Monthly archives: May 2018

Your Voice survey results – May 2017

The Your Voice survey results for May 2017 are now ready to view. The survey programme will now run every six months rather than every three months.

May 2017 Group Reports

Your Voice Report – Corporate Group v1
Your Voice Report – Imaging Group
Your Voice Report – Medicine & Emergency Care Group v1
Your Voice Report – Pathology Group
Your Voice Report – Primary Care Community and Therapies Group revised
Your Voice Report – Surgical Services Group
Your Voice Report – Women’s & Child Health Group

May 2017 Directorate Reports

Your Voice Management Report – November 2016

Diazepam emulsion injection shortage until September

There is currently a shortage of diazepam emulsion 10mg in 2ml Injection until September.

Diazepam emulsion will be removed from ward stock and replaced with diazepam solution for injection.

Diazepam emulsion will be retained in pharmacy for use on the West Midlands Poisons Unit and for specific patients as required and will remain in the emergency cupboards on both sites.

Please see Diazepam Emulsion Notice for guidance.

For more information contact medicines information in the pharmacy department on ext. 5259 or 5531.

LGBT Staff Network shortlisted for ENEI award

We’re delighted to announce that our ENEI ( Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion) award entry for ‘Team of the Year’ has been shortlisted for a 2018 ENEI award.

The award focuses on the work of the LGBT Staff Network and the work around the Staff Safe Space and the Trans Policy for Staff and the Trans Policy for Patients.

The awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on 10 July at The Law Society, London.

We would like to thank all of the network members and allies who have worked together to achieve everything we have so far.

Click here for the full shortlist of nominees for all the award categories for the ENEI awards 2018.

Meet our new Chief Nurse, Paula Gardner today

There still opportunities for you to meet our new Chief Nurse following Paula’s first month where she has been out and about visiting teams and colleagues across the organisation.

Today: 11am 11.30am, 12pm, 12.30pm, Room 12 Education Centre, Sandwell Hospital

The sessions are open to all. Please attend at the start to meet Paula, learn about her experiences and her plans for her new role here.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 25 May

This week saw more than 200 colleagues from all professions and disciplines attend our annual leadership conference at the Bethel Convention Centre in West Bromwich. Heartbeat will share more a flavour from what was a very intense but productive day of work. There was plenty of talk about technology, both how we get our infrastructure sorted out once and for all, and the safety gains that come with Unity implementation later this year. We discussed how we can become more adept at engagement inside our Trust and at integrating with partners. David Carruthers led sessions on quality and quality improvement as we begin to deploy our three year quality plan – and our focus on sepsis will accelerate at pace in the weeks ahead as we look to tackle unacceptable and avoidable variations in care, and to learn what works from big improvements made in A&E and in maternity in recent months.

In some ways for me the story of our conference is summed up when we think about two client groups or services we have. On the one hand the big changes, and move to excellence we see in end of life care. Our partnership with the voluntary sector is very much a role model for how we will work in future, coordinating care and integrating the efforts of partners. We know we have much more to do on involving and engaging primary care in supporting choices by patients at the end of life. At our latest shows that we have not yet beaten a national pattern whereby specialist palliative care services do not always get accessed by all elements of our community. Typically white British patients predominate. On the other hand, our rapidly transforming respiratory services, growing personnel, research output, and working alongside the College of Physicians on Future Hospital models, faces the challenge that we admit a much higher number of patients with respiratory conditions into beds than we would expect, even having adjusted for our population. This challenge came via a very engaging presentation by NHS England’s Deputy Chief Executive, Matthew Swindells, who highlighted that the work we are doing on integrated care was very much a role model for other parts of the NHS. He also hinted a good financial news ahead as we move towards the NHS’ birthday. So, much to do, but the key is how we learn from others, but mainly from the best of what we already do.

