Monthly archives: August 2018

It’s back on! Work on Midlands Metro Hospital set to resume

Featured on  ITV.com
Thursday 16 August

Work on the Midlands Metropolitan Hospital will resume after a deal was reached between the Government and the local NHS Trust.

Construction on the £350 million pound hospital in Smethwick was halted following Carillion’s collapse in January.

It’s hoped the hospital will now be completed by 2022.

Toby Lewis, the Chief Executive for Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust said it was great news for patients.

The Trust had been searching for a private investment option but earlier this month said they would ask the government to step in and fully fund the rest of its construction.

But Health Minister, Stephen Barclay says taxpayers’ money will be spent in ‘the best possible way’.

Star Awards 2018 employee of the year – voting closes in 11 days

Have you voted for the Employee of the Year yet?

This award recognises employees who have shown excellent attitude to work, colleagues and patients, have gone beyond the call of duty and made improvements to the delivery of our services.

The shortlisted colleagues for employee of the year are:

• Matron, Debbie Fretwell
• Ward Clerk, Kulbinder Chohan,
• Directorate General Manager of Outpatient Services, Trish Kehoe
• Anticoagulant Services Administrator, Amreen Rehman

Voting closes on Friday 31 August.

Click here to visit the voting page.

Alternatively, you can download a Star Awards paper voting form.

Today’s the day – have you completed your readiness checklist questionnaire?

If you haven’t already done so, please take a few minutes to provide valuable information to monitor Unity readiness by completing the Survey Monkey. Don’t forget, we will be monitoring those who do not complete the survey- and, of course, if you don’t complete the survey, you have already missed out on the chance of winning a prize!

Readiness checklist questionnaires via Survey Monkey have been sent out to managers. It’s vitally important that these surveys are completed both comprehensively, and more importantly, honestly. The survey will be sent to on a weekly basis so both the Unity programme and the Trust Executive can have an accurate ongoing picture of just how ready the whole Trust is.

The survey itself mirrors the paper copies that have been circulating. Therefore these can be used to gain insight from colleagues to help completion of the survey. If you have not received a survey and you feel you need to complete one for your area, please email swbh.eprprojectpmo@nhs.net to be added to the list.

Uniform and dress code policy update

Notice was provided about the uniform policy and dress code through staff Communications on 7 August.

To confirm, this policy is currently draft/in review and will be subject to consultation/engagement with colleagues prior to final approval.

Heartbeat: Safety plan reaches 100 per cent compliance

During July, we achieved 100 per cent delivery of our safety plan standards.

The safety plan was introduced in January last year as part of a drive to improve safety, quality and care, as well as to improve patient experience and engagement and change the culture of our clinical workforce.

The plan involves clinical staff completing 10 safety checks, also known as always events, when assessing a patient. This happens within the first 24 hours of admission.

One of the main reasons the plan was introduced was because patients didn’t always know their care pathway or plan of care and data showed there was a poor completion of fundamental clinical assessments and documents.

Making the necessary changes resulted in a number of positive outcomes, including:

• A reduction in falls by 58 per cent
• Patients are at the centre of their care plans
• A saving of £33,800 which has been achieved by…..

Chief Executive, Toby Lewis spoke about the achievement in his Friday message on 20 July, he said: “This week, for the first time, we are seeing 100 per cent delivery of our standards, and in particular the drive to make sure any missed checks are completed inside 48 hours.

“That is a significant and important step, and thank you to those folk working to do this each day and night.

“Attention to detail is at the heart of our safety effort and so is team work. Every VTE assessment is a chance to save a life. Our sepsis data shows us that there remain opportunities to see risk and intervene. We know from the feedback loop on inter ward discharges that we still have a handful of missed medication handovers when we move patients. Our focus on that, your focus, is a credit to a determination to put patients first.”

Colleagues are also full of praise for the safety plan. The team have received a number have also been reaping the benefits of the safety plan with much positive feedback:

“This is a really fantastic tool for our team. It’s a step by step instruction that is easy to follow and a good prompter.”   

“The manual has worked really well on the surgical assessment unity and we are delighted by how the team have quickly taken to it. This is an example of good practice and we now plan to introduce the manual in other areas.”

“The safety plan brought to the forefront what we needed to put in place to help us manage the pain of our neonates. Pain assessment is the fifth vital sign and should be added to every vital sign assessment. As a result the team are receiving training and we can now say that our babies are getting the pain management they need.”

“When we joined the safety llan roll out in March, it highlighted to us the knowledge gaps that existed within the team regarding the use of N-PASS. We also realised the tool was not being used by everyone as well as it could.”  

Have you booked on the Unity end user training?

As you’re aware, the Unity end user training started on Monday 13 August and will run through to Friday 26 October. Unity will affect each and every one of us, and will change how we work and look after our patients.

There are still 2,800 colleagues that have not booked on to these mandatory training sessions. We all need to know how to use the Unity system to safely treat our patients, and therefore, colleagues are expected to attend.

