Monthly archives: March 2019

NEST pension contributions increasing from April

The minimum amount paid into your workplace pension NEST, both by you and the employer is going to increase. This is a nationwide change, involving millions of people and their employers across the country. Changes will take place in April.

The table below shows what the contributions are, and the dates they will rise.

For more information, please call ext. 6655, option 3.

Drug safety notice – furosemide injection

There is currently a shortage of licensed Furosemide injection in the supply chain.

As an interim measure, pharmacy have sourced an alternative unlicensed furosemide 20mg injection from Italy.

Please see memo sheet – furosemide injection from pharmacy relating to the supply issues.

For more information please contact the pharmacy department on ext. 5259.

Latest edition of Sustainability Newsletter

The latest edition of the Sustainability Newsletter is now available. topic covered in the issue include: Groundwater Awareness Week, Global recycling day and NHS Sustainability Day, plus much more.

For more information please contact francesca.silcocks@nhs.net.

National Child Sexual Exploitation Day: 18 March

Our children’s safeguarding team and ED will be hosting an Child Sexual Exploitation Day stand to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation where they will be circulating bespoke materials and key messages.

The aim is to encourage everyone to think, spot and speak out against abuse and adopt a zero tolerance to adults developing inappropriate relationships with children or children developing inappropriate relationships with other children.

They will be hosting the stand at Hallam Restaurant from 11am-1pm on 18 March.

For more information please contact swb-tr.SWBH-GM-Safeguarding-Plans-Sandwell@nhs.net.

Heartbeat: Going smoke free – what does it mean for you?

As you may be aware, the Trust’s sites will become smoke free on the NHS’s next birthday – 5 July 2019. Over the past few months colleagues, patients, visitors and people living within our communities have had the opportunity to share their views on how we can best manage this change. The majority of people responding to the survey are overwhelming in support of the ban – both smokers and non-smokers.

As part of our preparations for going smoke free we wanted to share some common questions and debunk some myths about the ban.

1. Will I be allowed to vape on our sites?

Yes! We are in support of vaping in line with the latest guidance from Public Health England and on the advice of our respiratory clinicians who have also reviewed the clinical evidence. Vaping is now recommended as a route to quit or cut down smoking – far less harmful than inhaling tobacco. We will be converting a small number of our smoking shelters to vaping shelters but you will also be allowed to vape outside (keeping a sensible distance from doorways).

Over the next few months we will have roadshows on our sites with vaping products and information so you can find out more.

2. The ban won’t affect me, as I will nip to my car for a fag…

Sorry, but you won’t be able to do that if you park on Trust car parks. Our sites are smoke free and that includes all of our car parks.

3. I’ve heard that people will be fined – is that true?

Yes, patients, visitors and colleagues who are found to be smoking on site will be issued a fine. This will be linked in value to our car parking fines. We will have enforcement officers who will be patrolling our sites to make sure that our environment is smoke free.

4. I will need to take a longer break to go further for a cigarette…

Cigarette breaks are not an entitlement. Your break arrangements should be discussed with your manager to ensure that the needs of the service are met. If you feel that this will cause you problems please think seriously about cutting down or quitting and have a conversation with your manager. There is lots of support available to you.

5. It will look terrible if people are lining the sites, smoking.

It is inevitable that part of this change will have consequences that are not ideal. We want people to stop smoking but we will have no ability to ban people from smoking outside our boundaries. We would ask people to consider nearby residents and ensure that noise, litter and second hand smoke is kept to a minimum.

Quit Smoking and realise the benefits!

• You will save money – the average smoker has 13 cigarettes a day, which works out as 364 cigarettes a month. That’s £141 a month and £1,696 a year that you could be saving by not smoking.
• Your sense of taste will return and you will enjoy the taste of food more.
• Your breathing and general fitness will improve.
• The appearance of your skin and teeth will improve.
• You’ll be more confident in social situations because you won’t smell of stale smoke any more.
• Your fertility levels will improve, along with your chances

If you would like to quit smoking, be sure to contact occupational health on ext. 3306 to find out more information regarding the employee smoking cessation programmes we offer.

Installation of new paper hand towel dispensers at Sandwell

Contractors have started installing new paper hand towel dispensers at the Sandwell this week. The contractors will be supplied with appropriate ID and paperwork and the full installation will take several weeks. The new dispensers have been installed on many Sandwell wards already since October and have resulted in an average reduction of 18 per cent in wastage/usage.  The new paper hand towels will be on a roll instead of loose towels and the new ordering code for the rolls is MRT219 (case of 6 rolls),  they are available to order from NHSSC. All materially managed wards will automatically receive the new paper hand rolls in place of the loose towels.

The new dispensers will be fitted with a roll inside but areas will need to ensure they have ordered additional stock of MRT219 (case of 6 rolls) in place of the current paper towels (MRT226).

A further communication will  be sent out once we have more information including installation details at City, Rowley Regis and Leasowes.

For more information please call ext. 4938.

Heartbeat: Stroke survivor Shena sings the praises of research at local conference

A former colleague is helping spread the word about the value of research following her recovery from a stroke.

Shena Davidson suffered a stroke in 2016 whilst working as a healthcare assistant. Her stroke left her at first unable to walk, talk or carry out simple daily tasks.

Despite initially feeling isolated and alone, Shena was approached by the Clinical Research Network (CRN) West Midlands about taking part in their activities and enjoyed it so much she decided to throw herself into becoming a fully-fledged Patient Research Ambassador, working closely with CRN.

