January 2020 NHS Network e-bulletin

Dear Colleagues

Happy New Year! Hope you had a restful festive season.

This month Public Health England will be publishing an updated version of the ‘Integrated guidance on health clearance of healthcare workers and management of healthcare workers living with blood borne viruses (Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV).’  The link will be distributed as soon as it is published.

We will shortly be sending out renewal notices for your Network membership, so please keep an eye on your inbox!  One of the highlights of your membership package is a free place at our annual conference.  Preparations are already under way for this year’s conference which will be held again at Chesford Grange. Colleagues gave a 100% satisfaction rating last year and this year’s programme is just as interesting and topical. Make sure to put the 8th. and 9th. September in your diary!

Best wishes

Shriti

In this edition:

1. Sign Up/Renew Your NHS Network Membership

2. NHS Network Board Vacancies: North East Region; South Central Region

3. MoHaWK Update

4. NICE Guidance on Workplace Health

5. Public Health England: Free Webinar

6. H&WB @ Work Conference: 10 & 11 March 2020 – Early Bird Discount

7. PHE and DoHSC Campaign Resources: Catch It, Bin It, Kill It

8. NHS Employers Update

9. The Impact of Social Prescribing

10. The Value of Occupational Health to Workplace Wellbeing

The next edition will be circulated week commencing 3 February 2020.

 1.  It’s Time To Sign Up/Renew Your NHS Network Membership!

It’s almost time to sign up again to make sure that you don’t miss out on our exclusive range of Network benefits which include:

  • A free place at the NHS Network’s Annual Conference
  • Free access to MoHaWK – the clinical benchmarking tool for occupational health
  • Free listing on our ‘Find A Provider’ page – helping you to win new business
  • Inclusion on the ‘OH Clearance for National Performer’s List’
  • Discounted access to clinical skills training and conferences – worth hundreds of pounds!
  • Access to our Member’s only area of the website - providing advice and guidance 24/7
  • Free job advertising on our website for those ‘hard-to-fill’ OH vacancies
  • Keeping you updated – we work hard to make sure you find out first about the important and crucial developments in the OH world that may affect your Service

See our full range of exclusive benefits here

We will be e-mailing out the renewal forms later this month, so please keep an eye on your inbox!

And if you have any other ideas or suggestions for future membership benefits, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

2.  Network Board Vacancies: North East Region and South Central Region

Following many years of excellent NHS Network Board support by Anna Porter, Head of Occupational Health and Wellbeing Services at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, we now have a Board vacancy for the North East region. We would like to take the opportunity to thank Anna for her long standing support to the Network and wish her well for the future.  

We also have a Board vacancy for the South Central Region, which was vacated by Fiona Warren late in 2019.

Board members are expected to provide a communication link with members in their region so that they are able to represent their views at the Board meetings. The Board meets 3 times a year (one via teleconference, once in central London, and once at the time of our annual conference in September).

More information and the application form are available here. The deadline for applications for both regions is Friday 7th February.

3.  MoHaWK- Round 16 Opens and New Audio Audit Released 

MoHaWK has now opened for data entry! 

The data collection for the majority of topics was the month of December – so if you collect your data electronically you can now develop your reports for data submission. The briefing paper is attached with this message

Round 16 sees a new audiometry audit being placed into the system.

A new audiometry audit has been developed in recent months for audiometry screening. This is sectioned into four parts detailed below:

  • Audiometry surveillance pre-test screening 
  • Audiometry surveillance test audit
  • Audiometry surveillance results audit 
  • Audiometry surveillance post surveillance 

You can choose to do one or all sections (you do not have to do them all). The test audit section can be undertaken as a supervised practice audit

I have attached an audit collection tool document to aid collating the data for submission to MoHaWK. As it is a new section I have attached the briefing paper for this separately to the main briefing paper. If you undertake the audit, then feedback on how you found it would be appreciated in case some minor tweaks are needed for future rounds.

Any queries – please do get in touch hilary.winch@nnuh.nhs.uk

4.  NICE Guidance on Workplace Health

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has updated its guidance: Workplace Health: long term sickness absence and capability to work which can be found at https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng146

This guideline covers how to help people return to work after long-term sickness absence, reduce recurring sickness absence, and help prevent people from short-term to long-term sickness absence.

NICE recommends this updated guideline to be used alongside guidance published in 2015 on Workplace Health: management practices, which supports employers in improving the health and wellbeing of their staff by focusing on organisational culture and the role of line managers. 

