Monthly archives: September 2018
Domestic abuse awareness – hospital posters
If you haven’t already, you will soon start seeing our domestic abuse posters displayed in your clinical area across the Trust.
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Click here for domestic abuse awareness poster[/caption]
We have launched the posters to increase both colleague and public awareness around the public health issue of domestic abuse. All our hospitals are domestic abuse awareness hospitals and can offer support and advice to anyone walking through our doors. We are a safe haven that victims may feel able to access for support.
If you are approached from a patient or member of the public requesting support, find a quiet area to speak to them and reassure that you can help.
We have the following points of contact if you need any safeguarding advice.
- Claire Holmes, Domestic Abuse Lead Nurse – 07811689948
- Carolyn Hawkins, Domestic Abuse Lead Nurse – 07773 427 431
- Rachana Chauhan, Independent Domestic Abuse Advisor – based in Sandwell ED
- Sarah Markland, Independent Domestic Abuse Advisor – based in City ED
- Black Country Women’s Aid (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm) 0121 553 0090
- Black Country Women’s Aid 24 hour helpline 0121 552 6448
Note: Additional information is available on the Safeguarding Children’s team’s connect page.
Sustainability garden party – today
The Sustainability Garden Party returns on Thursday 6 September between 10am-2pm at City Hospital, in the Memorial Gardens. Refreshments will be provided and there will be a chance to win prizes.
The aim of the event is to raise general awareness of sustainability – reducing energy, waste, water and travelling more sustainability.
Sustainability Garden Poster 2018
For more information or if you would like to help out on the day (even for just an hour), please contact Francesca.silcocks@nhs.net.
August edition of Heartbeat now online
The August edition of Heartbeat is now available to view online. This special edition of Heartbeat features stories that sum up just how good the Trust is in lots of areas, with a number of articles having videos for you to view.
If you would like to submit an article for Heartbeat, please email emily.smith46@nhs.net
CQC focus groups – all welcome
The Care Quality Commission are inviting colleagues to attend staff focus groups to hear about our organisation. You are encouraged to attend the focus group relevant to your role or any of the open sessions. This is a good opportunity to showcase the good things about working here ahead of their inspection that will take place within the next few weeks. The focus group dates, times and venues are available on the following link:
Hospital trust is UK-first with Living Wage status
Featured in Express and Star
A minimum hourly wage of £8.75 has been set at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust as it is accredited as a Living Wage Employer.
The Trust’s Living Wage commitment will see everyone working across the Trust receive a minimum hourly wage of £8.75 – a higher amount than the government minimum for over 25s, which currently stands at £7.83 per hour.
Trust chief executive Toby Lewis said: “It’s great news that we’ve got accreditation now as a living wage employer, I think we’re one of the first NHS organisations in the country, and certainly in the West Midlands to achieve that.
“This organisation is values-based, and part of that is about tackling poverty pay. For the lowest paid people who work in our organisation, and do a fantastic job, the living wage is a really important thing and this organisation stands absolutely committed to maintaining our living wage position and hopefully encouraging other public sector bodies locally to tackle poverty pay in our communities.”
Birmingham Black History Month launch event – 25 September
There will be a Birmingham Black History Month Launch event on 25 September at Birmingham Town Hall, Victoria Square, Birmingham, West Midlands, B3 3DQ.
Funded by Birmingham City Council, the event is free for all to attend however, tickets must be booked in advance.
To book your free tickets, please contact the town hall box office on 0121 780 3333.
Fro more information about the event, please visit www.birminghamblackhistorymonth.co.uk
Heartbeat: Integrated care brings significant benefits to respiratory patients
A project aimed at providing integrated care to respiratory patients in primary and secondary care has had national recognition as well as tangible outcomes for our patients.
Arvind Rajasekaran, Respiratory Physician led the Future Hospitals Project which aimed to test models of integrated care in conjunction with the Royal College of Physicians. He said the project was about trying to establish how to balance out the respiratory expertise across secondary and primary care.
He explained more: “Respiratory care involves the management of 30 or more conditions. An ageing population means respiratory conditions coexist with significant systematic diseases such as mental health, social isolation, cardiovascular illness and obesity. Managing these conditions requires expertise and skill and care is very often delivered in the community – but the perception is that the expertise lies in secondary care.
“We engaged the key stakeholders involving colleagues in primary care, community and secondary care. Crucially we involved third sector organisations such as British Lung Foundation as well as patients and carers.”
The team held an engagement event to assess what ‘good’ integrated care would look like – this resulted in three work streams being developed to enable:
- Better management of patients in the community
- Early expert involvement in admissions
- Reduction in the use of ED.
As a result, integrated clinics were established within the community setting. Arvind explained that the plan of action involved:
- Initial co-located clinic with a local GP consortium (Tower Hill, Birmingham)
- Respiratory consultant holding clinics alongside a GP for one morning a week
- Obtaining and analysing patient feedback and acting on it to determine any changes to the service.
Arvind said: “This work has seen a significant improvement in the quality of care and financial savings in terms of the care for patients. Some of the key outcomes included the upskilling of GPs who found it beneficial to learn from consultant colleagues enabling them to provide improved care to patients.
Patients were satisfied with the care they were receiving resulting in the reduction of the use of ED.
“Junior doctors also benefitted from the early input of a consultant in the care of their patients, leading to a reduction in the length of stay.
