Monthly archives: March 2020
Domestic abuse support in the West Midlands during COVID-19
We know that this is a difficult and challenging time for everyone – but particularly so for adults and children living with domestic abuse and the professionals working hard to support them.
Avoiding public spaces and working remotely can help to reduce the spread of COVID-19, but for many survivors, staying home may not be the safest option.
Please see Domestic abuse support sheet for detailed information.
Note: We are aware that any external factors that add stress and financial strain can negatively impact survivors and create circumstances where their safety is further compromised. As always, if you or someone else is in immediate danger please call 999 and ask for the police.
Heartbeat: Do you know how to respond to a major incident message?
We’ve all heard of a major incident taking place at one time or another. News of earthquakes or wildfires is not uncommon. If a tragedy such as a rail disaster or flood took place in our region we’d need to be prepared for it.
We recently carried out a test SMS to all registered mobiles and registered personal mobiles for consultants, for our major incident planning. Unfortunately, less than 10 per cent of registered devices responded. Speaking to Heartbeat a colleague said that she thought the message was a “hoax”.
It’s important if you receive a major incident (MI) message that you respond. We must know who will be on our sites in the event of an emergency. It also helps us effectively plan for how we’ll deal with any potential threats.
Philip Stirling, Emergency Planning Officer emphasised the importance of these messages saying: “If we are involved in the response to a major incident we need to notify our colleagues, in particular, our clinical colleagues. The Manchester and London attacks were successfully managed in part because they were able to mobilise large numbers of consultants. We must ensure we can do the same.”
So, how can you prepare?
Set up a WhatsApp group
Your clinical group may have a WhatsApp group or similar system that allows you to contact colleagues rapidly. If you don’t have one, please consider creating one, particularly if you work in a speciality that will likely be involved in responding to an incident. This includes areas like ED, any surgical speciality, obstetrics, paediatrics, anaesthesia, haematology, medicine and radiology.
Follow instructions sent via SMS messages to mobile phones
In the event of a major incident, SMS messages will be sent to all Trust mobiles and individuals who have registered their phone for the service.
This is what you need to do to get SMS messages:
- Create a contact in your address book for the following number: 07860 017535. Name it as ‘SWB MI’, or something similar, so you immediately know the message is not spam.
- If you have a Trust mobile, next time you receive a text message from this number please follow the instructions and reply
- Once you’ve responded to the SMS, follow the information in your speciality action card in the major incident (MI) plan. The action cards are currently being updated.
When you receive a test text message:
- Follow the instructions in the text message
- Respond to the number with the details asked of you. This allows us to monitor staffing levels.
There are four types of messages you may receive:
- Major incident test: This is a test message to ensure that you are receiving messages. Please respond with what has been asked of you in the message. This should occur twice a year.
- Major incident standby: This is when an incident is emerging and we may need you to be ready to react to a major incident. This will usually be a fact-finding message to see get to City or Sandwell Hospital.
- Major incident declared: This means we are asking colleagues to return to active duty. The message will ask you to confirm your name, job role, what site you will be attending and how long it will take you to arrive. This information is vital as there may be road closures. If we have a list of colleagues making their way to either hospital we can allocate staff appropriately.
- Major incident stood down: We will inform colleagues that the major incident has been stood down and normal working patterns will resume.
Network West Midlands – public transport update
As you may have seen on social media and in the press there have been some changes to bus and rail services due to COVID-19.
Key workers will still be able to get to where they need to go, however, the time at which they normally travel may have changed. With this in mind, we’re encouraging everyone to check the Network West Midlands website which will be kept regularly updated during this time: https://www.networkwestmidlands.com/plan-your-journey/network-overview/.
Your health and wellbeing – COVID-19
Managing your stress and psychological health at this time is as important as your physical health. Taking care of your basic needs and employing helpful coping strategies are top priorities.
Take a look and make use of some of the resources on this page.
Arnold Clark are offering free cars on loan to NHS staff to help you get to work
Can you drive but don’t have access to a car and struggling with transport/long commutes?
Arnold Clark are now offering free cars on loan to NHS staff.
If you are interested please email Arnold Clark csr@arnoldclarke.com with your contact details which include the following:
- Your role in the NHS
- Your emplorer
- Why you need a car
Looking after your mental health
Mental wellbeing. Done well.
Unmind is a workplace mental health platform. They help organisations and employees to measurably improve their mental wellbeing.
