Monthly archives: March 2019

Hello my name is… Dr Clark Crawford Head of Research and Development

Joining the Trust as Head of Research and Development, Dr Clark Crawford feels like he has come back to work among old friends, as he has history working with colleagues in R&D dating back to when he was a research facilitator for the school of cancer sciences at the University of Birmingham. With an academic background in oncology, (specifically leukaemia) Clark jumped at the chance of joining our R&D team, as he said: “When the job came up I already knew many of the team as I had worked well with them in the past, and respected them hugely.

“I’m really very excited about the role and things to come for R&D, as the way that we look at research is quite interesting. I believe that all clinical areas should be by their very nature research opportunity areas. In fact some of the best places to do certain types of research are in normal clinical settings.

“I’m also looking forward to the official opening of our new clinical research facility, looking at the way we grow our portfolio and develop our academic links.”

Clark’s most recent position was head of research and integrity at Keele University, where he worked for just over two years. Prior to that, he was head of R&D at Royal Cornwall Hospitals, before he moved back to the Midlands to be close to his parents.

Whilst working as a scientist in Dundee he wanted a creative outlet, so took on a part time degree in fine arts, majoring in sculpture. Working in concrete, rubber and paper, he enjoyed the discipline, but it wasn’t until his move to the Midlands that he discovered a love of clay when he signed up to classes at the Midlands Arts Centre.

Nowadays he is a committed potter, with a consuming passion for clay, which has taken over his free time, and several rooms in his house – as he chose a very large kiln to accommodate the sculptures he creates.

On arrival in Keele, he took a course at Newcastle under Lyme college, where his teacher was very keen for students to display their work, and from that he now sells pieces at a gallery in Manchester, that specialises in the different and the quirky, which he says perfectly describes the stocky little clay figures he loves to create.

Unity Play System being updated

The Unity Play System, which is a practice version of our new electronic patient record, is currently unavailable. The system is in the process of being updated, which will lead to an improved experience for users.

The system is expected to be available again on 23 April.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Have you completed your mandatory training?

Being up to date with mandatory training is essential to ensure that we are safe at work and that our patients are safe in our care.

It is a contractual requirement, and therefore a responsibility, for everyone in our Trust to have completed all relevant mandatory training for their role. It is also a requirement to ensure that any refresher training is undertaken before the training period expires. If you’re not in date with your mandatory training by 31 March you will:

• Be unable to progress through your next pay increment
• Be unable to achieve more than a performance level 2 on your Aspiring to Excellence personal development review.

Being out of date could also lead to notification of failure to complete mandatory training to your relevant professional body or potential disciplinary action.

To easily access your e-learning, see the link to the mandatory training e-learning guide.

https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/learning-development/mandatory-list/

For more information please contact swbh.landd@nhs.net.

Deteriorating patient and resuscitation team: EMRT – thoughts of the week

Message on behalf of the deteriorating patient and resuscitation team:

Decision making can be challenging – this includes decisions about whether cardiopulmonary resuscitation or escalation of treatment will bring realistic benefit to somebody.

These decisions are better made in advance but this is not always possible or does not always happen.

If you meet a patient who has acute life threatening problems, and you consider them to be ‘For Resuscitation / Escalation’ please begin appropriate ABC interventions. This also allows time for review of clinical details and for you to formulate a plan.

We know this sounds like straightforward advice but we also know that it does not happen at times.

The Trust states that appropriate resuscitation and treatment escalation status should be considered, discussed and documented as soon as possible: it should be part of the consultant led review and no later than 12 hours after hospital admission.

Heartbeat: May the 4 be with you – Flu campaign shortlisted for award

Our recent Star Wars themed flu campaign has been shortlisted for the most creative award by NHS Employers, alongside Bank Nurse Kathy Robinson who is shortlisted for the Flufighter champion award.

This year’s flu campaign saw the occupational health team launch a brand new theme, based on Star Wars, with ‘May the 4 be with you.’ This is a play on the famous Star Wars quote used to highlight the four elements of protection this year’s quadrivalent flu vaccine provided.

Colleagues across the Trust embraced the Star Wars theme with many dressing up as iconic characters including Dr David Carruthers as Han Solo, Chief Nurse Paula Gardner as a Jedi Knight and Director of People and Organisation Development Raffaela Goodby as Princess Leia.

