Monthly archives: January 2018

Lunchtime walks at Sandwell cancelled tomorrow

The lunchtime walk at Sandwell is cancelled this week (10 January) due to QIHD.

The walk will resume next Wednesday (17 January) from Hallam Restaurant at 12.30pm.

If you are interested in joining, please contact Jatinder Sekhon or Emma Williams on extension 3306.

Safeguarding Children Level 3 Training: Court Report Writing

Course Aims:
To improve competency in promoting the welfare of children through provision of succinct, analytical and timely reports.

To contribute to the process of making the right decisions for children in the legal system

To have clarity regarding roles and responsibility within a legal context of providing a factual report and giving evidence in court.

Target groups
Health visitors, midwives, community staff nurses,  nursery nurse, paediatric ward staff, allied health professionals who work with children e.g. speech and language therapists, physios 

Dates
Thursday 21 June, 9.30am – 1pm, Board Room, Education Centre, Sandwell Hospital

Thursday 13 September, 1pm – 4.30pm, Board Room, Education Centre, Sandwell Hospital

Please book via ESR self-service. 

Changes to counselling service

If you require telephone support and advice, please call the Mindful Employer’s telephone helpline on the following numbers:

Confidential Staff Helpline – 0300 555 6006
24 hours, 7 days a week

Confidential Managerial Advice line – 0300 555 5002
8am-8pm, 7 days a week

To book new counselling appointments, please call occupational health on 0121 507 3306 and choose option 1. Please identify where you prefer to be seen by the counsellor, either City or Sandwell Hospital.

If you need to change the review appointment you’ve arranged with the counsellor, please call occcupational health on 0121 507 3306 and choose option 1, and indicate the name of the counsellor.

 The occupational health and wellbeing service is open from Monday- Friday, between 08:30am and 4.30pm.

Stress Management Workshop

Do you feel stressed? Want to know how to manage your stress levels better? 

There are still places available for the above workshop. 

It is open for all colleagues to attend and will cover:

• How to manage stress
• Sleeping well
• Stress busters
• Recognising stress
• Healthy choices.

Date: Thursday 25 January 
Time:  10am – 1pm
Venue:  Anne Gibson Board Room, City Hospital

To book or for more information please contact occupational health on extension 3306.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 5 January 2018

This message is a thank you message.  Thank you to everyone who has done the right thing and had a flu vaccination.  Thank you to everyone who has gone the extra mile or far more in recent days to safely look after a patient at home, or taken the difficult decision to not admit, or to arrange an alternative to admission.  Thank you too to people staying beyond their shift or returning to site overnight.  To anyone taking on a bank shift to cover sickness or help support winter pressure beds.  Because of your efforts we are coping, and our patients are getting the best care possible.  This is not a spin operation:  Quality will not be everywhere right now what we all aim for.  Safety is the focus.  Apology letters have gone to the patients whose last acute night of their stay was in a recovery area earlier this week, so that a newly admitted patient could have an acute bed.  A risk based decision.

But I also want to thank leaders who are trying to introduce new ways of working now, and last month, and next month, which will give us a better chance of coping less frenetically in the weeks ahead and next winter too.  We simply have to begin to manage to our expected dates of discharge.  Although ambulance surges were problematic over the last weekend with other hospitals struggling, the underlying issue here is discharge volume and discharge certainty.  Delays behind ED in our wards drive vast effort to manage our sites, but those efforts typically amount to discharge decisions affecting ten to fifteen patients on each hospital site.  If we knew sooner and collectively who those folk to move to the next stage of their care were, our system would work.  Put like that, and that is the maths, the challenge we face seems like one we ought to be able to work together to address.  Across hundreds of beds, two dozen patients.

Celebrating 70 years of the NHS

If you are a regular visitor to our website you may have noticed our logo has changed slightly with the addition of a line to mark that this year we will celebrate 70 years since the NHS was created.

Plans are being made across the NHS to celebrate this significant milestone which takes place on 5th July this year. We are planning to mark this major event with a series of activities across the Trust, and to this end are setting up a team to coordinate plans. The team will meet once a month from January until June and if you would like to input your ideas and help out please contact vanya.rogers@nhs.net.

Volunteer casualties wanted

If you’ve ever watched popular BBC drama Casualty and wondered what it would be like to play a injured character, now is your chance to find out. As part of the Civil Contingency Act 2004, the Trust is required to live test our emergency response, should it ever be called upon.

On Sunday 4th February we will be doing just that, and need some willing volunteers to play the role of injured patient. Refreshments will be provided.

If you are interested please contact our Emergency Planner philip.stirling@nhs.net for further details.

Continence products change from Tena to Ontex

Following a recent successful trial at Rowley Regis Hospital on continence products (Ontex brand) an implementation plan has been devised for the Trust to switch from Tena to Ontex pads.  All wards will receive training on the new products which will commence on Wednesday 10 January 2018. More details of the times and dates for each visit will be sent out on Monday 8 January 2018.

Representatives from the supplier Ontex will be visiting each ward to undertake appropriate training but it would be useful if each area could nominate a ‘link nurse’ or ‘cascade trainer’ to assist in the training process and dissemination of the product information and for them to be available on the training day.

Please contact Lisa Southall, NHS Supply Chain & Procurement Supervisor, for more information and to nominate your trainer on ext. 4938 or email lisa.southall1@nhs.net.

Winscribe back online

The issues affecting Winscribe this morning have now been resolved and the service is now operational.

Apologies for any disruption.

Want to join the Great British Bake Off?

The Great British Bake Off is looking for the UK’s best home bakers to enter the tent.

Who is the best baker you know?

If you or someone you know thinks they have what it takes to bake in the tent, then please do encourage them to visit www.applyforbakeoff.co.uk If they would like some more information before applying, they can email us at casting@lovewest.co.uk or text 07384 748 225.

Applications for The Great British Bake Off are closing soon!

Apply Now before Sunday 7 Jan 2018 for Series 9!

Visit: www.applyforbakeoff.co.uk