Monthly archives: March 2018

Tissue viability fax machine no longer in use

From effect of week commencing 19 March, the fax machine for tissue viability will no longer be in use.

All patient referrals and equipment requests will now need to be submitted via email to tissueviabiltiy2@nhs.net

Eight months of roadworks near Sandwell Hospital

Work will start next month and last until December 21 with road closures and temporary traffic lights around the hospital

A kilometre of gas pipes will be dug up from beneath Hallam Street, which runs past Sandwell General.

A lane closure will also be in place on All Saints Way for traffic heading towards West Bromwich.

Traffic lights will then be in place in various areas throughout the summer.

Access to Hallam Street from All Saints Way will be restricted in June and July, with Church Vale to be shut first at its junction with Parsonage Street and then at Hallam Street.

Temporary lights will then be in place outside Sandwell Hospital throughout the winter.

Fluid Balance – getting it right

Fluid balance monitored correctly can help define treatment and diagnosis. All too often though it is not seen as important. That is of course, assuming it needs to be monitored in the first place.

This short video tells the importance of fluid balance monitoring and how to get it right.

Please ensure all staff caring for patients have access to and have watched this safety video message.

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Unity readiness checklist – are you ready?

For the launch of Unity to be successful we all must ensure we are prepared.

A readiness checklist has been produced as guide to support teams.

The checklist contains different sections, which contain a number of checks aimed for teams to work through each section, collect the checks, and show that they are ready for Unity.

Your Unity Readiness Checklist is a guide for you and your department to get yourselves ready for the new Unity electronic patient record (EPR).

For more information please contact swbh.trustindigital@nhs.net

Thirty Seconds To Mars tickets

Organiser for Thirty Seconds To Mars have kindly offered NHS staff a limited number of discounted tickets for their concert on Thursday 29 March, 7.30pm at Arena Birmingham.

Tickets are complimentary with a £2.55 fulfilment fee per order.

Tickets can only be purchased as an e-ticket in advance from The Ticket Factory website here, simply select  ‘£A * £0.00 to £51.75’ and look for the gold star NHS Offer.

There is a maximum of 4 tickets per order and you will need to bring your NHS ID Card with you to the concert as it may be checked.

Let’s Connect technology extension

The Let’s Connect technology scheme has been extended up until 30 April.

The scheme allows you to take your pick from the latest technology products and spread the cost with affordable monthly payments direct from your salary.

How does the benefit work?

The benefit works as a salary sacrifice arrangement through your employer. You can choose from the latest, desirable technology in exchange for a small contribution from your salary each month.

There’s no upfront costs, credit checks or hidden interest charges, but you can
save up to 11 per cent on National Insurance.

So what are you waiting for? Create your account today!

Once you’ve created your account you can get started here.

To access our guides for both the technology and smartphone benefits, please click on the relevant PDF file below:

Guide to the technology benefit

Guide to the smartphone benefit

For further information please email amir.ali1@nhs.net.

Palm Sunday services at Sandwell

In this 5th week of Lent we’re arriving at Palm Sunday on 25 March.

To celebrate the occasion, services will be held at City Hospital at 11am and Sandwell Hospital at 4.30pm.

Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter.

For more information contact mary.causer@nhs.net.

iPM (Lorenzo) Outage for Unity preparation Wednesday 21 March 4am – 7am

There will be a short outage of iPM (Lorenzo) planned for the morning of Wednesday 21 March from 4am – 7am. During this time iPM (Lorenzo) will not be available.

This will have the following impact:

Emergency Departments: Use Patient First as normal, use pre-numbered labels for NEW patients

Maternity: Use Badgernet Maternity as normal for mothers already admitted, new mothers will need to be captured on paper and retrospectively input, Babies entered onto Badgernet whilst iPM (Lorenzo) is unavailable will not get an RXK number, these will be queued and released when iPM (Lorenzo) available, poorly babies should be given a pre-numbered RXK label.

Wards: eBMS can be used for existing patients transfers and discharges, new patient admissions will not appear on eBMS boards until iPM (Lorenzo) is available again, patient tracker form should be used to track these patients.

Direct Admission Wards: Keep track of these using the patient tracker form.

Requests and Results (iCM): Can be done in iCM for existing patients, new patients will not be in iCM so these requests should be done on paper, urgent results will need to be telephoned as they may not be in iCM or CDA until iPM (Lorenzo) is available again.

Emergency Operations in Theatre: ORMIS will not be able to pull the patients details from iPM

(Lorenzo), the information needs to be captured onto the data capture forms, and then entered into ORMIS when iPM (Lorenzo) is available again.

Medical Illustration Photography Studio – ID Badge service cancelled for this week

Unfortunately Medical Illustration Photography will be unable to process staff ID’s this week due to ongoing IT issues with the ID Badge machine. 

The service should be back to normal next 27 March.

NHS sustainability day

NHS sustainability day is a national day recognised on 22 March where each year Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups and Hospitals take action to highlight the important role sustainable development can play in health service delivery.

The importance of sustainably is that everyone has a responsibility and can play their part.

Here are 3 tips to help you be a little more sustainable:

1. Turn it off! We spend around £4.5m each year on energy. Turn off lights and equipment when they are not required. Close windows in the cold weather to save heat wastage.
2. Waste less and use the right bins – Think before you order items and before you print. Disposing of confidential and clinical waste is expensive. By ensuring that you generate less waste and put waste into the correct bins, you could save the Trust money.
3. Become a Sustainability Champion – We need you to get involved and help make a difference. No big time commitment needed – just a passion to help the Trust be more environmentally friendly and help save us money.

If you have any ideas to help us reduce energy use, water use or the amount of waste we produce let us know, and perhaps the whole Trust can benefit.

For more information or to become a sustainability champion, please contact Francesca.silcocks@nhs.net.