Monthly archives: July 2019

Planned maintenance: Clinical systems at City Hospital affected tonight

There is a planned upgrade of the network infrastructure at City Hospital taking place from midnight tonight (26/7/19). The planned work will move City Hospital from the current N3 infrastructure over to Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) offering improvements in network capacity and speed.

The work is planned to begin promptly at midnight and continue for a maximum period of 4 hours.

Whilst work is taking place, colleagues at City Hospital using IPM, SystmOne, Ormis, Patient first or  Badgernet are advised to ensure they have logged out of the system and have implemented business continuity processes.

Desktop alerts will be issued before work commences and at completion.

Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

NHS Hero: Helen Taylor

A 12-year veteran of the NHS, Helen Taylor’s role is Lead Nurse for the Trust Homeless Patient Pathway (HPP) Team at SWBH. The Homeless Team was created in 2013 as a direct response to the Health and Social Care Act of the previous year, which pushed for Clinical Commissioning Groups to take responsibility for the healthcare of socially excluded groups such as vulnerable migrants, sex workers and the homeless. Originally a pilot programme by the Trust, the initiative – then a two person team which included Helen – was subsequently funded by the Department of Health.

“Care of patients experiencing homelessness is complex and requires an understanding of the interrelated problems that affect physical, mental, drug, alcohol and social ill health,” explained the 40-year-old, mum-of-two from Essington.

 Now well-established, (the process of which she counts as a personal career highlight) Helen’s team helps to improve the homeless patient experience which includes needed interventions such as helping to secure accommodation, advice and signposting, food, clothing and toiletries. This has all helped to have a proven reduction in readmission rates.

But, it could’ve all been so much different. It was when she was made redundant as a fitness manager she decided to go to Staffordshire University to train as a nurse, having enjoyed helping people reach their goals in her previous role, that sense of making a difference to someone was enticing to her.  Helen would then go on to work directly with people suffering from drug and alcohol misuse and mental health issues.

While they may perform a 9-til-5 working week, thanks to the joined up care the team provides there is also no one type of shift for the team. As the potential needs of a homeless patient admitted to hospital sees Helen and colleagues Louise Edwards and Alycia Deacon working with a variety of related teams both internal and external.

“My driving ambition now is making a difference to the less fortunate and most vulnerable of our society,” she added. “What most people do not realise is that homelessness can affect all walks of life, from the high flying business man to the unfortunate teenager who got hooked on drugs due to a traumatic childhood. They can be of all nationalities, young or old, male or female, married or single, employed or unemployed. There is no one ‘stereotype’.”

Helen’s future seems pretty fixed; HPP continues to grow as does the increase in homelessness, thanks to things such as spiralling rents, welfare cuts and a lack of social housing. Figures show that one in 73 people are now defined as homeless in Birmingham. When you consider the average age of death for a homeless person is thirty years below the national average, working against these “shocking” figures is a big challenge for HPP and one Helen is prepared to throw herself into working to combat.

 “I see myself continuing to nurse vulnerable patient groups until I retire. Everyone deserves help in their hour of need,” she added.

SWBH discounts available this August

We’re offering additional discounts throughout August via the Hapi platform for all colleagues.

These include:

• Asda: Additional 1 per cent discount – until 5 August (9am)
• Adidas: Additional 1 per cent discount – 5 August – 12 August (9.30am)
• Footlocker: Additional 2 per cent discount – 12 August – 19 August (9.30am)
• New Look: Additional 2 per cent discount – 19 August – Monday 26 August (9.30am)

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

SWBH discounts available this August

We’re offering additional discounts throughout August via the Hapi platform for all colleagues.

These include:

• Asda: Additional 1 per cent discount – until 5 August (9am)
• Adidas: Additional 1 per cent discount – 5 August – 12 August (9.30am)
• Footlocker: Additional 2 per cent discount – 12 August – 19 August (9.30am)
• New Look: Additional 2 per cent discount – 19 August – Monday 26 August (9.30am)

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

The grand round – we need your feedback

The grand round is an important aspect of medical education at the Trust. Currently, it’s not effective due to the poor attendance.

With this in mind, our aim is to try and revive this valuable educational resource and so we need your views to help ensure we make it accessible to as many colleagues as possible.

We would be grateful if you could spare 5 minutes to complete the survey below using the link below as this will allow us to improve the grand round.

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/07TSM/

Wi-Fi improvements finished at Sandwell and Rowley

One of the major priorities for the Unity project is to ensure that Wi-Fi works well across the Trust and can be relied upon to support our new electronic patient record ahead of go-live.

We are pleased to confirm that the Wi-Fi signal across Sandwell and Rowley has been upgraded and hopefully you are already feeling the benefit.

One area that has is critical care at Sandwell. Matron Amber Markham said: “We have had extra wireless access points installed on the unit and the Wi-Fi seems better. It has increased confidence in the system and it has allowed better working on the portable devices in our daily practice.”

