Monthly archives: January 2020

Heartbeat: Apprentices celebrated in awards ceremony

The apprenticeship provider team hosted their second annual awards ceremony. It was a day of celebration as people from across our organisation came together to collect their awards after completing their apprenticeships.

Bethan Downing, Deputy People Director opened the ceremony. She commented: “As we change our workforce, it’s important that our people can develop into roles they’d like to move into.”

This very much set the tone for the ceremony. Each apprentice had taken ownership of their development and was empowered by our organisation to do so.

The awards ceremony recognised apprentices in the following categories:

• Business and Administration Level 2
• Customer Service Practitioner • Level 2
• Health Care Support Worker Level 2
• Team Leader/Supervisor Level 3

To be considered for an apprenticeship certain eligibility criteria needed to be met. Where extra support was needed the apprenticeship provider team helped to upskill learners to improve and refresh their literacy and numeracy skills.

All training was delivered in house. As a registered apprenticeship provider within Sandwell and West Birmingham, the team act as trainers, assessors and coaches.

Together, they deliver apprenticeship standards across healthcare, business and administration, customer service and team leader programmes. They provided bespoke training and support to each apprentice throughout their learning journey.

This cohort exceeded all expectations. In particular, all the team leader and customer service practitioners passed with a distinction. It was the first time as a Trust we’d put learners through these two new apprenticeship standards.

Maxine Griffiths, Widening Participation Manager told Heartbeat how thrilled she was about this. “For us this was a first, extending our apprenticeship programme in this way had not been done before. Each learner put so much effort and dedication into their studies and achieving a distinction is wholeheartedly deserved.”

Since completing their apprenticeships, eight individuals have gone on to secure higher banded posts, become a nurse associate or move on to a Level 3 qualification.

Libby Marshall, Apprenticeship Coordinator added: “It’s important for us to recognise each individual as we’ve done here today at our awards ceremony. They’ve all worked so hard and should be proud of everything they’ve achieved. As a team, it brings us great pleasure knowing that we’ve helped each person grow personally and professionally. We look forward to seeing what great things they all achieve in their careers.”

Heartbeat: Shaping the future of NHS procurement

Clinical colleagues have once again stepped forward to share their expert knowledge on a national stage helping to shape the future of clinical NHS procurement.

Recently, when NHS Supply Chain was tasked with developing their new framework for non-invasive sleep therapy they turned to non-other than colleagues in our respiratory physiology team at Sandwell and City Hospitals to help shape their specifications for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure devices.

Sharing the news with Heartbeat, Head of Clinical Product Management at the Black Country Alliance (BCA) Elena Slater said: “I am so proud of the clinicians we have at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, this is only one example of many where our clinicians are helping to shape the future of NHS procurement and protect our patients by ensuring the national clinical specifications for the procurement of CPAP devices (in this example) are clinically acceptable and we not only that we get value for money on a national scale but also ensuring that patient care remains as the number one priority.

“Mike Lang, Head of Respiratory Physiology and Amina Mohammed, Deputy Head of Respiratory Physiology, have been very helpful by facilitating visits from Walsall sleep service to show them how we can improve patient care, not only at our organisation, but across the Black Country Alliance by using remote monitoring of patients and adopting innovations in practice. A fine example of how our clinical engagement programme is showing not only savings but clinical benefits across the BCA and nationally.

Sharing best practice is the key and our clinicians at SWB are at the forefront of this nationally inputting on national specifications for many other clinical areas.”

Heartbeat: Health watchdog highlights board rounds as “good practice”

Our Trust has been hailed by a leading health watchdog as having good practice when it comes to patient care.

We were highlighted in the report “Caring for doctors, Caring for patients” for the General Medical Council. It looked at how better solutions around patient care can lead to the better wellbeing of doctors.

Our “board rounds” are scheduled daily and are discussions held by doctors, nurses, physiotherapists as well as other clinicians. They are used to share information about patients so that they receive the best care possible.

The report by the GMC found these types of initiatives could be a “model for the world” in how to develop workplace cultures that support doctors’ core work needs if these solutions were consistently applied.

David Carruthers, Medical Director said: “This is one of the many ways we are working to support our junior doctors, not only in the direct provision of care to our patients but also for their general well-being, reducing work-related stress and anxiety. These factors will all contribute to improving the quality and safety of care we provide to patients and maintain a supportive work environment for our junior doctors.”

Other recommendations for health service leaders include improvements to team-working, culture and leadership, and workloads.

Charlie Massey, the GMC’s Chief Executive, said: “Medicine has always been a high-pressure career, but doctors are telling us that the demands on them are now so great they risk becoming unmanageable. As a result, their health suffers, and patient care is compromised.

“Solutions are not easy, but this report shows that there are already many examples of great practice to build from. As a regulator, we will use all our influence and powers to support doctors and medical students.”

Heartbeat: Feeling the heat at Sandwell Hospital

Picture this – the alarm is sounding and you realise there’s a fire engulfing the tunnels of our hospital. Would you know what to do? Luckily for us, we have dedicated fire safety, security and estates teams that know every inch of our estate and plan for such events.

In October you might have thought you were seeing an emergency unfold before your eyes if you saw fire engines on-site at Sandwell Hospital. In fact, what you would have seen was a controlled fire safety exercise that had been carefully planned with West Bromwich Fire Station.

Each year we work with the local fire station to help simulate a real-life emergency call out. This is very much a two-way exercise as it allows both the fire crew and our teams to check their procedures and practises are as efficient and effective as they need to be. Using the hospital provides a safe environment to prepare for complex situations that may arise in real-life situations.

