Monthly archives: January 2019
EU settlement status – how to claim back settlement application costs
To all of our colleagues and family members of the EU, we need you and we welcome you!
On 21 January the Prime Minister announced that there will be no fee when the EU settlement scheme opens fully on 30 March 2019. Anyone who has applied already, or who applies and pays a fee before 30 March, will have their fee refunded by the Home Office. Further information about the application process and how to get your refund is available here https://bit.ly/2trb9PZ
The application fees were £65 if 16 and above or £32.50 for dependants under 16. The deadline for applying for settlement status will be 30 June 2021, or 31 December 2020 if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Stay with us as we continue to work to build a diverse care system locally which reflects the rich mix of long standing and new residents in both Sandwell and Western Birmingham.
Changes to mandatory training refresher periods – equality and diversity
In order to align with national NHS statutory and mandatory training guidelines, there are some upcoming changes to mandatory training refresher periods.
Equality and diversity training:
There is now a requirement to complete this training every three years with effect from the 31 March. For those who completed it more than three years ago, their records will go out of date after 31 March. Please ensure that you/your team are aware of this change and that this training is completed prior to 31 March with sufficient time for records to be updated. If you have undertaken it within the last three years, your date for next completion will be three years from when you last did the training.
Note: Equality and diversity training can be completed via e-learning and should only take around 20 minutes.
For more information, please follow the instructions that can be found here.
Heartbeat: Colleagues share feedback to improve end of life experience for patients
An engagement session to help our connected palliative care team improve the service saw more than 50 colleagues sharing their ideas.
The event was organised by the connected palliative care team, with those attending talking about how they can help achieve the Six National Ambitions for palliative and end of life care in our area.
This is part of a series of events being run in partnership with Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group and Sandwell Wellbeing board.
Dr Anna Lock, Palliative Medicine Consultant, said: “We were delighted to welcome many colleagues from different disciplines to our engagement event. We spent a lot of time discussing how we and our partners can improve ‘end of life ‘experiences for the people we look after.
“In this year alone, over 80 per cent of our patients died at their preferred place of death. It was an encouraging result as it means that our team was able to help those patients achieve their wish.
“We know that there are 5,000 people who die in Sandwell and West Birmingham every year and about 1,200 of them die in hospital, which is not what everyone wants.
“By working with our partners, we hope to provide a comforting experience for our dying patients and their families.
“Colleagues who attended this event were very positive and their ideas were greatly welcomed. Our team was also part of a similar public engagement event in December, where we brought together members of the public and service providers to engage with wider groups in the community. Dying is not just a medical experience, it affects everyone and we need to work out what will work best in the Sandwell and West Birmingham area.”
Caroline Servando, a staff nurse who attended the event, said: “I found the session really interesting. The information was helpful and now I feel more confident about speaking to patients and their families about palliative care.
“I think it’s important that we have open conversations with patients and their relatives about what they want in the event that they die. It might be difficult, but it will help us to make the right arrangements for the patients and give them that peace of mind.”
Unity – the pain and the gain
https://youtu.be/7_VdONR6lDg
Thank you to colleagues from across our sites who attended the two Unity engagement sessions held at Sandwell Hospital yesterday.
There was a great buzz in the room as colleagues used Unity to follow a patient through their pathway and a lot of discussion as clinical leads and works stream leads were quizzed about how Unity will work in reality.
Attendees also heard about the pain and gain of implementing an electronic patient record from colleagues in two other trusts who have recently gone through the digital journey.
Clinical Safety Officer and Consultant Cardiologist, Leong Lee hosted a clinical scenario feedback session on Tuesday as part of the engagement sessions.
Be sure to check out this short video featuring Leong talking about the importance of the EPR system and the benefits Unity will have for the Trust and our patients.
Your right to be heard
Your right be heard is a monthly feature in Heartbeat which allows all colleagues to raise a written concern which is answered directly by Chief Executive, Toby Lewis, a member of the executive team or another senior manager.
Letters, of less than 200 words, can be sent to the Communications Department, Ground Floor, Trinity House, Sandwell Hospital or by email to swb-tr.SWBH-GM-Heartbeat@nhs.net
Please note that all letters and e-mails received are treated with the strictest confidence and will remain anonymous unless otherwise stated.
Hospital bed audit: W/C 28 January
Drive Devilbiss (the company that currently holds the contract to maintain and repair our bed stock) will be undertaking a bed audit week commencing Monday 28 January.
