Monthly archives: May 2018
Message from David Carruthers, Medical Director and Rachel Barlow, Chief Operating Officer – Stand Down
Dear Colleagues
Thank you again for your hard work and resilience in dealing with today’s IT incident at Sandwell. Based on recent assessment we are standing down the internal critical incident response but leave business continuity plans in place for:
Sandwell pathology
- Electronic requests and results are in place.
- Blood sciences analytical track systems are down and urgent/emergency blood tests are being processed manually.
Hallam specifically the Elective Access Team and the adjacent Palliative Care Hub
- Continue to experience VOIP and PC interruptions.
- We will work to fix this overnight and review services in the morning.
The 4th floor of the Sandwell tower block
- Still have minor VOIP, PC and Wifi issues but business continuity plans are in place and we anticipate IT infrastructure will resume to normal service overnight.
We leave business continuity control and command in place over night to support services. Please contact the duty manager in the first instance via switch board if you need to raise any issues. A further update will follow tomorrow morning.
David Carruthers, Medical Director and Rachel Barlow, Chief Operating Officer
Message from David Carruthers, Medical Director and Rachel Barlow, Chief Operating Officer – Update on Critical Internal IT Incident
Today at Sandwell site there was a critical failure of IT systems related to the network and how data distribution occurred from central servers (which remained functional) to peripheral computers. This meant that in most but not all areas at Sandwell site, clinical systems and telephones were not available from 11.30hrs until 16.15hrs. Business continuity plans were put in place to maintain clinical care but for safety reasons some elective activity was cancelled. The impact of delayed and cancelled activity will be reviewed as a priority.
A detailed root cause analysis of why this IT failure occurred will be undertaken and robust procedures put in place to stop future similar events. Many thanks to all involved in safely managing this critical incident and sincere apologies to all those affected by this IT failure. Patients whose care was impacted will be rebooked within 24 hours. This is one of a series of recent IT episodes affecting clinical work flow that we hoped had been resolved and will need further urgent review and planning to stop being repeated. More information will be provided when available.
David Carruthers, Medical Director and Rachel Barlow, Chief Operating Officer
NHS Staff Friends and Family Test – feedback on our services
The NHS Staff Friends and Family Test is a simple feedback tool which allows colleagues the opportunity to feedback on our services. It complements the annual NHS Staff Survey and our Your Voice survey programme to give a regular, up-to-date picture of colleague experience.
Please take a few minutes to take part in the survey which only contains a few questions and is very quick to complete.
You can complete the survey by clicking here.
Remember – your responses to the survey are confidential.
Sandwell Cardiology: Alternate telephone number for urgent queries
As we are experiencing issues with the telephone lines in the Sandwell Cardiology department, should you need to contact the department for any urgent queries, please use the following call 07970 283 338 until all telephone issues have been resolved.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
IT Internal Critical Incident
Message 2 @ 15.30hrs
The IT critical incident at Sandwell site continues. Control and command remains in process to support ongoing provision of clinical services that are experiencing IT interruption. Please continue with your local business continuity plans.
The impact you may be experiencing includes:
Phones
- Normal emergency call procedures are working and should be followed by ringing 2222.
- Analogue phone and bleep systems are working
- Loss of VOIP phones
- Radios will be deployed to priority clinical areas to support communication- any issues please contact the duty manager via bleep 6126
PC / WIFI
- Loss of computer access and WIFI.
- Business Continuity Plans should be put in place locally and revert to paper records including discharge summary.
Diagnostics:
Pathology
- Blood bank are assessing and distributing blood via their paper Business Continuity plans.
- Pathology currently do not have access to telepath.
- The Labs are processing urgent and emergency tests, via paper requests
Urgent results will be phoned through to clinical teams.
Radiology
- CRIS and PAC web view are not available
- Radiology will complete urgent and emergency tests. Orders should be made via paper requests and results can be viewed in the radiology departments.
We anticipate correction of the root cause later today, but will prepare with you to continue to support clinical services, if it is prolonged beyond this time. Thank you for your hard work. If there are any other issues not covered in this briefing, please raise this with your local manager
Rachel Barlow David Carruthers
Chief Operating Officer Medical Director
January 2018 Your Voice results now available on Connect
The results of the Your Voice survey have now been shared with managers who have been asked to discuss the results with teams at team meetings and/or Quality Improvement Half Days.
The response rate improved by nearly 2 per cent on the last survey. Overall the results are positive with over 60 per cent of responders indicating confidence in areas such as:
- The care we provide
- Ability to make suggestions to make improvements within their team
- Looking forward to coming to work.
Managers are encouraged to discuss the survey results with their teams and identify up to three action points that can make a difference to colleagues. You can read your group or directorate’s report on Connect by clicking here.
Current Network Issue
We are currently experiencing issues with the IT network across the Trust but primarily affecting services at Sandwell Hospital.IT Service Desk is currently unavailable.
IT are currently working to identify and resolve the problem.
Further updates will be available shortly.
Free mindfulness workshops at City and Sandwell
We are hosting free mindfulness workshops for all its colleagues at its Sandwell and City sites.
Mindfulness can help manage feelings of anxiety, stress, depression and low mood.
Date: Tuesday 5 June
Venue: Anne Gibson Board Room, City Hospital
Time: 10am–1pm
Date: Thursday 19 July
Venue: The Berridge Room (formerly Courtyard Training Room), Sandwell Hospital
Time: 10am–1pm
For more information please contact Jatinder Sekhon or Emma Williams on ext. 3306.
Implications of Bawa Garba case to healthcare seminar with David Nicholl
On Thursday there will another chance to discuss the the implications of the Bawa Garba case to healthcare with Dr David Nicholl, Consultant Neurologist and campaigner.
The seminar takes place on Thursday 31 May from 12.30pm at the Education Centre.
David has written in the BMJ on the Bawa Garba case on the implications for healthcare.
The seminar will cover the case, the next steps and an overview of the implications for all healthcare workers.
For more information about the seminar please contact Louise Tomkins on ext. 3955.
Feeding pump swap – Is your ward ready for change?
As you may be aware, the Flocare 800 pump will change to the Flocare Infinity pump from 6 June.
To complete your online training, please the Nutricia Flocare website or contact your ward based trainer.
Note: Failure to comply with training will change your ESR and mean you’re non-compliant for this pump.
Please can all colleagues notify either dawn.roche@nhs.net, dawn.roche@nhs.net or baljinder.sangha1@nhs.net once they have completed the training.
← Older items Newer items →