Perfect Week restoreshealth and mobility to250 NHS patientsPractice Plus Group Hospital Ilford and theBarking, Havering & Redbridge UniversityHospital Trust (BHRUHT) have carried out250 orthopaedic procedures in one week in aprogramme designed to reduce waiting timesfor orthopaedic surgery across the threeLondon boroughs.Nurul Ahad, medicaldirector at PPGHospital Ilfordand the Group’snational orthopaediclead, said: “Thiswas an incrediblecollaboration overseven consecutivedays, across severalsites including four ofthe theatres at IlfordHospital.“As we all know lockdown has led to longerthan usual waiting times for elective surgery,leaving many in considerable pain forprolonged periods. By opening up four of ouroperating theatres and by collaborating withBHRUHT, our teams have managed to lift 250people out of pain, enabling them to go backto the jobs and the lives they love. Some ofour patients include those working on thefront line of care, and we know they are gladto be back and serving their communities.”Operations carried out during the week –named Perfect Week – included 135 jointreplacements of which 10 managed tosuccessfully and safely return home on thesame day! Professor Briggs from GIRFT hadattended to give his own seal of approval andto encourage further collaboration with thesole focus on serving the local population.More collaborations are expected betweenPPG Hospital Ilford and BHRUHT in the future tofurther support the patients within the Londonboroughs of Barking, Havering and Redbridge,and the six Practice Plus Group hospitals andthree surgical centres nationwide are workinghard to support the NHS and patients to tacklethe issue of extended waiting times.NMCCaring with Confidence:The code in Action.We know that nurses, midwives and nursingassociates have been facing difficult decisionsin unprecedented circumstances over thelast few months. That’s why we’ve launchedCaring with Confidence: The Code in Action.Caring with Confidence is a series of bitesizedanimations about key aspects of nursingor midwifery professionals’ roles, and how theCode can support them.Please share Caring with Confidence in yourorganisation, to help us support as manynurses, midwives and nursing associates aspossible to feel confident about the care theydeliver in these challenging times and beyond.Find out more: http://bit.ly/OTJ35YHAYCNew accommodation scheme for NHS andGovernment key workers launched byshort term rentals industry bodyThe UK Short Term Accommodation Association(STAA) has followed up its successfulnationwide NHS Homes initiative with thelaunch of a new scheme to offer NHS staffand key government workers discounted safeand clean accommodation near their places ofwork, to help protect them and their familiesas the UK’s COVID-19 infection rates rise.The STAA, the short-term rentals industryrepresentative body, is launching theTrustedStays scheme this week, after closeconsultation with Government representatives.Over the last six months, its NHS Homesscheme has been hugely successful in offeringNHS workers free accommodation, which hasled to a significant number of professionalshort term rental companies collaborating tolaunch the Trusted Stays scheme. The newscheme is offering discounted accommodationto any government worker, including thosewho need to relocate, to support them in thefight against the second wave of COVID-19.The association has developed the schemeto make it more convenient for the UKGovernment and NHS to book appropriateaccommodation for its staff. The mainelements of the scheme are:• It will provide the Government and NHSwith one single website on which to bookaccommodation in accredited homes acrossthe UK• All bookings will receive discounted rateson the standard commercial rates• All TrustedStays member companies followthe single set of industry cleaning andsafety protocols introduced in June*1• It is only open to STAA members who haveaccreditation from Quality in Tourism’sSafe, Clean and Legal scheme*2• Property management companies upload theinformation about their available propertiesonto the website to enable Governmentofficials to search for accommodation intheir area or near to specific hospitals• Enquiries from customers will go directlyto the company responsible for the home’srental and payment can be arranged byinvoice or debit/credit cardAround 1,000 properties in London,Manchester and Edinburgh are available nowfor bookings through 11 different short termrental partners in the UK. The scheme will berolled out to towns and cities across the UK inNovember.The NHS Homes scheme, which launchedin March, involved more than 30 propertycompanies donating accommodation witha value of more than £20m, providing over10,000 nights’ free accommodation. Thescheme has experienced a spike in demand inrecent weeks as COVID-19 infection rates rose.TrustedStays will now effectively replace itand be available to a wider audience of keyworkers on a long-term basis.TrustedStays has partnered with some ofthe major players in the UK short termaccommodation industry including SykesCottages, who represent thousands ofproperties around the UK, Guest Ready whocover Edinburgh, Manchester and Londonand UnderTheDoormat who provide luxuryhomestays throughout London. The otherpartners are Altido, CityRelay, Air Peace ofMind, A Place Like Home, Way of Life, SevenLiving, Urban Stays and Mason & Fifth.Merilee Karr, Chair of the STAA, said, “Thehuge success we saw with the NHS Homesscheme illustrated to us that the authoritiesneeded our support in housing their staff asthey continue to work through this pandemicand beyond.“We took many learnings from setting upthat scheme and because we already havethe infrastructure, cleaning protocols andaccreditation in place, the Governmentand NHS workers trust us to provide theappropriate accommodation.We recognised the need went beyond NHSworkers and we were challenged to produce amore sustainable version.“We put a huge amount of effort in overthe summer months to deliver this and I’mdelighted with what has been achieved. Thisoffer isn’t just confined to NHS workers.We can also support the Government toaccommodate people who need to shelter fromCOVID-19 for health reasons and for other keyworkers such as MPs, who have to be at theirplace of work, need flexible accommodationand prefer to stay in a professionally managedhome setting.“By staying in safe and clean accommodation,key workers won’t have the worry of a dailycommute on public transport and will beable to protect vulnerable family membersby staying in a separate, self-containedproperty.”Graham Donoghue, CEO of Sykes Cottages:“Sykes Cottages are proud to participate inTrustedStays and with our strong network ofproperties across the UK, we are in a positionto provide quality accommodation in homesfor NHS and other key workers as their needsarise.As a company that works to contribute to thecommunities where we operate, this is a greatway for us and our owners to play an activerole in providing homes to the people who areworking so hard to support us all.”Richard Bridger, COO of UnderTheDoormat:“NHS Homes demonstrated that there isa real lack of options when it comes toaccommodation for professionals and keyworkers in this current environment.By opening up the option of safe, clean andcomfortable homes to Government workerswe can provide a long-term sustainablesolution for them in the current environmentas well as in a post-COVID world.”For more information visit: trustedstays.co.uk8 THE OPERATING THEATRE JOURNAL www.otjonline.com
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