We’ve now reached a stage where anyone not currently booked should do so as a matter of urgency. If colleagues have not booked on by Tuesday 28 August, all non-booked staff will be automatically booked on to appropriate training and required to attend those sessions as a reasonable management request.

It is the responsibility of everyone to look at the training schedules on Connect and ensure they are booked on. There are plenty of dates available with spaces on each date. Line managers are asked to ensure their staff are aware of the dates, and that they are planning cover, backfill and sorting rosters, so please get yourself organised and liaise with your line manager. It is critical that you are booked on, and plan for the course location and travel time accordingly.

The great thing is once you are trained, you can have access to the Unity Play System to enable you to keep your newly learned skills fresh, as well as practice in a safe environment and raise questions you might have.

Managers can book their teams onto the training via Connect. If you would like a member of the Unity team to come to your area to assist with the booking of your staff, please contact swbh.informaticsbookings@nhs.net with your availability and a contact number, and arrangements will be made at a suitable time for you. The team will also help with any queries regarding the training and the booking system.

Thank you in advance for supporting our patients and their safety in this way.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 17 August

This short film explains what happens next over Midland Met following yesterday’s landmark announcement of central Government investment in finishing the build.

You might anticipate that all of my message this week would be about the Midland Metropolitan Hospital.  I cover that subject – and others – towards the bottom of my message, but to start I want again to write about information technology (IT).  More problems this week, more frustration. Last week I confirmed £3m of new investment, and the creation of a dedicated Board level committee to oversee turnaround. This week I want to outline the key parts of the plan for improvement. Maybe not my most scintillating write up, but important nonetheless.

1. WiFi reliability:  A number of our clinical systems depend on WiFi, and in both our hospitals and community settings we need to have dependability. Right now a team are installing replacement equipment across our retained estate. This should all be in by the end of the first week in September. A process will follow for our interim estate (those parts of City Hospital we had planned to leave next year).  At the same time we have mapped responsibility for technology, including WiFi, across our community bases. After installation of the new equipment we will be able to monitor performance and publish data, and will also spend September walking the floor trouble shooting problems, which sometimes are labelled as WiFi, but have a different route. This is a big start to the changes we need to make, and coming soon.
2. Our network and infrastructure: We have had external experts on site working hand in hand with our team. Their recommendations for action were agreed by the executive and Board in recent days. Next week we have a final planning meeting to work out how we will install the changes we need to make during September and October. None of the changes are surprising to us, but they will give us a clearer route for traffic around our IT system, and better data on how our system is performing. Because some of our problems have regrettably been failures of foresight or action, this data is especially important and an anticipatory governance model will be put to the Board by Mark Reynolds in ten days’ time.
3. Hardware:Most of the new computers that we need to install Unity are now in place, and likewise our connected medical devices. We have a new order of 600+ computers arriving shortly and over 100 laptops, most of which will go straight to our midwives and health visitors. The revised budget provides for purchase of around a thousand PCs this year.  Crucially this kit needs to be pre-loaded with the right packages and software, and we are exploring whether that is best done for us by a third party. The next batch of computers will come on that basis. Deployment will take place in coming months, and at the same time we will implement changes to our print function and printers during October, November and December. You will be aware that printing now is an issue, that Unity creates some printer issues, and that we have a bewildering variety of printers in our Trust. The programme of change is designed to address all three issues.
4. Applications and systems:This is the one area where the Board is not yet satisfied by the plan. On the face of it we have a clear work list of around fifty systems that need change this year or before 2020. The approach to the other 150+ systems is being re-tested over coming weeks, together with a review of how we might address the first fifty. I would expect to confirm our approach in mid-September.

I know that many people reading this will believe change when you see it, and may consider the above belated. We nonetheless have to work from where we are and we now have the broad outline of a plan that responds both to our recurrent problems, and to our future technology needs at least in the short term. The Board will consider at our October meeting the right shape for the future of the IT function given growing demands and needs from the service, and also the technical complexity that comes with IT today. The very best expertise needs to be available to us, and we have to move to an increasingly 24/7 model of IT support. I again share with you the latest performance data from the team (Informatics Data 17 August 2018), and in doing so recognise we have much to do to improve in the coming three months. In particular the critical alerts need to be resolved, in part through the second item of the plan I have described above.

Last week I wrote about our upcoming QIHD Poster Competition.  This will culminate in November and more detail will launch with Team Talk in ten days’ time.  Around £5,000 of prizes will be made available to teams whose entries are judged as the very best.  We are looking to see improvement projects and programmes written up and evaluated, described and celebrated. The aim is both to recognise the work being done in various parts of the Trust, and to encourage the sharing of ideas and innovation. welearn is part a concerted programme of work to make sure that it is easy to share knowledge inside our organisation as we look to build on the 70% of our services rated as good, and on the increasingly research rich nature of what we do. Learning from excellence and from error has to be a hallmark of the Trust if we are to meet our aims; and I know that there remains much we could do to spread great practice across our organisation.

