Monthly archives: August 2019

Double Parking at Sandwell Hospital

With immediate effect the local arrangement which allowed colleagues to double park at Sandwell is revoked.

Car park capacity has been increased and there is no longer a need to block other vehicles in. Cars found to be double parked will be issued with a parking charge notice of £50.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Support Angela Ruiz Morales to raise funds for Your Trust Charity paediatric diabetes fund

Angela Ruiz Morales, medical secretary and her husband are running the Simplyhealth Great Birmingham Run half marathon on Sunday 13 October and have decided to raise money for the Your Trust Charity paediatric diabetes fund so they can continue to organise events for children with diabetes such as Christmas parties, bowling, woodlands adventure days and education sessions.

Angela’s husband’s workplace have also offered to match the amount raised up to a maximum of £500.

If you wish to donate to this great cause, you can visit Angela’s donation page by clicking here.

Donate in memory of our former Finance Director, Tony Waite

As you know, we lost our dear colleague, Tony Waite, earlier this month.

The Trust will be represented at his funeral tomorrow (Friday 23 August) and Tony’s family have asked for donations to Wakefield Hospice where Tony was cared for towards the end of his illness.

If you wish to donate in Tony’s memory please go the Wakefield Hospice donation page https://www.wakefieldhospice.org/Support-Us/Fundraising/Donate. Under “Reason for Donation” you can, if you wish, mention Tony and that you are a colleague from Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.

DOLS and MCA training: September and October

We will be hosting Deprivation of Liberty safeguards and Mental Capacity Act training sessions for band 5s and above at Sandwell and City on the following dates:

• 11 September: Sandwell Education Centre – room 9, 9am – 12pm
• 12 September: City Postgraduate Centre – clinical skills room, 1pm – 4pm
• 14 October: City Postgraduate Centre – tutorial room 6, 9am – 12pm
• 14 October: Sandwell Education Centre – room 15, 1pm – 4pm

For more information and to book your place, please call ext. 2751 or email niamh.hooton@nhs.net.

Heartbeat: Say hello to me – identifying new starters

A new initiative in the emergency department aims to combat new starters feeling isolated and welcome them to the team.

After being made aware that a number of new colleagues were feeling isolated during the first days and weeks at our Trust, ED Matron Annabel Bottrill and her team decided to come up with a scheme to help discreetly identify those who may need some help to feel welcome. The “Say Hello to Me” initiative was created, a system of coloured dots which are added to name badges.

The dots let colleagues know that the member of staff is new and encourages them to take extra time to engage and offer support if needed. Each coloured dot represents a different amount of time; pink means that they have never worked in NHS before, maybe because they are newly qualified or have joined from abroad, orange means that someone is new to the department but has previously worked for the NHS, green signals that they have worked in the department for a year or more and finally, light blue shows that the person is bank, agency or locum staff.

Prior to this system being introduced new starters were simply introduced during handovers which meant that they saw everyone as a large team and during various shifts. The dots allow easy identification of any colleagues that are new, which pulls the team together and builds a more collaborative team.

Annabel said “This has helped build the team and ensures that all new colleagues are recognised which helps support them. It has helped the new starters by making them feel identified and part of a team. We would like to develop this further with silicone surrounds for name badges and potentially roll it out across the whole trust.”

Join us for Catholic mass on the first Wednesday of every month

Our chaplaincy team will be hosting Catholic mass on the first Wednesday of each month from 11.30am – 12pm at the Sandwell Chapel.

The upcoming dates for 2019 mass are listed below:

• 4 September
• 2 October
• 6 November
• 4 December

For more information please call the chaplaincy team on ext. 3552.

NHS total reward statements now available online

You can now access your total reward statement online at https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/total-reward-statements and via ESR. This means you now have the ability to to check your total reward and annual benefit statements.

Support Angela Ruiz Morales to raise funds for Your Trust Charity paediatric diabetes fund

Angela Ruiz Morales, medical secretary and her husband are running the Simplyhealth Great Birmingham Run half marathon on Sunday 13 October and we have decided to raise money for the Your Trust Charity paediatric diabetes fund so they can continue to organise events for kids with diabetes such as Christmas parties, bowling, woodlands adventure days and education sessions.

Angela’s husband’s workplace have also offered to match the amount raised up to a maximum of £500.

If you wish to donate to this great cause, you can visit Angela’s donation page by clicking here.

Join Kaleidoscope Plus Group for Yoga at Sandwell

Come and join Kaleidoscope Plus Group’s community wellbeing service for an hour of basic hatha yoga in the Berridge Room, courtyard gardens, Sandwell, every Thursday from 6.30pm – 7.30pm

The practice of hatha yoga uses breathing techniques, exercise and meditation to help improve our health, wellbeing and happiness.

For bookings and information please contact Kirstie Barnes on 07508 330460.

Heartbeat: Say hello to me – identifying new starters

A new initiative in the emergency department aims to combat new starters feeling isolated and welcome them to the team.

After being made aware that a number of new colleagues were feeling isolated during the first days and weeks at our Trust, Annabel Bottrill, ED Matron and her team decided to come up with a scheme to help discreetly identify those who may need some help to feel welcome. The “Say Hello to Me” initiative was created, a system of coloured dots which are added to name badges.

The dots let colleagues know that the member of staff is new and encourages them to take extra time to engage and offer support if needed. Each coloured dot represents a different amount of time; pink means that they have never worked in NHS before, maybe because they are newly qualified or have joined from abroad, orange means that someone is new to the department but has previously worked for the NHS, green signals that they have worked in the department for a year or more and finally, light blue shows that the person is bank, agency or locum staff.

Prior to this system being introduced new starters were simply introduced during handovers which meant that they saw everyone as a large team and during various shifts. The dots allow easy identification of any colleagues that are new, which pulls the team together and builds a more collaborative team.

Annabel said “This has helped build the team and ensures that all new colleagues are recognised which helps support them. It has helped the new starters by making them feel identified and part of a team. We would like to develop this further with silicone surrounds for name badges and potentially roll it out across the whole trust.”