Monthly archives: March 2019

Copying of newspaper or magazine articles

The Trust does not have a licence for staff to reproduce any newspaper or magazine content. This includes photocopying, faxing and digital copying (scanning, emailing, hosting on an intranet site).

You are not permitted to photocopy or scan any articles from newspapers or publications. Please note this is effective immediately.

Failure to observe this could result in a substantial fine.

For more details please contact vanya.rogers@nhs.net.

West Midlands System leadership PCM programme

There are funded places available for the process communication model (PCM) course taking place from 25 – 27 June in the West Midlands.

Although PCM is widely established across America, Australasia and large parts of Europe, it is brand new in the UK, with only a small number of qualified trainers currently available.

To be effective communicators, professionals at work must understand the personalities of their colleagues, customers or patients – how they perceive the world, how they communicate and how they are motivated.

This PCM programme will develop your skills to:

• Improve your listening skills to a level of mastery
• Decode and understand other people’s behaviour
• Predict and identify the onset of distressed behaviour
• Intervene constructively through communication
• Develop an effective communication model as a leader
• Detect and correct miscommunication before it creates an incident
• Respond quickly to situations and defuse stress
• Invite people back into positive behaviour

For more information PCM information sheet.

To apply for an application form on this funded programme email rwh-tr.EandTTheAshes@nhs.net.

Changes to mandatory training refresher periods

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:

The first change involves equality and diversity training. There is now a requirement to complete this training every three years with effect from the 31 March. For those people who completed it more than three years ago, their records will go ‘out of date’after the 31 March.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.

Equality and diversity training can be completed via e-learning and should only take around 20 minutes. Please follow the instructions that can be found here to find out more.

Heartbeat: Hallam Restaurant award for healthy eating scheme

The Hallam Restaurant has scooped a silver award for serving up healthy choices. Sandwell Council’s Eat Out Eat Well awards recognise caterers who make it easier for their customers to make healthy choices when eating out.

Hallam Restaurant was selected for dishing up delicious and wholesome meals. Colleagues attended a special staff awards ceremony at West Bromwich Town Hall to collect their gong.

Ilona Peterson, Food Services Manager, said: “This is great news for Hallam Restaurant and for everyone that works hard to make sure we deliver good quality, healthy food to our customers. We have been serving up tasty and freshly prepared food for a while now, so we are very proud to receive this recognition from Sandwell Council.

Our food is low in fat, sugar and salt and we always go for the healthier preparation option. Our deep fat fryer was switched off over two years ago and chips are oven cooked. This is also the case for our breakfast items. We use healthier oils and do not stock sugar-filled fizzy drinks.”

She added: “The Trust has invested in the catering department which has enabled us to refurbish Hallam Restaurant. This provides us with a chance to focus on and improve customer service and satisfaction, whilst increasing our income target.”

Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for public health and protection Councillor Elaine Costigan said: “We’re now in the second year of the Eat Out, Eat Well awards. They’re open to caterers, takeaways and other food retailers that meet healthier eating criteria, have a good food hygiene rating and are compliant with food standards.

“The award aims to encourage food businesses to provide healthier options to customers through the use of healthier catering practices, increasing fruit, vegetables and starchy carbohydrates and decreasing fat, especially saturated fat, sugar and salt.

We also use the scheme to recognise food outlets providing healthier options for children and reward staff training and the promotion of healthier options.”

She continued, “Providing healthy options is also good for business. Research shows that people are looking for healthier options when they eat out. By providing these options, businesses can offer a better selection of food and boost their takings, whilst helping their customers look after their health.

“I would like to congratulate all of the successful businesses who picked up awards last week. They’re helping customers to make healthy choices.”

For more information go to the Eat Out Eat Well website at www.eatouteatwell.org.

Cancer services seeking nail varnish donations

Do you have any usable nail varnish going spare? Our cancer services are currently seeking donations to support their annual cancer wellbeing fair activities. Any colour is welcome but please ensure they are in usable condition. The service is also seeking volunteers for the fair too.

The nail painting team will be offering their skilled services at the annual cancer wellbeing fair which is being held on 31 July at West Bromwich Albion Football Club from 9am – 3pm.

Donations can be dropped off to the courtyard cancer information and support services, Sandwell and main stores at City.

Please bag and clearly mark ‘nail varnish for cancer services.’ If you wish to donate any varnish, please do so by 6 July.

For more information including volunteering for the event please contact Jenny Donovan on ext. 2776.

Trust scoops two Flufighter awards

Our organisation won two awards at the annual the NHS Employer’s awards ceremony last night. We took home the most creative award for our Star Wars themed flu campaign and Bank Nurse, Kathy Robinson won the Flufighter champion award.

This is a fantastic achievement to all those involved in the recent flu campaign. Huge congratulations to all the winners!

