Monthly archives: September 2018
Ground Floor – #HereToStay70 Exhibition – Black History Month
October is Black History Month and the SWBH BME Staff Network working in partnership with the Trust are celebrating the contribution of the Windrush Generations, as this year marks 70 years since people from the Caribbean came over to the United Kingdom to help regenerate post war Britain.
Many of the Windrush passengers started working in the newly formed NHS and subsequent generations are delivering care to our patients. Our “Here to Stay” exhibition is on display at the Education Centre at Sandwell Hospital throughout October.
These personal portraits and stories have been collated by Ines Elsa Dalal who is a documentary photographer, concerned with the authorship of archives in the interest of attaining representational justice.
Click on the PDF below each portrait to read about the experiences of our Windrush Generations colleagues.
Ofrah
Sheena
Priscilla
Verilline
Violet
Elisha
Kyra
Jenny
Empress Zaudith Ishuah aka Jennifer Simpson
Patricia
First Floor – #HereToStay70 Exhibition – Black History Month
October is Black History Month and the SWBH BME Staff Network working in partnership with the Trust are celebrating the contribution of the Windrush Generations, as this year marks 70 years since people from the Caribbean came over to the United Kingdom to help regenerate post war Britain.
Many of the Windrush passengers started working in the newly formed NHS and subsequent generations are delivering care to our patients. Our “Here to Stay” exhibition is on display at the Education Centre at Sandwell Hospital throughout October.
These personal portraits and stories have been collated by Ines Elsa Dalal who is a documentary photographer, concerned with the authorship of archives in the interest of attaining representational justice.
Click on the PDF below each portrait to read about the experiences of our Windrush Generations colleagues.
Lorraine
Bev
Heather
Norma
Yvette
Jennifer
Sandra
Stairwell – #HereToStay Exhibition – Black History Month
October is Black History Month and the SWBH BME Staff Network working in partnership with the Trust are celebrating the contribution of the Windrush Generations, as this year marks 70 years since people from the Caribbean came over to the United Kingdom to help regenerate post war Britain.
Many of the Windrush passengers started working in the newly formed NHS and subsequent generations are delivering care to our patients. Our “Here to Stay” exhibition is on display at the Education Centre at Sandwell Hospital throughout October.
These personal portraits and stories have been collated by Ines Elsa Dalal who is a documentary photographer, concerned with the authorship of archives in the interest of attaining representational justice.
Click on the PDF below each portrait to read about the experiences of our Windrush Generations colleagues.
Anthony
Beverley
Natalie
Joy
Janice B
Elga
Daphne
Janice N
Caroline
Bi Visibility Day
September 23rd 2018 saw the 20th Bi Visibility Day, also known as International Celebrate Bisexuality Day, has been marked each year since 1999 to highlight biphobia and to help people find the bisexual community.
Bi Visibility Day also marked the start of #BiWeek – Bisexual Visibility Week, #BiVisibilityDay and #BiVisibilityWeek gives individuals and organisations the opportunity to highlight the difference members of the Bi community make to both the LGBT+ community and the wider society.
The SWBH LGBT Staff Network are #Proud to be supporting Bi Visibility Day and our colleagues who self-define as Bisexual – have a look in the Equality & Diversity Boards across the trust where you can find more information.
If you are a member of the bisexual community and would like to speak to a member of the network or get involved with the work of the network we can be contacted on facebook, twitter or email swbh.lgbt@nhs.net
For more information about issues relating to bisexuality visit: ‘Getting bi in a gay/straight world’ a really useful and informative resource.
Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 28 September
You will have noticed perhaps that we now have so much going on across our workplace each week that my message has a photo montage, rather than just one pic, to try and capture that diversity. This week we had more IT related problems, with N3, and with home access. The latter continues as I write and I apologise to you, and your patients. Martin and his team are working to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, the long promised WiFi solution goes live over the coming three weeks across our sites, including Leasowes. As usual, you can see this week’s IT performance stats here.
Acknowledging the wearying reality of the IT should not obscure some exciting things across the organisation that we need to celebrate and spread. One more plug here for our upcoming Quality Improvement Half Day Poster contest https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/governance/qihd/qihd-poster-competition/ . The contest has a cash prize, but equally importantly it is the chance to share excellence from any part of our Trust, and to learn together how to improve. This month’s TeamTalk video has my key messages, but it also contains a fantastic insight into the Silent Cockpit project which has run for some months now in maternity theatres: A simple but effective change to improve the experience of giving birth, leading to some great feedback from mothers. If we look at the human factors in what we do that can create error or risk, there is a great deal that we can do to lessen harm by uncomplex interventions, especially around team working and communication.
Ann Stevenson (pictured top right with patient Andrea Kerr) exemplifies for me that commitment to listening and to caring communication in our midst. Today was Ann’s celebration before a long and happy retirement. It was good to see so many people from all parts of our organisation come together to say thank you and good luck – next stop Puerto Rico. I know that Ann will stay in touch with us all, and will continue to bless the organisation and inspire many people across our sites. A new coffee maestro needs to step forward!
I attended today our latest Listening into Action (LiA) event with teams across hotel services and corporate senior nursing. The focus was on how we develop roles, ways of working and careers to value what is done by all of our teams, including our ward service officers – and how we build a real path from apprentice entry to the Trust, into senior clinical roles. There are no reasons why we cannot make that happen, but we need practical routes to do just that. So we need a solution for part time workers, with career breaks. We need self-rostering to try and create flexible working. And we have to embrace the role of technology in how we clean, and order, and plan our work. Like all of our LiA events, the emphasis is on the ideas of those working in the teams to design solutions – and then a collective effort, bottom up and top down, to make them happen. In these teams and in many other areas, we benefit from the role of our trade unions to champion issues and suggest good practice that we can adopt.
