Monthly archives: December 2018
Heartbeat: Overseas visitors – to pay or not to pay?
At the heart of the NHS and that of every trust across the country is the core principle that healthcare is available for everyone and free at the point of use. This notion has stood true since the establishment of the NHS in 1948, however with the release of new legislation; trusts are now increasingly obligated to recoup costs from patients considered as overseas visitors.
In 2015, new legislation came in to force which placed a legal obligation on all Trusts to charge and attempt to recover charges from overseas visitors using NHS services. Overseas visitors who need require healthcare whilst in England are often not entitled to free healthcare from the National Health Service. Equally a person who does not normally live in the UK is defined as an overseas visitor and legislation dictates that charges must apply to treatment provided, unless an exemption applies.
Here at SWBH, to help manage this process we have our very own overseas visitors team who are the friendly faces tasked with assessing patients eligibility for free healthcare. The team includes Saleem Mohammed, Overseas Visitors Manager and Overseas Visitors Officers, Kiran Virk and Genevieve Southall.
To find out more about the new process, Heartbeat caught up with Saleem.
“Overseas visitors who are seeking healthcare whilst in the UK may be interviewed by one of my team, who will ask for documentation in order to evidence lawful and current residence in the UK,” said Saleem.
“This evidence entitles them to use the NHS free of charge. Documents we commonly request include passports, visa, utility bills, European Health Insurance Card, payslips, proof of benefits or council tax bill.”
Where a patient is visiting England and is not entitled to free NHS healthcare, medical treatment will only be provided without advance payment where it is deemed clinically urgent or immediately necessary. For all immediately necessary or urgent treatment received, patients will be issued an invoice once treatment has concluded. All non-urgent treatment must be paid for in advance.
The overseas visitors team has been in place since mid-August and to date have followed up 600 outstanding queries. In doing so they have closed 28 cases as patients were proven to be eligible and this reduced the debt owed to the Trust by over £108K.
Saleem added: “Focus for our team isn’t simply to ensure all overseas patients are invoiced, we’re also here to help our colleagues navigate the often confusing rules and regulations on the charging policies, ensuring that eligible patients get the care they deserve quickly and that the in-eligible are invoiced accordingly.
“We are currently offering training in ‘patient points of entry’ such as AMU and the emergency departments, our largest point of entry will be targeted in the next few weeks.”
If you work in an area that registers or books in patients please contact the team to find out more about the overseas visitors regulations on 0121 507 3420 or email: swb-tr.swbhoverseasvisitors@nhs.net
Update to Trust antibiotic guidelines for the treatment of hospital acquired pneumonia
Due to an acute supply problem, we’re unable to source supplies of co-trimoxazole 480mg in 5ml injection. This is the first line choice for severe hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP) in our respiratory tract infection guidelines.
As a result, the guidelines have been updated to recommend alternative intravenous antibiotics for patients with severe HAP – this change has been made to the Trust guidelines on Connect and on Microguide. Please ensure that the version of Microguide you are using is the most up to date version – version 1.9.
We will continue to monitor our supplies of co-trimoxazole IV and will provide further updates when the situation has normalised.
There are no supply problems with oral preparations of co-trimoxazole and this can continue to be use where recommended in the trust guidelines.
If you have any questions, please contact conor.jamieson@nhs.net or mark.li1@nhs.net.
Have you changed your vehicle since you applied for your parking permit?
If you have changed your vehicle or registration plate since you applied for your hospital parking permit, please contact the car parking admin office on ext. 6424 or 4301 to update them of your changes.
This will ensure we’re able to contact you in the event of:
- An emergency
- You’re blocking someone in
- Your lights have been left switched on
- Your vehicle has been damaged
Glucose valves engineer at Sandwell today
An engineer from Abbott Laboratories is going to be on-site at Sandwell Hospital today between 9.30am-4pm to undertake configuration work on the Abbott Glucose Meters.
