We are incredibly grateful for the ongoing hard work, care and kindness that you have all shown to your residents and each other. As part of our ongoing support, and to offer all Bristol care home settings an opportunity to speak to and learn from one another, we opened up our weekly drop-in meetings to all care home managers from Friday 11th February. We opted for the drop-in format following reflection on recent incident management meetings, in which a number of commonalities were identified in terms of the issues faced or questions asked by care home managers that would make the drop-in meeting a valuable shared learning experience, as well as an opportunity for managers to raise questions and concerns.

Some of you will already be aware of these drop-in meetings, introduced in mid-January, as they were set-up to support care homes with outbreaks. However, following the positive feedback we received, we decided to open these drop-in sessions to all residential care settings to ensure that you can all benefit from the discussion around new and updated guidance, as well as learn what your peers are doing, for example, to manage outbreaks, ensure IPC adherence, and support visiting for residents.

The drop-in meetings are held every Friday at 10.30am via Microsoft Teams, and will focus on responding to managers’ questions or supporting with issues that need to be addressed. You should already have received the meeting invite and Teams link from the Bristol Health Protection Team. If not, please get in touch via: ph.healthprotection@bristol.gov.uk.

Thank you all for everything you are doing to keep those most vulnerable in Bristol as safe as possible. 

Best wishes,

Bristol City Council’s Health Protection and Adult Social Care Teams