Monthly archives: August 2018
Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 3 August
With Heartbeat this month we issued the final shortlist for the 2018 Star Awards. Congratulations to everyone nominated, and especially to those the judging panels selected. They go forward to our ceremony at Villa Park in October. Before then of course, you can vote for your choice as employee of the year and our three team awards too. Today I have circulated an email explaining how and over the next few weeks the communications bulletin will continue to remind you how to vote for your choice.
The sense of excellence engendered by the awards process was also a big feature of the Board meeting we held yesterday. We continue to see teams excelling in, among other things, providing short wait care, meeting safety plan standards and cutting cancellations. And for the third month running in July we achieved 100% compliance with the WHO Safer Surgery checklist. It is more than a year since we reported a Never Event in our Trust. Of course we have work to do to create a short wait model for emergency care. And our work on sepsis needs to help us to tackle avoidable harm and deaths in our care that could be prevented through more rapid assessment and intervention. Thank you to all our ward leaders working hard to create clear expectations and systems to manage sepsis care better.
I attach the latest IT scorecard, as we work towards no outstanding critical systems alerts in the weeks ahead. A complete reboot of our WiFi takes place in August, designed to tackle slow speeds now, and get us ready for programmes within Unity that depend on coverage. At the same time we are in the final stage of planning changes to our network infrastructure to try and improve resilience. Audit work across 215 IT systems has given rise to recommendations for changes, replacements and improvements, to be made over the next six months. Of course some systems rely on Unity to provide that replacement, notably ICM. Thank you to the more than 2,100 of you already booked in for your Unity training and that figure needs to double over the next fortnight. Once trained you have access to the product’s play domain which obviously let’s you explore and learn at your own pace.
Local media have reported widely already yesterday’s decision to ask DHSC and Treasury for public finance to complete Midland Met in 2022. This would replace a private finance model, which we had chosen in 2014 and earlier this year. That request reflects in particular the construction industry and other’s view of the risk profile of the project. I know many staff will have deeply held views about PFI, and we now consider that for this specific scheme, which is two thirds built, a public option would narrowly be the best way to go forward. Separately we will consider later this year whether to operate the estate and hard facilities functions ourselves or ask another private provider to do that. Either way we will see construction work back on site at Midland Met in short order now, with an invitation to tender issued this coming week for remedial works on the site over the following six months. It may take a few weeks for Whitehall to formally respond to the Board’s preference but I am cautiously optimistic that we will have certainty later this summer. What we know with confidence is that the new build will open in 2022. If we can open before the Commonwealth Games, we will!
Finally, as we move through August, we are nearing completion of our Aspiring to Excellence first year of PDRs. Moderation is going on now to test whether managers have operated similarly and fairly Trust-wide. This is our first year so there are bound to be teething troubles. What is most important is that everyone in our organisation now has a set of improvement objectives that describe our own plans and those agreed with your line manager to deliver better outcomes for our team and our patients. If you are reading this and do not recognise that, please get in touch with Bethan Downing, with Raffaela Goodby or with me. I do understand debates about scoring, but for 2018/19 it is most important we all set off on the same path. The Board will be testing whether we invest in potential and rightly so. This Trust is yours and our decision to invest ever more heavily in training and in development is a large part of our 2020 vision and what we are trying to achieve, not only in the next twelve months but over coming years. You will tell us, in your next PDR, and in Your Voice (which is out now) whether that strategy is succeeding. Remember Your Voice this time has a prize draw with three prizes for entries, but you do have to be in it, to win it!
Featured in the photos Top – L – R Meena Khatun, Continence HCA; Raffaela Goodby, Director of People and Organisation Development; Simon Lines, Student District Nurse. Bottom – L – R Andrea Austin, Val Hutchinson, Toby Lewis and Jean Lee.
Stepping Up Programme: October
Phase two of the West Midlands stepping up programme is now live.
The programme is aimed at bands 5, 6 and 7 colleagues who self-define from black, Asian or minority-ethnic backgrounds.
Please see approved NHS leadership academy applicant guide and managers guide.
The location for all three cohorts will be in Sandwell which is easy for all colleagues to get to from all of our organisations on public transport.
Applications are due to close on 31 August (this date can be moved if we do not have enough candidates for each cohort).
Once we have the numbers from each organisation confirmed we will then email each successful and unsuccessful candidate.
For more information please contact stuartyoung1@nhs.net.
Tuberculosis nursing service: August
There will be a reduction in the tuberculosis nursing service up to 19 August. Urgent referrals should be passed to the appropriate consultant teams for review.
For more information please contact the tuberculosis nursing service on ext. 3107. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Children’s safeguarding update: Domestic abuse
Domestic abuse is a priority for the government and public health.
