Haemnet and HNA 2020: COVID-19 Response

Haemnet and HNA 2020: COVID-19 Response

The Haemnet team has been monitoring the situation and government advice on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, particularly in relation to the HNA 2020 conference originally scheduled for 3/4 April.

 

What we know so far…

• The WHO has now declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and it seems likely that the government will move towards a policy of “social distancing” within days
• Many Trusts are cancelling staff study leave and instigating minimal travel policies. Similar policies have been put in place by the pharmaceutical industry
• The Coronavirus outbreak will inevitably place high strain on the NHS thus it will be essential to have key staff present in hospitals; we understand haemophilia nurses in some trusts are being redeployed to front-line ward-based services
• Spring conferences and meetings across the UK and Europe have been postponed or cancelled

 

How will this affect HNA 2020

Given the current situation, we have taken steps to postpone the HNA 2020 meeting. This is an enormous shame as 90 nurses were registered to attend this year – the largest number we’ve ever seen, which meant that we were at full capacity.

We have now agreed with Conference Aston to reschedule the HNA 2020 meeting until 11/12 September in the expectation that the epidemic will have passed by then.

It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway) that all places booked and paid for previously will be carried forward to September.

We hope you will all still be able to attend, but understand the new dates won’t work for everyone.

 

For the next month we will relax our usual “no refunds” policy. We will also try to re-allocate places where possible. To claim a refund, you must respond by 3 April.

 

Please read the following carefully.

If you are unable to attend in September and have paid through Eventbrite or received and paid an invoice from Haemnet, the following options will apply:

• If you have reclaimed the funding from a pharma company, then please ask your pharma industry rep if the funding can be transferred to a colleague (please don’t just assume it can – there are regulatory documents that need to be completed).
• If you have reclaimed the funding from your trust, then please ask others in your department if they can attend in your place and be sure to let us know. If no-one else can attend, please contact Haemnet and we will aim to arrange a refund.

 

There are still a number of unsettled invoices for the April date. If they are not settled, then those nurses will not have a place at the rescheduled conference. To attend the rescheduled conference you may then have to pay the full fee. Please email us if you are unsure.

No further tickets for the September dates will be sold until we know how many refunds will be issued. Total places will be limited at 90. Prices might be adjusted, so if you’ve already paid at the Early Bird rate, then you’d be well advised to hold on to that.

 

What about travel costs?

We don’t usually reimburse travel costs to HNA, but we understand that some nurses have already booked and paid for their train fares to the conference and we don’t want to see any of our hard-working nurses out of pocket. If you are still planning to come along to the rescheduled dates in September, please send Haemnet your 3/4 April ticket and bank account details. We will reimburse you.

 

Other Haemnet events

Many of you have been asking about dates for this year’s Contemporary Care course and ASPIRE programme. We had planned to announce dates and distribute application forms at the HNA meeting. We will continue to post details on the Haemnet blog and via our social media channels over the coming weeks regarding our 2020 events programme.

 

The Haemnet team

As you probably know, Haemnet doesn’t have an office, and when we aren’t travelling for meetings, events or conferences, Mike, Luke, Kate and Sandra all work remotely from our own home offices/kitchens.

Clearly, the Coronavirus pandemic means the NHS is about to experience a step-change in the way it operates, and nurses will play a pivotal role in this. Many of you will be redeployed into front-line services, and many haemophilia patients will find services changed, possibly forever.

We want to support and celebrate our Haemophilia Nurse Superstars as best we can and we think the best way to do that is to capture your experiences of the impact of this pandemic throughout the coming weeks.

So we’ll be even more visible than usual on social media, and we may well be contacting you individually to capture and share your stories. Also, please do get get active on the Haemnet Community (www.haemnet.com/community). During this time, the Community feature is an excellent way to remotely stay in touch with and support your colleagues across the UK and Europe. We’re sure you’d agree that supporting each other throughout this tricky time will be extremely important. Check out our most recent post from Luke to start sharing some of your experiences so far.

Of course, we will also continue working on the research and education projects we have underway, while working on our meetings and educational programme for later in the year.

If you have any further questions, we’re only an email away! (hello@haemnet.com).

Stay safe and look after yourselves!

The Haemnet Team ♥