Heartbeat: wound care praised by patient

This March, the Trust board heard from one of our patients, Mr Mark Mason, about his experiences of first class care from our district nurse team following a traumatic operation

Mr Mason, who is 60 years old, is a diabetic and injured his foot during his work as a plumber. After realising the small cut on his foot, he was mindful of the need to take extra care because of his condition. He was careful to clean the cut and keep it dressed but it quickly developed an infection. After a couple of courses of antibiotics, his injury got worse with his toe turning purple. He came into our emergency department, was referred to the foot clinic and required treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to remove a toe and the bottom part of his foot. Clearly this procedure was extremely distressing for Mr Mason.

Following his operation, he had his wound cared for by our district nurse team who visited him every other day at home. He was able to receive the latest treatment for wound care including vac and larva therapy and over time his wound has begun healing well.

Talking about his experiences to the Trust Board members, Mr Mason described how pleased he was with the care he received from the district nurse team. He said: “The district nurses have visited every other day since Boxing Day. I had trouble with the vac therapy equipment recently and one of the nurses was there within

10 minutes. They have supported me mentally, as well as physically dressing the wound. They understand it’s a massive trauma and their support has been vital.”

Professor Kate Thomas, Non-Executive Director, asked Mr Mason what the biggest thing was that the district nurses have done for him. Mr Mason replied straight away: “They sat and held my hand. They are at the end of the phone day and night. You can call at 1am and you get a response. They have been angels.”

NHSSC product code changes from 1 April

The ordering codes for the following items will be changing from 1 April.

All materially managed wards and departments will automatically receive the new coded items. If you have any queries concerning the above then please call ext. 4938.

Refugee scheme vying for top award

Featured in The Phoenix Newspaper:
An innovative project to attract medically qualified refugees back into healthcare roles at a West Midlands NHS trust has been shortlisted for a prestigious award.
The Health Overseas Professionals (HOP) programme is run by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.
It provides training in the English language for refugees and work with individuals on how they can resume their medical careers, whilst putting much needed resource back into the local NHS.
Now the Trust’s Learning Works team, which has been running the programme, has been shortlisted for the Mills & Reeve most effective use of diversity gong in the HPMA (Healthcare People Management Association) Excellence Awards.
HOP follows the successful skills matching project, USE-IT!, which was piloted by the Trust nearly two years ago
Raffaela Goodby, Director of People and Organisation Development, said: “We are really pleased to be shortlisted for such a prestigious award.
“HOP is an innovative programme that harnesses the skills and expertise already in our local communities, and has been successful in developing partnerships to ensure that the overseas healthcare professionals, some whom are refugees, are able to practice in the NHS with the right support and guidance.
“Since introducing USE-IT! and HOP, we have successfully matched more than 200 people into healthcare roles and placements across the area. Examples include GPs, nurses, pharmacists and even highly trained medical and surgical consultants.”
The project has also attracted the attention of MP John Spellar, who recently visited the Learning Works in Smethwick to find out more about the scheme.
The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Manchester on 6 June.

Heartbeat: Compliments and concerns hotline celebrates first birthday

Our Purple Point initiative is celebrating its first year of service and has seen a total of 342 calls from inpatients or their loved ones.

The telephones were installed across our inpatient sites in February 2018 (excluding Leasowes, which is being installed in March 2019) as a way for concerns relating to inpatients to be raised and resolved immediately by those working closest to the patient, making an immediate difference.

The calls are taken by the governance support unit which is open from 9am to 9pm, Monday to Sunday. The team work closely with ward colleagues to obtain resolution for any concerns raised.

They also document all compliments submitted and escalate any concerns that may require a more thorough investigation through the formal complaint route.

Caroline Burgin, Head of Complaints said: “The aim of Purple Point is to resolve any concerns that an inpatient or their relative may raise, as early as possible and whilst they are still in hospital, so we can improve their experience or put something right on the spot.

“Ward managers, senior sisters and doctors across the Trust are actively resolving these concerns on a daily basis. We also check with the caller at the end of the process to ensure we have resolved their issues.

“There have only been nine concerns raised through this route which have not been resolved to the callers’ satisfaction and they have gone on to be logged as a formal complaint.

“Since the Purple Point initiative launched, we have seen a total of 342 contacts. Of those contacts 57 were compliments.” A colleague who regularly resolves concerns allocated to them commented: “I have found the Purple Point phones a good way of allowing patients and relatives to report their concerns in real time rather than wait until after they have been discharged. This allows issues to be rectified there and then, which I prefer for lots of reasons.

“I think the patient seems happier after their concerns have been dealt with via a third party whilst they are still in hospital.”

The three largest themes arising from Purple Point calls, similar to that of PALS and complaints, are clinical treatment and care, attitude of staff and communication.

Caroline added: “A questionnaire we intend to use following Purple Point interactions is in development to help us find out if the original caller is satisfied their concern has been resolved.”

The feedback form for staff who undertake the resolution is live on Connect and can be found at: https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/governance/purple-point/purple-point-closure-form/