Monday has two big launches. I mentioned last week that Black History Month gets started then – with the ‘Here to Stay’ exhibition transferring into our Education Centre at Sandwell. The communications bulletin will feature national and local examples of the contributions made to health care and the NHS from BAME colleagues. Our organisation serves some of the most diverse but also some of the most long-standing diverse communities in England – our Trust needs to learn from and exemplify that. There are unacceptable examples still of racism in our workplace, but there is also a huge amount to celebrate in the work being done, especially by our BME staff network, and our Muslim liaison group.
Flu jabs and Star Wars are not obvious bed fellows. However, our May The Four Be With You campaign is coming your way already, in videos and posters. Thanks to teams across our Trust who have joined the campaign – do try and find your colleagues in the photos… The serious message is simple – flu is not a bit of a cold. It is a debilitating and in some cases life threatening condition. The vaccine is not a guarantee but it massively shifts the odds on your likelihood of contracting flu. And this year the four strains are covered. So please sign up to vaccinate your friends and colleagues. And please get your jab early this month.
The Trust Board meets next Thursday at City. We will discuss how acute services may need to change in the next year, as we get ready for 2022 and Midland Met. I know that a lot of people have already been involved in work to confirm which emergency services will stay on both sites from 2019, and any that may move to City as a first step towards our new build. During November, that thinking will conclude. If you do have questions or queries please get in touch with me or with Jayne Dunn.
On Monday 1 October, our winter beds open, and it will be the first time since 2014 that we have entered October with the beds we said we needed – not less or more. That does not guarantee a stable winter, but it does give us a basis to work from. On Thursday 1 November, we go live with our GP Single Point of Access project, which will take and triage primary care acute referrals into our Trust – with the aim of better directing patients to the care that they need, without dropping into A&E by default. If we tackle flu, keep our imaging kit working all hours, and get staffing right in our wards, we absolutely have it in our hands to make this winter more successful than last. Work in healthcare is stressful and pressured, and we want to see what we can do to make the infrastructure around you – both clinical and digital – help not hinder with those challenges.
Disruption to home drives and desktops
Due to essential updates we need to restart the server that has Desktops and Home Drives stored on it, we plan to do this at 3:30pm today, it should take between 30-40mins.
Please save any work you are doing on your Home drives or your Desktop prior to 3:30pm, you should be able to continue working throughout the server restart, however, if you try and open or save a document during the outage you will get and error message.
Staff trying to log on during the outage will not see their usual desktop.
All other systems access are not affected.
Get your free flu vaccination at our Sandwell or City launch events
In a Trust not so far away, the countdown has begun to the launch of the seasonal flu campaign.
This year’s flu vaccination will protect against FOUR different strains of flu, more than ever before.
Come and get your FREE flu vaccination at our launch events:
Sandwell Hospital: Monday 1 October 10am-3.30pm Occupational Health, Department, Courtyard Gardens.
City Hospital: Wednesday 3 October 10am-3.30pm Old Foot Health clinic near main reception and the Winter Wellness event in the Post Grad Centre.
You will be automatically entered into a prize draw to win one of our fabulous four prizes; £300 love to shop vouchers, an annual leave day, Google home or Amazon fire stick.
Patient information leaflets on EIDO
Patient leaflets on the EIDO Healthcare centre have been renewed. We encourage colleagues to visit the centre, download and print the leaflets, which can then be used to give out to your patients.
The centre also offers new leaflets in easy-to-read format for patients who have learning difficulties.
Please visit clinical systems on Connect to access EIDO Healthcare Centre. Alternatively, please click on this link.
Log in details:
- Username: SWB
- Password: consent70
If you have any problems, please contact Vy Tran, Senior Communications Officer, at v.tran@nhs.net
Coffee morning fundraiser today
The occupational health and wellbeing team are hosting a coffee morning raising funds for Macmillan and Your Trust Charity today (Friday 28 September). Please pop along and support the event until 12.30pm in the Berridge Room, Courtyard Gardens, Sandwell Hospital. There will be plenty of cakes and biscuits as well as other fundraising activities such as games and a mini tombola.
Heartbeat: Paediatrics party delight
On Friday 24 August, Your Trust Charity hosted their first garden party to celebrate the fantastic work our children’s services deliver across the organisation.
The party was open for all to enjoy and played host to a variety of fun and games from arts and crafts, to hook a duck – with all the money raised from the special occasion going towards the children’s department trust fund.
The rainy weather arrived early on, but organisers and party-goers alike didn’t let that dampen their spirits with the party being swiftly moved into the recently renovated Education Centre.
Children at the party had the opportunity to meet Dippy the Clown, Paw Patrol’s Marshall and Poppy from Trolls whilst enjoying a wide selection of delicious treats from ice cream to slushies.
The celebration was then topped off with a raffle prize draw and a highly anticipated appearance of Fifi – the miniature Shetland pony who visited the Trust earlier in the summer.
Amanda Winwood, Fundraising Manager, organised the party and was delighted with how it all went.
She said: “I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported the event; from those who donated items, baked cakes, gave their time in helping set up on the day and in the days leading up to the event.
“Also massive thanks to all the colleagues, patients and visitors that came along and made the day a success.
“Everybody on the day had a great time and it’s safe to say the adults enjoyed it as much as the children.
“To see our community coming together, having fun whilst raising over £550 for such an amazing service made all the hard work worthwhile.”
Your Trust Charity hope to hold similar events in the future so be sure follow them across all their social media platforms for more information.
If you would like to get involved with the charity in capacity or would like to find out more, please contact amanda.winwood@nhs.net.
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