Monthly archives: October 2019

Employee of the Year – Richard Burnell: Star Awards 2019

On Friday 11 October we hosted our 2019 Star Awards ceremony at Aston Villa Football Club. The awards ceremony celebrates the remarkable achievements of our colleagues across 20 awards categories including our Employee of the Year which was won by Richard Burnell.

Be sure to check out this short video featuring Bethan Downing, Deputy Director of People and Organisation Development talking about Richard’s achievements over the past year.

You can view all of this year’s winners videos by clicking here.

Congratulations to all of our 2019 winners.

Toby’s Friday Message

Each Friday, Chief Executive, Toby Lewis writes a message to all colleagues, which is published on the front page of Connect. He discusses important topics or events that have occurred during the week.

On Friday Toby encouraged colleagues to ensure they have completed all their mandatory training and reminded colleagues that training frequencies will be changing come the start of the new year.

He also covered:

• Star of the Week – don’t forget to get your nominations in
• On 11 November our weConnect Programme Pioneer teams will again be surveyed to see what difference has come from the work done in those teams
• We recently won two awards – Our diabetes work won the Quality in Care award with particular credit to trainee doctor Margaret Adu-Baah and 4^th Year medical student Nicholas Hewetson. And we contributed to a Society of Public Health award for our collaboration with the local authority to tackle alcohol related harm
• The planning applications for the new car parks at City and at Sandwell are due in very shortly
• The sad and unfortunate passing of Claire Millward, HCA – our thoughts go out to her friends and family

Five Ways Health Centre closure

The Five Ways Health Centre has now closed. Broadway Health Centre will be taking on the caretaking for Five Ways in the interim until a decision has been made on the future of this contract and its registered patient list.

As such, no clinical correspondence is to be sent to the Five Ways premises as these have now closed. Patients will be accessing services from Broadway Health Centre’s premises (Broadway Health Centre, Cope Street, Ladywood, Birmingham B18 7BA).

The electronic patient records will be accessed by the caretaking practice, therefore please could you arrange to turn off your paper records to the following premises: Five Ways Health Centre, Ladywood Middleway, Ladywood, Birmingham, B16 8HA.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 18 October

Mandatory training is not everyone’s idea of an enticing way to begin my weekly message. I want to congratulate colleagues across our estates teams for currently leading the way with their levels of compliance (92 per cent) with our core 11 mandatory or statutory training obligations. In January 2020 some of those obligations change in frequency, and you need to prepare now for that, and catch up this side of Christmas.

 

[su_spoiler title="Mandatory Training List" style="fancy" icon="arrow" ]

Core mandatory training module	Frequency
Equality & Diversity	Every 3 years
Conflict Resolution Training	Every three years
Fire Safety	Every two years - new requirement
Health & Safety	Every 3 years
Infection Control: Level 1 & Level 2	Every year for clinical colleagues - new requirement Every three years for non-clinical colleagues
Data Security Awareness	Every year for all staff
Moving and Handling : Level 1 & Level 2	Level 1: every three years (non-patient handling) Level 2: every two years (patient handling) -includes a practical assessment
Resuscitation: Level 1; Level 2 & Level 3	BLS: All clinicians every year – includes a practical assessment.  Higher levels as per role allocation.
Safeguarding Adults: Level 1; Level 2 & Level 3	All staff do level 1 every three years Level 2: every three years All clinicians 8a and above need to complete level 3 every three years - new requirement
Safeguarding Children: Level 1; Level 2 & Level 3	All staff do level 1 every three years Level 2: every three years – role-dependent Level 3: every three years – role-dependent
Prevent: Basic and Prevent Awareness	All staff every three years

[/su_spoiler]

 

I am not currently compliant with mandatory training and I know many of us are not. All of us now need to devote some time to logging on and getting compliant.  The vast majority of our training can be done on–line, and with our WiFi fixed, and Pulse in place, there is no technical barrier to sorting out our training, although it is still worth taking a screen-shot of the confirmation on e-learning as it can disappear!  Of course some of the training is properly essential and especially worthwhile.  This time last year we had a big drive on Basic Life Support training – and earlier this week for Re-start a Heart Day our teams were out and about across local schools getting young people trained – a key skill that can help to keep someone alive in the street.

