Monthly archives: November 2019
Fraud awareness month: Cyber fraud
Fraud awareness month promotes openness and honesty about fraud. It also aims to raise awareness and share good practice in tackling fraud and financial crime.
What is Cyber fraud?
Cyber fraud is fraud committed with the use of a computer, where the fraudsters are trying to exploit system vulnerabilities to steal passwords, data or money.
Most cyber fraud comes in the form of emails and has become a common problem for many individuals and organisations in recent years. Due to heavy reliance on the use of the internet, cyber scammers and fraudsters have disrupted bank accounts, sent viruses, and stolen personal information.
Click here to find out more about the main types of cyber fraud.
Thank you for supporting this important initiative. NHS Fraud: Spot it, Report it, Together we stop it.
World Antibiotic Awareness Week: Join us at the BTC and Sandwell
Today (Monday 18 November) marks the start of World Antibiotic Awareness Week.
Antibiotics are lifesaving medicines, which have revolutionised the practice of medicine and contributed to the increases seen in life expectancy over the last century. It is estimated that three million surgical procedures take place in England each year which require antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent infection.
Despite antibiotics being so vital to human health, there have been no new antibiotics developed by the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years. Resistance is increasing to the antibiotics we currently have, so we need to use them more appropriately. All medical, nursing and pharmacy colleagues can play their part in antibiotic stewardship – every prescription should have the indication, duration or a review date documented. Antibiotics should be reviewed regularly to make sure they are still needed.
Want to find out more about antibiotics? Why not come along to one of our antibiotic awareness stands at the BTC (1st floor by the escalators) or Sandwell hospital by the main entrance between 11am and 1pm today (Monday 18 November) for more information, crosswords and a chance to win a prize with our quiz. You don’t need to be a doctor or nurse to take part!
Try the antibiotic guardian quiz to see how much you know about antibiotics:
Out of hours catering fridge at Sandwell moved to SAU
The out of hours catering fridge at Sandwell has moved from Newton 3 to SAU to make the service more convenient for colleagues when obtaining sandwiches.
If you have a patient that is admitted out of hours you can find a selection of food in the catering fridges.
Please see below locations for out of hours catering fridges:
- Sandwell = SAU
- City = D5
- Rowley = catering department (dry stores KD 113)
Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 15 November
Nick Makwana is best known to many of us as an allergy specialist leading a multi-professional specialist tertiary service at the Trust. In his spare time he is also group director for our Women and Child Health Group, working hard to get a clean sweep of ‘Goods’ or ‘Outstandings’ across their core services in next year’s CQC review. I understand to relax from whichever of those two things is more stressful; Nick also dances, a little. Today he has been dancing a lot in the entrance to Sandwell General Hospital. If you wanted to show your support, amusement, or admiration his efforts can be sponsored via https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/NickMakwana – thank you Nick.
On 29 November, Your Trust Charity are holding a major conference for those colleagues who lead charitable fund budgets, as we introduce the revised role of fund ambassador. Email trustcharity@nhs.net if you want to attend.
This week has been, and still is, Living Wage Week, complete with the announcement that rates will rise to £9.30 an hour. This Trust is proudly at the forefront of trying to tackle poverty pay. We see this as a health related issue, as poor pay compounds issues like fuel poverty, poor nutrition, ad-hoc child care and poor school attendance. Next year, we will be joining others to try and get Birmingham accredited as the country’s first Living Wage city, and in the meantime, we are working to see whether all partners within our STP can join us in abolishing band 1 or much of band 2 wage rates. You will appreciate that, as a Trust, we offer debt advisors as a workplace benefit, and also fund some benefits advice services for patients. Projects that directly tackle poverty are always of interest for funding, both within our NHS service and from Your Trust Charity too, so if you have ideas or projects do put them forward to your directorate or group management teams.
This week’s QIHD topic was needle stick injuries, and other sharps. This is always an area where we can do more and better and safe disposal is typically something that the CQC find fault with our practice. The films issued for the topic provided, I thought, were a powerful reminder of the impact and anxiety that can come from being injured. I understand that within the films some colleagues felt that comments could stigmatise going to a GUM, or sexual health, clinic. We run a fine such service, and are the lead provider in Sandwell collaborating with many third sector groups, to try and address rates of treatable sexually related diseases like chlamydia. All of us should feel comfortable using those services and asking for advice. At the same time our understanding of HIV, living well with HIV, and being treated for it, is one of the great public health and scientific advances of the last two decades, and I would hope all of us now can carry a positive message about the options for someone with an HIV diagnosis.
