Monthly archives: March 2018

Local elections May 2018 – Guidance on pre-election period

With local elections taking place on 3 May 2018, purdah (the period of time immediately before an election when specific restrictions apply to the public sector) comes into effect on Tuesday 27 March 2018, which means that announcements and activities by public sector bodies which could influence or be seen to influence the election are prevented.

NHS employees are free to undertake political activism and public debate in a personal capacity. They should however avoid involving the Trust or creating any impression of the Trust’s involvement. Staff are not permitted to use any official premises, equipment (including uniforms) or information they would only have access to through their work and which is not publically available. If staff use social media in a professional capacity as a representative of the Trust they should be mindful of preserving neutrality.

If you would like any further information please contact the communications team on extension 5303.

Can you give blood this Easter?

Recent bad weather led to the cancellation of some blood donation sessions and between 6,000 and 7,000 units of blood were not taken as a result. Nationally, blood stocks are at urgently low levels and there are still appointments to fill at permanent Donor Centres to ensure blood stocks don’t drop further before Easter. Current stocks of group O (the universal blood type used in emergencies), group B, and A positive blood are particularly low at the moment.

Make and keep your appointment by calling the Donor Line on 0300 123 23 23 or visit www.blood.co.uk.

Oracle Trust wide Finance and Procurement System going live

Today the new Oracle Trust wide Finance and Procurement System is going live.

You should have received an email over the weekend confirming that you have been set up on the system and a link for you to change your password.

If you are set up on the system as an approver, you will have received emails confirming that your staff has been set up on the system. If you receive emails for staff that have moved or no longer report to you, please forward the details swbh.neworaclequeries@nhs.net and we will correct the user accounts and hierarchy.

As we start to use the new system, there are a few key things for you to check:

Once logged into the system, before you requisition any items, check your iProcurement Preferences and default codes. These can be found and amended to reflect the correct default location instructions on how to change these can be found in the user guides attached to this communication.

When you enter a requisition, please check the location and finance code applied before proceeding. These can be amended before you submit for approval and permanently corrected as your default set up. Also, check that the correct approver is shown for your requisition, if it is incorrect:

• Change the approver by searching for the correct person.
• Email neworaclequeries@nhs.net and the Systems Administration Team will correct the set up on your account.

Please ensure that you do not use the old iProc system for new requisitions where delivery is expected in April 2018. However, you should continue to receipt old orders up to 31st March on the old system, it is important to correctly receipt in the old system if the goods or services have been received prior to 31 March. This will ensure the expenditure for these items is correctly recorded against 2017/18 budgets.

Any open orders that are not receipted will be copied into the new system after the Bank Holiday weekend. Once these have been copied over, we will send a communication to confirm and ask that you start receipting them in the new system – this expenditure will be recorded against the 2018/19 budgets.

Preferences check Oracle ERP Cloud

Self Service Procurement Oracle ERP Cloud

Vacation Rules Setup Oracle ERP Cloud

NHS supply chain deliveries over Easter

We have been advised by NHSSC that there will be a few changes to the delivery schedule due the 2 Easter bank holidays.

Only wards and departments that receive deliveries on Friday or Monday will be affected.

Please ensure you have enough stock to carry you through the Bank Holiday.

Please see revised delivery schedule below:

All materially managed wards and departments will receive alternative delivery days if they currently have deliveries on a Friday or a Monday.

If you have any queries concerning the above please do not hesitate to contact Lisa Southall on ext. 4938.

Alternatively, you can contact the any of the Procurement Team on the following extensions:

• Jackie Graham – ext. 4939
• Mark Shervington – ext. 4937
• Peter Lowe – ext. 4699
• Gurprit Galsinh – ext. 2824
• Becky Vanes – ext. 2689

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 23 March

We continue to care for increasing numbers of patients who need our care through the emergency departments and on our wards, although it seems that this week has seen some significant improvement in ED performance with fewer patients waiting longer in ED than we would like. I totally recognise the hard work and extra hours that people are putting in to keep our services safe, seeing and treating our patients as quickly as possible. This has been a tough winter, not just here, but across the NHS. That doesn’t make it feel any easier in the day to day running of our vital services, and we need to continue to recognise the additional commitment from many in providing compassionate care under difficult circumstances.

