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Monthly archives: February 2020

LeDeR learning event: 29 April

 

The Black Country and West Birmingham CCGs are holding a learning event for health and care professions and service providers to highlight the findings from LeDeR (the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review) reviews and also share the positive work being carried out across the region.

The learning day will take place on Wednesday 29 April at Wolverhampton Science Park where free parking and lunch will be provided.

For more information please contact simret.bassra-brar@nhs.net.

Secondary care training – access and entitlement: 19 March

 

If you work in ED, midwifery or elsewhere in secondary care and you have questions around providing care to patients who may be affected by the NHS charging regulations for overseas visitors then this training is for you.

As part of a programme of work looking at migrant health in the region, Sandwell West Birmingham CCG are inviting Doctors of the World (DOTW) UK to provide their evidence based, region tailored secondary care training to all colleagues working at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust.

For learning around common questions such as –

  • How do I categorise the Urgent/Immediately Necessary Care which might exempt my patient from upfront charges?
  • My patients disengage when they learn they will be charged, how can I ensure continuity of care?
  • If I know a patient cannot meet their healthcare costs, how do I work with them and the Trust to prioritise access to treatment?
  • If hospital treatment is not free for my patients, is it the responsibility of Primary Care to meet their needs?

For free tickets and information including the full agenda on the day, please click here.

Drug safety notice: Diamorphine shortage

 

There is currently a nationwide supply disruption with diamorphine 5mg and 10mg injection, with supplies expected to resume by summer 2020.

Higher strength diamorphine is available but considered a high risk alternative and suppliers will not be able to meet the increase in demand on these strengths. With this in mind, morphine sulfate injection 10mg/ml has been identified as the most appropriate first-line alternative.

Please see drug safety notice diamorphine shortage sheet for further details and advice.

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

 

 

Palliative care training for HCAs: 20 May

 

Palliative care training aimed at HCAs will run from 8am – 3pm on Wednesday 20 May in the Postgraduate dining room, City Hospital. The day will cover recognising the dying patient as well as comfort care.

To book your place please email paulroberts6@nhs.net.

For more information please call 0121 507 3611.

ID cards – it’s everyone’s responsibility

 

We’re currently focussed on our ability to lockdown our sites in the event we need to, to keep colleagues, patients and visitors safe, and would like to take this opportunity to remind you of your responsibility to ensure you retain possession of your swipe card at all times whilst at work.

Colleagues leaving the Trust must hand in their ID card, name badge and PAC fob to security before they leave. Managers who are in possession of any of these items from colleagues who have left the Trust are required to hand them in to security.

For more information please click here.

Unity safety standards reporting training

 

Training is now available to Sisters and Matrons on how to access the patient safety plan report and demonstrate where the data is pulled from within Unity. Training will include tips and ideas on how to support ward staff to increase compliance with safety standards in Unity and in addition:

  1. Managing duplicate orders
  2. Initiating and documenting in care plans
  3. Correct way to document care provided in Unity
  4. Using Form Browser & Results review to delve into the patients EPR
  5. Reminders on sections of unity not currently being used well e.g. Lines, Tubes and Drains.

All sessions will be in room 14 at Sandwell Education Centre.

  • 9 March 9.15 – 10.30
  • 9 March 10.45 – 12.00
  • 11 March 09.15 – 10.30
  • 11 March 10.45 – 12.00
  • 20 March 11.15 – 12.30

To book onto a session please email me on Sharon.reynolds1@nhs.net

Winscribe – Enabling front-end speech recognition

 

There is currently an issue affecting users who are unable to hear recordings on Winscribe, to resolve this clinicians using Winscribe will need to turn on Front End Speech Recognition (SR). If this feature remains disabled, secretaries may have issues hearing the audio.

Please follow the instructions below to enable Front End Speech Recognition:

  1. Log into Winscribe and create a new letter
  2. At the bottom of the letter you will notice if SR is turned OFF or ON
  3. If it is turned off then please click the Red SR button so it is enabled
  4. A warning message will appear, click OK
  5. SR should now turn green and be displayed as ON
  6. As you dictate you will see text appear on screen, this is normal and expected while SR is ON

Paroseals back in action

 

Our cuddly paroseals which are used to help stimulate patients with dementia, alzheimer’s and other cognitive disorders are back in service.

Paroseals are located on the following wards

  • Sandwell: Newton 5
  • Rowley: Eliza Tinsley
  • City: D22

The 4th paroseal will be used for training and promotion on the ward.

