Monthly archives: December 2018
Heartbeat: Henderson Unit kick off their festive celebrations
Colleagues at Rowley Regis Hospital kicked off their Christmas celebrations with a celebration on Henderson Unit which was enjoyed by colleagues, patients and their families.
There were a variety of treats for all to enjoy including a Christmas tombola and delicious festive goodies. They were also joined by ‘Miss Memory Lane’ (Ange Lloyd) who sang a variety of Christmas, memorial and classical hits for everybody in attendance to enjoy.
Ange said: “I visited Rowley Hospital to sing a few songs from the World War II era and some Christmas songs to make the patients happy and cheer them up for a little bit – it was great to see them with smiles on their faces.
“I’ve been doing this for six years having previously worked in domiciliary care for about 20 years. I can’t think of a better job for me to do. I really enjoy it, it’s been fantastic.”
Josie Beckett, Healthcare Assistant has known Ange for a few years having both worked in the community together and approached her to perform at the Christmas celebration
She said: “Everybody had a fantastic afternoon and the patients absolutely loved it – to see them with big smiles on their faces made us all incredibly happy.”
Amelia Bryant, Senior Sister echoes Josie thoughts and said: “We love doing these types of things at this time of year as a lot of patients won’t get to spend Christmas with their families, so we like to bring Christmas to them by organising as much as we can to keep them in the festive spirit.”
Christmas services at Sandwell and City
Our chaplaincy team will be hosting Christmas services at our Sandwell and City chapels:
Sandwell Hospital chapel:
- Christmas morning celebration and communion, Tuesday 25 December, 9am
City Hospital chapel:
- Christmas morning celebration and communion, Tuesday 25 December, 11am
For more information please call ext. 3552 or email mary.causer@nhs.net.
Unity – the pain and the gain
By Dr Roger Stedman, Consultant Anaesthetics and Critical Care Medicine
In 2019 at Sandwell and West Birmingham we will be going live with our integrated electronic patient record ‘Unity’. For most of us working at the Trust this will be the biggest change in the way we practice our craft of caring for patients in the entirety of our professional careers. There is no doubt at all that this transition will be painful – and not just for those of us that are somewhat wary (healthily sceptical) of technology even at the best of times.
Unity is a complex tool, it takes time and patience to learn and get the best from it. The day we ‘go-live’ with Unity, despite all the fabulous training we have had, will be as if the entire organisation is turning up for a new job all on the same day. Things will not run smoothly at first – things that we take for granted to happen won’t, or will take longer than usual. Workflows and care processes will seem to become laborious and clunkier. We will need a laptop – where before a pen and paper seemed to suffice. Patients will see us frowning at computer screens (or even swearing!) and they will be worried that we don’t seem to know what we are doing, and are paying more attention to the computer than to them. For a period of time patient flow will slow and we will get less done in outpatients and the operating theatre – this will cause its own problems too.
You may be thinking – is all this disruption worth it? Why should we bother, when what we currently do seems to work just fine? What’s so good about Unity that we should inflict this pain, and indeed risk, on the organisation?
Unity is an amazing tool that will ultimately transform the safety and quality of care we provide to patients. It doesn’t just document the care we provide electronically, it will help direct and support the care we provide. Hospitals that have implemented similar EPRs to Unity have seen incidents related to prescribing and administration of drugs almost completely disappear, they have seen the delivery of care pathways – such as sepsis and VTE become 100% reliable. The ability to get good clinical advice, either through communication with colleagues or through decision support means that patients will get faster diagnosis and the right treatment first time. The integration with records held in primary care and neighbouring hospitals means that we will have access to everything that is known about patients from the beginning of their admission – rather than the current ‘voyage of discovery’.
Unity is also the ultimate quality improvement tool. By moving the process of care from paper to electronic form – information that is currently locked in paper folders becomes live and accessible. We will have knowledge of what and how well we are doing at providing care to patients and we will be able to use that knowledge to continuously improve the care that we give.
Unity will have a painful birth – but the result will be a beautiful thing that will grow and help us to grow into a better organisation that provides ever improving care to the patients we serve.
#hellomynamesis… Roger
#Unity – releasing time to care
Merry Christmas from Your Trust Charity
Your Trust Charity would like to thank all colleagues and volunteers who have supported the charity over the past 12 months.
The charity would like to wish all Trust colleagues a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
If you would like more information or would like to fundraise for Your Trust Charity in 2019, please contact amanda.winwood@nhs.net.
Heartbeat: It certainly looks a lot like Christmas
There is always a fantastic buzz around our organisation during the festive period and this year has been no different.
Organisations and people from the local community have visited our hospitals to bring goodwill to our patients and their families, whilst colleagues have been busy arranging charitable collections to support our most vulnerable patients.
Many of the visits have been organised in conjunction with Your Trust Charity, which emphasises the strength of the partnerships the charity has with the local community.
Ruth Wilkin, Director of Communications said: “The generosity from local organisations and members of the community has amazed us again this year. Your Trust Charity has been inundated with requests from people who wish to make donations for our patients.
“It is also great to see colleagues joining in this year, and making their own donations to support patients and their families.
“There is never a nice time to be in hospital, but it is even worse during Christmas when families should be celebrating together, so it is great that we can sprinkle a little bit of magic across the organisation this Christmas.”
Acute heart failure nurse specialist’s new email address
The acute heart failure nurse specialist’s email address has been changed to swbh.acuteheartfailurenurses@nhs.net.
For more information, you can visit the heart failure specialist connect page.