Tracy Lees, Occupational Health & Wellbeing Nurse Manager played a key role in implementing this season’s flu campaign.

She said: “Our Star Wars theme really brought colleagues together and encouraged them to get their flu vaccination. This year we gave a total of 4,444 jabs and we reached patient facing herd immunity by the end of November 2018.

To inject an element of fun into the campaign, we also held a competition for colleagues to discover the mystery of ‘Who was Flubacca?’. Incentives and prizes were available in an effort to increase awareness of the flu jab and the benefits of having it.”

Bank Nurse Kathy Robinson has been shortlisted in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the recent flu campaign. Her flexibility and work ethic enabled out of hour’s access to the flu vaccine, including early mornings and nights, which complemented provision given by the Trust peer vaccinators and other vaccinators. Kathy administered an amazing 1,063 vaccinations herself and worked hard to find new opportunities for staff to get vaccinated.

On being shortlisted, Kathy said: “When I heard I was shortlisted for the flu fighter champion award I was overjoyed. It’s fantastic to have been nominated for such a prestigious award and I feel like a winner already. However if I was to win, it would be the icing on the cake, especially having given over 1,000 jabs.”

She added: “It’s estimated that around 70 per cent of flu cases have no symptoms, but are spreading the virus to others. With this in mind, I believe it is vital that as many people as possible get the vaccination, which is why I was determined to leave no stone unturned in finding unvaccinated colleagues and having a discussion with them about how the flu vaccination could protect them, their family and their patients from this deadly virus.”

The NHS Employer’s awards ceremony is due to take place on 25 March at the Midland Hotel, Manchester. Good luck to Kathy and the flu campaign team!

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 22 March

In New Zealand today there will be silence to remember the 50 people who were killed in the tragic attack in a mosque only a week ago. I know many colleagues have been affected by the tragic events, and members of our own Muslim community here at SWBH have been in touch to offer their support for colleagues and patients, thank you. We are planning some events with our well established and valued Muslim Liaison Group in coming months, which I hope many of you will get involved in, and show support and respect to our Muslim colleagues and local community. Please get in touch with me, Masood Hussain or Raffaela Goodby if you wish to get involved.

I hope you are finding our weekly Brexit bulletins of some use in giving you information on readiness for change. The key message is that we believe that we have prepared for changes in supply routes and data flows. If you know of examples where we are at risk do get in touch as it is a big Trust and important local detail can get lost. Our main job in coming days remains to reassure patients about their care, ensure that medicines use is as indicated by clinical advice, and make sure that if the change does see an uptick in abusive behaviour towards people who are perceived to be “foreign” we are overt and direct in challenging intolerance.

SWB Brexit Bulletin – 22 March 2019

Last week I wrote about our vacancy pledge for 2019-20. Based on a few emails I received, I thought it would be helpful to write a little more. Staffing establishments for next year have been set. Each directorate team has contributed to that. In the main they are set above professionals guidance (i.e. more staff). In a few cases they just touch on what is required. If you can see where you work examples where we do not meet those standards, do speak up. The bigger issue, in the view of the Board and Clinical Leadership Executive, is making sure that we can staff to those agreed and funded levels. Of course that means carrying on tackling sickness. It means reducing the amount of absence from shift time taken up with mandatory training that could be done online. It means making sure management meetings, and events, happen with good notice. It means staggering annual leave, even in March!  But what it means beyond all else is redoubling our recruitment and retention efforts. We have a great story to tell about why to come and work here. But we also know from our weconnect surveys that first year employees often report lower engagement than long term staff. We need to understand and address that.

The vacancy pledge therefore is about making sure that we are aware at team, directorate, group, executive and board level of how many gaps we have in a given service. A rate of 2% vacancy plus 3% sickness is not ‘ok’, but it does set a marker for what we might expect if we were among the best few organisations in the NHS. To be clear, we are not reducing staffing to hit that target. The opposite is true we are hiring to hit that target. In some cases we will need to think creatively about that because it is obvious that simply re-advertising certain jobs will not bring in applicants. So our 2% aim is very ambitious but it is motivated by wanting to become obviously serious about stopping staffing gaps. I know this message will produce some emails about pensions and salaries. Neither are areas over which the Trust has discretion. What is clearly true however is that we have discretion over the calibre and nature of our teams, our IT, and the model of our leadership. What do I mean?  Read on.

