Monthly archives: May 2018

Routine pathology tests delay (biochemistry and haematology)

31^st May 2018 @ 18.30hrs

Dear Colleagues

In the past 24 hours the Trust has experienced problems with a part of its IT infrastructure. The impact has been felt mainly on the Sandwell site and has impacted on blood sciences analytical capabilities for biochemistry and haematology samples only. Whilst we are still able to perform the full range of analytical tests the turnaround times for routine samples will be extended whilst we prioritise urgent and inpatient work. This will therefore mean that routine hospital out-patient and GP work is delayed. We are anticipating the issue to be resolved soon and that the service will recover over the weekend and be back to normal by Monday. We will notify you again if this is not the case. Results will appear through your normal systems when their analysis is complete. In the meantime, should you consider any sample already sent to be more urgent please do contact the laboratories directly so that samples can be identified and re-prioritised. Significant abnormal results will be phoned through as per normal practice, and you should expect to see results back through ICE within 48 hours.

Please accept our apologies for the delay in service, the cause of which is undergoing thorough investigation.

Please use the following telephone numbers for reprioritisation of tests already submitted (NB staff are busy with the backlog so please be patient): SWBHT ext 2747.

David Carruthers Medical Director

Jonathan Walters Group Director of Operations Pathology and Imaging

Severe Weather Warning – Risk of Flooding

There is a high probability of torrential rain and thunderstorms from 5pm today, which are likely to produce significant rainfall and have the potential for flooding causing disruption to the delivery of services.

Please refer to our Trust Severe Weather Plan for appropriate preventive action.

Severe weather plan

Colleague preparation

It is expected that colleagues make every effort to attend work as planned including on call arrangements, as we will continue to run a 24 hour service during this time. Please ensure you consider putting the following in place as part of your planning arrangements.

1. Consider alternative for care arrangements should schools and other care services close
2. Ensure you have sufficient fuel in your vehicles and make all the necessary road safety checks to optimise your journey
3. Dress appropriately for the weather; appropriate footwear for walking if necessary and readily available snacks
4. Keep updated with the situation of the roads and the availability of public transport
5. Consider car sharing with colleagues.

For individuals the severe weather plan recommends:

Flooding in Community

Staff who are visiting patients in the community where floods have occurred, are requested to contact the patients and seek to make alternative arrangements for care. Where it is felt that a patient’s safety is at risk due to not being able to provide care, this must be reported to the senior Fire Service Office dealing with the incident.

Where patients are evacuated to alternative accommodation, there should be liaison with the Fire Service and the Council officers coordinating the move to ensure that the on-going care for these patients may be redirected.

Flooding of premises

Where Trust property is affected by flooding, a risk assessment needs to be undertaken to determine the next steps.  These could be isolation of the affected areas but other activities continue around it, temporary decommissioning of the facility, decant of staff, patients and equipment from the area to a safer, more clinically appropriate facility.  For further guidance, please see the Trust Policy on Evacuation & Shelter.

Should any flooding occur, colleagues should report to the Capacity Manager on extension 4880 and out of hours to the CNP Duty Manager on Bleep 6126 at Sandwell Hospital and bleep 5401 at City Hospital.

Star Awards 2018: New Leader of the Year

Do you know a rising star who has held some leadership or management responsibility for at least a year and who has demonstrated outstanding ability, talent and leadership, showing great promise for the future?

Nominate them for the New Leader Award in this year’s upcoming Star Awards!

Ways to nominate:

• You can complete a paper nomination form which you can download by clicking here.
• You can send in a video nomination for free to  swbh.comms@nhs.net via www.wetransfer.com Choose go to free. When doing the recording remember to state clearly who you are and the name of the person/team you are nominating.
• You can complete the online form by clicking here.

If you have any questions, please contact the communications team on 0121 507 5303 or email swbh.comms@nhs.net.

For more information, please visit our dedicated Star Awards 2018 page on Connect.

Self harm policy and how to gain quick access to digilock bathroom doors

Our full self harm policy for adults can be accessed by clicking here.

Also please see images below in regards to how to open digilock bathroom doors to gain rapid access and be able to open the door outwards.

Heath visiting roadshows at City and Sandwell

Are you a registered nurse or midwife and would like to make a difference to the health and wellbeing of children and families in Sandwell?

If so, the health visiting service will be undertaking roadshows at both our City and Sandwell sites if you would like to discuss health visiting as a career.

• 18 June, 10am-2pm, BTC, 1^st Floor, City Hospital.
• 19 June, 10am-2pm, Hallam restaurant foyer, Sandwell Hospital.

Health visitors will be available to answer any questions you have regarding the educational and practical components of the specialist public health degree/masters.

For more information please contact:

Heather Russon: 07972344924

Shirley Tuck: 07972344564

Gaynor Roberts: 07964916420

Dietitians Week: 4-8 June

Next week marks the 5th annual Dietitians Week (4-8 June). This years theme is dietitians do prevention.

Each day will focus on the different aspects of prevention:

• 4 June – Mental health and recovery
• 5 June – Rehab and reablement
• 6 June – Public heath and primary prevention
• 7 June – Optimising health and secondary prevention
• 8 June – Healthy conversations and making every contact count

If you want more information for you or your team you can contact sandwell.dietetics1@nhs.net

NHS supply chain – ordering code changes

There are several NHSSC ordering code changes with immediate effect, which are detailed below.

All materially managed wards and departments will automatically start receiving the new coded items listed above.

For more information please contact Lisa Southall on ext. 4938.

Message from Rachel Barlow, Chief Operating Officer: Internal IT Incident update

31^st May 2018 @ 13.35hrs

Dear Colleagues

Thank you again for your hard work and efforts to sustain clinical services as we continue to experience some residual IT interruptions at the Sandwell site. Local business continuity plans are in place to support clinical service provision and a control and command structure remains in place for the remainder of the week to support the necessary recovery.

Pathology:

• Electronic requests and results are in place.
• Blood sciences analytical track systems are down and urgent/emergency blood tests are being processed manually. In patient tests are prioritised.
• We will update you later today of the service plans to catch up on non in-patient routine bloods over the next 24 hours.

Rebooking cancelled patients

• The elective surgical patients that we regrettably cancelled for safety reasons yesterday have all been rebooked for their treatment.
• The rebooking of outpatients now will be prioritised.

Localised PC and phone issues

• We have reports that there are localised user experience issues with regards to use of PCs and VOIP phones which we are prioritising to fix.
• If you are experiencing problems please call the IT helpdesk and report on 4050. From this log, we will prioritise the corrective work to return to normal service.

Thank you for your patience and resilience.

Best wishes

Rachel Barlow, Chief Operating Officer

SWB TeamTalk – Staff Briefing

TeamTalk, our refocussed team briefing sessions took place this week where attendees were given an update from the Clinical Leadership Executive and were also briefed on national and regional updates.

As part of a new learning from excellence session, Sally Bradberry, Consultant Clinical Toxicologist gave a talk on ‘The burden of alcohol’. And the topic for this month is ‘Speaking Up how will you encourage your staff to speak up’.

If you were not able to make one of the sessions you can download a copy of the briefing presentation below.

• Team Talk – May 2018 – Staff Briefing
• Team Talk Feedback Form May 18

News from Black Country and West Birmingham Sustainability and Transformation Partnership

In case you missed it, click here to check out the latest edition of Black Country Health and Care: News from the Black Country and West Birmingham Sustainability and Transformation Partnership.

Articles included in the latest edition include:

• Andy Williams’ Blog
• Black Country Mental Health Summit 2018
• £1.2m boost for mental health services for new and expectant mums
• Funding secured for GP fellowship