Monthly archives: August 2020

NHS People Plan – get involved on Twitter

On Tuesday 4 August, 11am-12pm and Wednesday 5 August 5pm-5pm the NHS national team will be holding one-hour long Twitter chats and are encouraging NHS colleagues to get involved. They will be discussing many topics including how they can use the ambitions set out in the NHS People Plan to make real and lasting change.

Heartbeat: Nursery provides essential support to key workers during pandemic

As people across the UK have been trying to hold onto a sense of normality since lockdown began in March, one place that has provided a sense of familiarity throughout has been Sandwell’s children’s nursery.

Sandwell nursery, like all other services, has had to adapt how they operate and quickly too. In Sandwell there are over 100 nurseries, however, only 28 remained open during the pandemic. With up to 39 children of NHS and key workers attending daily, the team have thrived on the challenge. They have continued to offer this essential service meaning many colleagues and community workers can continue to work where they are needed the most.

Emma Collier, Sandwell Day Nursery Manager, told us: “I am so proud of the team and how they have come together during COVID-19. They have worked extremely hard and, we have taken on 30 additional children in emergency places. This includes several school-age children and children with no nursery experience who are normally looked after by relatives. Despite all of this, the nursery has opened as normal from 7.15 am – 6 pm, Monday to Friday as well as opening over three bank holidays.

“Six of the emergency place parents have asked for permanent places with us and many of the parents say their children ask to come to their new nursery. The feedback we have received from parents about the care provided and the support the hospital has given to our staff has been lovely and appreciated by everyone”.

Opening during a pandemic has not been without its challenges. Emma told us: “The team have had to ensure that children have remained socially distant while in our care, as well as deep cleaning the nursery throughout and being vigilant with the children and their hand hygiene. The team have stepped up and ensured that the children in their care can attend nursery every day without noticing any considerable differences aside from a few new faces.”

The nursery has made a conscious effort to keep in touch with children who haven’t been able to attend nursery. The team have a Facebook group and app that they actively use to share information.

Emma explained: “We have been posting activities for children to do at home, we have offered to post out worksheets, done dance videos and posted online messages to the children at home. We wanted to let them all know we are still here and missing them all.”

The team are looking forward to welcoming children back. In preparation for this, they have painted the nursery throughout and decorated the outdoors too. Emma remarked: “It has been a testing time for everyone, but the team have made working through this pandemic a positive experience. I am thankful to work alongside such a dedicated team of people.”

Use of vodka to prevent severe alcohol withdrawal

Individuals who drink more than 25-30 units of alcohol per day are at high risk of becoming physically dependent on it.  In these circumstances, abrupt reduction or discontinuation of alcohol can lead to the development of a potentially life threatening state of ‘alcohol withdrawal’ (also known as delirium tremens / ‘DTs’). Judicious use of vodka has recently been introduced by the alcohol team as a treatment option to stabilise those at high risk and prevent DTs. Once stabilised the team can work with those who are motivated to change their behaviour and advise them how to safely reduce their alcohol consumption.

The most commonly prescribed treatment for alcohol withdrawal is diazepam.  The importance difference with vodka is that it can PREVENT severe withdrawal from occurring in the first place – whereas diazepam can only treat the symptoms once they occur. SWB is one of the first Trusts in the UK to use alcohol in this way – with vodka now on Unity on prescription.

Decisions to prescribe vodka  can only be made by the alcohol care team and  the Consultant clinical toxicologists. 

Please refer all patients with alcohol misuse issues to the alcohol care team by calling ext. 5074 (or via unity) as soon as alcohol misuse is recognised, as preventing withdrawal from escalating should always be the aim. Out of hours advice is also available from the on call Consultant Clinical Toxicologist (Via Switchboard / rota watch – ‘Poisons consultant’)

Heartbeat: Military training programme tackles issues around stress

All of us may have been affected by COVID-19 in some way and it’s important to recognise that our mental health may be affected by the situations we’ve been part of, observed or heard about over the last few months.

The Trust has already trained some people to support colleagues in React Plus which is also known as mental health first aid.

However, we want to scale up that support in frontline departments, and are providing key staff with specific Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) training, to tackle issues like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which are predicted to arise in coming weeks and months.

Nora Parsons, Learning and Development Manager, said: “The Trust has partnered with an organisation called ‘March on Stress’ and are offering a tiered approach to training people to undertake mental wellbeing support roles. This includes all line managers being trained to have a brief ‘psychologically savvy’ conversation with colleagues, for example at the end of a shift, to help identify if support is needed and signpost to it.

“We are also encouraging all staff to access this training, whether or not they are line managers, so that they are able to support colleagues at the first level by recognising they may need help and referring them onto further interventions if needed.”

The training is delivered remotely via video and supporting material which takes less than an hour to complete and can even be accessed via your phone.

Toby Lewis, Chief Executive said: “We are focused on the current and future psychological wellbeing of our teams. We have a local comprehensive wellbeing offer in place, as well as making use of wider regional and national mental health support. Learning from Italy and elsewhere we have put in place dedicated COVID-19 arrangements to provide additional support for departments.

“We worked with healthcare and military colleagues to consider what would be most appropriate. From that has come a partnership with March on Stress. Their help is focused on delivering more advanced training in Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) which is a trauma focused peer support system designed to help people who have experienced a traumatic, or potentially traumatic, event. This will be important as we come through the recovery and restoration phase to help people come to terms with their experiences.”