Free Unmind access for NHS workers during COVID-19 outbreak
Mental wellbeing while staying at home
If you have to stay at home because of coronavirus (COVID-19), it’s important to take care of your mind as well as your body.
Get Your Mind Plan
Answer the 5 questions in this interactive quiz to get top tips and advice for you.
Mindful Breathing Exercise
Experience a sense of relaxation with Mindfulness…
Mindfulness meditation involves sitting silently and paying attention to thoughts, sounds, the sensations of breathing or parts of the body, bringing your attention back whenever the mind starts to wander.
Try listening to free tracks that help with sleep, anxiety and stress.
Improve your sleep
Sleep meditation can improve sleep quality and even fight certain sleep disorders. Feel rested with our library of guided sleep meditations.
Coping with Anxiety
Practice meditation for anxiety relief to improve focus, declutter, stay in the present moment and let go of anxious feelings.
Managing Stress
Meditation for stress helps to counter the effects of modern living. Discover countless free guided practices for lowering stress levels.
Advice for sustaining staff wellbeing in critical care during and beyond Covid-19O
Yoga for your day ahead
Enjoy this simple 10 minute Morning Yoga for beginners peace flow routine when you’d like to wake up, warm up, stretch out and help reduce stress for the day ahead.
Ways to stay focussed on your health and wellbeing during the Covid-19 crisis?
Self- Care At Work
During Isolation
During Isolation
Media Usage
Media Usage
General Wellbeing
General Wellbeing
Compassionate Culture- Kindness
Compassionate Culture- Kindness
Accessing support and help
Accessing support and help
Trust specific support and practical advice
Trust specific support and practical advice
My Connect
Phone number diversion
Counselling Support
Health Assured Counselling for any NHS Employees
Sleep Pods
Debt Advice \ Financial Planning \ Bereavement Support
Reading Well
Reading Well
Hotel accommodation available now
We have secured 150 hotel rooms for colleagues, specifically for those who need to temporarily relocate to protect themselves and their families. We have capacity to go quickly to 300. Currently 50 staff have opted for this route.
Colleagues who see patients, administer patient care, clean or cater should consider whether (if they live with others) they have taken sufficient steps to keep themselves well outside of work.
We now strongly recommend that patient-facing colleagues take up this provision so that vital services continue to be provided. We will do our best to support your stay with funded WiFi and some access to food. You will not be able to co-habit in these hotel rooms but of course may have social distant contact with loved ones.
To access the hotel facilities please email:
swbh.hotel-booking@nhs.net
COVID-19 bulletin: Wednesday 25 March
The Trust is now publishing a daily bulletin. This will take all guidance and information and tell you which changes we are implementing when and how. Please use this bulletin and daily cascade arrangements within clinical groups to guide local action. Remember KINDNESS is our watchword in implementing these changes.
- New: Change to PPE guidance – must read
To ensure the safety of our staff and manage our PPE stock effectively we have again updated our PPE guidance. Our stock levels now support the next 7 days (with the exception of some scrubs where a large order arrives tomorrow). But we need to make best use of those stocks.
To summarise:
1. Patient areas with no suspected or confirmed COVID patients where patients have been screened for symptoms:
- No additional PPE
- Social distancing
- Hand washing
This includes our non-COVID ward areas at Rowley Regis Hospital, D25 and L2. It also covers the vast majority of community contacts still taking place in either our adult, maternity or child health services.
2. Patient areas with suspected or confirmed COVID patients or areas where patients have not been screened for symptoms:
- Fluid-resistant surgical face mask
- Disposable apron
- Disposable gloves
This will include AMAA, EGAU, SAU, A&E, and some urgent community contacts.
This is also the level of PPE for ancillary staff entering COVID areas.
3. Close patient care (within 1metre) of suspected or positive COVID patients where chance of rapid deterioration or performing aerosol-generating procedures (AGP):
- FFP3
- Long sleeved gown
- Disposable gloves
- Face visor
- Scrubs
This does not mean that in COVID ward areas this protection must be worn all the time or by all entrants.
4. Critical care services
- Silicon face mask or FFP3
- Long sleeved gown
- Disposable gloves
- Face visor
- Scrubs
For information on how long you can use the surgical face masks and FFP3 masks click here. For more detail on the rationale behind the revised guidance click here.
