Monthly archives: October 2020
#FabChange20 – learning from COVID-19
To reflect the global pandemic, and the impact it has had on health and social care services globally, #FabChange20 shares learning from COVID-19.
The aim of #FabChange20 is to celebrate the innovations and changes within each part of the health and social care system that have arisen from the pandemic.
We have dug deep to share changes both big and small which have been implemented across the Trust.
During this week we will be sharing these stories throughout our daily bulletin.
Dermatology:
Be sure to check our this video featuring Dr Amirtha Vani Rajasekaran, Consultant Dermatologist and Dr Rupali Patel, ST4 Dermatology Registrar talking about how they developed the dermatology service model during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heartbeat: Eczema ‘herbal’ creams are no miracle warns mum of patient
The mother of a paediatric patient has warned against the use of so called miracle creams that ‘heal’ eczema which contain high levels of dangerous steroids.
Baljit Guraya was given a herbal cream to try on her daughter Avneet, who suffers from severe eczema, in a bid to try and cure her symptoms. But unbeknownst to her, the ‘pink’ cream contained potent levels of steroids which falsely appeared to clear up her daughter’s skin, only for eczema to return even more aggressively after they stopped using it.
Avneet, is under the care of allergy specialist, Dr Nick Makwana, at our Trust. He has since tested the cream to find out what was in it and confirmed it contained powerful steroids. Since then, Baljit has been offered another herbal remedy, called the ‘orange’ cream which has also turned out to contain potent steroids.
She said: “Like many parents, we desperately wanted to heal Avneet’s skin, so we tried this pink cream. People have since approached us suggesting that we try the pink cream. We tried to explain that the cream contained steroids, but people were unwilling to listen to us. This just shows how far and wide news of these creams has been spread and how much work needs to be done to convince people these creams are harmful.”
Avneet has had eczema since birth. A rash appeared when she was just six weeks old behind her ears and in her neck creases. Baljit recalled: “By her first birthday she had eczema on most of her body. She always looked red and sore. The scratching was intense especially at night times and she would struggle to sleep because she was always so itchy and irritable because of her eczema.
“We discovered that Avneet was allergic to milk when we started to wean her around six months. She was prescribed topical steroids, moisturisers and antihistamines to control the rash. They worked to an extent, but then they wore off. That’s when we tried the pink cream. The second cream had listed its main ingredients as saffron and petroleum jelly, there was no mention of steroids. I immediately gave it to Dr Makwana to test without using it.
“We were lucky that we had a willing professional that agreed to test both of the creams for us and so could make an informed opinion about their use. Others are not so fortunate.”
Dr Makwana said: “We are aware that eczema is a distressing condition in young infants and parents are often looking for a cure. We know that eczema cannot be cured, but the symptoms can be controlled with treatment until the child hopefully grows out of the condition themselves.
“It is important to ensure that the child is reviewed by a health professional and the correct treatment prescribed. Depending on the level of severity of eczema we would use steroids, but they would be at an appropriate strength suited to the child’s age and skin.
“Many of these miracle creams contain very potent steroids which can lead to longer-term damage to the delicate infant skin. If any parents are unsure about creams they have been recommended, then it is important to discuss with a health professional who could send the cream for testing to look for steroids as we did to help Avneet.”
Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Meet the team – Monique Sinclaire
October marks Domestic Violence awareness month which aims to unify both women and men who have unfortunately been victims of domestic violence.
Two women are killed a week by a current or former partner in England and Wales and in the year ending March 2019, approximately 1.6 million women experienced domestic abuse (Office for National Statistics, 2019).
As alarming as these stats may be, it is assumed that the figures are most likely a lot higher as many cases go unreported.
For the remainder of this month we will be sharing content throughout the communications bulletin all to help raise awareness around domestic violence.
Monique Sinclaire:
Monique Sinclaire currently works as a Named Nurse for Safeguarding Children and commenced her career in Sandwell 25 years ago.
She has worked in Sandwell as a Registered Nurse, Health Visitor and in Commissioning as the Safeguarding Lead for Primary Care. Monique has specialised in Safeguarding Children for over 10 years and has always been passionate about safeguarding the vulnerable. She recently returned to Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust as a Named Nurse for Safeguarding Children and MASH Manager (Health).