Taking the lead on our side was Sarah Ludlow, Specialist Fire Training Officer. Working with Dale Pound, Crew Commander and Pete Finazzi, Watch Commander together they planned the event from start to finish. This exercise had some unexpected twists and turns thrown in to really test those taking part on the day.

This included the threat of chemicals and contractors that had been unaccounted for.

Sarah commented: “Preparation for this event took over two weeks of collaboration with Dale and Pete. We went into great detail to ensure that we had every opportunity to fully test the procedures in place for both the Trust and the fire station. Lots of people lent their support and we all played various roles. This included everything from the police to ambulance crews. Santokh Sagoo and Phil Hanson from our security team even joined us as well to make this as realistic as possible. Overall it was a good exercise and both sides took learnings away from it.”

Dale said: “The outcome from the exercise was that all the casualties located in the basement area of the hospital were found by crews. It took slightly longer than expected which we will review. Our biggest learning on the day was not to overthink and to deploy our crews quicker.” He added: “We’d like to thank everyone from the hospital for use of the excellent facilities.”

Planned maintenance to network storage infrastructure: Wednesday 15 January – 6PM

There is a planned upgrade of the network infrastructure storage solution scheduled tomorrow (Wednesday 15th January) at 6pm for a duration of 30 mins. The planned work will involve replacing our current IT backend storage solution in order to improve our current capacity.

We do not anticipate any major service interruptions during this implementation window, however you may experience a brief blip to service at 6pm for a few seconds.  Please note this will not affect Unity.

If you experience any prolonged interruption to any services during this work, please notify the IT helpdesk on ext 4050 as soon as possible.

2020/21 flu campaign survey – have you say

Public Health England are conducting a survey around the flu vaccination and are encouraging all health care workers to share their views. The survey results will be used to help them to improve the 2020/21 flu campaign.

Public Heath England are encouraging colleagues who didn’t have the jab this year to share their reasons why they were against having it.

You can complete the survey by clicking here.

Note: This survey closes on Friday 31 January. All survey responses will remain anonymous. 

20 per cent free for full time places: Bright Minds Daycare

Bright Minds Daycare are offering Trust colleagues up to 20 per cent free for full time places at both their Edgbaston and Jewellery Quarter settings until 31 January. For further details please call 0121 582 1510.

To find out more about employee benefits at SWBH please contact amir.ali1@nhs.net.

Heartbeat: Teamwork makes dream work

Newly appointed Mr Buza, Consultant Ears, Nose and Throat (ENT) Surgeon may only have been with our Trust for a short time but he’s certainly creating a positive buzz wherever he goes.

Theatre Nurse, Karishma Kaur recently had the opportunity to work alongside Mr Buza. She visited the ENT theatre for the first time and together they operated on a patient. She said: “I cannot express how much I enjoyed working alongside Mr Buza. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from him and to be trained in common surgical procedures under his guidance as part of my development.”

It’s not just Karishma that has been touched by Mr Buza’s thoughtfulness and generosity. Colleagues from the wider team credit him with creating ‘a wonderful team spirit’ that helps to integrate the ‘younger generation’ into the team. Recently, Mr Buza invited Karishma to Birmingham Treatment Centre. Little did she know that he had arranged a party complete with tea, cakes and a balloon to welcome her to the department.

Laurel Woodstock, Clinical Supervisor added: “We cannot express how much we appreciate Mr Buza’s kind gestures. He has made such a big impact on the team.

We’re all looking forward to working with him more closely.”

Mr Buza said “I’m passionate about supporting and motivating young colleagues. I have always tried to lead by example especially in this area. I look forward to working with everyone. My goal is to help the younger members of the team grow into their roles and I will support them as best as I can to achieve their ambitions.”

Relax and unwind with free mindful yoga at City

Relax and unwind with free mindful yoga sessions at City Hospital suitable for all levels of ability, experience and ages.

Sessions are free, last between 45 mins–1 hour and facilitated by trained yoga instructors.

There are multiple benefits of yoga both mentally and physically as it may help reduce stress and improve relaxation levels.

Yoga at City throughout 2020 will be held at Millers Restaurant, 1st Floor, City Hospital on the below dates and times:

Xpress Yoga (45 mins)
Time: 12.30pm-1.15pm (Mondays)

• January – 20, 27
• February – 3, 10
• March – 9, 16, 30
• April – 6

MYC Yoga
Time: 4.30pm-5.30pm (Mondays)

• January – 20, 27
• February – 3, 10
• March – 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
• April – 6

MYC Yoga with Cassie
Time: 12.30pm-1.15pm (Thursdays)

• January – 16, 23, 30
• February – 6, 13, 27
• March – 5, 12, 19, 26
• April – 2

MYC Yoga with Chris
Time: 5.30pm-6.30pm (Thursday)

• January – 16, 23, 30
• February – 6, 13, 27
• March – 5, 12, 19, 26
• April – 2

For more information and to register your interest, please call Jatinder Sekhon or Emma Williams on ext. 3306, option 4.

Restore and relax: Yoga, pilates, body tone classes and much more

With the Trust looking to focus on healthy eating and general health and wellbeing in 2020, we offering some fantastic classes open to all abilities. From Yoga and pilates, to body tone classes, there is something for everyone.

Be sure to check our everything we offer – Restore and relax flyer

For more information please contact the occupational health and wellbeing team on 0121 507 3306 option 4.