, the spread of the virus can be contained quite considerably by good hygiene, in particular hand washing and the use of alcohol hand gel. At Stonebow, we advocate hand washing for 20s and alcohol hand gel is available for our residents and our home in the corridors. Every room has hand-wash facilities and paper towels in place. Please use this as often as possible during your visit.
The NHS and health officials are expecting the spread of the virus to peak over Easter, and last for about 9 weeks. During that time we have an action plan in place to cope with the expected illness of residents and absence of staff.
In the eventuality that the virus spreads in our county uncontrolled we will self isolate the home and only allow for emergency personnel and our own care staff to enter and visit.
We expect emergency rooms to be overflowing with cases and Stonebow will start moving residents around as to create sections of the home that could be considered a self isolation area. We will start with rooms 22-26 depending on the number of cases, and we will use the entrance at room 24-25 as a main entrance for doctors and nurses and care staff. The residents who contract Corona virus will be moved into this area and one room to be used as day space.
We are asking for next of kin to be very patient in this case as we are protecting those who have to move from contracting the virus. We promise to do this with the utmost care and consideration.
At the moment Stonebow has a staff compliment of 35, of which 11 are auxiliary staff. At the very worst we are expecting 60% of the care staff to be in self-isolation. Self-isolation is expected to last 14 days, so for a worse case scenario like that all care will have to be done by 10 healthy care and 4 auxiliary staff members. We will revert to basic care actions – personal care, continence care, medicine administration, feeding and food and basic housekeeping. We are hoping to maintain a residents to staff ratio of 5:1 and in the most critical case 6:1 during the day.
All our staff is trained in all the mandatory areas of care, and in such a worse case scenario all job descriptions will revert to the above basic care actions. So you might see a cleaner to do personal care, and a carer taking the washing out. It will be all about the tasks that need doing instead of who does certain tasks. As our food is prepared off campus, we do not require a cook position and all staff are trained in the correct procedure of heating and cooking the meals for our residents. All staff is trained in food hygiene and all residents have a Nutritional Risk assessment updated monthly.
We will also allow our staff to carry their mobile phones on them so you will access to your love ones through Whatsapp calls, Skype or Facetime. Amber Care will take care of the cost of these calls during his period.
At a certain point we will ask the manager and the administrator to work from home as per the guidance of the government. With our digital Person Centred Software this is possible, and all residents care plans can be updated remotely. The PCS dashboard is also updated constantly during the day and can be monitored constantly for the status and welfare of our residents.
We will update the above as per government instruction and our own action plan. The outcome we are aiming for is as many healthy residents and staff as possible, and keeping all safe.
Yours in Stonebow and care
Anne-Lotte Ricotta
Director of Operations
Handy websites for information:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response