The police recorded 1.1 million domestic abuse incidents in the year ending March 2017 in England and Wales, an increase from the previous year.
Sandwell statistics show 4,128 domestic abuse incidents referred to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), an increase of 24%. 572 high risk victims of domestic abuse and 747 children were discussed at the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) year ending March 2017 which is an increase of 26% on the previous year.
We’re a ‘domestic abuse awareness’ Trust so be sure to look out for our posters displayed across the different departments. ED’s Independent Domestic Violence Advocate (IDVA) project which commenced in November 2015 employs two specialist workers based across both sites in ED.
They support colleagues to identify victims and refer to appropriate agencies. Over 286 victims have been identified by the IDVA workers since implementation. We would like to thank all colleagues who continues to support our domestic abuse initiatives.
For more information, you can contact the service on 0121 507 2844.
For Sandwell Children’s Social Care referral please call 0121 569 3100 and for Birmingham Children’s Social Care referral please call 0121 303 1888.
Annual travel cards expire 15 September – renew now
Annual travel cards purchased through the Trust will expire on Saturday 15 September, with topped up existing smart cards due to start on Sunday 16 September. Your card must be working for the renewal top up. You can access the annual travel card application form below.
Annual travel card application form
All cards issued to you can only be used by yourself and are non-transferable. New applicants will require a good quality passport sized colour photograph with their completed form.
Note: Only employees who are employed on a permanent basis can apply.
For more information including guidance on completing the annual travel card application form, please call 0121 254 6323.
Heartbeat: SWBH teams up to ‘BEAT-lupus’ with research study
Our organisation is one of 16 lupus specialist centres in the UK which is participating in a study called BEAT-lupus with Consultant, Caroline Gordon the principal investigator overseeing all the patients enrolled in the study at City Hospital.
The BEAT-lupus study is funded by Arthritis Research UK and the sponsor is University College London. The study aims to recruit 50 patients from across the sixteen lupus specialist centers across the UK.
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus also known as SLE is an autoimmune disease that occurs when a person’s antibodies, produced by immune B cells, attacks the body’s own cells by mistake. This attack then causes inflammation, with numerous issues such as fatigue, rashes, hair loss, arthritis, kidney involvement and blood disorders. Long-term complications can include early onset heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure.
Unfortunately, there is currently still no cure for SLE with existing treatment options only able to help manage symptoms. Rituximab is one of these treatments and is used to treat patients with refractory disease that has not responded to standard immunosuppressants. Rituximab is a biological therapy that is used to reduce inflammation and improve the symptoms of SLE. However, this treatment can result in an increase in B-cell activating factor (BAFF), which is believed to cause inflammation after the treatment cycle is complete.
The Beat-lupus study recruits SLE patients that are going to be treated with rituximab and randomises them to receive the BAFF-inhibiting drug, belimumab, or placebo after rituximab in order to attain preliminary results about whether this combination of drugs prevents the development of anti-DNA antibodies that will promote inflammation and to determine if this improves the outcome of patients compared with rituximab treatment alone.
Irene Echavez-Naguicnic, Research Nurse plays a vital role in the BEAT-lupus study.
She said: “As part of my role, I see and assess the patients alongside the investigator Caroline Gordon and help with organising blood sample collection. The first three treatments are every two weeks then it is every four weeks. In addition to this, I’m the first point of contact regarding any patient queries they may have about the study.”
She added: “I believe the study is a step in the right direction in terms of research and development and I’m quietly confident it will be a success.”
Assisting Guidance for Scrub Practitioners
Registered Scrub Practitioner and Surgical First Assistant role boundaries
Assisting Guidance for Scrub Practitioners
Guidance from the Perioperative care collaborative showing the role boundaries of the registered scrub practitioner and surgical first assistant was published in April 2018. This guidance can be accessed in the HOW DO I section and is there to guide your practice.
Use EIDO for patient information leaflets
Did you know that you can download patient information leaflets from EIDO Healthcare website for free?
The website provides a wide range of leaflets for different procedures that are being carried out at our Trust. The leaflets are also available in an easy-to-read format and in different languages.
To access the website, please visit Connect, Clinical Systems, EIDO PT leaflets.
Log in details:
- User name: SWB
- Password: consent70
If you have any questions, please contact Vy Tran, Senior Communications Officer, at v.tran@nhs.net
Health and wellbeing newsletter: August edition
In case you missed it, the August health and wellbeing newsletter can be accessed by Clicking here.
Check out the newsletter to for staff benefits as well as ways to improve your health, fitness and general wellbeing.
For more information please contact Jatinder Sekhon / Emma Williams on Ext 3306 option 4.
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