Our ED Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) service will support victims that come through ED. If colleagues from the wider hospital need any advice or support when dealing with a patient disclosure then please contact the safeguarding children team in the first instance.
Contact numbers:
- Safeguarding children team: 0121 507 2844
- Sarah Markland ED IDVA: 07989843233
- Rachana Chauhan: 07823336964
Double award win for Caroline Rennalls and Patreece Wright
We’re delighted to announce that on Saturday evening two of our popular colleagues brought home ‘the double’ as they claimed awards from the Association of Jamaican Nationals Birmingham. Caroline Rennalls, Head of Operation and Resilience Management, won the Sir Alexander Bustamante local hero award, whilst Patreece Wright, Clinical Nurse Practitioner was honoured with the Mary Seacole Local Heroes Award.
Patreece has been working for the Trust for 17 years – starting in November 2003 as a band 5 on the Acute Medical Unit at City, before working her way up to her current role. Nominated by friend and nursing work colleague Sophia Panton, Patreece said of her win: ” I am extremely proud and humbled to be awarded the Mary Seacole award for local heroes and am truly grateful to everyone that nominated me. I absolutely love nursing and working for the NHS and I sincerely believe that the quote by Mohammed Ali: ‘the rent we pay on earth is the service we provide to others’ – is something to live by.”
Caroline is a familiar face across the Trust with many friends having worked here for 21 years, and was nominated by ex-colleague Christopher Innerarity, who worked alongside Caroline at the Trust for five years. He said: “Caroline Rennalls is a dedicated local hero that has sacrificed tirelessly for over 35 years in the National Health Service as a mother, a clinician and within her current role as a senior manager being responsible as head of operations and resilience management. Caroline is a humanitarian with great standards and her ability being the voice of change whilst incorporating compassion and care in her daily deportment. Caroline’s efforts within her community are very well noted and she continues to go beyond the call of duty ensuring everyone is looked after and considered. She goes above and beyond in everything she gets involved in, her approach and collaborative working with others allows her to stand out with distinction and confidence. She is an all-rounder with a passion for humanity and this is a quality that is very special. I am honoured to have put Caroline forward as a recipient for one of the Association of Jamaica Nationals prestigious awards.”
Caroline commented: “I am both humbled and delighted to have won this award. It is lovely to be considered by others for the work and activities I have undertaken over the last few years.”
The winner takes it all with this year’s flu campaign
Our 2020 flu campaign is officially underway with Flu-Per Troopers out and about across the organisation vaccinating our frontline colleagues.
2020 has been a challenging year – that’s why we are calling upon all colleagues to get their flu jabs. It remains as important as ever that individuals take advantage of the free flu vaccination on offer to help protect themselves, patients, colleagues and loved ones from flu this year.
As a thank you for having your flu jab everyone will be entered into a prize draw to win tickets to see Mamma Mia! The Party in London.
Find your nearest Flu-Per Trooper on Connect.
Black History Month 2020 – A shout out to the new generation
Very often during Black History Month, we reflect on the greatness of those who have come before us. Today we thought to share a story of three young black girls making moves in the tech industry.
Rachael Akano, Margaret Akano and Joy Njekwe are Nigerian-Irish teens who developed an app which uses music to comfort those living with dementia. The girls were worried about how people with dementia were coping during lockdown, so they decided to design and code Memory Haven.
The app is making big waves in the industry and has already won a prize at the prestigious technology competition, Technovation. Nearly 2,000 entrants from more than 60 countries worldwide submitted apps and AI technology designed to address real-world problems.
Do watch their story – truly inspiring! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-54375656
Action required: Clinical systems and processes affected by clock change Sunday 25 October, 12:45am BST to 1am GMT
Clocks are set to go back this month on Sunday 25 October, this is the first time they will have gone back since upgrading Unity last month. Last October we had to stop using Unity when the clocks went back, this year Unity will remain available. However, because all of our systems are not yet aligned we are asking you to take note of the following:
For up to 75 minutes;
- New patients will not be able to be registered on iPM (Lorenzo) and FirstNet – full BCP required.