Their audit team will visit each ward at City, Leasowes, Rowley and Sandwell to take details of all beds including:
- Bed type
- Serial number
- Age and condition of bed and side rail
Please allow the team access wherever possible as this audit will be used to inform our bed replacement plan.
For more information please contact diane.alford@nhs.net.
Maintenance requests – BTC
Colleagues are reminded that when reporting maintenance requests in the Birmingham Treatment Centre, please ensure you include:
- Name of the colleague reporting the job
- Location area (room number if applicable)
- Contact details – telephone number or email address
All maintenance requests should be reported to ext. 6180.
Heartbeat: Michelle jumps into action at 30,000 feet
As Paediatric Nurse, Michelle Smith boarded a flight home from Hawaii following a holiday with her daughter, her thoughts turned towards her return to work at Sandwell Hospital in a few days’ time – little did she know she would be returning to action a lot sooner than she planned.
For just two hours into the flight, a call for anybody with medical training came over the plane speaker.
“My daughter nudged me,” explained Michelle.
“She said ‘you better go Mum’, so I made myself known to an air stewardess and explained that I was a paediatric nurse but I was happy to try and help if I could.
“She took me to the front of the plane where there was a lady who had become quite unwell very quickly and had started vomiting. She was lying down and I could see she was very pale.
“It quickly became apparent that she was a diabetic and the airport had taken her insulin off her at check in, so she didn’t have it to hand. She told me that her last blood sugar reading was 22 – which I knew immediately wasn’t good – a normal reading should be between four and seven and anything between 10 and 15 would require quick treatment.”
At that point, an A&E doctor had also come to the front of the plane and established that the lady was in diabetic ketoacidosis – which can be life-threatening if not treated quickly. The doctor was able to put in a cannula and give her some anti-sickness medication (both of which were in the plane’s medical bag) after which Michelle attached a bag of fluids.
“There were no drip stands or extension leads as you would normally have in a hospital,” said Michelle. “I had to just hold the bag up whilst it ran through – we couldn’t calculate a drip rate either – we just knew she needed them urgently.”
The pilot had organised an emergency landing in Toronto, so when the fluids were finished Michelle and the doctor made their way back to their seats for landing and the lady was then taken off the plane by medics.
Once they were back in the air, the cabin crew invited Michelle to spend the rest of the flight in first class and took some details from her. A few weeks later she received an e-mail from British Airways, thanking her for what she had done and giving her a free return flight to any European destination of her choice.
“I was shocked to receive the e-mail,” said Michelle.
“We really had to just think on our feet and do what we could with the limited equipment that we had available – I think anyone would have done what I did, but it was nice to receive the thanks and the free flight.”
When Michelle came back to work, she told her colleagues about her experience and Ward Manager, Avnash Nanra contacted Heartbeat to tell the story.
Avnash said: “I am really proud of Michelle for putting herself forward to help – treating a sick adult at 30,000 feet is a world away from treating children on Lyndon Ground but her actions really helped the lady – she is a credit to our organisation.”
SystmOne Users: Support our development request to transform patient communication
We are calling on the support of all SystmOne users to help vote through a change in the community patient management system.
Recently, our Trust led a development request which was successfully implemented in SystmOne, allowing outcome letters to be emailed directly to patients rather than having to be posted. This simple change is transforming the way we communicate with patients and we are keen to take it to the next level.
We have submitted a further change request to the developers of SystmOne (TPP). This change would mean that we would then be able to email appointment letters as well as outcome letters to patients, which, would not only reduce the time it takes for letters to reach patients, but also reduce the immense cost of postage as well as the carbon footprint of our correspondence. The changes we need your help to push through wouldn’t simply benefit our workplace, they would also benefit every Trust and organisation that uses SystmOne.
All we need you to do is take a moment of your time when you are next logged into SystmOne to find our development request and to click a button to show you support the request.
We need 700 votes to help push this request through so every single vote counts! For those of you that have access to more than one SystmOne unit – you can vote up to 4 times.
Please follow the steps below to show your support.
- Login to SystmOne
- Click on System at the top then Development requests
3. Take the tick out of own requests only (if it is ticked), enter the reference code – db920000, click on ‘Refresh’, click ‘yes I do support this development’
Arches planned closure: 1-7 February
Arches cafe will be closing between 1-7 February to enable essential maintenance work to be carried out.
During this period the postgraduate retail unit will re-open whilst Arches is closed coffee culture will have extended opening hours including Saturday 2 February and Sunday 3 February. For full details including opening times of both these alternatives, please see Closure of Arches Cafe sheet.
Arches will re-open on Friday 8 February at 7.45am.
For more information please contact dcalder@nhs.net.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
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