Increased testing at Shropshire hospitals likely to lead to more 'outbreaks'
A new staff testing procedure could lead to a further increase in the number of coronavirus 'outbreaks' logged at Shropshire’s main hospitals, an NHS trust boss has said.
In a report last week, Nursing Director Hayley Flavell said there had been 13 occasions when two or more confirmed or suspected Covid-19 cases were identified in a specific area, fulfilling Public Health England’s definition of an outbreak.
Updating the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust board, she said that number had risen to 17. Six of these remain 'open' and are being tackled by dedicated outbreak meetings she chairs.
Ms Flavell added that “lateral flow testing” is due to be conducted on Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital staff twice weekly, and PHE had confirmed Covid-positive colleague clusters found this way would also be classed as outbreaks.
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Ms Flavell’s “Infection Prevention and Control [IPC] Report” said investigations had found that patients’ routine coronavirus screenings had been “missed in some areas” and there were “some issues identified with deep-cleaning of areas”.
An action plan, including daily visits by the IPC team, a review and monitoring of patient screening procedures and “enhanced cleaning”, was already in place, Ms Flavell wrote.
She told the board meeting: “We are still experiencing outbreaks, as an organisation, so, as of today, we have had 17 outbreaks in total and only six remain open.”
Outbreak meetings have taken place “at least twice-weekly” and involved PHE and Clinical Commissioning Group representatives, she said.
“We’ve had a couple of visits from NHS Improvement / NHS England and also from the CCG on both of our sites through October and November,” she said, adding that the CCG had praised the co-operation between nursing leaders and the staff.
With the introduction of lateral flow testing, which can give subjects a reading within half an hour, “we are going to see more staff being tested positive”, Ms Flavell said.
“At the outbreak meeting yesterday, I questioned NHSI/E to say whether, I have two or more lateral flow positive staff, that is deemed as an outbreak,” she said, and reported that the England-wide organisation had said it would be.
She said outbreaks identified using this form of testing should be classified separately, to reassure staff and patients that outbreaks are being managed and testing is taking place.
