Monthly archives: November 2018

Sepsis is our number one quality priority: Day 27 of our campaign

Sepsis message from GPs:

Recognising sepsis especially at an early stage represents a big challenge to GPs as we see a huge number of ordinary infections that present similarly on a daily basis. However it is important that we identify some of the key signs and symptoms which suggest sepsis, as early diagnosis is key to saving lives.

We don’t readily have access to immediate laboratory services and so it is essential we understand and refer to sepsis toolkits (such as the RCGP one) aimed at GPs and other front line health professionals to help assess patients we see in the community presenting with acute infection.

The key signs to look out for and acting immediately are:

• Systolic blood pressure less than 90 mmHg (or great than 40 mmHg fall from baseline)
• Heart rate greater than 130 per minute
• Oxygen saturations less than 91 per cent
• Respiratory rate greater than 25 per minute
• Responds only to voice or pain/unresponsive

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 23 November

We have done it again. Over 80 per cent of patient facing colleagues have now had our flu vaccination, giving protection against four strains of flu as we head into winter. The figure for all employees is rising fast too. We are seeing unprecedented coverage of flu vaccinations, especially in medicine and emergency care, who have hit 93 per cent already. I appreciate this marks five years of annual success in vaccination, and that there is more still to do. Last night our ‘night jabbers’ were out and about at Sandwell, and we will keep up our offer in the days ahead. The campaign is about patient safety and staff wellbeing.

I have written a number of times here about security and safety in our organisation. We have tried to focus hard on this, with mandatory protective devices for lone workers, and other innovations. We are looking at body worn cameras, and are making more investments in our surveillance technology. At the same time, some great work is being done on de-escalation and other techniques which can help us to concentrate our uniformed resource into specific areas of risk, by providing an alternative approach elsewhere. I know that this morning one of our teams experienced significant violence affecting a number of staff, and I want to thank again everyone who works in parts of our Trust where violence is not tolerated; but it is an ever present risk. The Trust’s Board in February will review all of the work we are doing on safety and security and test those efforts against best practice nationally.

This week has marked all sorts of awareness raising activities. The national audit superheroes competition has been in full swing and hundreds of people have voted already in our QIHD Poster competition. The final judging and announcements happen on 6 December, but please do look online, or visit Hallam Restaurant and our Education Centre at Sandwell to see some genuinely fascinating examples of innovation and learning from across our organisation. We should be very proud of what they show. The best will feature in Heartbeat, and the posters will do some cross site touring early next year. This is an annual contest so if you are inspired, get ready for November 2019.

Our alcohol team continue to build on the work they started under the auspices of Your Trust Charity. The service will get mainstream funding now, and are working to help both patients and families to tackle the scourge of alcohol misuse. We know that is common in our communities, and of course an elevated risk too among NHS staff. Christmas can be a time when there is societal pressure to drink to excess, and we know that we need to be alert to the risks we face from misuse and dependency. Our 50p campaign continues, as we work alongside Sandwell Council to try to encourage a minimum unit price for alcohol locally. The evidence is clear that this strategy works, and when you learn that alcohol is sold locally for 8p a unit, you will recognise the risks of both under age and excessive drinking that we face. The health consequences of which, we know, but must be vocal about, and honest in tackling. During 2019 we will see a series of campaigns locally to not simply raise awareness of public health issues but aim to change behaviours, and this Trust has led the way in highlighting many of these issues. Beyond our 2020 vision, our 2030 strategy depends on success.

The Education Centre is now a destination venue for many, many key events in our Trust. I was delighted this week to see the fourth annual ultrasound conference for learning in emergency medicine. Delighted because it was attended by trainees and potential recruits from across the region, but also because the event showed great collaboration with neighbouring Trusts, perhaps particularly University Hospitals Birmingham. This is something we will want to build on as we work to make sure that Birmingham residents get a consistently good healthcare offer, regardless of provider, and as we look to make sure that tertiary relationships in services like stroke and cancer care are strengthened. Diagnostic certainty is a key ask of patients, but also of clinicians wanting information with which to set care plans. The main event at our Trust Board in ten days’ time will be our 2019 plans for radiology services, with continued investment in equipment, and staff, as well as the initiation of a strategic reporting partnership to get reports back to GPs and Trust clinicians in good time. The improvements in imaging over the last two years have been widely noted and so this further investment builds on strength and looks to ensure that the Trust is known for the timeliness and excellence of our diagnostic services.