5.  Public Health England: Free Webinar

Public Health England invites you to join their free webinar - ‘Good muscle, bone and joint health for a productive and healthy workforce’  - taking place on the 21st January 2020, 12:00 to 13:00pm.  

The UK has the highest rates of new claims for disability of any of the Organisation of Economic and Commercial Development (OECD) countries with the two most common causes of disability being Musculoskeletal disorders and Mental Health conditions.  People with MSK conditions are less likely to be in work than people without health conditions, and more likely to retire early. Being in good employment is protective of health.  Conversely unemployment contributes to poor health.

Key objectives  of this webinar:

  • To highlight key challenges and impact of not managing MSK health of employees, businesses and the economy
  • To share best practice evidence on the support employers could offer employees to help the workforce remain in work
  • Raise awareness of MSK health resources and tools available

 To register for this webinar, please follow the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/supporting-good-musculoskeletal-health-for-a-productive-and-healthy-workplace-tickets-80441248941

6.  Health and Wellbeing @ Work Conference: 10 and 11 March 2020

The 14th Health and Wellbeing @ Work Conference is being held at Birmingham NEC again this year, on the 10 and 11 March 2020.  The NHS Health at Work Network is one of the conference partners, and the conference features a number of speakers from across our Network, including our Chair, Dr Shriti Pattani.

Please note the deadline to claim the early bird booking rate of £45 + VAT (£54.00) is 15 January, after which the rate increases to £70 + VAT (£84.00) – so book now to save money. You can find out more about the conference at:

http://www.healthwellbeingwork.co.uk

7.  PHE and DoHSC: Catch It, Bin It, Kill It

Public Health England (PHE) and the Department for Health have activated the Catch It, Bin It, Kill It campaign. The campaign includes digital and print materials to inform the public about the steps they can take to protect themselves and reduce spread of the virus by practising good respiratory hand hygiene.

Background 
The flu virus can live for many hours on hard surfaces and therefore practising good hand hygiene can limit the spread of germs and transmission of flu. People are advised to catch coughs and sneezes in a tissue, bin it, and then wash their hands afterwards to kill the germs. Practising good hand hygiene and giving eligible people the flu vaccine is the best defence against the virus. 

Assets 
- A4 and A3 Posters 
- Press advertisement
- Social Media Images
- Digital Screens
- Cold Weather Media Kit - We have instagram and twitter images of hand washing within the toolkit.

Notes
The latest national influenza report, tracking seasonal flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses is available to view here. 

We encourage you to utilise these assets and help us spread these important public health messages over the winter period.

8.         NHS Employers Update

MSK Case Study

Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust implemented a fast-track physiotherapy service for staff to decrease the number of musculoskeletal (MSK) related absences.

The success of the service meant:

  • 90 per cent reported an improved understanding of their MSK problem and how to control it post treatment.
  • 80 per cent said they didn’t have to make any additional visits to their GP.
  • 50 per cent said it stopped them taking some or any time off work.

Read the full case study to see how the trust decreased their working days lost to MSK related absence.

H&WB Conference

Bookings are now open for our health and wellbeing conference, this year titled: 

2020 Vision - take your strategy to the next level

Taking place on Tuesday 25 February 2020 in Horizon Leeds, our free conference will provide a space to connect, collaborate and discuss  the impact of your health and wellbeing work. 

Building on the ambition of making the NHS the best place to work, the event will focus on the impact of proven health and wellbeing approaches and propelling your health and wellbeing strategy to the next level. 

You will have the opportunity to:

  • listen to keynote speakers discuss national priorities
  • hear case studies from NHS organisations that have made positive changes to the wellbeing of their workforce
  • have the space to think about the impact of your work
  • collaborate with wider NHS colleagues to develop solutions to challenges
  • network and connect with health and wellbeing practitioners
  • make the most of the exclusive offers from our event partners.

Early booking is advised for this free and popular event -  register your place.

9.  Healthcare demand drops 25% when social prescribing is used

Feeling that you belong to or are part of a group can lead to a 25% reduction in the use of healthcare services by patients with chronic conditions, a study has found.

https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/healthcare-use-drops-25-when-social-prescribing-is-used/

10.  The Value of Occupational Health to Workplace Wellbeing

The Society of Occupational Medicine recently published a report on the ‘Value of Occupational Health to Workplace Wellbeing’.  It is available to read here


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.

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.

Dr Shriti Pattani, Chair                              via admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk

Andrew Gilbey, Network Manager            andrew.gilbey25@gmail.com

Wendy Coleman, Network Administrator admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk

Postal address: PO Box 642, BS23 9NG