Monthly archives: October 2018
Why the flu vaccine is important
In the past, people have believed that they can prevent themselves from contracting flu, by things such as handwashing or eating a healthy diet.
Today, Infection Prevention and Control Nurse, Gemma Charles tells us why she believes the flu vaccine is so important.
Remember that there are some excellent prizes up for grabs for those who have their flu jab during the first six week of our campaign. These include £300 Love2Shop vouchers and an extra annual leave day so be sure to have your vaccine to get your name in the draw.
If you have had your vaccine from your GP or somewhere else, you can still count towards our target and also get yourself in the prize draw. Simply fill in the form on Connect to let us know.
Note: The flu vaccine does not contain any pork or meat product or derivatives. However, there are traces of egg in the vaccine.
Star Awards – New Leader of the Year 2018
Our annual Star Awards took place on Friday 12 October, with over 350 colleagues in attendance. It was a fantastic evening, celebrating everything that is good about our organisation.
This year’s New Leader of the Year 2018 was shared by matrons Natalie Whitton and Sam Beck.
Natalie was inspired to be a nurse by her aunt. She started her career as a student nurse with our organisation in 2004. At this time, Natalie had two young children and was juggling this alongside her studies wasn’t easy, but she was determined to achieve her goal. 16 months after qualifying, she had been promoted to a ward sister.
Natalie briefly spent time away from SWBH, before being encouraged by her previous manager to apply for a senior sister post in primary care, communities and therapies. She was successful and returned home in January 2017. After an impressive 18 months, she has now been seconded into a matron post.
Sam is an example of SWBH growing our own. She first joined our organisation as a student nurse in 2004, before joining the surgical day unit at Sandwell Hospital as a newly qualified nurse. She briefly worked at the sickle cell centre before returning to surgery.
Sam progressed to a band 6 role, before being offered a senior sister post in 2015 covering day surgery, pre assessment and plastic surgery clinical nurse specialists. In October 2017 she was seconded to a matron position.
Check out the videos below to find out why Sam and Natalie were recognised for outstanding commitment.
A full gallery of photos from the awards ceremony can be found on our Facebook page.
If you attended the Star Awards and would like to leave some feedback, please e-mail emily.smith46@nhs.net
Restart a Heart Day today
Today is Restart a Heart Day where we will be hosting events across our Trust engaging both our staff, but also patients, families and friends and enabling them to have a go at CPR. You can find us at:
- Main reception, Sandwell Hospital, until 2.30pm
- BTC, City Hospital, until 2.30pm
- Rowley, until 2.30pm
If you require a BLS assessment you’re encouraged to pop along. Any queries or issues with access to training should be sent to bethan.downing1@nhs.net
Pilates class cancelled today at Sandwell
Today’s Pilates class which was meant to be held at the Berridge Room (formerly Courtyard Training Room), Sandwell Hospital from 4:45pm-5.45pm has been cancelled due to sickness.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
For more information please call Jatinder Sekhon on ext. 3306, option 4.
IT incident update – Tuesday 16 October
Dear colleagues
Thank you for your cooperation during the IT issues we are experiencing.
The informatics team are working closely with external experts on the recovery plans with work planned this week that we expect to improve the situation.
We also experienced an interruption yesterday with the network connection at Sandwell that affected systems at Sandwell, Rowley and the Lyng including email and internet access. We have now moved to a secondary connection that has restored functionality.
The Emergency Departments, outpatient clinics and transport are continuing to treat patient safely, using their business continuity processes and we have had no need to cancel any planned appointments or procedures. All colleagues are asked to ensure that the E-outcome and EDTA (Electronic Decision to Admit) forms are filled out as completely as possible for each patient who attends a clinic appointment. This is essential to ensure that each patient has their next outcome recorded and their ongoing care planned appropriately.
Please make sure that you continue to report any IT issues to the Helpdesk on ext.4050 or via the Connect portal. We need to make sure we capture all IT problems so that we can identify if there is any further failure affecting our ability to deliver patient care and carry out our essential work.
Thank you for your hard work. We recognise the frustrations that are caused by this incident and will share a further update shortly.
Best wishes
Rachel Barlow
African-Caribbean health information conference – 19 October
African-Caribbean health information conference are inviting all colleagues to their 5th annual conference on Friday 19 October, 9.30am-4pm at Bethel Convention Centre, B70 7JW.