I advertised last week our upcoming charity ball. This week’s plug is for our charity single. A 79p download will help us to raise funds and profile, and I understand that the top 40 is not completely out of reach. It’s up to you.

There is a lot to sing about across the organisation as we move to complete the first phase of our sepsis campaign, with less than 1 in 2 screenings now being missed: An incredible change from November 1st, with seven days still to go in the month. Having made this our number 1 quality priority, it is tremendous to see the response and drive of colleagues across the organisation to improve the consistency and quality of what we do, together.

#hellomynameis…toby

Night time flu vaccinations at City Hospital – 27 and 30 November

Pamela Bradley-Lake will be doing a night time walk about to offer flu jabs to colleagues at City Hospital on Tuesday 27 November and Friday 30 November until 10pm on both days.

Colleagues can call ext. 4450 should they require a night time flu vaccination.

Note: The flu vaccine does not contain any pork or meat product or derivatives.

 

Heartbeat: In the spotlight – Martin Sadler, Chief Informatics Officer

In the spotlight this month is our new Chief Informatics Officer, Martin Sadler. Martin joined us in September and is leading on the work to repair and develop our IT infrastructure. He took some time out to answer some of our questions.

HB: So how are you settling in?

MS: Very well thanks. I have enjoyed meeting people. If you do see me out and about please stop me to say hello. I want to hear your experiences of IT as I really want to help resolve them for you and understand what your frustrations are. I have been building my knowledge on the organisation by visiting colleagues in their places of work to help me understand their business. And I have had the opportunity to observe a heart operation!

HB: Why Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals?

MS: It’s simple – I have lived in the area for many years, I like public service and making IT services work better is really fun.

HB: What is your background in informatics?

MS: I was IT director at Walsall Council for eight years. I have also worked for numerous organisations in both the private and public sector. I know what a good IT experience should look like – every single one of us coming into work every day and having access to IT that works when we need it. This is what I am aiming for in this organisation.

HB: IT performance is high up on the list of frustrations for colleagues in our workplace. How does this fit in with your priorities over the next few months?

MS: Toby, our chief executive has stated that IT is the organisation’s number one safety priority. And as a team are we are aware of the impact on colleague’s working lives when IT is not working. Unfortunately the infrastructure is not fit for purpose and work is underway to resolve that.

Although it will take time for colleagues to start seeing improvements, those improvements will come. By the time this article is published the work to upgrade the IT infrastructure will have started. This will include ensuring Wi-Fi works across all our sites including Rowley and Leasowes where there has been particularly poor coverage.

While the work to upgrade the infrastructure is a big project, the team is also focussed on the everyday issues that get in the way of you doing your job. We want to build a picture of what these issues are so please give us your feedback. Remember to log queries through the helpdesk either via Connect or by calling ext 4050.

My key priorities are ensuring stable, working and suitable IT for colleagues. My ultimate aim is to make the IT department the best in the Midlands to match our 2020 vision. A big job!

HB: As work gets underway to fix the IT are we to expect any planned outages?

MS: The recent major outage provided the opportunity to review our processes and resilience. We learned much from it as we are now putting place measures to reduce the likelihood of something like that happening again. IT issues will happen, however my aim is to get them resolved as quickly as possible.

We will be rolling out a programme of planned outages many of which will be out of hours or over a weekend. We will ensure colleagues and teams affected receive as much notice as possible.

HB: What are your plans for your team?

MS: We have a great IT team here and I am enjoying working with them to improve our service as well as ensuring each team member continues to develop and have the skills and abilities to help make this IT department the best in the Midlands.

