Below are this week’s key messages from the national NHS Estates & Facilities Team. Please email any questions or comments you have on any of these items to [email protected] or follow the links where provided.
Congratulations: Reusable Gowns Project
A massive well done to the team which developed and managed the rollout of the reusable gowns. The Reusable Gowns Project won the Judges’ Choice Team Award for its response to the shortage of PPE at this year’s Government Property Awards!
Phil Shelley, Emma Brookes and Laura Hooper from the national NHS Estates and Facilities Team accepted the award at the ceremony on April 27, 2021.
[For more detail on this project, see the May/June issue of HEFMA’s Pulse Magazine]
National Publications
The new National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness document was published on April 26. It has so far been e-mailed to Chief Executives at provider Trusts and CCGs as well as all listed estates and facilities contacts. The document is currently being finalised by the NHSE/I Web Content Team so that it can also be available online. The links to this will be provided next week.
Our thanks to all those who attended the national webinar on April 29 - over 350 individuals took part. There was good engagement with lots of questions tabled. A Q&A document will be provided along with the slides in the next week or so.
A further update to the Waste Management SOP has been cleared for publication. Further information on this, including the link, will be provided next week.
COVID-19: General Update and the National Vaccination Programme
We would like to thank you for your continued engagement with the weekly surveys to date. The responses are really important in helping NHS England and NHS Improvement as an organisation to shape how we engage with our healthcare workforce.
A link to this week’s survey is here and again we would be grateful for your responses – the survey will take less than five minutes to complete.
We all look forward to life returning to more normality with the current situation continuing to improve. However, we as a profession need to ensure that we remain as safe as possible which will help to support the NHS as it increases the pace at which it returns to ‘BAU’. Please continue to make use of the resource materials which are available now for use by estates and facilities teams to encourage staff vaccination take-up. These can be accessed from the Collaboration Hub.
Estates and Facilities Online Forum (on-demand sessions and feedback)
We hope you enjoyed the recent on-demand sessions which we have shared. This week we would like to focus on the session which was led by Prerana Issar, Chief People Officer at NHS England and NHS Improvement. You can access the session here.
Prerana stressed the importance of the estates and facilities community to the effective running of the NHS, noting also the vital role played in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To help with the planning for future events it would be appreciated if you could spare a few minutes to complete this short survey following the forum.
Estates and Facilities – ‘Talking Heads’ Videos
We have been sharing a number of short personal videos featuring a wide variety of roles across the estates and facilities spectrum. This week we would like to highlight General Porter, Ian Morgan.
Please do share these with your colleagues and if using social media, tag in the national team @EstatesNHS
Further roles were filmed at the Manchester University Hospital NHS FT on April 27. These will be shared with you as soon as they are available. Our thanks again to the team at the Manchester University Hospital NHS FT for their support with this initiative.
Government Property Month
John Simpson and Mark Fisher from the National Oxygen Programme, along with Adrian Eggleton (National NHS E&F Team Operational Lead) represented the team at a fringe event for the Cabinet Office’s Government Property Month on April 28. The team outlined their work in support of the COVID-19 response and the lessons learned. Thanks to Adrian, John and Mark for taking this on and doing the team proud.
Please follow the national NHS Estates and Infrastructure team on twitter @EstatesNHS
NHS England and NHS Improvement National Estates Team: Collaboration Hub
The Collaboration Hub is a protected space for local NHS estates and facilities teams to access key information as well as to collaborate and to share ideas and successes. Access to the Collaboration Hub for individuals from local NHS estates teams can be arranged by e-mailing [email protected]
Thank You
Our thanks to all of those working in estates and facilities for all that you in maintaining the NHS estate, facilitating patient care as well as supporting the response to the current pandemic. The service could not function without you.