The event focuses on health concerns that affect a high number of African-Caribbean patients and aims to highlight and address any educational and management difficulties health care professionals might find when engaging with this group of patients.
The BME Staff Network will have a stand in celebration of Black History Month and colleagues from our Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Centre will feature on the agenda
Note: This is a free event but places must be pre-booked for catering purposes.
Click here for more information.
Star Awards – Celebrating everything that is good about our workplace
Our annual Star Awards took place on Friday 12 October, with over 350 colleagues in attendance. It was a fantastic evening, celebrating everything that is good about our organisation.
The full list of winners is as follows:
- Employee of the Year: Debi Fretwell
- Clinical Team of the Year – Adults: Out of Hours District Nurses
- Clinical Team of the Year – Children: Infant Feeding Team
- Non-Clinical Team of the Year: Medical Records
- Digital Leader of the Year; Dominic LeGros
- Excellence in Education Prize: Bishwajeet Elangbam
- Excellence in Research Prize: Kanthan Theivendran
- 2020 Prize for Integrated Care Pioneer of the Year: Lawrence Kelly
- New Leader of the Year: Sam Beck and Natalie Whitton
- Learner of the Year: Stephanie Craig
- Volunteer of the Year: Janet Dearne
- Patient Safety Award: Safety Plan Project Team
- Prize for Innovation: Louise Thompson
- Distinguished Service Award: Ann Stevenson
- Award for Equality and Diversity Champion: Donna Mighty
- Fundraiser of the Year: Stroke and Neurology Therapy Team
- Quality of Care Award: Lisa McFarlane
- Local Primary Care Award for the Most Valued Service in the Trust: Respiratory Consultants
- Chairman’s Award : Dr Sally Bradberry
- Special Recognition for Partnership Working : Bristnall Hall Academy
On the evening, the audience was shown a video of each winner, narrated by the person who nominated them. We will be sharing these with you via the communications bulletin over the next couple of weeks.
A full gallery of photos can be found on our Facebook page.
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Half way to herd immunity
The latest stats from our ‘May the four be with you’ flu campaign shows that 40 per cent of patient facing colleagues have already received their flu vaccine – in just two weeks – a fantastic effort. This means that we are already half way to reaching our 80 per cent target and herd immunity.
See how your department is getting on here.
There are now just four weeks remaining for you to join the force and get your flu vaccine, so make sure it’s one of your priorities this week.
Sandwell Hospital
Tuesday and Thursday – 8.30am – 12noon
Main reception
Friday – 1pm – 4pm
Occupational health, courtyard gardens
City Hospital
Tuesday and Thursday – 8.30am – 12noon
Old foot health clinic, by main reception
Friday – 1pm – 4pm
Old foot health clinic, by main reception
Starting this week – you can also have your flu ‘jab-in-the-hut’ – our brand new pop-up location which will be touring the hospital, starting with maternity from 9am -12noon. Departments can request that ‘jab-in-the-hut’ visits their department by called extension 3803.
Remember that you will be automatically entered into the draw to win some fantastic prizes once you have had your vaccination.
Note: The flu vaccine does not contain any pork or meat product or derivatives. However, there are traces of egg in the vaccine.
How to handle complaints presentation at City – 29 October
The Medical Defence Union will delivering a special presentation on how to handle complaints on Monday 29 October at the Postgraduate Centre at City Hospital from 12.30pm-1.30pm.
The presentation is open to all clinical and non-clinical colleagues.
For more information please contact louise.tomkins@nhs.net.
Hospital boss vow over mental health
Featured in the Express & Star.
A hospital boss has said he wants to make sure mental health is not treated as a stigma. Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust chief executive Toby Lewis said his trust were vying to get the right kind of support to people suffering mental health issues.
The statement came as part of a speech delivered by the health boss on the annual awareness-raising World Mental Health Day.
In a video posted to social media, Mr Lewis said: “It is so important. Lots of our staff and lots of our patients and lots of us in our lives will have issues with mental health.
“We want to make sure that this is not a stigma and we want to make sure we can talk about it and we can get the right kind of support targeted at people.
“This is all about joining up connections across our community on World Mental Health Day, but also every day of the year.”
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