Sepsis is our number one quality priority: Day 26 of our campaign

Message from Tranprit Saluja, Consultant Microbiologist and Infection Prevention & Control Doctor

Sepsis is the body’s systemic inflammatory response to microbial infection which can cause organ damage, shock, and high mortality. Sepsis can occur after an infection, whether it’s bacterial, viral, or fungal. Common infections that turn into sepsis include urinary tract infections, pneumonia, abdominal infections, and skin infections.

Blood culture remains one of the most important investigations in the management of sepsis. It allows identification of the responsible organism for sepsis, appropriate choice of empirical and specific antibiotics and points toward further investigations required to identify the focus of infection.

Antibiotic resistance is an increasingly serious threat to global public health. Managing sepsis and antibiotic stewardship is guided by laboratory findings, by knowledge of local pathogens and patterns of antimicrobial resistance, and clinical judgment.  In order to maximize the benefit of prompt antimicrobial therapy and avoid the risk associated with inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents, patients with suspected sepsis must be rapidly differentiated from patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) with a combination with standard microbiological testing and rapid diagnostics.

There are some fundamental steps that can be taken to reduce the likelihood of sepsis developing from an infection across all of the at-risk groups

• Good hand hygiene and handwashing techniques amongst the professionals that will help to reduce the spread of infection.
• Secondary bacterial infection leading to sepsis is a known complication of influenza (flu), particularly in at-risk groups. Achieving high uptake of flu vaccination in target groups (pregnant women, over 65s, those in care homes and some with long-term conditions) will reduce the likelihood of at-risk groups suffering from influenza and possible sepsis as a result.
• Vaccination has major role in prevention of sepsis. The high uptake of childhood vaccination for Haemophilus influenza type B, meningococcal serogroup C and pneumococcal infection has not only protected the children who are vaccinated but has also reduced the circulation of these organisms in the community that can cause sepsis. Vaccination against viral infections – including measles and influenza – has also massively reduced the risk of secondary bacterial infection. Vaccines uptake should be encouraged to reduce risk of infection and sepsis.
• To increase global awareness of antibiotic resistance and to encourage best practices among the, health care professionals and general public to prevent the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.

The four is strong in SWBH

Fantastic news – over 80 per cent of our patient facing colleagues have now had their flu vaccination, giving them four shields of protection over the virus.  Reaching 80 per cent means that we have now achieved herd immunity, which will keep us all a little safer as we go through the winter and keep our patients safer too.

This year, we launched our brand new campaign, ‘May the 4 be with you,’ a play on the famous Star Wars quote, which celebrates the four elements of protection this season’s quadrivelent flu vaccine offers.

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Colleagues from across the organisation embraced the theme, with many dressing up as iconic characters from the film, including; Chief Nurse, Paula Gardner as Obi-Wan Kenobi,  Medical Director, David Carruthers as Hans Solo and Director of People and OD, Raffaela Goodby donning an impressive Princess Leia costume.

Our campaign launched with colleagues from our communications and occupational health teams starring as characters in a flu inspired poem, which drew praise from organisations such as NHS England and Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG.

As well as dressing up as characters, colleagues shared their reasons for having the flu vaccine, with many people having it for the first time this year, including Finance Manager, Masood Hussain.

Previously, Masood had been put off having his vaccine as he believed it contained pork or other animal derivatives, but encouraged by the new campaign – he decided to investigate if indeed this was true.

He said to Heartbeat: “The campaign this year is so eye catching that it made me think that I should try and seek clarification, so I contacted occupational health who confirmed that the vaccine they use didn’t contain any pork or other meat products or derivatives.

“Thanks to this reassurance, I had my vaccine for the first time – as did many other Muslim and BME colleagues.”

To inject an element of fun into the campaign, we ran a who is ‘Flubacca’ competition, where many colleagues took the chance to guess who was behind the mask. Guesses included, Chief Pharmacist, Puneet Sharma and Deputy Chief Nurse, Paul Hooton, but the man behind the mask turned out to be non-other than Chief Executive, Toby Lewis.

