IT is the most unwelcome news of all to have contracted Covid-19, but throughout the pandemic there has been another story, of those who have put their bodies on the line to try to beat the virus. The latest initiative (ukcovidchallenge.com), championed by the UK Government’s Vaccines Taskforce, Imperial College London, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and clinical company hVIVO, will involve 90 volunteers being paid £4500 to contract the virus. The volunteers will have a fifth of a millimetre of virus fluid dropped into their nose and be medically monitored. They will also have to undergo 17 days in quarantine.
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The Ministry of Health and Wellness has advised that blood collection at the National Chest Hospital has been put on hold to facilitate the deployment of staff to the Slipe Pen Road-based National Blood Transfusion Service, popularly called the ‘Blood Bank’, where a cluster of COVID-19 cases has been identified.
According to the ministry, eleven positive cases were identified from 46 staff members who were tested at the public health laboratory.
It said arrangements are being put in place to test the remaining five members of staff.
The ministry further said staff members who are positive will be placed in isolation, even as the management team moves to ensure that the operations of the blood bank and its blood collection network continue to operate.
CIO interview: Deryck Mitchelson, director of digital, NHS Scotland
We speak to NHS Scotland’s head of digital about the IT to help ease the pressure on the health service, which has intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic
Share this item with your network: By Published: 03 Feb 2021 11:00
There are daily reports on the pressure the coronavirus is putting on the health services of the UK’s devolved nations.
While it may be hard to fathom that IT service management has a role to play in managing a pandemic, for Deryck Mitchelson, director of digital and chief information security officer at NHS National Services Scotland, Covid-19 was a catalyst for change.