Monthly archives: May 2018

Taking CSU prior to catheter change

Following a recent query regarding taking a CSU screening prior to a catheter change, it has been confirmed by the infection prevention team to:

Undertake a CSU and MRSA screen prior to re-catheterisation. The rationale is MRSA can be identified from clinical specimen’s, that may not be picked up screening nose/groin.

Patients are only treated with antibiotics if they are symptomatic of a catheter UTI.

For more information please contact continence.team@nhs.net

Sandwell day nursery fun day: 23 June

Sandwell day nursery will be hosting their annual day nursery day on Saturday 23 June, 10.30am-2pm.

The theme of the fun day is superheroes and villains fancy dress with the best costume in with a chance of winning a prize.

Refreshments and face painting will also be available on the day.

For more information please contact emma.collier@nhs.net.

Wednesday worship service at City Hospital chapel

Join us for the weekly Wednesday worship service at City Hospital Chapel.

For more information please call ext. 3552.

Star Awards 2018: Patient Safety Award

Do you know an individual or team that has been exhibiting best practice in providing safe care, who has openly raised awareness of safety issues, championed transparency or introduced new ways of working to a service or treatment that has improved patient safety.

Nominate them for the Patient Safety 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.

Phone lines down at Modality Practices

Due to a power cut over the past weekend, phone lines are currently down at Modality Practices.

The issue is currently being investigated and we will notify you once they’re up and running again at full capacity.

The Trust apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Effective communication skills workshops: 21 and 24 May

Dr Saket Singhal will be facilitating two workshops on effective communication skills from 12.30pm.

The sessions will be hosted at:

• Postgraduate Centre, City Hospital – Monday 21 May
• Education Centre, Sandwell Hospital – Thursday 24 May

Next week there will be a session from the Educational Faculty Development Programme – Dr Saket Singhal, Head of Academy will be presenting on Effective Communication Skills.

The workshops aim to review why effective communication is important, discuss the use of verbal, paraverbal and non-verbal communication, discuss communication skills with patients and students being taught and how best to handle difficult people.

For more information please contact Louise Tomkins on ext. 3955.

Pharmacy reduced opening hours over bank holiday

The pharmacies at both Sandwell and City Hospital will be operating at reduced capacity throughout the May bank holiday – see below dates and times for availability:

• Saturday 26 May: 10am-3pm
• Sunday 28 May: 10am-3pm
• Monday 28 May: 10am-1pm
• Tuesday 29 May: normal service

Can all wards ensure they have ordered enough stocks and controlled drugs for their patients.

Any issues or for more information please contact the pharmacy team.

For pharmacy contact details, please visit the Pharmacy Connect page.

Can you contribute to our NHS 70 cookbook?

Food lovers, cooks and alchemists are sought for tasty celebration of our organisation.

We live in one of the most culturally diverse regions in the UK with a rich heritage of delicious food history and recipes handed down to generations of food lovers. You are part of this, whether you enjoy a bowl of Birmingham soup (created by industrialist Matthew Boulton in the 18th century to ward off starvation in his workers, and now made famous by Brummie chef Glynn Parnell), or love nothing more than a balti, a brummie bacon cake, jerk chicken, goat curry or Irish potato cakes, we’d love to hear from you.

As part of the #NHS70 celebrations this year, we’re producing a cookbook containing  recipes from our colleagues with roots from across the globe. If you have a delicious family recipe that you would like included in this book, whether it is a starter, main, side dish, dessert or bake please send it  to Vy Tran, Senior Communications Officer, at v.tran@nhs.net. Please include the following:

• Ingredients by quantity
• Step by step instructions
• The number of portions the recipe will make
• How long it will take to make the dish
• A short message (50-100 words) to explain why this recipe is important to you with a photo of yourself, or the family member that shared the recipe with you
• You can also share a photo of the meal cooked and plated up.

The deadline to submit the recipe is 15 June.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 18 May

Tony Waite, Finance Director. Toby Lewis is away.

Speak Up Day

This week saw our second Speak Up Day – thank you to everyone who took part either by visiting an awareness stand, talking to colleagues about the importance of speaking up, proudly wearing your speak up badge or making a promise. I am really proud to be part of an organisation that actively encourages people to raise concerns. As you know there are a host of different ways to do this and our nine Freedom to Speak Up Guardians are there to support you, offering independent help and advice.

Many of you completed our Speak Up mood boards either online or at one of the Speak Up stands. I was encouraged to see that most people feel safe to speak up in our organisation and there was general agreement that raising concerns makes a positive difference. We shared on the stands and on Connect some of the concerns raised at the last Speak Up Day and what has been done as a result. This includes fixing broken microwaves, changing mandatory training and improved catering facilities. We know from your feedback that more of you would like to know the results of raising a concern and want assurance that issues you raised will be well-received. Even when certain issues can’t be sorted the aim is that whoever raised the concern is kept informed of what has been considered and why it may not be possible to resolve it. The ongoing challenge for us all is to continue to encourage speaking up and make sure we take action and provide feedback when someone raises a concern with us.

Midland Met

Carillion has once again been in the spotlight this week following a select committee hearing on Wednesday that has referenced our new hospital, the Midland Metropolitan. We continue to work hard to get a clear way forward. We are confident that the new hospital will come to fruition and work is progressing to understand when and how that will happen so that construction on the site can restart.

Leadership Conference

Next week over 200 of the Trust’s leaders will meet in the Bethel Convention Centre to work through delivery of some of our key plans. We will be addressed by Matthew Swindells, from NHS England. Matthew is the lead director with responsibility for finance, commissioning and information. He has been a previous visitor to our Trust so we are pleased he is able to return and give his perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing provider Trusts now and in the future.

We will talk about better engagement, how we can pull together so we get a good rating from the CQC’s next inspection, our quality plan goals and delivery of Unity, our new electronic patient record. And running through all our discussions will be ensuring that whatever we do supports our vision to be the best integrated care organisation in the NHS. Our work with partners is helping to deliver this for our patients – truly seamless care is what we are after and we recognise that it is not just clinical treatment that impacts health care. Our own health is often a consequence of lifestyle, employment and housing and it is those areas that we need to be just as bothered about.

Ramadan

As Ramadan begins this week we join in with our Muslim colleagues and patients to mark this special festival. Last night our Chairman, Richard Samuda, celebrated Iftar – the breaking of the fast – at City Hospital. Ramadan Mubarak!

#hellomynameis….Tony

Password & Mobile Phone Changes

We’ve recently had an external cyber security review that has made a few recommendations on how to improve. These changes will have the following impact:

Passwords

We will make changes to increase the length of network passwords. We understand that passwords need to be easy to remember so we won’t make it too hard. It’s now okay to write them down as long as you keep the record secure. Please see the National Cyber Security Centre guidance for more information.

Mobile Phones

If you have a smartphone you will need to encrypt it when prompted to do so. The process will take about 30 minutes and require that the phone is plugged in.

We have also made changes to stop the installation on unapproved apps. If you want to install an app please raise a call with the Informatics service desk. Apps can be installed through the MobileIron Go app catalogue.