In this Q&A with HCB managing director Jim Harris, we discuss how the firm has adapted services during the pandemic and its expectations for workforce demands as the country begins returning to normal.
Can you tell me what the response has been to the return-to-work service so far? Do you expect significant demand?
With the pandemic escalating so quickly and the scientific knowledge and responses by the government and its advisers changing rapidly, we found that our home-based service became more widely used when staff were asked to work from home on a much longer-term basis.
However, with the successful vaccine rollout in the UK and people now looking to transition back into the workplace in some capacity, we are expecting our return-to-work service to become more valuable as employees transition back into the workplace.
We anticipate many employers will implement some form of hybrid system, arising from requests from staff who prefer home working, and of course as corporations reconsider their operational footprint requirements as a direct consequence of the pandemic.
So we intend our Connected at Home service to continue indefinitely because of the apparent inevitability there will be a hybrid model of working for many people in the longer term.
What are the key components of your long Covid service? How have you designed the service given the ongoing debate and research into the nature of the condition?
Our long Covid assessment and treatment pathway – or post-Covid syndrome as it is now more commonly referred to – was developed for those suffering from the residual impact of Covid-19.
Our clinical team have taken guidance from a range of experts, who continue to identify new symptoms on a regular basis.
Once an employee is on the pathway, we use cognitive screening to help identify any unmet clinical needs.
We have engaged with several healthcare partners including respiratory therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, cognitive brain therapy and a virtual GP service to support severe or difficult cases.
The ultimate goal is to return all to pre-illness levels of activity and work.
You have moved back to face-to-face consultations. What sort of demand are you expecting?
Over many years, we have gathered significant evidence that the best and most sustainable outcomes arise from face-to-face case management.
Our longstanding clients have witnessed this for themselves, therefore we expect to see increasing demand for face-to-face assessments once more, and we are already seeing these cases come through.
Taking this step closer to normality is a welcome move and will advantage not only our clients, but the employees and claimants that we care for on their behalf.
To what extent have you had to help employers understand the regulations as we move through degrees of opening?
Each time restrictions have been imposed, strengthened, or relaxed we have re-written our own risk assessments, and worked closely with clients to ensure that we were able to offer the best support we could to unwell employees given the limitations in place at the time.
Our clinical team is deeply immersed and current in their understanding of national healthcare practises in place, and we have been able to ensure our clients had access to the right interventions at the right time, in line with legislation and regulations in place throughout the pandemic.
We will continue to ensure that this support remains in place for all HCB clients right through to the end of this challenging period of all our lives.