FP3 is only needed for close contact with patients where aerosol transmission is a risk or where imminent deterioration makes that risk higher.
If you are using a mask outside a Covid area expect to be challenged and asked to give it back. If you in a Covid area and do not have the right PPE please raise your concern locally and get what the Trust are saying is needed.
In many cases by altering how close we are to a patient or our mode of contact, we can alter the risk. In areas beyond assessment, for example wards, we will only need to use, and therefore will only provide, PPE into our bays, rooms or wards with query Covid patients in them.
2. Hotel accommodation: Can you consider moving?
We have secured 150 hotel rooms for colleagues, specifically for those who need to temporarily relocate to protect themselves and their families. We have capacity to go quickly to 300. Currently 50 staff have opted for this route.
Colleagues who see patients, administer patient care, clean or cater should consider whether (if they live with others) they have taken sufficient steps to keep themselves well outside of work.
We now strongly recommend that patient-facing colleagues take up this provision so that vital services continue to be provided. We will do our best to support your stay with funded WiFi and some access to food. You will not be able to co-habit in these hotel rooms but of course may have social distant contact with loved ones.
To access the hotel facilities please email swbh.hotel-booking@nhs.net
3. Community and critical staff swabbing
Unfortunately we have had to pause today our programme of employee and community swabbing. If you have been booked we will not be able to proceed. This is due to a decision made regionally that the laboratory capacity we have for the next 10 days has to be focused only on symptomatic inpatients. Working across the Black Country we are looking by the end of next week to have increased lab supply and then see how we can bring back staff testing. Until that time, isolation in line with our guidance is the best response we have.
You may have seen national announcement about upcoming testing plans for staff, and indeed for the public. As the reality of those plans is clarified we will work to implement them rapidly. We very much hope that our efforts so far place us near the front of queue.
If you have had a staff swab and have not yet had the result, we will be in direct touch with you tomorrow to confirm next steps.
4. Closing down access to our sites tomorrow
From 9am on Thursday 26th March (tomorrow) our public entrances will be largely closed to ensure we follow government guidelines on non-essential visits and journeys. This applies to Rowley Regis, Leasowes, BMEC, City, BTC and Sandwell.
Security colleagues will staff our main entrances so that we can ensure that our restricted access rules are being followed. The team on the doors will also be able to give advice about where to go if you need help. Please respect the security team and don’t be offended if they ask to see your ID badge to gain entry.
The challenge process will include tackling visitors seeking to attend wards and departments, even though we introduced on March 14th a video call/telephone system for visitor/inpatient contact. If you work in a ward environment and that system is not yet in place where you work, please ensure during handover this evening and tomorrow morning that you talk through how to make it work in your area.
5. Latest information on Connect
We have been regularly updating our Connect pages with information about the current situation. It covers clinical guidance, infection control, human resources, community response, and health and wellbeing. We also have included a comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions sections and there are a number of useful documents that can downloaded which cover clinical procedures as well as other information for non-clinical colleagues. If you do not have access to Connect, all important information regarding Covid-19 is available through the myConnect app.
myConnect is compatible with both iPhones and Android handsets, and is available to download from the Apple Appstore as well as the Google Playstore, simply search for ‘SWBH MyConnect’.
If you have asked to Work From Home, one of the four steps you must take is to download this system onto your phone.
Rules of plumb – should I flush it?
Before you flush the chain, load up the macerator and push the button, pause and think should I flush it? Will it block it?
Toilets backing up and macerators clogging up isn’t just an annoyance and inconvenience it puts a significant strain on our resources and has the potential to spread some nasty infections.
So before you load up the macerator with an assortment of bedpans and sanitary products or try to flush away hand towels, think of the impact this might have on your ward or department.
If in doubt, leave it out
If you need to report an issue, the estates helpdesk is open from 8am-4pm, Monday-Friday on ext. 4444. If the issue is non-urgent please log it through Connect.
Please see Rules of Plumb poster for more information.
Heartbeat: Mental Capacity – making the right decision
Working as healthcare professionals presents many different scenarios when it comes to making patient-focused decisions. No two situations are ever the same and, at times these decisions can be challenging and complex to work through.
Recognising that we all have a duty of care to those we look after, this month we shine a spotlight on the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). The MCA is designed to protect people who may lack the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their care and treatment.
Examples of people who may lack capacity include those with:
- Dementia
- A severe learning disability
- A brain injury
- A mental health illness
- A stroke
- Unconsciousness caused by an anaesthetic or sudden accident.