Recently Shena, who has made a full recovery, helped organise the ‘I Am Research’ conference held at Pannel Croft Village in Birmingham, where she is a resident and leads the village’s community choir, which consists of and supports stroke survivors. They hold regular fundraising concerts.

The conference featured presentations from experts and case studies from beneficiaries of research, as well as a performance from Shena’s choir.

She encourages others to not only see the value of research but to take part in it themselves. Shena said: “Research is very important. A lot of people do not know about how important it is and I want them to know how much it has done for me. And I endeavour to do it by making people happy and making them smile.”

Rachel Evans, Senior Research Facilitator at CRN, said: “Shena was upset and had lost her support network very quickly. But she decided to help and rely on herself and took part in our research – and on the ward would not only be doing her own rehab but helping with others as well. She’s very inspirational.”

Shena has since gone on to take part in stroke research projects with the University of Oxford and University College London, including one on post-stroke cognitive problems.

Heartbeat: Virtual seals named at start of programme to calm anxious patients

For those of you who haven’t heard our Paroseals have officially been named.

Introducing Snap, Crackle and Pop!

Sarah Gammidge-Jefferson, I-Proc & Procurement Systems Supervisor, picked the winning names, after Paula Gardner, Chief Nurse, ran a competition.

And it has also been revealed that a fourth – named Ron – will be joining our organisation very soon.

The seals are being used as a therapeutic intervention for people with dementia and learning disabilities on our wards.

The fluffy robot uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to learn from its surroundings and responds to its name. It likes to be petted and even wags its tail afterwards to show appreciation.

Since Heartbeat introduced the seals last month, they have been used to help calm our patients.

One of those included Gurbachan Kaur, who had been admitted to City Hospital’s D16 ward with a urinary tract infection. She had experienced episodes of confusion, leading to mood swings.

Her granddaughter, Harjit Bains, said: “My nan’s mental state has been up and down. Sometimes she has been very overactive and aggressive, wondering around at night and swearing. Her symptoms came on very suddenly and it has been very unlike her.

“However after seeing her with the Paroseal, I could see a huge difference in her. I haven’t seen her smile in three weeks and this was the first time I saw her do just that – it really made my day.

“This initiative with the seal is fantastic and I 100 per cent back it.”

Stephen Keates, Dementia Clinical Nurse Specialist, said: “I work with the dementia, delirium and distress (DDD) team. The Paroseals are a relatively new development coming out of Japan and it is an exciting opportunity to reduce the distress that patients may suffer whilst in our care.

“This was evident when we saw Mrs Kaur interact with one of the seals. She had been very hyperactive, but we introduced the Paroseal and we saw a noticeable difference in her. Her face lit up and she was smiling and drawn to the seal. She was able to derive comfort from that interaction.

“We have three seals currently. One will be based with the DDD team, the other with Donna Hawkins, an activity co-ordinator and the third will be based at Rowley Regis Hospital.”

Easy Expenses downtime: 15-18 March

The Easy Expenses system will be unavailable from 5pm on Friday 15 March and it’s expected that the Easy services will be fully back online by 9am on Monday 18 March.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 8 March

The Trust Board met this week at the Black Country Living Museum. This fantastic venue accommodates over 350,000 visitors every year on the edge of our catchment near Tipton and plays a major role in education and learning for children across the region. Much of their work is in line with the work we are doing to bring our Trust closer to local schools and the young people that we serve. We heard from Museum Director, Andrew Lovett, about their plans for the future and his thoughts on adding health and wellbeing to their offering to visitors. The Board also heard about the progress of our Black Country Pathology partnership which is now over 6 months old and is making real progress sharing skills and ideas across the four Trusts.

Part of our community reach as a Trust comes through the work of Your Trust Charity and this week has seen projects launched to provide bedside reading support to children in our paediatric wards and provision of support packs for patients undergoing chemotherapy. Sally’s Sunshine Packs have been created by cancer patient, Sally Gutteridge, who wanted to make a difference for others so she has filled them with all those little things that can help bring comfort or pass the time.

Today marks International Women’s Day and of course more than three quarters of the people who work in our organisation are female. The Trust needs to continue to ensure that we are fair in our policies and practices but also that we take every step to promote and support women in every profession in our workforce. On May 22nd Dr Sarb Clare and many others will host a ‘Women Empowering Women’ conference in the Postgraduate Centre at City Hospital. You will remember that last month the Trust launched our flexible working commitment. That project is aimed at all members of staff and it is clearly important that how we employ and how we develop our careers meets the varied needs of those with additional caring responsibilities, commitments and interests outside work.

Over coming days we will begin to see the cranes come down at the Midland Metropolitan Hospital as we move towards finishing the fabulous winter garden. Throughout next week we will be profiling in video form some of the progress made on the site as well as finalising the procurement of both our end stage contractor and our Hard Facilities Management provider.  Although the project is not a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) we will still explore all options by which to meet the ongoing maintenance and life cycle of the new hospital so that the fantastic state it will be in on opening can be sustained for the decades to come.

I am aware that many colleagues continue to help us to prepare for whatever version of EU exit lies ahead and I linked here with this message is our first weekly bulletin providing information in the countdown to the end of the month. As I explained last week our assessed readiness is strong. We should be acting together to reassure our patients that there is no need to be concerned about medicine shortages in April. Of course, if you do have concerns please raise them with me directly.

Attached are this week’s IT stats: IT Performance Stats 8 March 2019

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