
Covid-19 Back to Work Service
PHAST and Aceso Global Heath Consultants have joined together to help businesses reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic by taking steps to make their workplaces as safe as possible to protect their workers, customers, and others from COVID-19 whilst boosting confidence and morale so that they can focus on rebuilding their businesses.
Why is this
Important?
In line with government guidance, businesses are required to carry out a COVID-19 risk assessment following the Health and Safety Executive guidance. This should be done in consultation with workers or trade unions with results shared with their workforce and on their website. Despite this, several outbreaks have occurred across the UK which has forced the re-closure of some businesses.
In the event of a workplace outbreak, the NHS Test and Trace system will conduct a detailed risk assessment with the business involved and ensure appropriate risk management and infection control measures are put in place. In some situations, they would also conduct enhanced testing and contact tracing within that setting.
However, these measures are reactive and are only implemented after an outbreak has occurred, the business forced to close, and all workers required to isolate for a period of time. This could result in a shutdown for up to 2 weeks. We, therefore, want to prevent businesses from getting to this stage by helping them to take appropriate early action to identify, mitigate, and control these risks.
Detailed Risk Assessment and Recovery Plan
Aceso Global Health Consultants staff are currently working closely with NHS Test and Trace and several Local Authorities to respond to COVID-19 outbreaks. As a result, we have the most up to date COVID-19 advice and workplace-specific guidance and are therefore able to apply this to support your business in conducting detailed risk assessments to prevent and mitigate COVID-19 outbreaks.
This includes understanding your business-specific challenges and needs to provide and implement a tailored COVID-19 plan, which comprises a suite of risk management and infection control measures. This also includes reviewing or creating well-documented systems, policies, and procedures that will be integrated into your current business health and safety procedures.
Workplace Test and Trace System
PHAST have developed a testing and contact tracing system for COVID-19. Our system complements the government’s national guidelines and the NHS Test and Trace System but provides a service bespoke to your workplace and will form part of your tailored COVID-19 plan.
In the first instance, the PHAST system will ensure that all your staff are tested for infection before returning to the workplace. Thereafter, staff will be asked about their health daily, their temperature recorded, and re-tests carried out as appropriate. This identifies, tracks, and isolates any infections, advises testing for anyone suspected of acquiring COVID-19, and sends out reminders, instructions, and advice offering help and support to staff.
The PHAST system works by receiving downloads from the workplace administration databases and collates all the information on testing to ensure effective crisis management. It uses standard call-centre technology, that is readily scalable, easy to implement, and cost-effective. This can all be set up and managed using your own in-house staff. All data sharing and information governance is in line with GDPR.
How we
can help
There are 2 tiers to the support that PHAST and Aceso Global Heath Consultants can provide:
We are confident that, through our service, we can keep your workplace as virus-free as possible and ensure your business can continue to operate and function effectively. If you would like to hear more about our services and what we can offer, please contact admin@acesoghc.com.
David Smeed
B.Sc (Hons) MBA from INSEAD (France)
David is an executive-level businessman with extensive experience in strategic business development throughout Europe, in healthcare, property, and property services with national and international experience gained through a career in the healthcare, banking, and property industries. He is bilingual in French and English. His roles have included Director of Development at UME Investment Ltd., a specialised Healthcare PFI investor, Managing Director at Bank of America Corporate Finance London, and Managing Director of SCIC UK Ltd. a French state-owned property services group. David’s key competencies are in finance, business development, and management. He has a track record of identifying market opportunities and devising novel solutions to exploit them for a broad range of customers from both the public and private sectors.
Dr. Grant Kelly
MBBS
Grant was a GP in a dispensing practice in Chichester for 29 years. For 10 years he was part of the BMA General Practitioner’s Committee and for 4 years chaired the Joint General Practice Computing Group of the BMA and the RCGP. He is well-versed in the implementation of large scale projects crossing clinical and technical domains, having led the clinical side for the inauguration of the NHS number, the NHS Network (NHS mail), and the SNOMED-CT programme, together with the introduction of encryption into the NHS. Recently he leads the South East of England implementation of the NHS 111 programme and the Enhancing Quality Programme for the South East. He has provided consultancy services to Northrop Grumman, Schlumberger-SEMA, the BSI, and the Computer Sciences Corporation of America and enjoys complexity in problems.

Dr. Catherine Brogan
MBBS MSc FFPH DLSHTM
Catherine is Chief Executive of PHAST. She has an honorary position at University College, London. She was a director of public health in London for over 10 years and faculty advisor for London from 2001-2006. She was in general practice in Oxford. Catherine’s research includes patient assessed outcomes using cataract surgery as an example, out of hours health and social care services cost and activity, and tools to decide thresholds for intervention. She led the Informing of Healthier Choices Programme for the Department of Health. Catherine is involved in several charities that improve health in the UK and internationally. She was a flying doctor and director of Mother and Child Health Services in the Sultanate of Oman for 9 years


PHAST
PHAST (Public Health Action Support Team) is a leading specialist Public Health consultancy created in 2008. Our senior executives have a track record in health protection and public health at the national and international levels. PHAST members were involved in the setup and delivery of the NHS 111 service and together have designed a testing and contact tracing system for COVID-19. We are confident that this system together with government guidelines can ensure your business is in the safest state currently possible to function effectively and deliver the exemplary services it normally provides.
Dr. Logan Manikam
MBcHB MPH Ph.D. FFPH
Dr. Logan Manikam is the Director of Aceso Global Health Consultants. He’s a UCL Clinical Senior Research Associate and Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine at Public Health England Immunisations and Countermeasures. He works sessionally as an acute medical registrar at Medway Maritime Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with expertise in stabilising unwell suspected/confirmed COVID-19 positive cases prior to transfer to ITU or acute medical wards. He’s also currently an Interim Consultant in Public Health Medicine (Health Protection) at Medway Council leading on the Kent Resilience Forum COVID-19 Local Outbreak Control Plan; a Kent and Medway wide (population size 1.9 million) operational plan designed to prevent, identify and mitigate COVID-19 outbreaks across a range of settings (i.e. ports, workplaces, schools, hospitals, and care homes) and populations (i.e. clinically vulnerable, BAME). In his prior role as an NHS London Public Health Medicine Specialty Registrar (2013-2019), he was on the PHE South London Health Protection Team out of hours on-call rota managing non-COVID-related infectious disease outbreaks.

AGHC
Aceso Global Health Consultants (AGHC) is a boutique public health consultancy that punches well above its weight in terms of client outcomes and academic outputs. Since our founding in 2013, we have come alongside world-renowned organisations and have worked on some of the most intractable issues in modern healthcare. That said, our identity as a homegrown hero is very important to us and our work alongside UK companies, councils, and universities remains a core part of what we do.