I had the privilege during QIHD of listening to our pain service talk about their work, research options, educational ambitions, and future plans working alongside community pharmacists and GPs. Pain is one of the very commonest reasons to consult a GP, is a very common underlying issue or secondary condition for hospital consultation, and is something that we want to make sure we provide a comprehensive offer for in both western Birmingham and in Sandwell. The hub of our service is in new accommodation on the third floor of Sheldon at City, with spokes at Sandwell and in various GP settings – as well as treatment programme run from the Park Inn by the M5! The service is doing a fantastic job with often complex patients. I am clear that to be an integrated care organisation or system, we have to have an outstanding offer to patients in pain, and it follows from that that investment in these services will be a priority over the coming two years.
We know that, whilst educational attainment among our medical students and trainees is typically the best in the city, we could do better in all sorts of ways to improve the work/life experience of these colleagues, from sleep and rest, through to how we learn together and improve services. For the last few years we have employed a Chief Resident, paying one of our registrars to take on this part time management fellowship. Thank you to Alison Eastaugh in older peoples’ medicine, for stepping forward to the role this year. We both, I think, very much hope that in 2020 we can draw closer together our senior and middle managers, with our registrars and SAS doctors in particular, to make sure that such an important workforce is able to really have a voice in the Trust, at local directorate, and at corporate level.
There are lots of exciting changes being made right now in our emergency departments. Changes at City to get our new 2020 paediatric A&E services right-sized and better-shaped, changes in renal colic pathways to avoid patients waiting in ED cubicles, a planned investment to support us to tackle gang violence and risks, and new batched pathology order sets for triage, are just some obvious examples. I want to thank the nursing, management, and medical leaders taking those projects forward, alongside key partners like portering, pharmacy, AHPs, and transport. The national media scrum will rightly elaborate on the nationwide challenges, especially of complex frail elder people whose numbers rise, and where we all want to offer the very best service. Despite all the challenges, I continue to believe that being able to look after most attending people inside four hours is the right model, and so we will continue to strive to that end. As I wrote here a few weeks ago, the evidence is mounting that long lengths of stay do have a relationship with outcome and we have it within our collective grasp to be able to offer nine out of ten patients a short wait experience of our front-door services.
#hellomynameisToby
50 per cent off at Zip World for colleagues
Zip World are offering up to 50 per cent discount for all Trust colleagues with a Blue Light Card up until 31 December. Simply use promo code “BLUELIGHTCARD50”.
For colleagues are eligible for a Blue Light Card but may not have one should use promo code “SERVICES50.”
Note: Colleagues are reminded that they must present either their Blue Light Card or NHS ID on the day as proof of eligibility.
Discounts can be applied at checkout on the website https://zipwo.uk/2pSdvZD.
For more information please click here.
Road closure City Hospital: 17 November
Due to a delivery of an MRI scanner to the BTC on Sunday 17 November, the area bounded by yellow on the site plan (see image below) will be cordoned off with no vehicular access.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Join Nick Makwana today for his 12 hour dance-a-thon and raise funds for charity
https://youtu.be/h4600w_Reqs
If you love music and dancing, why not join Dr Nick Makwana, Group Director of Women and Child Health for his 12 hour dance-a-thon.
The 12 hour dance-a-thon is taking place today (Friday 15 November) at Sandwell Hospital.
Come along, join in and show your support by donating online at https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/NickMakwana
All money raised will be shared between three charities, Your Trust Charity, the registered charity for Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, Encephalitis Society and Children In Need.
For more information please call ext. 4847 or email amanda.winwood@nhs.net.
Alcohol Awareness Week
It’s Alcohol Awareness Week, an initiative that aims to drive and encourage open conversation about alcohol and consumption as well as signpost those who need help to the support they need.
Be sure to have a read of the fantastic story featuring Volunteer, Rachel Bassett and her battle with alcoholism. You can check out the story below:
Volunteer who battled alcoholism is now helping other sufferers
A former alcoholic has told how she has become a volunteer at our Trust so she can help others in their journey to quitting booze.