Please assist the engineer by making sure you have your glucose meter available and ready for him to configure. The process should take less than 10 minutes per meter.
Heartbeat: Changing drinking habits to lead a healthier lifestyle
This year’s Alcohol Awareness Week was marked with a wide range of engaging activities, hoping to change the public perception of drinking.
The alcohol team organised two events in November at Sandwell and City Hospitals, where they were able to engage with patients, visitors, and colleagues through games, quizzes, and alcohol-free drinks tasting.
Visitors were also asked to take part in surveys to learn more about their drinking habits.
Arlene Copland, Alcohol Lead Nurse, said: “We are delighted to have met many people at the events on both sites. The theme for this year’s campaign is about ‘change’, and that’s what we encourage people to do.
“In Sandwell, a staggering 40,075 people are binge drinking. Nearly 90 per cent of them are increasing the risk to their health by doing this.”
She added: “At the events we held, we offered a wide range of alcohol-free drinks. Also, we urged people to make simple pledges, such as having more alcohol-free days and not drinking more than 14 units of alcohol per week.
“We hope that patients, visitors, and colleagues learned more about the impact alcohol has on their health and wellbeing as a result of these events.”
The alcohol team was established over a year ago, but they have already seen nearly two thousand patients. Arlene said: “We have been working with our partners, CGL (Change Grow Live Birmingham) and the charity Cranstoun (based in Sandwell) to deliver a wide range of treatments to help patients reduce their alcohol intake or quit drinking completely.
“We see patients who present to the emergency departments and those who are admitted to the wards. We support them whilst they are in hospital and also in developing a treatment plan afterwards.
“We also receive referrals from GPs to see patients whose drinking is so severe, they cannot be treated by the community services.
“Since starting the service, we have prevented approximately 333 bed days, treating people on an outpatient basis which has saved the Trust around £133,000.”
Alcohol Awareness Week ran from 19 – 26 November this year.
Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 30 November
You cannot have missed the media hubbub which has accompanied the launch of our first Christmas Charity single. 79p makes a fantastic stocking filler and will help to propel us up the charts. Thank you to everyone involved. In addition to a good cause and a lot of fun, we are sustaining the relationships we are building with local schools. That must be right as we look to the workforce of the future and also to our mission to promote health in our communities.
One chart we already top is the national flu vaccination league table. That’s right, our Trust is, currently, the best in the country for flu vaccination among patient facing staff. Again a big thank you. And let’s keep going. We have been vaccinating this week overnight and cannot let up. Neighbouring Trusts are starting to see admissions with flu and we need our vigilance high. It’s not a cold. It’s much more serious than that.
Our teams in A&E are at the forefront of work to treat emergency admissions. Over the last year we have implemented some clever projects to try and get the right patient to the right place. I have written here about SMART and SPA! In and out of hours however many thousands rely on our ED teams, and they in your support. Our second LiA event with those teams this week produced a great vibe around work to change the relationship between emergency care and radiology. But it’s clear there is much more to do to get communication right in the departments, to make sure pain relief is available on arrival and to ensure care is safe, and staff wellbeing secured, overnight. We will keep working to do just that.
Thank you to everyone who voted in our QIHD poster contest. Lots of people have mentioned to me how inspiring the posters are as a tribute to collective improvement effort. But someone has to win, and the distinguished judging panel on Thursday will award our £500 prizes, and the big one, £5,000, to the very best entry. Get thinking now about your entry next year. QIHD time is precious and provides a real opportunity to put in place service improvements, both big and small, that make a huge difference. Our challenge of course is to use the posters to see what someone else has done that we could copy. That is why the posters will go “on tour” around our sites in the new year.
The Board meets on Thursday at Sandwell. Top of the agenda is investments and changes we have planned in radiology. It is good news that the department have largely got on top of some recent backlogs, but we aim to enter 2019/20 able to guarantee waiting times not just for scans but for reports. And before you ask, of course we are exploring AI solutions, but we want to sustain and increase the availability of skilled clinicians to talk and to interpret results.