Managing Director of March on Stress Ltd, Professor Neil Greenberg, explained: “We have been working with a number of NHS organisations to help them to ensure that they can implement a range of evidence based psychological support initiatives in order to help protect the mental health of their staff.

“We are delighted to have been asked by the Trust to help them roll out training to their supervisors which will help them carry out psychologically savvy supportive conversations with their teams. There is a great deal of evidence showing that supervisors have a critical role to play in supporting their team’s mental health and the training we are providing to SWB aims to help improve supervisors confidence to have those important conversations.”

Fit testing clinics: Monday – Friday, 8am – 4pm

Our fit testing clinics will now run Monday – Friday, 8am – 4pm.

Locations:

• City: Link corridor between diabetes and BTC on first floor
• Sandwell: Physiotherapy department, Hallam building

If there is a fault with your mask or it is not suitable please bring it back to the clinic so we may be able to provide a replacement.

Note: If you have a silicone mask you have already passed on, then there is no need to be re fit tested.

For an appointment please call ext. 5050.

For more information please call Xavier Lines, PPE Specialist on 07961 662842.

Star of the Week – Suki Kalon

Our Star of the Week this week goes to Suki Kalon, Assistant Service Manager on critical care.

Suki always goes above and beyond her remit and is always available for help and advice.  She is excellent at organising, is always on top of her game and nothing is ever too much for her.

During the height of the pandemic Suki had 140 extra colleagues to support and create off duty for and all of the feedback from them said that Suki was an invaluable asset to the service.

Suki is highly regarded of by the whole everyone in critical care and the Trust as a whole.

Do you know someone in your team that has gone above and beyond the call of duty? Why not put them forward for Star of the Week by clicking here.

Heartbeat: The Sanctuary: Reduce your anxiety and stress in a place of calm

In the last edition of Heartbeat, we featured an article on the Wellbeing Sanctuary, a place where colleagues can share their stories and offload about their anxieties and fears. A month on, we are delighted to report that many of you have been taking advantage of the many services on offer such as deep relaxation and massage therapy.

Heartbeat caught up with Lawrence Kelly, Learning Works Co-ordinator who told us he is pleased to see colleagues taking time out for their wellbeing. “We have had 250 visits from colleagues enjoying more than 420 sessions. It is also pleasing to see colleagues returning as they have enjoyed the benefits and are seeing a real difference in the way they are feeling.”

Lawrence said the sanctuary is seeing colleagues from a wide range of professions including senior clinicians and wards service officers. He told Heartbeat: “Colleagues are coming here, seeing the benefit and then spreading the word to their teams. We have also recently extended the service to 30 nursing homes and local community GP services.”

Kate Pilkington, Clinical Lead, Your Health Partnership has used the sanctuary. She remarked: “The sanctuary is an extraordinary refuge of support that I have found to be invaluable. It helps me to manage my stress levels and restore my sense of balance so that I can be a better leader during these challenging times. Actively choosing to engage with the amazing staff at the Sanctuary and taking the time to decompress is one of the best decisions I have made. I can see and feel the difference immediately after a visit. I would highly encourage all colleagues to further explore how it could benefit them as well.”

The psychological wellbeing of all colleagues is of utmost importance and our organisation wants us all to benefit from the extended offer of wellbeing and kindness. The new Thrive mental health app is complementary to all the relaxation therapies on offer. It is a chance for colleagues to continue to use de-stress techniques to improve health and wellness. This includes cognitive behaviour therapy, deep muscle relaxation and meditation.

Heartbeat: COVID-19 BAME deaths analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has required a rapid change in pathways for our patients. At the start of the pandemic we set out to treat our patients with the same care and kindness that we pride ourselves on delivering, and that has not changed. Our approach to providing best practice and reviewing mortality of cases is discussed at our public board meeting every month and we have been open about our data and have shared it, in the hope of sharing learning.

The main questions we consider are:

• How our care pathways have compared to best practice?
• How our outcomes compare to neighbouring providers and why?
• How well all populations served by the Trust have been treated with COVID-19 to date, and anything we need to change in the coming months?

Our Learning from Deaths team has undertaken, alongside medical examiners and clinical colleagues, a review of the higher number of deaths than normal due to COVID-19 deaths. Dr David Carruthers, Medical Director, explained: “We consider every patient lost to COVID-19 a tragedy. Since the pandemic took hold in the middle of March, we have identified through our data that age, gender, hypertension and diabetes are a risk factor in the outcome, with 67 per cent of patients who died of COVID-19 suffering hypertension whilst 44 per cent had diabetes. This is in line with national data which confirmed that patients with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes had significantly more risk of mortality compared to the general population. Other contributory factors include poor diabetes control and obesity.

“Early on, we saw a trend of more people dying from the black community, however, this has changed over time, indicating that this could relate to a geographical cluster rather than an ethnicity-related concern. As our figures for May show, we are not seeing the same disproportionate death rate in BAME communities. The median age of our patients who have died of COVID-19 is 80 years old, with 96.2 per cent having complex medical histories, and 61.8 per cent were male.

“Overall across the Trust throughout March, April and May, the combined mortality data reveals the following breakdown:

• Asian 21 per cent
• Black British 16 per cent
• White 55 per cent
• Other 8 per cent

“Looking forward, as our ward base changes to requiring a smaller number of wards for COVID + patients, our understanding and examination of hospital-acquired infection will become all the more important to reduce risk to non-COVID patients.”