This time last week we held our wonderful annual Star Awards. As I outlined in a note to colleagues on Monday, this was a tremendous evening and chance to celebrate long service, new leaders, key skills and great team work. Heartbeat at the end of the month will give you a glimpse of the circus themed ceremony, and start the countdown for our 2020 awards. In the intervening 51 weeks, we will have a weekly Star of the Week in our Trust, so get nominating on Connect, and we will use my message here to let you know who has won from the start of November.

Recognition, and feeling valued, is a key part of our work on improving engagement, through our weconnect projects. I am pleased to able to confirm that yesterday we won two national awards:  Our diabetes work won the Quality in Care award with particular credit to trainee doctor Margaret Adu-Baah and 4^th Year medical student Nicholas Hewetson, and we contributed to a Society of Public Health award for our collaboration with the local authority to tackle alcohol related harm. On 11 November our Pioneer Teams will again be surveyed to see what difference has come from the work done in those teams, like City ED, and IT, the breast team, and health visiting.  Nominations are open now for the second wave of Pioneer Teams, who get support with the coaching skills and peer involvement in trying to build involvement and engagement at a local level. Meanwhile, at a Trust level the anonymous national staff survey is out, and if you have not filled it in, I suspect you will be getting routine e-reminders from the national team. The survey is anonymous, but it compares our Trust’s weaknesses and strengths to others, through your voice and opinions. Please do try and find a few minutes to complete it.

As the weather has drawn in, I have more notes from people about both our smokefree policy, and our car parking situation.  The planning applications for the new car parks at City and at Sandwell are due in very shortly. Meanwhile, we continue to look to enforce our parking rules on our sites for the benefit of everyone. There is more we can do to make sure a night shift car park is created at Sandwell and to support community staff, who sometimes need to park briefly at a hospital.  However, there is no reason anyone needs to park on side streets or in residents’ driveways! With the changes to Lower Lyndon to help us build our GP practice, one of our smoking “hideouts” has closed at the top of grass verge. That leaves outside ED at Sandwell and the maternity building at City as our remaining targets to really deliver on our smokefree commitment. I would ask for your full support in tackling smokers there, and I know our security teams and wardens are redoubling our efforts. New cameras and physical barriers will go in. If we can we would want to avoid a surfeit of fines and penalties, but during November if need be we will ramp up those efforts as the Trust Board is entirely serious about enforcing this ban. Worth gently reminding you that any employee getting three smoking fines will be subject to conduct proceedings under our disciplinary procedure, in which video footage is admissible; we are proudly a smokefree Trust.

Today I chaired our latest digital committee, a month on from Unity Go-Live. When we compare our use of the new system to other Cerner using Trusts in the NHS, there are some really positive indicators for how we are getting to grips with the system. But there are also some indicators where other Trusts are using the system better. As we go through November we will publish that data at directorate and team level, sharing individual employee data from December. If you want to know more about Unity and to use it better, vast quantities of advice, guides and videos are on Connect.  A super user works near you who can guide you too. And through 4050 you can access IT trainers and experts in Unity as well. We want to work together to improve our use of the system, for all the positives that it has already brought. I am excited too to hear of our progress in replacing the current PACs system, and introducing the AI technology into radiology that would put the Trust at the absolute forefront of the UK in our collaboration with IBM Watson.  As we move, slowly, but surely, towards Midland Met the profile we are achieving means that leading partners in healthcare want to work with us to test, to implement and to innovate.

Sadly, I am ending this message with the news that one of our colleagues, Claire Millward, passed away this week. I did not know Claire personally, but have heard from colleagues in the stroke service how devastating this unexpected news is, and what an impact Claire made on our services during her time with us as an HCA.