Over the next few weeks we will be looking to confirm our capital investments in neonatal services to improve quality, and to finalise plans to invest in the City site to make sure it remains useable through to the opening of Midland Met. The Trust is on track to deliver our financial plans this year, and that gives us scope to ensure we have the right facilities. The same of course is true of our IT, and every effort continues to sort out both the underlying issues and specific infuriation like the Winscribe difficulties we have, and technology support to midwifery. Frontline clinicians have joined our Board committee to make sure that the reality of our challenges is clear. The initial WiFi deployment, long promised, is now in situ and we are into a testing phase. We cannot go live with Unity until a number of conditions are met, of which WiFi cover is one. Do please keep reporting incidents as you have them. From January incidents raised with the help desk will only be closed with your agreement as the end user, and we are also recruiting mystery shoppers who will be asked monthly whether they believe IT here is improving. There is an absolute commitment to get this right and no naivety about the difficulties. Our printer Elf Squad are out and about in coming days trying to fix your printer issues.
Attached are this week’s IT statistics: IT Performance Stats 30 November 2018
Monday sees the formal launch of applications to be a Pioneer Team within our weconnect programme. Do take a look at the enrolment information and see if this opportunity is for you and your team. There will be plenty of support, a little money, and some privileges, freedoms and permissions, that successful teams will get, as we look to make working here both simpler and a little more rewarding.
weconnect Pioneer Teams Programme Application Form
#hellomynameis…toby
Your Trust Charity Christmas single launched
Your Trust Charity is proud to announce that it has teamed up with pupils from Bristnall Hall Academy in Oldbury, to release a Christmas single.
The track, O Holy Night is available now and every single download will raise vital funds to enhance the experience of patients at our Trust.
[su_youtube_advanced url="https://youtu.be/rL2WxO8qBDk" width="400" height="300" showinfo="no" rel="no" modestbranding="yes" theme="light" https="yes" wmode="transparent" playsinline="yes"]The single features the vocal talents of students, teachers, school governors, healthcare colleagues 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 brought to life by record producer James Callaghan.
To download your copy, click on the following links or search “The Heartbeats Choir” on Apple iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, Tidal or Napster.
If you want to buy one of the limited edition CDs contact Amanda Winwood, ext, 4847 or email amanda.winwood@nhs.net.
Team Talk Briefing – November 2018
TeamTalk, our refocussed team briefing sessions took place last week where attendees were given an update from the Clinical Leadership Executive and were also briefed on national and regional updates.
As part of the session, the major topic for the month was sepsis and our mission to save 50 lives year.
If you were not able to make one of the sessions you can download a copy of the briefing presentation and the latest TeamTalk video from our Chief Executive, Toby Lewis.
Re-calibration of scales
Contractors from Marsden will be coming on site and visiting our Trust on the following dates to complete the annual service of the weighing scales.
Please can we ask that all scales are ready and accessible for the service. Should you have any queries please call the relevant contact.
4– 5 December:
Sandwell General Hospital: Contact: Andrew Mould, ext. 2582
6 December:
Leasowes Health Centre: Contact: Mark Bartram, ext. 4849
Rowley Regis Hospital: Contact: Andrew Mould, ext. 2582
10–14 December
City Hospital and Birmingham Treatment Centre: Contact: Mark Bartram, ext. 4849
Don’t miss the tissue viability roadshow at Sandwell today
NHS Improvement (NHSi) have revised the definition and measurement framework of pressure ulcers. This is being rolled out across the whole of England and these changes became effective within our Trust from 1 December.
To find out more and ensure your knowledge in patient care is up to date, come and visit the tissue viability team:
- Wednesday 5 December – Roadshow at Sandwell Reception, ward training at Leasowes and Rowley.
- Thursday 6 December –Sandwell ward training
- Friday 7 December – City ward training
Note: All clinical colleagues are encouraged to attend their relevant training sessions to ensure they are aware of the changes.
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