The teams rated good by the CQC typically have better staffing rates, higher morale, and better retention than those that rate less highly. This is a chicken and egg issue. Great team working leads to better ratings which leads to higher morale which leads to better retention. But better retention leads to better staffing which leads to better ratings. You can guess why we are focusing on this issue in coming months. A small part of that is about management and leadership capability. Some great work has been done this year to support accredited managers and to work with line managers on their skills, confidence and empowerment. The PDR process (please insert your date via the portal on Connect) give employees and managers a chance to have one to one conversations, and any good manager in that process will ask for feedback from people in their team. We will be developing over the next ten weeks our Managers’ Code of Conduct to reinforce some of the best behaviours and make it explicit what behaviours we don’t expect. I know that groups like our Freedom to Speak Up Guardians sometimes see or hear of the less good behaviours and I want to work with them to help give anyone recourse to stop unacceptable behaviour. Sometimes that behaviour will be a one off and an apology works. But if it is sustained then we need to call it out and tackle it. Whatever is the perceived experience of the past, the firm intent is that in 2019-20 we address our weakest points to help drive the best more widely in the Trust. We cannot be fully staffed if we have leadership behaviours that encourage low morale or people to want to work elsewhere.

If a team has a vacancy rate of above 2% on 1 July we will be working through with you what is to be done. And to be clear our budgets are set on the basis that we will hire to 98% of our roles. So, simply, staffing gaps are not a money issue. They are not just how it is. They are something that we can do some things about. Many teams do those things already and coming months will see us try and work to make those things commonplace but also work to address specific issues where the general approach will not work. That kind of specificity is exactly what is going on now in A&E, and this week another emergency care consultant joined our team, attracted I know by the quality of colleagues, but also the opportunities of the new hospital.

I may have mentioned in other messages that in 2019-20 we will spend 40% more than in any prior year on training and development. For example we are rolling out a major programme around Mid Line insertion at ward level, and developing all of our band 6 nurses to have those competencies. The next few weeks will see our first Nurse Apprentice graduates, and I know that we have some enthusiasm now for the Nurse Escalator which provides a route from band 5 to band 6, and will in due course provide a clear route from band 2 to band 3. The entry to these opportunities remains your Aspiring to Excellence PDR. Of course that will include a discussion about smoking, if relevant, about Unity, which is relevant to everyone, and about internal communication, ditto. But it is really a conversation about your needs, and about honest reflection on your objectives. In a large organisation it is not good the Board having objectives and the Trust having nice plans, if objectives do not travel both up and down the organisation. So please get involved with what is going on, and if you are anxious about your PDR please speak up and let’s work through what that anxiety is. Every discipline in the Trust is going through the same process, executives, ward service officers, consultant colleagues, or health visitors. This is a habit we want to get into and one that will help us with big projects like moving into Midland Met, but also with the very big intention to help each person in our workforce feel part of the team, and someone who is valued.

In addition to the weekly Brexit news, I keep publishing the weekly IT stats. You will appreciate that outtages have sharply reduced, helpdesk queries are getting resolved faster and better, but real issues remain. We will be replacing our N3 connection in coming weeks, and the team have started work again on checking every PC and printer across our sites so that we can measure up the criteria we need to agree our Unity go live. April’s QIHD will see us launch 28 days of activity to support that go live, so get ready for some games, some training, some tests and a big opportunity to work with the product and make Unity part of who we are as an organisation.

Attached are this weeks stats: IT Performance Stats 22 March 2019

#hellomynameisToby

SWB Brexit Bulletin – 22 March 2019

Welcome to issue 3 of our Brexit bulletin. The arrangements for leaving the EU remain uncertain so our plans continue to ensure we can provide effective services to patients in the event of a no deal scenario and during a transition period. The Department for Health and Social Care continues to lead on national NHS preparations in order to mitigate any risks and there are well-established plans in place to ensure the supply of medicines, equipment and supplies.

This bulletin focuses on research and data sharing.

Research studies

• EU research and funding

The government has guaranteed funding for committed to UK organisations

for certain EU funded projects in the event of a ‘no deal’ scenario. This includes the payment of awards where UK organisations successfully bid directly to the EU while we remain in the EU, and the payment of awards where UK organisations are able to successfully bid to participate as a third country after EU Exit, until the end of 2020. This means that successful bids for EU programme funding until the end of 2020 will receive their full financial allocation for the lifetime of the project.

