Monthly archives: November 2019

Heartbeat: Pharmacy in focus

During September and October the pharmacy department celebrated World Pharmacist Day and World Pharmacy Technician Day – events that celebrated the importance of pharmacy technicians.

In our organisation we have a team of over 130 pharmacy colleagues consisting of pharmacists, technicians and pharmacy support staff. They support all aspects of medicines use from advice on medication safety to clinical queries and staff training.

You’ll find the team working across many different areas including dispensaries, procurement, ward-based services, training and education, medicines information and aseptic services.

Ilka Fisher is a lead Electronic Prescribing Medicines Administration (EPMA) technician based at Sandwell pharmacy. Ilka steered the Unity EPMA build from development through to its successful launch. With her team she maintains the EPMA catalogue and all the other safety aspects of electronic prescribing. This ensures patients have their drugs safely prescribed and administered.

Ilka said “Awareness days like these are important as they help to highlight the work the wider pharmacy team does across the Trust. We work in many areas in a variety of roles in addition to dispensaries.”

She added “With the introduction of Unity we’ve worked collaboratively with a lot of different areas. Across the wider team, ward based pharmacists were out and about supporting training and coaching. Everyone worked to ensure the change to digital was smooth and, most importantly that patient safety wasn’t compromised.”

See Me – Learning Disability and Autism Conference taking place tomorrow

Join us to learn more about how simple changes in hospital care can make a big difference in patients outcomes.

• Learn about patient centred care
• How to improve patient experience
• Hear from patients with disabilities
• ‘MisFits’ renowned theatre group performing on the day!
• Excellent opportunity to boost your continuous professional development

Remember to book your place for the conference!

Date: 6 November
Time: 8.30am – 4pm
Venue: Wolfson Theatre, Postgraduate Centre, City Hospital.

Book your place online through eventbrite.com or contact Shazia Akhtar on ext. 6445.

Slide sheet and hoist sling training

Drop-in sessions to show how to use the new slide sheets and hoist slings are now available for colleagues.

The sessions will take place at Sandwell Education Centre, room 2, 9am-12pm on the following dates:

• Wednesday 20 November
• Friday 22 November

For booking and information please call ext. 4566 or ext. 6025.

Heartbeat: Dinah takes on Urban Ultra-marathon London

Whilst the rest of us were still in our slippers on the morning of Saturday 5 October, one devoted colleague was already out in her trainers and raring to go, not simply to run a regular marathon, but to run a 55km ultramarathon.

Acting Director of Finance Dinah McLannahan is not averse to a challenge and every step of the 55km she ran stands in testament to her tenacity. Starting at the Woolwich tunnel in East London, Dinah joined some of the fittest runners in England to take on one of the toughest challenges.

Sharing her experience, Dinah said, “When I saw the opportunity for an ultramarathon, I jumped at the chance and began training. Along with raising money for charity, it’s a huge personal achievement.”

Dinah completed an arduous 15 week training programme in preparation for her biggest challenge yet. Almost two years to the day after arriving at the Trust, Dinah joined 280 runners in London and began her epic endeavour. Dinah ran the distance in an impressive 8 hours 13 minutes and raised over £1,200 in sponsorship!

Having travelled through nine boroughs, Dinah concluded in Richmond. Recalling her ultramarathon she said, “The last 12 miles were hard, but the first 24 were surprisingly ok! It was one of the best things I have ever done. There were some brilliant views and the course was never boring. I’m so proud and happy to have raised such a good amount for the charity. I skipped across the finish line, I was so delighted to finish. Only three bruised toenails too, so I’m glad it’s not summertime and I can cover them up!”

Electric vehicle charging stations available across our hospital sites

We now have a total of six electric vehicle charge point sockets available to colleagues to charge their vehicles at our Sandwell, City and Rowley sites.

The charge points have been introduced to help reduce our negative impact on the environment.

For more information please visit: https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/estates/sustainability/electric-vehicle-charging/.

West Midlands Leadership Academy Action Learning Set Facilitator programme

Applications for the Action Learning Set (ALS) Facilitator programme are now open! The programme is an exciting, challenging and rewarding opportunity that not only provides facilitators with high-quality personal development, but puts them at the heart of developing the future leaders of the NHS on the graduate management training scheme.

For more information, please visit website or email liz.melsom@leadershipacademy.nhs.uk.

Heartbeat: Free NHS Wi-Fi service helping connect the disconnected

There’s something in the air – it’s new and it’s free!

The days of people desperately waving their phones at the nearest window are now at an end thanks to the introduction of free Wi-Fi across our Trust. The new service launched recently thanks to a grant from NHS Digital and is available across our organisation, bringing free wireless internet access to patients, visitors and colleagues on our site.

The Wi-Fi service launched recently following in the footsteps of Unity and has already begun to have a positive impact on patients, letting those in our wards reconnect with their family, friends and loved ones whilst they rest and recuperate without the worry of running up bills on their mobile phones.

Welcoming the new service to the Trust, Heartbeat spoke to Chief Informatics Officer, Martin Sadler. He said, “We introduced free NHS Wi-Fi service so that patients, visitors, students and colleagues can access the internet when they need to from their own devices, helping them to stay connected.”

“All you need to do is connect to NHS Wi-Fi on your device, accept the terms and conditions and you’ll be connected to the internet, without the need to register or enter any passwords. Like all public Wi-Fi services we encourage you to use it appropriately and only use it for things that you would be happy for other people to know about.”

Confidential one-to-one workplace mental health support: 14 November

The Access to Work Mental Health Support Service, delivered by Remploy, funded by the Department for Work and Pensions provides confidential one-to-one workplace mental health support for colleagues.

The next session due to take place on 14 November at Jayne Wright therapy room, ground floor, Trinity House, Sandwell Hospital.

Book your appointment today and gain expert advice and support for up to nine months. The support includes:

• A wellbeing plan to help you stay in, or return to work
• Workplace adjustments
• Coping strategies.

Remploy are not obliged to inform your employer, unless you want them to. To access this support you must be:

• In permanent or temporary employment (attending work or signed off sick)
• Have a mental health condition (diagnosed or undiagnosed) that has caused you to be off work, or is making it hard for you to undertake your duties and responsibilities whilst at work.

To book your appointment contact the occupational health and wellbeing department on ext 3306.

Anonymous NHS Staff Survey – Take the chance to have your say

The annual NHS Staff Survey where millions of colleagues across the country feedback on their services and how they feel about working for their organisations has launched.

The national survey is mandatory for all NHS organisations and the results inform national initiatives that can help support improvements in staff experience and wellbeing. It allows our Trust to see what issues people raise and understand how to make improvements. Importantly we are also able to benchmark our results against other organisations. This helps see where we excel compared to other, similar organisations and also where we are not as good as some other Trusts. Looking at those Trusts that score more highly than us in certain areas will provide a good way for us to learn from other high performing organisations.

The results are also used by NHS England to support national assessments of quality and safety. The Care Quality Commission uses the results to inform their Intelligent Monitoring work to help to decide who, where and what to inspect.

This year, every member of staff will be given the opportunity to have their say.

Surveys have now been distributed predominantly through email with a small number of colleagues receiving papers copies through the post to their home addresses. Everyone is urged to take part as the survey is a unique opportunity to see how we compare to other Trusts on things like working environment, staff morale, job satisfaction, and management support.

The results will be reviewed and acted upon so we can make our organisation a great place to work.

If you complete the survey you could be one of six lucky people with the chance to win £50 worth of shopping vouchers!

Not received your survey?

Check your inbox. The survey has been sent from survey@quality-health.co.uk the subject is – Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust 2019 NHS Staff Survey: Invitation

Still no survey?

Check your junk mail folder just to be sure. If you definitely haven’t received the invitation then email swbh.comms@nhs.net

Note: The survey will be open until the end of November.

WeConnect pioneer teams: Applications for wave 2 closes today!

The closing date for applications is today!

The weConnect programme is inviting applications from teams who want to become a second wave pioneer team and drive forward colleague engagement. Pioneer teams take part in a 26 week programme from December 2019 and will be able to design and implement their own engagement programme, supported by specially trained colleagues and executive directors. The programme begins with a survey of your colleagues to see what areas of engagement need improvement. To find out more or to apply please follow the guidelines and application form.

Wave 2 weconnect Pioneer Teams Programme Application Form 2019