Monthly archives: March 2018
Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 30 March
When we developed our 2020 vision in 2015 we decided to distinguish between safety and quality. I have described this since in all sorts of ways. But looking to the year ahead, 2018/19, which starts next week, I wanted again to draw out that distinction, explain why I think it matters, and to mention some important projects and ideas that you or your colleagues are doing that reinforce a sense that as a Trust we are focused on patients first. Money will follow good quality. New buildings and IT are hygiene factors, albeit very important ones. It is a safety culture and improving outcomes that best sums up what we are and should be working to deliver together. Safety is about core standards, quality comes from a team drive to be better tomorrow than we were yesterday.
It is fantastic that we have been shortlisted for a national award for the work teams have done on our Safety Plan. Every single day we are seeing focused effort to make sure that checks are done for patients. Unity will help us with that when we install it, finally, this summer, because it will lock in certain key checks such as VTE assessments as a so-called “hard stop”. Given the safety implications of a missed check that must be right. Our Medicine & Emergency Care Group are now reporting weekly, as part of the Consistency of Care programme, their audits of 35 patients per ward against key additional care standards, including care rounds, MUST and falls assessments. Our A&E teams’ quality scorecard tells us all about how frequently we are reviewing and tackling pain during someone’s stay in the department, as well as the frequency of our Sepsis screening – just to name check two metrics. In each case the message the 6000 or so of us not directly involved in that work ought to know is that this Trust is focused relentlessly on the basics of care. Thank you to the 1000 or so of our colleagues who are making changes to achieve consistent success. I know that within D26 we have seen changes made by Joy Walker and her team to discharge practices, and within paediatric A&E on both acute sites we have a huge focus on improvements over the next fortnight on key clinical indicators.
When we look at the data from Medicine & Emergency Care, and this point would apply elsewhere, we need to be crystal clear on the exam question. We should be suspicious if every audit shows 100% compliance every time. Yet we should not expect for basics of care that 85% is good enough, busy as we are. Instead the point of the matrons’ shift by shift handover focus must be on peers challenging each other, spotting omissions, and fixing them there and then. Put differently, errors will happen. The mark of a safe culture is whether we act on that rapidly. And rapidly means on that shift, or the next one. We do not need action plans or trajectories or summits to do that. This is about feedback, conversations, development and accountability. It. is exactly that ethos which meant that last week, for the first time since teams began collating data at the beginning of February, we had no red-rated discharges from our hospital wards into our community beds. Congratulations to Tammy Davies and her teams for their feedback work, and to nursing colleagues, and our doctors and therapists, in medicine for the improvement. This work has shone a light on issues of concern to many, but we have begun to tackle it.
And that work is an example of the type of issue covered by our Quality Plan. Over the next three months we will use Heartbeat to remind us all of the ambitious aims we co-created across the Trust in 2016/17, and which we intend to try and hit by 2020. High quality discharges and reduced readmissions were one of the key projects teams came up with, and it feels as if some progress is being made. But our Quality Plan overall is about experimentation and innovation. When we are looking to cut sight loss, or keep kids in school, to improve end of life care or reduce MI deaths, we will need to try some things which might not work. Or might not work first time. The NHS managerial culture finds that difficult. Sometimes, within our own organisation, we too expect perfection, and prediction of such, and externally Board colleagues and I are constantly asked to guarantee future results. Quality improvement is about trial and error, incremental change and engagement. Now our Quality Improvement Half Days are embedded, with the high quality data that Unity will give us, with recruitment meaning many teams are closer to fully staffed, now is the right time to press ahead with that movement for change. If it feels like you cannot change things where you work, or that trying things might mean criticism, we need to fix that and ensure we have a culture capable of going for Good, or even outstanding, in which we aim high and find out what works by implementation and adaptation, not over-planning or disappointed berating.
Next week is the first week of our new Oracle finance system. If you are reading this and are someone who orders things in our Trust, or takes responsibility for a budget, I hope that is no surprise. It is an IT change that we hope will go without a hitch. We should get great data from the new system, as we look to drive up quality and make it easier to get things done around here.
Thank you to everyone working over the Easter period. I wrote in my heartbeat column, published earlier this week, but written a fortnight ago, that I thought we had seen the last of the snow. Those of you on our 4×4 mailing list know that there remains some doubt about this weekend’s weather!
And finally, welcome to Paula Gardner, who starts her induction on Tuesday, as our incoming Chief Nurse, when Elaine Newell steps down at the end of April. I know Paula will bring huge enthusiasm and commitment to the role, which spans both safety standards and quality improvement – as you would expect.
#hellomynameis…Toby
Cold Weather Alert Level 2
There is a 60% probability of severe cold weather, icy conditions and some snow between midnight on Sunday 1 April and 3pm on Tuesday 3 April. This weather could increase the health risks to vulnerable patients and disrupt the delivery of services.
Please refer to the national Cold Weather Plan and our Trust’s emergency plan for appropriate preventive action.
For individuals the cold weather plan recommends:-
- Dress warmly with layers; take warm food drinks regularly; keep active
- If you have to go out, take appropriate precautions
- Check on those you know are at risk
Please can you consider this in your work and as individuals. Looking after vulnerable people in the Community prevents additional hospital admissions. This is a busy time for Urgent and Emergency care, the cold weather could add to the pressure and these actions may help to reduce that pressure.