#hellomynameisToby

Heartbeat: Meet the team who keep the hospital running in the darkest of hours

It’s just past midnight and it’s eerily quiet on the main spine at City Hospital, with no sign of the usual hustle and bustle of the day.

Yet there are two colleagues who continue to go about their business to ensure patient safety is maintained during the later hours of the day and into the night.

Matron, Rebecca Bloore, known as Becky to her colleagues, and Paul Goodman, Clinical Nurse Practitioner, are both from the Hospital @ Night team and have the responsibility of keeping things running from both a clinical and site management perspective.

We join the team at the start of their twilight shift – beginning at 6pm in the capacity office – to find out how their roles work. From the onset it sounds like it’s going to be a busy night.

Two of their colleagues are already over at the Sandwell site, doing the equivalent job. They are able to maintain communication with them via a video link so that they could run things past each other throughout the shift.

At the 7.15pm capacity call, the team are told about a mental health patient currently in the emergency department who has been waiting a while to be seen. Paul is able to organise an assessment for the patient so that he can be treated by the right team.

Afterwards, the number of beds available is totted up – and it sounds as though there maybe a shortage if patients aren’t treated and discharged.

“It’s a common issue,” says Becky. “The bed count carried out identifies if there can be a shortage. This can be due to patients not being discharged in the day or because information isn’t recorded during the day and passed onto the capacity team. We are often chasing discharges and transport for patients in the Medically Fit for Discharge (MFFD) wards.

“When needing to book transport out of hours we review the requirements of both the emergency departments first, we then review any patients waiting for discharge or transfer to MFFD wards from the base wards. We need to prioritise the work load for the Elite transport crew. “We are here to work out what can be done to try and ease the situation and make sure patient safety isn’t compromised.”

And this is also the case when it comes to staffing levels.

After the 7.15pm capacity meeting Becky and Paul are met with an influx of calls from wards experiencing a common theme – staff shortages.

“This is an astonishing amount of calls,” Becky tells me. “We have had contact from seven wards in total saying they are short staffed and in total we are being asked to find 11 extra staff.

“It’s going to be difficult as that’s quite a high number.”

Paul and Becky set to work to solve the issues and a few seconds in, she receives a call from a healthcare assistant who had turned up for a bank shift – only to be told the ward was fully staffed.

“She wants to work a shift tonight, so I’ve assigned her to one of the wards where there is a shortage,” adds Becky. “We will work through and plan the safest options to staff the wards and department also using cross-site links with our colleagues at Sandwell. Paul will then continue to work through the plan to plug the gaps to ensure we have safe staffing levels against the activity demand on the wards and departments.”

Soon it’s time for the clinical handover where colleagues from outreach, medical registrars and SHOs – both incoming and outgoing – pass on information about seriously ill patients who will need to be monitored throughout the night. These patients should have been flagged up to the Hospital @ Night referral system earlier but are only coming to light in the meeting.

During the meeting six patients are mentioned by the registrars, including a woman who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, but may now have a brain abscess.

Meanwhile a 70-year-old man has suspected encephalitis, a deadly condition that needs diagnosing and treating urgently. “He had been driving his car and communicating very well just six weeks earlier,” one of the registrars tells the meeting.

“However there has been a huge change in his behaviour and is showing signs of dementia and delirium. We have started treatment for encephalitis.”

Other patients also with concerns include one with oedema and another with COPD. “Most of these patients are on D21,” Becky says.

And so after the meeting our next point of call is to check on them and ensure they are receiving the right care, in the right place at the right time.

Becky is well known by the night shift across both sites, having worked in the role for nine years. But it is also part of her job to know her colleagues.

“I will know the skill set that nurses have which is really important,” she said. “I will be able to determine if they are able to carry out certain treatment for patients or whether this is something my team or I will need to support them with.”