Note: Each paroseal needs to be signed in and out to which area it is being taken to. A full patient assessment will be required prior to the patient using the seal. Colleagues also need training on the paroseals and competencies will need to be completed

For more information or if you identify patients that need the paroseal and training is required please contact t.mansell@nhs.net or cal ext. 5680.

 

Monthly pay dates for 2020/21

 

The monthly pay dates up until March 2021 are as followed:

  • Tuesday 28 April 2020
  • Wednesday 27 May 2020
  • Friday 26 June 2020
  • Tuesday 28 July 2020
  • Friday 28 August 2020
  • Monday 28 September 2020
  • Tuesday 27 October 2020
  • Friday 27 November 2020
  • Friday 18 December 2020
  • Friday 22 January 2021
  • Friday 26 February 2021
  • Friday 26 March 2021

Weekly pay dates 2020/21

Note: Friday remains the usual pay date, unless this needs to be amended due to extenuating circumstances for example national bank holidays. In these instances any change to weekly pay day will be shared via staff communications.

Changes to Unity medication administration wizard to aid barcode scanning

 

Following feedback from our nursing colleagues, changes have been made to the medication administration wizard in Unity regarding how not being able to barcode scan a patient’s wristband, or not barcode scanning the medication is recorded. Barcode scanning of patients’ wristbands and medication is mandatory for all colleagues when administering medication.

Further guidance can on how to use barcode scanning in Unity can be found through QRG MA01 on the Intranet http://myconnect.swbh.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/MA01-Medication-Administration-20190916.pdf?x76096 and through an e-Learning package; https://swbt.premierit.co.uk/dashboard/category/1/module/22.

These changes have occurred to reduce the number of options nurses need to choose from and to drive rapid responses where it is identified that a particular medicine does not scan, or a scanner is malfunctioning. It also allows nursing colleagues to identify when they are administering a Patient’s Own Medication as we know these may not scan as the Trust may not hold on file the unique barcode their medication comes with (if it is a brand and pack size the Trust does not keep). Additionally, at the moment we know that intravenous infusions (but not injections) do not scan, so there is an option to record that you are administering this type of product together with nutritional feeds and freetext medication  that are the other types of medicines we know do not scan at the moment.

With the new drop down recording, we can track which particular medication has not scanned (and if there is a barcode issue resolve this quickly), or if the medication has not scanned for a valid reason (as above). This is then recorded against your individual Unity login, so ward managers can see if there are particular members of the team that need further support through reports.

The changes are as below.

  1. If you are overriding the scanning of a patient’s wristband barcode the new options now are;

If your scanner is not working, or not reading the wristband, choose “Unable to Scan/Not available”. Please note the wristbands have themselves changed recently to aid barcode scanning. It is the linear barcode you are scanning once you open the Medication Administration Wizard. If your patient’s wristband has faded, then you can always a new one quickly and easily from the ward clerks station just by entering the RXK number into the wristband program.

2. If you are overriding the scanning of a medication barcode the new options are;

If you choose that a medication barcode does not scan – it is now mandatory for you to document which medication did not scan by typing it in the yellow box. This is to allow a report to be generated each day that is reviewed by the EPMA team and if the barcode from the Trust Pharmacy is not loaded into Unity, it will be resolved the same day. If the medication barcode was loaded into Unity at the time of administration, this will be documented on the ward manager’s report also.

Remember, if you are obtaining the medicine from a Pyxis cabinet, the labeller on the Pyxis will produce the barcode for the doses you have taken out of the cabinet.

If you choose that a medication is an excluded product – again it is now mandatory for you to document which excluded product or group it is by typing it in the yellow box. This is to allow the EPMA team together with senior nursing colleagues to review which medications and groups of products we exclude from scanning and continually assess based on clinical risk, or to identify if there are trends emerging of what our nursing colleagues feel is excluded but may not be.

Until we have completed our Unity upgrades, the current excluded products are; nutritional feeds, intravenous infusions (i.e. fluid bags without a barcode or where you compound one drug into fluid bag or syringe driver) and freetext medication.

Scanning of the patient’s wristband and medication together forms closed-loop medicines administration which is paramount to the safety of our patients. Together, these ensure patients get the right drug, at right dose, by the right route at the right time.

Should you have any queries or difficulties using barcode scanning, please see your area Unity Super User in the first instance. If further information is needed, please email the EPMA team: swbh.PharmEPMABuild@nhs.net

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