I am, as ever, pleased with the support we have from other organisations within our communities to help make our patient experience that bit more pleasant. This week, again, Sandwell patients have had the joy of Sandwell College students on our wards doing beauty therapy and other activities to brighten up daily life for inpatients, thanks to the partnership with Kissing it Better. We have also had a team of HSBC employees who have visited City Hospital twice with huge energy and enthusiasm to decorate the previously dark and dingy entrance to neonates. Check out @SWBHnhs on twitter to see the views of parents on this transformation. This demonstrates how a range of interventions really makes a difference to how patients and relatives feel about the care experience here. We may not be able see patients any faster than we are already, or move them yet to purpose-built new facilities, but we are able to improve how people feel about care here if we continue to work in partnership with others who are ready and willing to help.

More visits have been done this week from our team of in-house mock inspectors who have been on a series of unannounced visits, to check whether we have completed and closed off all the actions in our CQC improvement plan – we plan to complete everything by the end of this month. We have had inspections at Rowley Regis Hospital, the Birmingham & Midland Eye Centre, Emergency Departments and wards at both sites with more planned over the coming weeks. There is still an opportunity for you to be part of the inspection squad by volunteering just two hours of your time – a great opportunity for you to learn about other areas you may not be familiar with and talk to colleagues and patients about the quality of health care we provide. Get in touch with Allison Binns, Deputy Director of Governance, to find out more.

A long bank holiday weekend looms and with it the threat of more snow (surely not!). I know that teams have robust plans in place to make sure that we support our patients well over the Easter weekend so that we are not making patients wait longer than they should for tests, results, diagnoses, decisions or discharges. Our snow plans have also been tried and tested recently and we are well-prepared. As we move closer to seven day working across all teams and services it will become more real that the weekend is a seamless extension of our weekday work, meaning that our patients can have the same confidence and positive experience of care whenever they need it.

#hellomynameis_Toby

Team Leading Apprenticeship Level 3 now available

A new Team Leading Apprenticeship Level 3 is now available through the apprenticeship team.

This apprenticeship is designed for Level 3 managers (supervisors, team leaders, project officers) with operational/project responsibilities or responsibility for managing a team to deliver a clearly defined outcome.

It is a 15 month programme and you will required to attend 1 full study day a month for 1 year have 20 percent self-directed study time each week to meet the ‘off the job’ training requirement. All study leave must be approved by your line manager.

The entry requirements for this apprenticeship are usually 5 GCSEs at grade C or higher but individuals without these will be assessed for eligibility. Apprentices will also need to achieve Level 2 in English and maths prior to taking their end point assessment.

Further details can be found by accessing the Apprenticeship Standard for Team Leader and Supervisor.

For more information and to register your interest please contact Bimla Devi on ext. 3961 or bimladevi@nhs.net

Donations required: toys and toiletries

Do you have any unwanted gifts from Christmas, unwanted and unused puzzle books, toiletries or toys?

We’re looking for donations for our games and raffle event to raise money for the Stroke Association and the Your Trust Charity.

We kindly ask that if you do have donations to please contact Katie Parsons by Wednesday 4 April on 0121 507 6376.

We appreciate your support and please look out for our event in April.

Unity – our electronic patient record

As you may be aware, patient records will no longer be created on paper but instead an advanced electronic patient record system, called Unity will be introduced across the Trust that will:

• Provide one integrated IT solution supporting a range of best practice care from acute to emergency
• Improve the legibility of health records
• Enable multi-clinician access
• Replace a number of the Trust’s existing clinical systems including CDA, eBMS, Patient First and Vitalpac

When effectively deployed and supported by process changes, Unity will:

• Reduce DNAs and unnecessary time in hospital
• Lower fall incidents
• Drive higher safety standards
• Improve service quality and the patient experience
• Prompt best practice
• Prevent duplicate investigations and repetition of patient information
• Minimise misprescribing

For more information, please see our welcome to Unity guide.

If you do have any further questions, please contact swbh.trustindigital@nhs.net

Could you run Birmingham 10K for Your Trust Charity?

Could you put your running trainers on and take on the Birmingham 10K to raise money for Your Trust Charity?

The run takes place on Sunday 6 May and we have a number of spaces available. There is no fee to sign up, we just ask that your raise a minimum of £150.

For further information please contact Amanda Winwood on ext. 4847 or email amanda.winwood@nhs.net.

Guide for decisions regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation

The Deteriorating Patient and Resuscitation Team (DP&RT) have highlighted an excellent NHS resource providing information for patients and families about cardiopulmonary resuscitation and considering decisions surrounding it.

It will be available electronically via the DP&RT Connect page and hard copies will be distributed soon.

The resource provides a very brief and accessible summary to some of the decisions surrounding CPR.