• Clinical trials and clinical investigations

The Department of Health and Social Care has contacted all sponsors of trials to ensure continuity of supply for investigational medicinal products (IMPs).  We have contacted sponsors for trials that we are participating in and have assurance that we are able to continue as normal in participating in and recruiting to clinical trials and investigations.

We are advised that organisations carrying out clinical trials should follow the normal process for regulatory approval.

Data sharing, processing and access

Guidance on data protection has been published by the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Transfers from the UK to the EEA and to countries outside of the EEA

Transfers of personal data from the UK to the EU / EEA should not be affected in a ‘no deal’ scenario. This is because it would continue to be lawful under domestic legislation for health and adult social care organisations to transfer personal data to the EU/EEA in the same way we do currently.

Where a transfer of personal data is to be made from the UK to a country outside of the EEA, we can continue to make the transfer if an adequacy decision for that country has been made before the exit date.  The two exceptions to this are for transfers to Japan and transfers to organisations covered by the US Privacy Shield.

We are awaiting further guidance regarding the adequacy decision for Japan, particularly whether modified arrangements will be required.

Where the adequacy decision relates to an organisation covered by the US Privacy Shield, a check will need to be made that the organisation we want to transfer information to, has updated their Privacy Shield Commitments to specifically include the UK, if they have not, we will need to rely upon safeguards or exceptions.

Transfers from the EEA to the UK

At the point of exit, EU/EEA organisations will consider the UK a third country. This will mean the transfer of personal data from the EU/EEA to the UK will be restricted unless an adequacy decision has been made by the European Commission regarding the UK, where appropriate safeguards are put in place, or where exceptions apply.

Safeguards and exceptions

Appropriate safeguards include, but are not limited to:  (1) EU approved standard contract clauses – two options are available – (a) Controller to Controller, or (b) Controller to Processor, or (2) A legally binding and enforceable instrument between public authorities and bodies (this will only apply if both public authorities or bodies have the power to put in place binding and enforceable arrangements).

Exceptions include, but are not limited to: (1) Explicit consent of the Data Subject, (2) For the performance of, or for the taking of steps to put in place, a contract where the data subject is a party, (3) for the performance of, or for the taking of steps to put in place, a contract for the benefit of another person, (4) To establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim, (5) To protect the vital interests of someone who is incapable of giving consent.

We have reviewed our data flows of personal information from the EU / EEA to the UK in order to understand the risk to our services if these data flows were disrupted. We are also ensuring that we are compliant with the 10 data security standards as outlined in the data security and protection toolkit. This is helping us to identify any areas of risk.

For more information:

Research queries: Clark Crawford, Head of Research and Development

Data protection: Allison Binns, Deputy Director of Governance / Karen Wells, Information Governance Manager

For general EU exit queries please contact our Senior Responsible Officer Toby Lewis, Chief Executive

Find out more about Company Shop and save up to 70 per cent

Company Shop will be in attendance at the upcoming step into spring wellness event on 24 April, 11am-3pm at the courtyard gardens, Sandwell Hospital.

Being a member of Company Shop will give you access to exclusive, member only stores, where you can shop for your favourite own-label and big brand products whilst saving up to 70 per cent.

For more information regarding staff benefits on offer please contact amir.ali1@nhs.net.

UNISON recruitment and information stall at City today

Join UNISON at their recruitment and informations stall to find out more about how they can help you.

UNISON represents and acts for members working at the Trust. They represent members, negotiate and bargain on their behalf, campaign for better working conditions and pay and for public services.

UNISON will be at Sheldon Block at City Hospital until 2pm today.

Weconnect survey closes today!

The second round of our weconnect surveys closes today (22 March).

The survey has gone out to a sample of our Trust and is a more in depth look at engagement, slightly longer than the Your Voice surveys we are all accustomed to.

Directorates included in this round of surveys are:

• Admitted care
• Emergency care
• Finance
• Gynaecology and gynaeoncology
• iCares
• Operations
• Theatres

You now have up to 5pm today to have your say, so if you have been sent an invite to complete it online or you have been given a paper copy, please ensure you complete it and return it as soon as possible. If you have not received your email copy please check your junk mail folder.

Everyone plays an important role in our organisation’s journey and this is an opportunity to help influence and contribute to the Trust’s future plans.