My talk at the conference focused on pride. I believe that whatever our challenges, and I hope you feel the Trust’s leadership is blunt about them, we have some amazing services, provide good care, and host some fantastic teams of people. I could have picked out all sorts of examples, whether it is our emerging services for learning disability which are improving sharply, or the dedication of our IT teams battling outtages, or the trustwide success that is our safety plan. Instead my emphasis is on the confidence in our care and our capacity to improve which comes from teams and individuals challenging each other. It is no longer enough for one district nursing team or ward or clinic to be able to celebrate what they do best, although that is important, it is now our habit, and I would suggest needs to become our norm, to look for the best way of doing something and then spread that. So the ward leaders in elderly care for example in our hospital sites are leading the way in finding one way of working across L5, D11, D26 and L4. We need to blend “bottom up” and “top down”, with a dose of peer learning. That is how we will achieve consistency. Both Sarah Yusuf and Tony Waite emphasised the opportunity we have in our QIHD time to do that thinking and make those changes. But we will need to learn with other organisations too. A seven day MRI service, or our ENT service in future, cannot be standalone operations but must sit within the wider Black Country and West Birmingham plan.

I suspect one of the more memorable takeaways from our conference was the promise to get on with two new car parks, one on retained land at city, and one at Sandwell. The daily battle to find a space and sense that during the day there is little room legally to park has become a bigger and bigger chore. So tenders close next week on developments we would hope to have open in a year’s time. Part of the contact for that retains control of prices, and so you can be confident that we will not hike prices further to pay for the build cost. On the other hand, I know it remains an expense to park with us, and loads of alternatives, including cycles and cycle facilities are in place if you want to change your travel plans.

Once again over recent days we have faced major IT difficulties. I want to thank everyone who has raised concerns and advocated for improvement. And colleagues within IT working 24/7 to tackle problems. I have reviewed this week a detailed two year plan and investment programme to address our longstanding underlying problems. Much of the architecture behind our IT is malconfigured or outdated. The funds and commitment is there to change and we will try and use this message over coming weeks to make specific milestones for improvement clearer. Our very first focus is data security and clearly we will be discreet about our current and future state, but please keep an eye on daily comms for new steps we may need you to take to help.
This weekend, the Pride celebration takes place in Birmingham. A chance for LGBT staff and allies to showcase our work and commitment to equality and to diversity. We took part last year at scale (pictured) and I know we will again on Saturday. Join us tomorrow (26 May) from 10:30am in Victoria Square, Birmingham.

#hellomynameis….Toby

Join LGBT colleagues at Birmingham Pride tomorrow

The LGBT Network invite you to come and march in the Birmingham Pride Parade tomorrow (Saturday 26 May).

The network members are meeting at 10:30am in Victoria Square.

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

Sleep hygiene and relaxation techniques seminars at City and Sandwell

We are hosting sleep hygiene and relaxation techniques seminars at both our City and Sandwell sites.

The seminars aim to help you identify what can lead to sleep problems and understand the effects of insufficient sleep.

Date: Thursday 21 June
The Berridge Room (formerly Courtyard Training Room), Sandwell Hospital, 10am-1pm

Date: Thursday 18 October
Anne Gibson Board Room, City Hospital, 10am-1pm

For more information please contact Jatinder Sekhon on ext. 3306.

Experiencing grief and loss workshop at Sandwell: 2 October

There will be a workshop regarding grief and loss for all colleagues on 2 October.

This is a structured course aimed at anybody who would like to learn self-help techniques in dealing with bereavement.

Venue: The Berridge Room (formerly Courtyard Training Room), Sandwell Hospital

Time: 10am–1pm

For more information and to book on this course, please contact Emma Williams on ext. 3306 or alternatively by email at emma.williams21@nhs.net.

Clinical informatics team set up for Unity go-live

A new clinical informatics team has been developed leading up to Unity go-live. The team is led by Sharon Reynolds, Informatics Matron.

Each informatics nurse has been assigned to work with clinical groups, the Unity implementation team and Unity work stream leads.

The team are made up of nurses with a variety of experience within acute and community settings.

They’re here to provide support and guidance to all clinical colleagues to ensure they’re prepared and ready for go-live with part of the informatics nurses role to support the 360 Unity digital champions.

The team will also be available to attend ward, department or group meetings to demonstrate Unity to ensure everyone is prepared for this exciting time and new way of working.

For more information, please contact the clinical informatics team on swbh.SWBH-Team-Informatics-Nurses@nhs.net

Last chance to buy tickets – AMU appreciation ball: 26 May

AMU will be hosting an AMU appreciation ball on 26 May at Aston Villa Football Club from 7pm till late.

Everyone is welcome to attend with tickets costing £40 each which includes a three course sit down meal.

Note: This is a black tie event.

For tickets and information, please contact email sophia.panton@nhs.net or call 079836 46236

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Monthly archives: May 2018

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