With the Sandwell and Rowley improvements completed, the focus is now shifting to City, where the work is scheduled to be finished during August.

Thank you to all colleagues at Sandwell and Rowley for their patience and help during the survey and installation phases. The Wi-Fi should be working well but if you notice any issues then please get in touch. For an update on the Wi-Fi situation in your area check the tracker on Connect.

If you have any questions, or feedback about Wi-Fi in your areas, contact the IT helpdesk on ext. 4050.

Patient emergency call procedures

Please ensure you are aware of the procedure for alerting an emergency at the patient bedside in the area you work. This may be on the patient handset or on the wall behind the bed.

Managers should ensure this forms part of the ward induction for all colleagues.

ESR production service downtime: 26-28 July

Users are advised that the ESR Production Service, e-Learning, ESRBI, ESR Data Warehouse, ESR Portal will be withdrawn at 6pm on Friday 26 July. The service is expected to become available by 10pm on Sunday 28 July.

Users are asked to note the 6pm closure time for the online service on 26 July and co-operation is requested to ensure that all users are logged off by 6pm. Please ensure all notifications are actioned ahead of the downtime and do not access the system until the stated end of the downtime period.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Future nurse changes: cannulation and venepuncture training

As you may be aware, the NMC SLAiP standards changed last year and by September we need to be prepared to assess using the new Standards for Student Supervision and Assessment (SSSA).

To support this we are supplying transition training for mentors to become new practice supervisors and assessors across the Trust.

Please book via ESR – Search “supervisor” and choose “Practice Supervisor and Assessor Transition Training.”

We have also increase the number of cannulation and venepuncture sessions due to students needing to be assessed in practice by our nurses.

The training information can be found in the table below:

Note: To find the training in ESR please search “Cannulation and Venepuncture”

For more information please visit https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/nursing-and-midwifery-clinical-education-team/ or call ext. 6149.

Heartbeat: Midlands Hospital Optometry Group returns to BMEC after 14 years

In May the optometry department at the Birmingham & Midland Eye Centre hosted the annual Midlands Hospital Optometry Group (MHOG) meeting welcoming colleagues from across the region including Oxford, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, University Hospitals Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sheffield, Coventry & Warwickshire, Warwick, Heartlands and Russells Hall Hospital.

Eleven organisations were represented by heads of optometry/deputy heads as well as other senior colleagues making this one of the largest gatherings in recent years.

The meeting was opened by Dr Waheeda Illahi, Head of Optometry Services with a trip down memory lane sharing black and white photos of the department from the 1930s onwards making it a nostalgic and fun way of remembering the past. She paid tribute to Dr Jayne Kempster who had led the optometry department for over 25 years before retiring in 1996 when the hospital relocated from the city centre to the current site.

Dr Illahi highlighted the developments within the optometry service at BMEC and shared the journey that she and her colleagues had undertaken over the last nine years under her leadership expressing her immense gratitude to members of her team.

She said: “The department has built on its heritage, continuing to provide core optometry skills and services unique to BMEC such as an in-house Scleral lens workshop and an optical dispensary. The optometry service has also risen to the challenge of supporting the changing needs of ophthalmology with the expansion of the role of optometrists into various extended role sub-specialities including glaucoma, corneal, medical retina and urgent care/casualty services.”

Dr Illahi continued: “The very first MHOG meeting was held in Birmingham in 1991 and over the last 28 years colleagues have met every year to discuss best professional practice, share knowledge, expertise and to discuss challenges faced by the changing needs of the profession.

“At the meeting there was an excellent teaching programme with talks on collagen cross linking, corneal grafts and interesting visual function cases.”

The first lecture was presented by Professor Sunil Shah, who is a well-known figure within the field of ophthalmology and optometry. He works at BMEC and is also the current president of the prestigious British Contact Lens Association. He discussed advances in surgical techniques for corneal grafts including the move away from traditional techniques such as penetrating keratoplasty where all the layers of the cornea are removed. Videos were shown of modern procedures such as deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) and descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) which results in faster recovery and better visual outcomes for patients. Mr Ankur Barua, Consultant Ophthalmologist and Dr Peter Good, Consultant Neurophysiologist gave detailed and informative presentations on collagen cross linking (a laser treatment for a condition called keratoconus) and rare cases presenting to the visual function department. Dr Good’s career spans over 45 years. The afternoon session began with John Thatcher who represents the West Midlands branch of the Keratoconus Support Group (a voluntary organisation). He provided an update on information and counselling support available to patients with keratoconus.

The AGM was chaired by Professor Martin Rubinstein, Lead Optometrist at Leicester Royal Infirmary who provided an update from the Hospital Optometrists Committee in matters relating to pay, pensions, training protocols and developments within the optometry and ophthalmology professions. The day concluded with a tour of BMEC and the optometry department. The optometry department supports over 30 consultant ophthalmologists and continues to thrive as a leading example to other hospitals. The event was sponsored by Bausch & Lomb.