What does it mean to be Immunocompromised?
Immunosuppression is a reduction of the activation or effectiveness of the immune system. A person who is undergoing immunosuppression, or whose immune system is weak for some other reasons is said to be immunocompromised.
This can occur as an adverse reaction to treatment or it can be caused by certain medical conditions. As the immune system and its ability to fight infection is reduced, it is important that exposure to infectious diseases in this group is restricted or limited dependent upon the situation, the persons vaccination history and the infection itself following a risk assessment.
For more information sheet, please see information sheet:
What does it mean to be Immunocompromised information sheet
Please contact Occupational Health if any further advice on any restrictions or modifications to practice is required.
Health and safety in the workplace: Do you know your responsibilities as an employee?
As an employer, employees are our most important and valuable resource. Our aim is to control any risks to your health and safety but we also need your help to do this.
Did you know that as an employee, you have a ‘duty of care’ responsibility for your own health and safety in the workplace? For employees with patient contact, this involves more than reporting hazards, it also involves you risk assessing your exposure to hazards, especially biological hazards in the workplace, alerting your manager of any issues and complying with Trust policy.
Below are some top tips for you to consider.
Be aware of your own health. If you are unwell or have symptoms that could be infectious refrain from patient contact as per Trust policy and discuss with your manager or Occupational Health where needed.
Ensure you are vaccinated/protected against communicable diseases to avoid transmission of viruses. e.g. Flu, TB, chickenpox, measles mumps and rubella, Hep B. If unsure contact Occupational Health to check your immunity status.
Stay away from infectious patients if you are immunocompromised or having treatment that can lower your immunity. (See attachment for further details to check if you could be immunocompromised)
Apply the appropriate and correct personal protective equipment as indicated in control of infection procedures. e.g gloves, masks, goggles etc. Ensure you are FFP3 mask FIT tested with regards to Respiratory Protective Equipment and apply the correct mask for the situation.
Follow Trust procedures and control of infection practices.
Ensure you report any related changes to your health following exposure to infectious diseases to your line manager and Occupational Health.
Supporting attendance to work over the festive period
Message from Rachel Barlow, Chief Operating Officer
Thank you to everyone who is working over Christmas and New Year to support our patients and colleagues. I know it’s a busy time for us all, so your dedication and hard work is very much valued and appreciated.
In order to ensure safety for our patients and the smooth running of our services, it is critical that colleagues who are due to attend work do so as planned. I want to remind you how we manage attendance in our organisation with some guidance to help ensure we are fully staffed.
- Medical colleagues reporting as sick must phone their consultant/consultant on call.
- Clinical/non-medical colleagues in patient facing wards and departments should:
- In hours: As per our policy, call the ward or departmental shift leader who will inform the senior leader managing attendance for the clinical group (after providing counselling and support). Group attendance leads are listed below.
- Out of hours: All sickness calls should go through the duty manager via bleep or switchboard to their mobile phone.
Each member of staff reporting in sick will receive a follow up phone call from a local senior leader (see the rota at the end of this message for your group lead) during the day time, ensuring everyone has the support they need, there are return to work plans, schedule a return to work interview date/time and where necessary, prompt access to occupational health.
There will be night to day handover between the duty manager and senior leader at group level by email to follow up sickness calls received at night, as well as a daily executive review of attendance and supportive intervention for any hotspot outlying areas.
- Short notice leave/requests for alternative leave or changes to the rosters should only be agreed if the full staffing requirements are met for the period.
Group attendance leads are detailed below:
Please keep safe and healthy over the festive period and thank you again for your commitment to our patients over this period. Thank you for your hard work.
Baggies’ players spread Christmas joy to the wards
Poorly patients at Sandwell Hospital were left delighted when West Bromwich Albion stars visited their bedsides to spread festive cheer.
Head Coach Darren Moore, along with Harvey Barnes, Kyle Bartley, Sam Johnstone and Matt Phillips met youngsters in the Children’s Ward and visited patients on the stroke rehabilitation ward where they signed autographs, posed for photographs and handed them gifts.
The event was organised in partnership with Your Trust Charity, which is run by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, and serves to enhance the experience of patients, their families and colleagues.
Seven-month-old son Harry Hodgetts was being treated on the ward and received an electronic activity centre from goalie Sam Johnstone. His mum Sarah said: “It’s such a nice gesture and a lovely thing for the players to do. Harry loves his present.”
Amanda Winwood, Fundraising Manager, said: “It’s always a pleasure to welcome the Albion players to our hospital, especially at Christmas.
“This year the players met not only some of our younger patients that we are currently treating but also some of those on our stroke rehabilitation ward.”
Abbie Hanlon, Play Specialist, added: “It’s been really heart-warming to see how happy it makes our patients and it’s very kind that the footballers take time out of their busy schedule to bring in gifts and chat to them.”
Darren added: “Some of these patients are avid Albion fans so it’s good to get up close and personal with them.
“They cheer us on from the sidelines so it’s up to us to help and encourage them through difficult times.
“We want to lend our support and give them a boost to get better. It helps breed positivity.
“It’s important to come into the community – it’s something I really believe in.
“To hear their stories is inspiring to us all.”
And goalkeeper Johnstone echoed the words of the Baggies boss following the visit.
“We came here to visit people who are going through a hard time, probably going to be in hospital over Christmas, kids and adults,” said the Albion stopper.
“It’s meant to be a period for celebrations and spending time with family.
“Hopefully we’ve put some smiles on people’s faces.”
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