It is several months since I updated the blog. It seems that there is something that is always taking precedence. It has been a busy few months, not surprisingly our focus of late has been on how we would manage an outbreak of swine flu in our services. A team from the Trust has been meeting regularly to put plans together and develop new policies that might be required. It seemed last week that our planning was going to be put to the test, when we apparently had two, then three, confirmed cases of the swine flu. The Trust put in to place all that we had planned and the team responsible for managing a possible outbreak of pandemic flu within the Trust met daily to monitor the situation. Crucial to us managing was that staff continued to attend, they did not let us down and despite being anxious they continued to come in to work. It was important that we had all the right equipment available for them: masks, gloves and aprons. Staff have also all been trained in infection control. We received excellent advice and support from our local PCT and health protection unit. A visit from the infection control nurse helped reassure staff. Because all our residents have their own rooms, and en suite, those who had the flu were nursed in their own rooms and the home remained open for visitors. Subsequently a few days later, after swabs were taken, it was found that our service users did not have swine flu but a more general viral infection which manifested similar symptoms. There is no doubt that this has been a worrying time for the residents concerned (all of whom are now getting better), their relatives and the staff and other residents of the home but we have learnt a lot from the experience. Inevitably someone will soon get the flu, in one of our homes, but we have learnt a lot and will be even better prepared as a consequence of what was in effect a dummy run.
Hilary Rowland