Rachel Bassett used to drink 12 pints of cider a day and had found herself jobless and depressed.
But after being referred to the Alcohol Team, she turned her life around.
Since she revealed her struggle a year ago, Rachel has joined the organisation as a volunteer where she shares her experiences with patients who are seeking help for their addiction.
Speaking during Alcohol Awareness Week (11-15 November), she said: “My recovery has gone from strength-to-strength and I’m now doing something really worthwhile – giving valuable advice to people who were once in the same position as myself.
“I’ve been there and I know how awful it is. To me cider was my world and I loved it so much that I’d drink up to 12 pints a day. I couldn’t function normally without a drink in my hand. I lost my job and I was left housebound because it affected my health so much. I was diagnosed with malnutrition because I stopped eating and my weight went down to six stone.
“Many of the patients who come into the clinic for treatment want to talk about what they are going through to someone who understands and I am able to relate to them directly.
“They can feel nervous and agitated, but I can help calm their nerves by telling them what to expect and giving them reassurance.
“I can also offer a bit of a distraction too by taking their mind off things if they want to talk about something else.”
Rachel, from West Bromwich, attends clinics held on a Monday and Tuesday at City Hospital where she speaks to new patients who have come for their first assessment, those who are pre-detox, and some who are post-detox.
“I’ve had some very positive feedback, with some patients asking if I will be there when they come for a follow-up appointment,” added Rachel.
She joined as a volunteer in August and as well as interacting with patients, she has also been assisting the Alcohol team when they attend promotional events.
“When I think back to my time as an alcoholic I would never have thought I would be here at the Trust volunteering and helping patients who have been through what I have.
“I could barely walk, let alone talk during my darkest days. But I am now able to offer my insight and advice to others going through a similar experience to mine and I hope that it does help them in some way.”
Lead Alcohol Nurse Arlene Copland said: “The feedback we have received from patients who have met Rachel and spoken to her about their experiences has been really positive.
“Not only is she able to relate to them directly, but she is also a true inspiration. She shows them that there is hope and that they can recover and go onto live a normal life.”
Heartbeat: Digital transformation done the Andy Churm way!
For Andy Churm, Unity is just the beginning.
The launch of Unity has seen a massive shift across the organisation, from the front line to colleagues working in local communities. Behind the scenes, Andy will now be working to expand the use of System One, bridging the gap between the two systems. He’s recently taken on the position of practice education digital lead. This came out of the changes created through the implementation of mobile working for district nurses.
“I was on secondment for a year helping to set up mobile working for district nurses. That involved helping to get all the existing systems set up into an electronic format. As well as that we needed to get them on System One Mobile,” Andy told Heartbeat.
“With that rolled out, it became clear that there were some gaps in documentation. We hadn’t covered getting the paper items into a digital format, so there’s been a lot of work to get new templates sorted.”
“It all carries on; workflows need to continue. It became clear the original two days a week secondment was evolving into a new position and now it has.”
The new role officially began last month. It will see Andy continue his previous work but under a much-expanded remit. He’ll be working on systems that still need to be reconfigured and so much more. Watch this space!
Heartbeat: Shockwaves felt through foot health team
Patients experiencing debilitating heel pain are being offered a shocking new treatment, thanks to help from the League of Friends charity.
Leading the new treatment, Clinical Lead Podiatrist Tom Calderbank explained “Plantar fasciitis is a condition where you have pain on the bottom of your foot, around your heel and arch. It makes up over 25 per cent of our caseload in the Biomechanics clinic. It’s estimated that it could affect up to 10 per cent of the UK population.
“Although conservative treatments including insoles, exercises or corticosteroid injection therapy can help the majority of patients we see, a significant number are left with excruciating pain if the treatment does not work.
“The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital has been offering shockwave therapy for some time. Many of our patients have been travelling out of our area to have this treatment. This led us to make a bid for funding from the League of Friends, to make a difference to our patients locally.
“Shockwave therapy has been evidenced to be both safe and cost effective.
Called Extracorporeal Shock wave therapy (ESWT), it is non-invasive. It uses inaudible, high energy sound waves to stimulate tissue repair. The treatment is delivered in four treatments of 10 minutes over four weeks.
“Our initial clinic proved so successful we’ve recently had to put on a second one every week to cater for the numbers of patients who need the treatment. Initial feedback from patients is excellent.”
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