“We enhanced the care bundle provided to the patients admitted with respiratory conditions by setting up processes enabled by collaborative working by the hospital based nurse specialists and community based respiratory nurse specialists.”
The work the team has done has received welcome recognition at the national level and they have enjoyed a tremendous amount of support from within our organisation, Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group and colleagues working in primary care and community.
Arvind added: “The real success lies in scaling this up to ensure the benefits reach the entire population that we serve. So in some ways this is an ongoing piece of work with the focus on continuous improvement of respiratory health.
“Our Trust vision is to be renowned as the best integrated care organisation in the NHS and true to that vision, we are in the process of establishing the governance structure that will enable the clinical teams to provide integrated respiratory service to the entire population living within the boroughs of Sandwell and West Birmingham.”
Aspiring to Excellence – PDR moderation taking place soon
Thank you to everyone for completing your new Aspiring to Excellence PDRs. We now have over 5,000 PDR scores recorded on ESR and our senior teams are in the process of moderating to ensure that scoring of performance and potential is fair and consistent. If, during moderation it is identified that your score is not in line with our scoring definitions and it is changed (up or down) your line manager will talk to you about this by 7 September 18.
Please remember that your score is measured against the score definitions and that a performance score of “2” is a good score. It’s easy for us to sometimes fall into the trap of thinking a score of 2 is on the lower end of the spectrum and therefore our performance is not acceptable but please be assured that this is not the case. A score of “2” is good with most standards and objectives met.
An example of where a score change may be if an employee has a score above a 2 but their mandatory training has been out of date for over 6 months, mandatory training is an essential requirement of our roles and therefore does not fit in with the definition of a score of 3 or 4. Another potential score change would be if the panel have identified anomalies with the scoring across areas, again your manager will talk to you about this and the reason for any change in the score.
It is envisaged that a conversation with your manager is the best route to agreeing your PDR score change alongside the score definitions. If, for example, you feel you are up-to-date with your Mandatory Training but your manager has highlighted that you are not then you should provide evidence to your Manager and ensure your records are updated, your manager will then agree with you the outcome of your score change conversation and this does not require an appeal. If you remain unable to agree your score against the score definitions, appeals will be heard on 28 September 18 and are required to be submitted by 14 September 18 . A panel will hear the appeal. Appeals should be by exception only and must only be submitted following a discussion to resolve locally. Further information can be found in the PDR Appeals process
The moderation teams will also be reviewing the quality of SMART objectives for 2018/19. SMART objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely and a good way to make sure that any uncertainty is removed and your objectives are clear for the year ahead. During the next PDR cycle (from April 2019) you will then review your achievement against these objectives which will generate your performance score for next year.
This is the first year of PDR moderation and I am sure we will learn lessons in the process as we go. The learning will be captured and improve next year’s moderation process.
Heartbeat: Live demonstration of pioneering treatment at City Hospital
Last month, City Hospital hosted a live workshop of a pioneering treatment for patients undergoing partial breast reconstruction. The workshop, the first of its kind in the UK, attracted consultants and trainees from across the UK and involved lecture sessions, live mark up for surgery and also live in-theatre observation of the procedure being carried out.
Heartbeat spoke to Consultant Oncoplastic and Reconstructive Breast Surgeon, Geeta Shetty, who organised the workshop.
“City Hospital is one of the centres in the UK who are pioneering in partial breast reconstruction,” said Mrs Shetty.
She added: “Many patients, especially with smaller breasts, who would have been left with marked asymmetry/deformity would benefits from this procedure. It has enhanced the aesthetic results and for some patients have avoided mastectomy.
“The surgery, which uses the chest wall perforator flaps has reduced the overall length of inpatient stay, thus contributing to cost effectiveness. Since the introduction of this service, the standard of care provide by our team in the breast unit has reached the next level.”
Over the past 10 months, the team have been having numerous visits from colleagues from all over the country who were keen to learn the new technique; hence the idea to host a workshop was born.
Mrs Shetty explained more: “The workshop allowed us to share our innovative surgical techniques with consultant colleagues from across the UK which can only benefit breast patients in the future.
“The opportunity to watch a live operation was fantastic for them and the feedback we have received is very positive and encouraging.
“I must thank all of our team in the breast unit, theatre and the radiology department for their willingness to support his course and make it so successful. The course is oversubscribed and is being talked about amongst breast surgeons all over the country.
“Our aim now is to run the workshop regularly and disseminate our knowledge to our fellow breast colleagues.”
Annual charity bike ride needs your support
Our annual Charity Bike Ride is being on Thursday 6 September and there are still two spaces left for bike ride and time to donate to this fantastic cause.
The event has been held since 1999, and this year the group consists of 33 colleagues and friends, tackling the Trans Pennine cycling route, from Crosby (River Mersey) to Hull (River Humber), approximately 170 miles over 3 and a half days.
This year, the team are raising money to support our patients recently diagnosed, or with ongoing visual impairments at our Birmingham Midland Eye Centre (BMEC). The funds raised could help set up a young volunteer hub at BMEC. This hub will befriend, support and mentor our patients, engaging them in sports and healthy lifestyle activities. This will improve their wellbeing, nutrition and physical activity levels. It will also provide our young volunteers with a lifelong desire to help patients with visual impairment, vision loss, and blindness.
If you would like to donate, please click on the link below:
VirginMoneyGiving – SWBH Trans Pennine 2018 Donations
If you would like to participate in the bike ride itself, please contact ian.hawthorn@nhs.net or call 07951 069299.
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