- Medisoft will not show new patients – full BCP required.
- Radiology/pathology orders placed in Unity will be queued and not delivered until 1am GMT. – BCP required.
- New results will not be visible in Unity during this time but will be sent once the systems come back up.
- Inpatients admitted from ED will not show up in iPM until the systems are back up.
- Inpatients transferred between wards will show on Capman but not on iPM until the systems are back up.
- Inpatients discharged during this time will not show as discharged in iPM until the systems are back up.
- Any new baby registrations will not be able to be completed until the systems are back up.
Colleagues will need to ensure they revert to BCPs for blood tests and imaging requests during this time. Other Unity functionality such as documentation and Meds Admin will not be affected by this activity. Desktop alerts will be issued from 12am BST reminding colleagues about the planned downtime.
Please also be aware that colleagues may also see the following message if a clinical action was scheduled to take place between 1am to 1:59am on Sunday 25 October, you may see the following message, highlighting an inconsistency in times.
Ambiguous Time Message
This dialog could appear for some users after the time change occurs. Please note this is not an error and perfectly normal.
If a clinical action is scheduled to occur during the duplicate hour (from 1:00am to 1:59am) a user could potentially get this popup.
Select “Daylight” If the action is to take place in the FIRST 1:00 to 1:59 hour
Select “Standard” If the action is to take place in the SECOND 1:00 to 1:59 hour
Please be assured the activity will be closely monitored at all times.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Tina’s story
October marks Domestic Violence awareness month which aims to unify both women and men who have unfortunately been victims of domestic violence.
Two women are killed a week by a current or former partner in England and Wales and in the year ending March 2019, approximately 1.6 million women experienced domestic abuse (Office for National Statistics, 2019).
As alarming as these stats may be, it is assumed that the figures are most likely a lot higher as many cases go unreported.
For the remainder of this month we will be sharing content throughout the communications bulletin all to help raise awareness around domestic violence.
Tina’s tragic story:
Tina was murdered by her partner in 2017.
Her partner had subjected her to years of abuse and controlling behaviour. He was jailed for life for a minimum of 24 years for her murder.
Tina’s sister Mandy wants to help other families avoid losing a loved one through domestic abuse.
We would like to thank Mandy for making an awareness raising film to help other families.
You can watch a video about Tina’s story below.
Our ED Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) service will support victims that come through ED. If colleagues from the wider hospital need any advice or support when dealing with a patient disclosure then please contact the safeguarding children team in the first instance.
Contact numbers:
- Safeguarding children team: 0121 507 2844
- Sarah Markland ED IDVA: 07989843233
- Rachana Chauhan: 07823336964
#FabChange20 – learning from COVID-19
To reflect the global pandemic, and the impact it has had on health and social care services globally, #FabChange20 shares learning from COVID-19.
The aim of #FabChange20 is to celebrate the innovations and changes within each part of the health and social care system that have arisen from the pandemic.
We have dug deep to share changes both big and small which have been implemented across the Trust.
During this week we will be sharing these stories throughout our daily bulletin.
Trauma and orthopaedics go virtual during the pandemic:
Check out this video featuring, Vishal Paringe, Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedics who talks about how going virtual helped the team overcome the challenges they faced during the pandemic
Do you have a faulty mattress pump in your ward or area?
Do you have a faulty mattress pump in your ward, area or department?
If your ward has any faulty mattress pumps please make sure you label them clearly and identifying the fault. Call tissue viability equipment on ext. 3113 to inform them how many pumps needs collecting from your ward or bleep 6707 within normal working hours.
Alarming mattress pumps – troubleshooting
If the mattress pump is alarming please trouble shoot as follows:
- Do not turn on mute
- Check the hose between the pump and the mattress is not kinked
- Check the mattress dial is on ‘normal’
- Check all the cylinders of the mattress are inflated correctly
- If the above are ok, swap the pump
- If the pump still alarms, swap the mattress
For more information please email tissueviability2@nhs.net.
← Older items Newer items →