In 2022 we will move into Midland Met. We will find a final contractor in coming months and select the interim “winter” contractor this September. You would expect media focus on the finance of that and the technical detail of the build. All of that demands the attention of senior colleagues and I can promise that there is no intent nor scope to reduce the quality of the building or alter the excellence of its design. But the link between that, and our technology, and our learning culture, must be that to deliver the clinical promise of Midland Met we have teams to build. Recruitment is part of that, so is leadership. But using data well and creating knowledge from what we do will matter too. Whether it is new IT systems or new hospitals the lessons learned process usually concludes that more could have been done to build the human systems and teamwork to make a real success of change. Irritating as the last eight months have at times been, and frustrating as an opening date push back is, we now have time to use to get this right. With the certainty provided yesterday, let’s seize that chance. Government has put great confidence in us, in you and me. I think they sense the potential of this organisation and the people in it. I think we should share some of that confidence.

#hellomynameis….Toby

Reduced hours at at City Arches Costa – 21 August

Due to scheduled maintenance work on 21 August, the Arches Costa outlet at City Hopsital will not be open until midday.

Coffee Culture which is also on the main spine will be open at 7.30am on the 21 August.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Have you completed your readiness checklist questionnaire?

Readiness checklist questionnaires via Survey Monkey have been sent out to managers. It’s vitally important that these surveys are completed both comprehensively, and more importantly, honestly. The survey will be sent to on a weekly basis so both the Unity programme and the Trust Executive can have an accurate ongoing picture of just how ready the whole Trust is.

The survey itself mirrors the paper copies that have been circulating. Therefore these can be used to gain insight from colleagues to help completion of the survey. If you have not received a survey and you feel you need to complete one for your area, please email swbh.eprprojectpmo@nhs.net to be added to the list.

Why is it important?

Readiness for Unity is the surest sign that the go-live will be a success and that Unity will be a system that helps both colleagues and patients to improve both efficiency and patient safety.

Are teams being monitored?

 Yes, but in a positive way. Resource exists, from the directorates, Unity work stream leads, Unity implementation team and clinical Informatics team, to support you and your teams. Getting an accurate and up to date picture is an important step towards ensuring you and your staff get the support you need.

Is it mandatory?

Yes it is. We have to have a comprehensive picture, so the few minutes it takes each week will ensure that the results are meaningful. We will be updating the directorates and the Trust Executive with these results too. Your Unity digital champions will also be advised that they need to contribute to the gathering of information in your area.

Keep your eyes on the prize!

To recognise your efforts in updating these checklists, there will be prizes  for the first 3 areas to be fully operationally ready, using the criteria on the checklist, and completing the survey every week.

Thank you for your continued support.

Midland Met: Public finance confirmed by government

Dear colleague,

Yesterday marked eight months since the collapse of Carillion, and the pause on completion of our new acute hospital, the Midland Metropolitan.

I am pleased to be able today to confirm that the government have accepted the Trust Board’s recommendation that the project should now be completed on a public finance basis. 

This means that central monies will be provided to us to finish the construction. You will remember that the need to complete the hospital was not in doubt, but that it has taken some time to resolve how that is best done, as we have sought both a financing and a construction partnership.

Today’s announcement ends uncertainty over financing.  We will shortly go to the market to find a contractor to complete the work.  I would expect to issue that tender in early November.  We should certainly complete the build ready to open in 2022.  Meanwhile, in four weeks’ time we expect to confirm a contractor to undertake some remedial work on the site this winter and into next spring.  The tender for this was issued ten days ago – and again is nationally funded.  So Midland Met will become again a hive of activity, and indeed of local employment.

Next year we will determine whether we operate the maintenance of the building ourselves, or will bring in a commercial partner to do that.  In all other respects today’s announcement gets us back onto the plan that we agreed in 2014 and expected to implement by 2018/19. The countdown clocks will soon be running again…

Because of the delay we will be bringing some equipment, intended for Midland Met, onto existing sites and into use early.  This includes some IT equipment, and also some imaging kit under our managed equipment service.  In addition, you will know from prior communications that we are working through now which acute services will relocate from Sandwell to City next year as we look to make sure we can sustain high quality emergency care until 2022.  I published a video earlier this month seeking to make it clear that we have no plans to move from two A&Es to one before Midland Met, but in common with our successful reconfigurations of stroke, general surgery and cardiac care, among others, we may move a handful of adult acute services onto a single site basis before winter 2019.  Funding for that is being nationally provided.  Likewise we will see some additional and new investment to improve the estate and IT infrastructure at City during the period after 2019, given that we had expected by then to be off that site, having sold land to Homes England.  These changes are all a chance to get in place new ways of working, which benefit our patients, before we move to the new hospital.

Most services we provide do not depend on a hospital, or indeed on a new hospital, but I know that Midland Met is hugely important part of our plans and our strategy.  I hope you share the Board’s pleasure in finally finding a way through the complexities Carillion left us with.  Today gives us clarity and we will now press ahead with the service changes next year, and with completing the Midland Met, which is a hospital which will help to define the NHS locally for decades to come.

Every best wish,

Toby

Chief Executive

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust