Monthly archives: December 2019
Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 13 December
It’s been a big week at the Trust. Remarkable and heroic efforts have been made night and day to ensure that we can safely look after children and adults arriving in need of emergency assessment and admission. The age and frailty of the patients coming to us continues to increase which is one of the reasons that it is so positive that we have quality improvement projects in frailty winning awards. In truth, however, our low and slow discharge volume continues to be the reason that we have to open unplanned beds or support patients in cubicles for eight, nine or 10 hours. A retraining and support process for the use of the CapMan product together with targeted assistance to individual clinical teams around discharge excellence are both taking place over the coming four weeks. It is clear that we do not have a shared understanding of the risk threshold for discharge when considered against the risks associated with delayed admission.
Last week we celebrated our QIHD poster award winners and this time next week we will celebrate our Christmas decoration stars. But for me the greatest pleasure of this week has been listening to our first wave weConnect pioneer teams present their successes and their ambitions for the future. You will remember that these are teams who volunteered to try to improve trust, communication, fairness and engagement where they work. It was clear from the presentations how much progress has been made in every single team. But two of our teams now have engagement outcomes that are in the top quintile. In simple terms we have two teams with engagement scores of more than 4.0 out of 5.0. They are pictured at the top of this message. Both of these teams shared a challenge of being spread across multi locations and multi disciplines where employees and their team managers may not be able to spend face to face time together very often. Both of these teams have in common that staff sometimes feel undervalued by the organisation as a whole or misunderstood so it is a special success to have seen them progress so far in 2019 and to be so determined to carry on their success in 2020.
I explained to the pioneer teams, and of course more are applying now to be in our 2nd wave, that in 2020 in addition to building our next organisation strategy we will be doing Trust-wide work in our values and behaviours ensuring that they remain relevant to our vision but also real for everyone working within the organisation. I will be asking our pioneer teams to pay a particular role in developing our values and behaviours work because it’s really important that that work comes from you rather than from the board or our directors.
On Wednesday you may be aware that we signed the construction contract to complete the Midland Metropolitan by 2022. We are delighted that Balfour Beatty share our commitment to apprenticeships for learning and have also committed to a smokefree site like all our other Trust sites. Work on the clinical model and the changes to practice that we want to see in the Midland Met will kick off in March and April and May of 2020. That work will build on all of your thinking as we look to ensure that we create a genuine seven day acute centre that can support our home-based care, outpatient care and community-based beds. The big change with Midland Met is not the environment, although the clinical adjacencies will be fiercely helpful, but the mind-set that we need in the hospital to deliver the very best outcomes for our population in all its diversity and bearing in mind the continually aging demography of our communities.
Good luck to everyone involved in the big neonatal move next week. The more spacious environment and its decent storage should create a better working environment for our teams. We are determined to both recruit and retain in our neonatal services and the new build is just the start of that exciting project.
#hellomynameisToby
Jane McDonald discounted tickets: 20 December
The organisers for Jane McDonald has kindly offered Trust colleagues a limited number of discounted tickets for the show at Arena Birmingham on Friday 20 December at 7.30pm.
Note: Selected tickets in price bands £D & £E are being offered for just the price of a £2.55 admin fee*.
Tickets can only be booked as an e-ticket in advance from the Ticket Factory website here – look for the gold star on the £D & £E tickets and select “Email Print At Home” when prompted.
For more information please contact amir.ali1@nhs.net.
Support through menopause workshops
This is a three hour workshop to look at how the menopause is effecting us both physically and emotionally. The workshops also help understand ways to reduce the emotional impact the menopause can have on us as individuals, including stress management techniques, ways to reduce anxiety and low mood due to the menopause.
Date: Tuesday 14 January
Venue: The Berridge Room, Courtyard Gardens, Sandwell Hospital
Time: 10am – 1pm
Date: Tuesday 18 February
Venue: The Berridge Room, Courtyard Gardens, Sandwell Hospital
Time: 10am – 1pm
Date: Thursday 22 April
Venue: Surgical Skills Room, Postgrad, City Hospital
Time: 10am – 1pm
For bookings and information please contact Jatinder Sekhon or Emma Williams on ext. 3306.
Essential maintenance affecting community sites on Saturday
The Lyng Centre for Health and Wellbeing will be closed on Saturday 14 September as essential electrical work takes place between 8am and 6pm. This will mean that services located in the building will not be available and any clinics due to take place on Saturday at the Lyng cancelled.
The electrical maintenance work at The Lyng will also affect services being delivered at Neptune, Victoria, Glebefields and Oldbury Health Centres. During this time all affected sites will be required to initiate their business continuity plans.
Colleagues are reminded to ensure they have planned in advance and made alternative arrangements to work from other locations where possible.
Apologies for any inconvenience.
Roger Hackley – why the flu vaccination matters
Roger Hackley, Ward Services Officer has shared a touching personal story via a short film to explain the importance of the flu vaccine and the potential tragic consequences of not having the jab.
You can watch this emotional clip below.
4,065 colleagues have so far had the flu vaccination however there is still a long way to go until we reach herd immunity. If you haven’t had chance to get your flu vaccination, be sure to pop by one of our flu clinics:
Week 12: 16 December – 20 December
- Monday 16 December, 8.30am – 4.30pm, occupational health, Sandwell
- Monday 16 December, 9am – 2pm walk around City
- Tuesday 17 December, 8.30pm – 12.30pm and 2pm – 4.30pm, occupational health, Sandwell (walk around, 2.30pm)
- Wednesday 18 December, 8.30pm – 12.30pm and 1.30pm – 4.30pm, occupational health, Sandwell (walk around, 1pm)
- Wednesday 18 December, 9am – 2pm walk around City
- Thursday 19 December, 8.30pm – 12.30pm and 1.30pm – 4.30pm, occupational health, Sandwell
- Friday 20 December, 8.30pm – 12.30pm and 1.30pm – 4.30pm, occupational health, Sandwell
- Friday 20 December, 8.30am – 4.30pm walk around City
The flu vaccinator will also be in attendance at both Sandwell and City TeamTalk sessions on Wednesday 18 December.
The flu prize draw has been extended so there is still time to win one of these fantastic prizes if you get your vaccination:
- £200 shopping vouchers
- 7” fire tablet
- Amazon fire TV stick
- Echo dot
- Tassimo coffee maker
Are you refusing your flu vaccination due to personal or religious beliefs associated with pork? If so please be aware that there are no porcine products contained within the adult flu vaccination on offer at our Trust.
Have you had your flu jab elsewhere?
If you have had your flu jab at your local GP or pharmacy you still count towards our overall flu vaccination total!
Simply let us know by completing this short form by following the link: http://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/od/occupational-health-and-wellbeing-service/flu/had-your-flu-jab-elsewhere/
Note: If you have 8 or more colleagues who want their flu vaccination in your area or department you can organise a visit from our ‘Jab-in-the-hut’ by calling ext. 3803.
City ED Christmas cake sale today
If you’re a budding baker and want to join in with raising money for a good cause, or simply someone whose looking for a tasty treat, join the City Hospital emergency department team for their Christmas Bake Sale today from 1pm – 3pm.
All money raised will go towards buying new toys for the Children’s room at City ED.
For more information, contact annabel.bottrill@nhs.net.
Heartbeat: Unity go-live – a super user’s perspective
Having worked in emergency departments for more than a decade, I’ve learned that the two most important aspects of managing the shop floor are patient safety and patient flow.
I was really happy when I knew that the Trust was working with Cerner. We finally decided to take a leap of faith into the fully digital world and, for me, the experience was amazing.
Despite the excitement, I recalled the challenges and frustrations encountered during my previous two cutover experiences. A lot of colleagues had doubts about whether the move would be worth it.
Their concerns were understandable, but when it comes to patient safety and effective clinical practice, comprehensive IT solutions always have the upper hand.
This is proved through better prescribing, fewer clinical and drug-related errors, safe archiving and easy access to medical records.
More than this, Unity is a one-stop-shop where we can document, prescribe, share information, review and endorse results in a single interface that pools all patient information – past and present.
The cutover period was challenging on many levels. First of all, we had to ensure that all staff were well-trained, understood how to use Unity and the workflows they would have to follow. Secondly, we needed enough staff in place to deal with the initial delays. Emergency departments don’t have the luxury of booking fewer patients – our front door never shuts. Finally, we had to change our mind-set from documenting on paper, using three to four IT systems at once, to focusing on Unity.
Cutover itself was interesting. We started at 5am on Saturday morning with 20 patients in the department registered on the old IT systems already. When we had our first patient registered on Unity, I felt a huge sense of relief. As more colleagues came on shift they showed the same commitment and never gave up.
The following two weeks were slightly bumpy as everyone was trying to learn how to communicate through Unity. It was a big change. The support of digital champions, floorwalkers and super users proved very effective.
Thanks to our great ED team, we all looked after each other. Many colleagues started their own initiatives to help everyone through any early difficulties. We had a resuscitation trolley full of biscuits, chocolate, snacks and fruit. A Unity-corn joined our family for good luck too. I also made a series of short videos on our ED homepage to help with specific Unity procedures.
We understand that the two-week cutover period is just the beginning but Unity has already started to show its great potential. As we become more familiar with it, I am confident that we will realise the full capabilities of the system.
Heartbeat: LiA sheds light on impact of volunteers in our workplace
The volunteer team recently hosted their third Listening into Action (LiA) where colleagues were invited to participate and share their thoughts.
The session provided lots of opportunity for discussion around the improvement of the service. It also prompted debate about what more can be done to ensure that volunteers have a positive experience whilst giving their time to care.
The event shed light on the new roles the volunteer service is introducing as well as the progress that has been made within the service.
Colleagues found the event informative. They were happy to be given the opportunity to engage with other wards that have individuals volunteering within their departments. Amber Markham, Matron of Critical Care said: “It was exciting to learn how volunteers can be used around our organisation and what they can do to support patients and staff. We have some volunteers in the theatre liaison role in CCU. Everything that they do is so important as it can be a very stressful time for those with loved ones in surgery.”
The purpose of holding another LiA was to bring colleagues together to share success stories and, to listen to what challenges they face. It was also a good chance to discuss whether they are on track with deploying the right volunteers to support patients and staff.
The feedback was positive and everyone had the chance to pitch in their ideas. Patricia Hunt, Volunteer Service Manager told us: “It was great to have the volunteers LiA event last month and to have so many staff attend with a willingness to take part.”
“We had presentations from several colleagues, as well as our Director of Communications, Ruth Wilkin. Jane Fleetwood from Dudley Group of Hospitals provided insight into the successful bleep/ response volunteer role, which is something we are looking to roll out in January 2020.”
“We were pleased with the turnout and the input from colleagues during the afternoon and look forward to seeing this role come to fruition.”
Traditional Christmas lunch for colleagues still available
Christmas lunch will again be served at all of our hospital sites in the lead up to Christmas:
Hallam Restaurant – 17 December
Postgraduate City and Rowley Coffee Pot – 18 December
Menu – main course
Roast turkey, seasoning and chipolatas wrapped in streaky bacon
Or
Red cabbage and apple roulade with brie and red onion marmalade
Or
Lentil and butternut béchamel lasagne (vegan)
Served with
Sprouts, carrots, roast and mashed potatoes
Dessert
Christmas pudding and homemade brandy sauce
Or
Mince pie
The two course meal will cost £5.50 per person. (Allergen information available on request). Lunch will be served at 12pm and 1pm. Pre paid tickets can be purchased from Coffee Culture at City, Coffee Pot at Rowley and Hallam Restaurant at Sandwell.
For more information please call ext. 5436.
Colleague and patient catering arrangements throughout festive period
For full details regarding catering arrangements for both colleagues and patients throughout the festive period please see below:
Note: All colleagues who are working Christmas Day are entitled to a free meal from either the Hallam Restaurant at Sandwell or Arches Cafe at City. No meal ticket is required, just arrive at the restaurant/cafe for your meal with either your ID/name badge.
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