The Hospital @ Night team don’t just fit catheters or cannulas – they are the first point of contact for all wards (and specialities) for unwell or deteriorating patients. They are able to perform a full clinical assessment, prescribe medication, lead on response to and recovery from a violence and aggression incident, assess and clear patient falls, order and interpret blood tests and take on the duties of speciality doctors to allow them to support the clinical needs on the acute medical units.

“Even if we are not bleeped our aim is to attend every ward or department overnight to ensure there are no concerns. This is especially so if staffing has been a cause for concern. We like to ensure all the staff feel supported out of hours.”

Becky adds: “We have quite a few responsibilities within our site management and clinical roles. Clinically we are an integral part of the EMRT/cardiac arrest team. Whilst within our site management role, we would assume the position of tactical commander for major and critical incidents, look after patient flow react to complaints and deal with staffing shortages – both nursing and medical staffing.

“It’s safe to say that no two days are the same.”

And with that Becky receives a call to tend to a patient who needs cannulating. “Duty calls,” she tells me. It’s 2am and it’s coming to the end of my shift but Becky and Paul will continue to ensure our hospital at night remains safe for all our patients and staff into the early hours of the morning.

AHP Day roundup

To celebrate Allied Health Professionals (AHP) Day, throughout this week we have been showcasing different AHPs from across the organisation and finding out what AHP day means to them.

In case you missed it, please be sure to check out this compilation video featuring a variety of AHPs from across the Trust talking about the significance of AHPs to both the Trust and NHS as a whole.

Star Awards 2019

Last Friday we hosted our 2019 Star Awards ceremony at Aston Villa Football Club. The awards ceremony celebrates the remarkable achievements of our colleagues across 20 awards categories including our new Green Award.

Be sure to also check out the video below highlighting the winners.

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHMaxb15qY8&list=PLoYmVhk1vF7WpNuA7CQKJaGhVgYguXDPr[/embedyt]

At the award ceremony we announced that one lucky winner would be drawn at random to win a special prize. We can now confirm that brochure number 101 has been drawn as the winner! If you have this brochure, please contact swbh.comms@nhs.net to claim your prize.

Drug safety notice: Ranitidine

All oral formulations of ranitidine are anticipated to be out of stock, with no date for resupply until further notice. This is due to the identification of a contaminant, N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), in samples of ranitidine active substance.

Although all oral formulations are expected to be out of stock, very limited supplies of unaffected oral ranitidine products may remain available and should be reserved for those patients in whom alternatives are not clinically appropriate.

Please see Ranitidine sheet for details on managing the supply issue.

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

Still time to get your flu vaccination!

The annual flu drop in clinics are underway and will run up until 8 November.

Be sure to check out this short video featuring Raffaela Goodby, director of people and organisation development explaining why it is important to get your jab this flu season.

If you would like to get your jab this week, drop in to one of the clinics and make time to get yourself protected.

Week 3 – 6: 14 October – 8 November 

• Tuesday and Thursday, 8.30am – 12pm, main reception, Sandwell Hospital
• Tuesday and Thursday, 8.30am – 12pm, breast feeding room, adjacent to D6, City Hospital
• Friday, 1pm – 4pm, occupational health, courtyard gardens, Sandwell Hospital
• Friday, 1pm – 4pm, breast feeding room, adjacent to D6, City Hospital

Flu: The facts on flu vaccination and gelatin

Are you refusing your flu vaccination due to personal or religious beliefs associated with pork? If so please be informed that there are no porcine products contained within the adult flu vaccination currently being offered as part of the flu programme at our Trust.

Gelatine is derived from pigs and is used in some live vaccines as a stabiliser to protect live viruses against the effects of temperature. As the adult flu vaccination on offer at our Trust is not live, it does not contain gelatine.

Please note that if you are over 65 or have a serious egg allergy you may be offered an alternative vaccine which may contain trace elements of porcine introduced through production filtration.

More information can also be found in the NHS leaflet ‘Vaccines and porcine gelatine’.

If you are still unsure about having your flu vaccination contact the Occupational Health team on ext 3306 or speak to your peer flu vaccinator in your area.