COVID-19 SUPPORT FOR NHS OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH DEPARTMENTS

Every employer has a responsibility to provide a safe workplace and Occupational Health and Well-being Departments are critical in supporting the physical and mental well-being of the workforce. During this emergency pandemic situation, OH teams are facing an unprecedented rise in demand for services.

As part of our workforce response to the current situation, we have put in place some additional support for NHS Occupational Health departments which are outlined below.

1.    Additional support to supplement existing Occupational Health (OH) and Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) services 

Owing to a rise in demand for services at this time, NHS England and NHS Improvement have appointed 23 SEQOHS-accredited organisations to a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) framework.

What this means for NHS organisations:

• NHS organisations can buy-in additional support to supplement existing OH or EAP services without the need to undertake a tender exercise.

• The framework provides an opportunity to bolster existing occupational health and well-being Departments providing the necessary support to the wider workforce, by the creation of extra capacity in targeted areas of the service. 

• NHS Trust are encouraged to work together as regions or across STP/ICS footprints to identify where extra capacity is needed to procure jointly in order to maximise flexibility and gain economies of scale.

• All organisations appointed to the framework are SEQOHS-accredited.

• By accessing the framework, Trusts will be able to see which organisations are providing OH services in their area and will be able to quickly and easily compare prices from 23 organisations.

• A DPS framework means that we can relaunch the tender to appoint more organisations later. We plan to grow the number of organisations appointed to give you the greatest range of options.

• DPS framework is in place until 31st December 2020, subject to review.

The following services are available on the DPS framework: 

• Health clearance for returning NHS workers and volunteers
• Remote (on-line/telephone) OH Physician / OH adviser management referrals 
• Covid-19 helpline
• Wellbeing services including counselling and coaching and MSK/Physio
• On-site support from OH nurses, OH Advisers and OH Physicians

Although this DPS framework includes on-site support from OH nurses, OH Advisers and OH Physicians, we still advise trusts to use existing frameworks for the supply of staff in the first instance. 

How to access the DPS framework:

The framework is being held on a restricted website. In order to access the framework, sign up here:  http://www.nhshealthatwork.co.uk/bulletin-alerts.asp (copy and paste link into your browser if it doesn’t work).

If your organisation is a member of the NHS Health at Work Network, you will already have access to the framework at this link: https://www.nhshealthatwork.co.uk/covid.asp.

Nightingale Hospitals: 

Nightingale Hospitals are of course able to call off the framework to supplement OH provision. We also have a template specification and experience which can be shared based on the London Nightingale. For more information, please contact: lucy.purdy@nhs.net  or Cheryl Samuels@nhs.net 

2.    Occupational health information and guidance

The NHS Health at Work Network have published a series of occupational health guidance, good practice and case studies in relation to Covid-19 here www.nhshealthatwork.co.uk  The series includes triage processes for OH professionals, advice on management of healthcare workers with underlying health conditions, risk assessment, managing OH demand and top tips for NHS OH Managers, and links to national guidance developed by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine and Public Health England. This will be accessible to all OH providers to NHS staff. To access the content and to receive regular updates to your inbox, sign up here:  http://www.nhshealthatwork.co.uk/bulletin-alerts.asp

Feedback and ideas

We hope that the framework and the information/guidance is useful to your OH departments dealing with increased demand for their services. If you would like to give us feedback or if you have ideas on other types of support that you would like to see in place for OH teams, please email: lucy.purdy@nhs.net