Tracy Lees, Occupational Health & Wellbeing Nurse Manager is delighted with the success of this year’s campaign: “We have achieved herd immunity in just over seven weeks – the quickest we have ever it done it – so thank you to colleagues and vaccinators who have really embraced the campaign this year.

“With that being said, I still think as a Trust we should aim to protect everyone and ideally we want 100 per cent of colleagues to have had their flu injection, so please do come forward if you are yet to have yours.”

If you wish to have your flu vaccine please contact occupational health on extension 3306.

Download the Your Trust Charity Christmas single today

Your Trust Charity has teamed up with local school, Bristnall Hall Academy to release a charity Christmas single.

The track, O Holy Night, is available now  and will raise vital funds to enhance the patient experience at our organisation.

It features the vocal talents of students, teachers, school governors, healthcare workers and even Baggie Bird, the West Bromwich Albion mascot, as well as local celebrity Kash “the Flash” Gill, four-times world Kickboxing champion. The idea was conceived by Amanda Winwood, Fundraising Manager at Your Trust Charity and record producer James Callaghan has worked on producing the single.

Amanda said: “Our charity single, ‘O Holy Night’ is a fantastic way to raise funds for the charity whilst getting into the spirit of Christmas.

“It’s a collaboration between our Trust and the incredibly talented students of Bristnall Hall Academy. It’s a heart-warming song which we are releasing at a joyous time for a very worthy cause.

“Every penny raised through sales of this single will go straight back in to helping our charity provide the wonderful care our Trust is known for.

James, who works as sound designer for the BBC show Doctor Who, added: “As a former pupil of Bristnall Hall it was an honour to take on the challenge of composing an arrangement for this classic Christmas song.

“Working with Your Trust Charity and the school is both rewarding and uplifting. I hope the single can raise some funds to help the local community. Making people’s lives more comfortable by providing good patient care is a cause I feel passionately about and with the help of the school we can all do our part.”

Vince Green, Principal at the school, said: “This is an amazing initiative from Your Trust Charity raising funds for such a very worthy cause. Students and staff at Bristnall Hall Academy were honoured to be invited to host the recording and sing with staff from the Trust who kindly committed their time and talent to the single. It will be great to see this charity single being well supported by people from our community and beyond.”

You can download the single from iTunes by searching ‘The Heartbeats Choir’ or you can buy a limited edition CD which is priced at £5 – please e-mail amanda.winwood@nhs.net for further information on this.

SWB Benefits: Cyber Monday – sign up now and start saving

We’re offering a variety of staff benefits to all our colleagues throughout Cyber Monday beyond.

To check out all the latest offerings be sure to download our benefits app.

To download the App: Visit the ‘SWBH Benefits’ website on your smartphone and log in using your registered email address and password. Click on the ‘SWBH Benefits App’ tile and follow the instructions to download for Android and iPhone. Once downloaded you’ll need to login to the app using the same login credentials you used on the website.

For more information please contact amir.ali1@nhs.net.

Trust wide survey of window restrictors in patient and public areas

Commencing on Monday 3 December, a small team of surveyors will be visiting all wards and departments to check on the existence and condition of the window restrictors to all opening windows.

This is a mandatory safety requirement so your co-operation in providing the survey team with access to all the locations that need to be surveyed is greatly appreciated.

For further information or clarification please contact Deputy Head of Estates, Phil Foley on ext. 6088.

An opportunity to review and assess devices – 26 November

Are you going to be using a work station on wheels as part of your role when Unity is live?

A number of colleagues have reported that some of the devices and trolleys that have already been deployed for use within Unity may not be ideal in terms of their form or function.

The Unity project team is providing an opportunity for you to attend an event which is aimed at getting your views to ensure any future purchases of devices are fit for purpose.

We have asked a number of our suppliers to set up and demonstrate their equipment between 9.30am-3.30pm on Monday 26 November in the Wolfson Lecture Theatre, Post Graduate Centre at City Hospital.

Your feedback is valuable, so please come along and give us your views. The event is a drop-session so you can attend at any point throughout the day.

For further information email swbh.trustindigital@nhs.net