Just because a person has one of these health conditions doesn’t necessarily mean they cannot make a specific decision. If a situation arises whereby you believe a patient lacks capacity to make a personal care decision, you must complete a mental capacity assessment.
The MCA has five principles that need be taken into consideration before, during and after a capacity assessment is completed. The MCA says:
- Assume a person can make a decision themselves unless it’s proved otherwise
- Wherever possible, help people to make their own decisions
- Don’t treat a person as lacking the capacity to make a decision just because they make an unwise decision. Unwise is not the same as unable.
- If you make a decision for someone who doesn’t have the capacity, it must be in their best interests
- Treatment and care provided to someone who lacks capacity should be the least restrictive of their basic rights and freedoms.
When assessing mental capacity we must remember these two prompts:
- Is there an impairment of the mind or brain that is affecting decision making e.g. dementia, delirium, learning disabilities or a brain injury?
- The capacity assessment must be time and decision specific i.e. what is the actual decision to be made and can the patient make the decision at this time?
When completing a mental capacity assessment it is essential that we document the conversation and discussion. Our notes need to clearly indicate whether the person can understand the decision, weigh up the pros and cons, recall what has been discussed and communicate their decision. If your assessment is that the patient’s capacity is borderline, you must be able to show that it is more likely than not that they lack capacity.
We caught up with Sabina Price-Hickman, Adult Safeguarding Nurse to discuss how to best apply the principles of the MCA.
Q) What are the implications if we don’t establish if a patient has the mental capacity to decide on their care?
A) We recently had a patient in our care that was detained under the Mental Health Act for medical treatment. Over four days psychiatric and medical medications were declined. If we experience situations similar to this it’s important that we first establish if the patient has the capacity to decide on their care. If after a thorough investigation we decide that they cannot do so, we must make a decision about what care to provide. All decisions must be made in the best interest of the patient in question.
It’s important to stress that we must complete mental capacity assessments and clearly outline how we’ve reached our decision, who was involved and next steps.
Q) Where is information about mental capacity online?
A) On Connect you will find the mental capacity policy as well as key contacts.
Q) Are there any other ways to complete a mental capacity assessment?
A) You can request a doctor to complete an assessment via Unity.
Sandwell Children’s Trust changes to working: COVID-19
Sandwell Children’ Trust will be implementing the use of conference calling and Skype in preference to face-to-face meetings for the following areas in the Safeguarding Unit:
- Child Protection Conferences
- Children Looked After Reviews
- LADO – Allegations Management Meetings
- Foster Carer Annual Review Meetings
Please see Safeguarding Children’s Trust sheet for further details.
Food parcels available for colleagues
We have a total of 36 food parcels still available for colleagues at Hallam Restaurant in Sandwell available at £25 a parcel.
Items in food parcels include:
- Bacon
- Butter
- Milk
- Potatoes
- Free range eggs 6
- Tilda rice £2.65
- Caster sugar
- Cheddar, mature 500g
- Luxury toilet rolls
- Knorr soup pouches 250ml
- Heinz beans tin
- Blue kitchen roll
- Kenco Coffee 100g
- Flash kitchen spray
- Pasta
Note: These items have been purchased and not donated. If you would like a parcel, please speak to a member staff in canteen.
Room bookings in Education Centres
In light of recent changes to guidance relating to social distancing we will temporarily be withdrawing access to the ‘Booked’ system for you to book your own rooms in the education centres at both City and Sandwell. If you do need to book a room please call ext 3436 or email swb-tr.SWBH-GM-MEC-Reception@nhs.net and a member of the education team will be able to help with your enquiry. It may be that you will be asked a little more information about your room booking to ensure that your activity really does need to be conducted face to face rather than using alternative methods of communication.
Room bookings will be allocated to allow extra room for social distancing so please ensure that when liaising with the education team you are clear on the numbers that will be attending as, in the current climate, this is very important. This will reduce our capacity in the centres so please do consider the alternatives to face to face and whether it is necessary, particularly with regards to meetings.
Note: The education team are currently looking at room bookings for April and will be contacting people to check their requirements in light of the recent changes. If you no longer require a future room booking it would be really helpful if you could let the team know by calling ext. 3436 or emailing swb-tr.SWBH-GM-MEC-Reception@nhs.net.
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