#12 – Monday, 8th June 2020

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

Our Covid-Positive HomeCare Client, who remained Asymptomatic, has now transferred to St Christopher’s Hospice in accordance with her palliative care needs, and was not connected to her Covid-19 diagnosis. Her Carers, who we continue to owe a huge debt of thanks to, are being retested before resuming other duties. All other HomeCare Clients and Staff are well.

Saying Thank You

n fact, as anyone who has read our previous newsletters will know, we are very keen to pay credit where it is due whenever we can, which invariably includes our superb staff. We are therefore delighted that Kirsty and Jo have come up with such a novel way to do this. Please click to the right to see the video.

Drive-Through Visits

So far, the Drive-Through Visits have been a great success, with a number having taken place at each home. All the time the R₀ number remains below one, we are planning for these to continue, but will suspend them if the R₀ number increases above this level.

Garden Visits

The next progression is likely to be to Garden Visits, although we are not yet clear as to when these should happen. Our thoughts are currently to start this Conversation with the Residents’ Families once national death rates (a horrible metric, I know) remain below 100 for seven days. This does not mean they will then start, but does seem an appropriate time to start considering if and how they might.

Testing

• All Residents and Staff have been tested negative at Nettlestead and Priors Mead.
• At long last, and after many emails, we have received a box of fifty Home Testing Kits for our HomeCare Clients, which we will organise to complete in the next few days.
• Nearly all HomeCare Staff have now been tested as negative.

New CEO

As many of you will be aware, Jo is leaving to start a new life in Shrewsbury but kindly agreed to defer her departure until her replacement could start, which has also been particularly helpful in the fight against Covid-19. Her replacement, Leo Murphy, starts today. Leo has a great deal of experience at CEO level, albeit in a different industry, and we therefore expect him to quickly get his feet under the desk. However, we are also aware of the importance of consistency in fighting the Coronavirus, and we (Nick and Sarah) will therefore retain the lead in this important battle.

Normally, the advent of a new CEO would be a great excuse for a party, save this is not possible at the present time. However, we also appreciate that many of you would welcome an early opportunity to meet the person who will be leading Nightingales in the future, and we have therefore set up a Zoom meeting for this coming Saturday, at 3pm. Please click the following link to join, and enter the password 175287 to join – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84712705286?pwd=bCtXdlpzY0YwcExXc0pVSklpT01VUT09

Nettlestead

Nettlestead currently has one Staff Member Self-Isolating for twelve weeks.

• We have had three Drive-Through Visits over the weekend which went very well, although some adjustments were required due to the weather! We have a further three booked for the coming week.
• Leanna TanCase is due to return at the end of the month from Maternity Leave and is looking forward to coming back!
• We are also still receiving lots of letters and drawings from our Primary School Pen Pals.

Priors Mead

Priors Mead currently has one Staff Member Self-Isolating for twelve weeks.

• We are pleased to announce that Michelle Rodd is joining our team, as our Assistant Manager for Activities. Some of you may have already met Michelle previously as she organised and led our Little Rays of Sunshine
• Thank you to George and Carol for the chocolates and biscuits. We have said it before, but calories definitely do not count during a pandemic!
• We have had three Drive-Through Visits Please let us know if you would like to schedule a session, but this will have to be weather permitting and the forecast isn’t looking great for the coming week, so please check first.

HomeCare

HomeCare has two Staff Members Self-Isolating for twelve weeks.

• We have received another PPE Donation of face masks and aprons from Bromley Council.
• We are delighted to welcome back two Clients who have returned from Self-Isolation.
• We also have two New Clients starting in the next two weeks, one of whom is a daughter of a previous HomeCare client.

Resilience

• We currently have our focus on the Test and Trace system which should shortly include an App our staff can download.

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