As individuals, please consider making sure you follow the guidance and that you promote good care for friends and family during this time.
Would you like to take part in the NHS Regatta?
The NHS Regatta is fast approaching (20-23 April 2018) and there is a space available for anyone interested in taking part.
Tina Robinson, Group Director of Operations in Surgical Services has 36 years sailing and coaching experience having taken part in some of world’s most challenging off-shore races and has a space is available on her boat (ArdenFast) available to anyone who would like to take part.
If you would like to take part and are up to the challenge, contact Tina on email: Tina.Robinson3@nhs.net
Ann Doman Retirement
Deputy Clinical Coding Manager, Ann Doman is retiring tomorrow after serving our organisation for 42 years.
Please head along to the Bryan Knight Suite at Sandwell Hospital tomorrow (29 March) from 10am – 12pm to wish her well in her retirement.
Continence adult assessment tool and abena continence home delivery form
The continence adult assessment tool and abena continence home delivery form are both now available on Connect.
You can also access them by clicking the links below:
Adult Continence Assessment Tool
Abena Continence Home Delivery Form
For more information please call 0121 612 1599 or email continence.team@nhs.net
Holy week and Easter services at Hospital Chapel
We will be hosting Easter services tomorrow morning at both Sandwell (second floor, main block) and City (opposite, Undergraduate Centre, D20) Hospital Chapels from 12:30pm.
The Trust will also be holding services on Easter Sunday at Sandwell Hospital Chapel from 9am and at City Hospital Chapel from 11:15am.
For more information please contact Ann Stevenson on ext. 4055 or ext. 3552.
Palliative Care Trust Fund
Patients relatives/friends have kindly donated to the Palliative Care Trust Fund from September 2017 to February 2018 £8,892. The fund has been used for patients within the Heart of Sandwell Day Hospice to provide resources for the Arts and Crafts, changes to garden to allow all patients, public and staff access, complementary therapies.
The Charity Committee meets regularly and has members from the Palliative and End of Life Team and Charity Trust discussing the donations and how they can be used to help patients/relatives and carers who access the service with an enhanced experience.
The Charity Trust have been forwarded the future expected expenditure for 2018/19 including providing patients/families/carers with help to ensure medications are available and in one place with paperwork tidy and accessible for medication, DNACPR, and Supportive Care Plan. Suitable holdalls for bereaved relatives/representative to carry away from the hospital/home from home bed the patient’s possessions and clothing in a dignified way. Funding of a minibus to transport patients to day hospice where required. Clinical Nurse Specialist working on comfort boxes for those relatives/friends who stay at the side of they loved ones and do not have essential items to help them maintain cleanliness and comfort in what is a very sad and upsetting time.
Charity notice boards are available to view in the Palliative Care Suite at Sandwell General Hospital and The Heart of Sandwell Day Hospice at Rowley Regis and shortly at Leasowes. The boards give details of the donations received and how it is being used.
The Heart of Sandwell Day Hospice
Since Heart of Sandwell Day Hospice opened in April 2017, the service has helped many patients achieve their goals to increase health and well-being. Using leisure activities of daily living, patients have been able to manage fatigue, anxiety and breathlessness, improve quality of life, increase social interaction and engage in meaningful activities of daily living.
Our groups so far have included relaxation, Move it or Lose it exercise, arts and crafts, silk painting and flower arranging. We have also had improvements made to our garden which will enable opportunities with gardening in the spring. We also have regular visits from pets such as a therapy dog called “Noddy”.
The Day Hospice is proud to say we have opened a younger persons group on Fridays, offering young adults receiving palliative care the opportunity to increase the quality of their lives with meaningful activities.
Patients also complete holistic needs assessments to ensure we offer support with physical, emotional, pain, information and carer support
Pay dates for Bank during Easter and spring holidays
The Payroll Timetable – Easter, Mayday and Spring Holiday Period 2018 is now accessible for bank colleagues.
For more information please contact ruth.gardner4@nhs.net.
Windrush 70 awards – nominate your BME colleagues
Two weeks before the NHS was launched on 22 June 1948, the former German cruise liner Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury docks carrying 492 passengers from the West Indies, with some of the passengers being the first people to work for the NHS.
In the years that have followed many more people from around the world have come to work in the NHS and as of today people of black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds make up a fifth of the NHS workforce.
Our Trust is taking part in Windrush 70 activities locally and supporting events across Birmingham and The West Midlands.
To celebrate our diverse workforce, NHS England have launched the Windrush 70 awards which will take place on Tuesday 12 June in Manchester and nominations are now open.
The 11 categories listed below will recognise a range of achievements, breakthroughs as well as recognise unsung heroes who under normal circumstances could have been overlooked.
- Clinical excellence for medics
- Clinical excellence for nursing
- Operational service excellence
- Clinical excellence for allied health professionals
- Contribution towards improving health inequalities
- Research & policy development
- Unsung hero
- Rising stars innovation
- BME inspirational leader
- NHS lifetime achievement award
- Top leadership
Nominations can be made by anyone working in the NHS as well as patients, service users and the public.
To register your vote visit the Windrush website.
The closing date for submitting nominations is Friday 13 April.
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