NEWS
INTeRIM DIReCTOR FOR CDHN
Kathy Martin
vaccine now available - vaccinators now required! With the news that the
Pfizer/BioNTech COvID-19 vaccine has been approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Northern Ireland’s healthcare professionals are getting ready to deliver a vaccination service on a level never before seen in the province.
kathy Martin, strategic Impact Manager at Community Development Healthcare Network (CDHN), is the new interim Director of the organisation following the departure of Joanne Morgan, who held the post for almost ten years.
kathy has worked for CDHN since 2003 in a variety of roles. In addition to her work as strategic Impact Manager, kathy also manages the Building the Community-Pharmacy Partnership (BCPP) Programme at an operational level and ensures that the impact of the programme is shared strategically. A busy mum of four, kathy practises
Taekwondo to keep in shape and was delighted to be promoted to Black Belt in October 2018!
MuLTI-MILLION POuND PPe ORDeR FOR LIMAvADy FIRM
Health Minister Robin swann has praised the amazing response from local companies to help supply vital PPe to healthcare workers in Northern Ireland.
Minister swann was speaking as he announced that an order with an estimated value of £15 million has been placed with Limavady firm, Paragon Health, to supply Type IIR face masks.
‘As we all prepare for a critical phase in the battle against COvID-19, all parts of society have a part to play,’ the Minister said. ‘Local industry has had the ingenuity, creativity and foresight to be part of the campaign in the fight against COvID-19 and I am delighted to make this announcement.’
4 - PHARMACy IN FOCus
MHRA’s announcement that the jab – which offers up to 95 per cent protection against the virus – is safe for rollout, set the wheels in motion for a massive vaccination programme.
It is thought that Northern Ireland will receive around 1.5m doses, with 25,000 available in the first tranche.
seven sites across Northern Ireland have already been designated for use – including the ulster Hospital in Dundonald. Although the hospital will mainly facilitate staff from the
south eastern Health and social Care Trust, other Trust employees can choose to have their vaccination there.
While interim guidance from the Joint Committee on vaccination and Immunisation (JCvI) had stated that care home residents and their carers would be the first to get the vaccine, Northern Ireland’s Health Minister, Robin swann, said that care home residents may have to wait longer, due to the conditions required for the utilisation of the Pfizer vaccine.
In recent weeks, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Michael McBride and Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), Charlotte McArdle, had written to all of the province’s healthcare professionals asking for expressions of interest to become sessional vaccinators to help implement the forthcoming COvID- 19 vaccination programme.
The vaccination programme, which will be on a phased basis, will run well into 2021. Patricia Donnelly, who is leading the vaccine rollout programme in Northern Ireland, said that, while the programme presented some challenges, those challenges were ‘very much welcome’.
‘We've been working at this for some time - we knew there would be a vaccine, we didn't know which one. We've been working in conjunction with trusts, with general practice and with care homes to identify the best way to do this.’
The fact that the Pfizer vaccine has to be stored at a very low temperature and is only available in large packs means that it has to be delivered at larger centres – or hubs – meaning that it will be impractical for it to be delivered in primary care.
New app assists with waste audit compliance A new app, which gives pharmacies
the ability to conduct compulsory clinical waste pre-acceptance and duty of care audits without the need for third-party on-site visits, has been launched by leading independent healthcare waste management company, Anenta.
Designed to provide a Covid-19 compliant solution that ends the need for on-site reviews by external bodies, the app simplifies the process, saves time and dramatically cuts the cost of audits required by producers of healthcare waste in order to operate.
The app enables details of all internal waste containers to be recorded, including their location and content, and whether these are correctly labelled. Images are uploaded as a point of reference using mobile devices, enabling multiple site assessments to be undertaken; colleagues can be emailed with a link to the section of the waste management audit that they need to complete.
Once done, Anenta assesses the audit and provides a report with advisory notes and actions to be taken covering: missing policies,
segregation requirements, and areas where action needs to be taken to comply with regulations; be that in terms of duty of care or the clinical waste pre-acceptance audit process. This enables clients to quickly and easily address aspects of the audit that will enable them to continue operating.
‘Pharmacies have a duty of care to their staff within the environmental Protection Act 1990,’ said Graham Flynn, Managing Director of Anenta. ‘Pharmacies also have an obligation to complete clinical waste pre-
acceptance audits, without which hazardous waste including healthcare items such as needles cannot legally be removed from site. It is for this reason that we have developed the Anenta audit app, allowing pharmacies and healthcare settings to fulfill their duties faster and more cost-effectively than has previously been possible, so that they can continue operating unencumbered.’
For more information, visit
www.anentawaste.com, or call 03301222143.
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