Monthly archives: November 2020

Cancer services seeking donations in time for Christmas – can you help?

Cancer services will be collecting goods in time for the festive period to support the most for the needy and vulnerable people in our communities.

The kinds of items they are seeking include:

Food (for food banks):

• Chocolate & biscuit boxes and packets
• Jam/honey/ Nutella
• Cereal
• Energy bars
• Dry fruit
• Nuts
• Baked beans
• Tinned spaghetti
• Tinned soup
• Tinned tomatoes
• Tinned vegetables
• Tinned fruit
• Pasta (dry)
• Pasta sauces (jars)
• Squash
• Instant coffee
• Savoury crackers
• Crisps
• Herbal tea
• English breakfast tea

Christmas gifts:

• Bath and shower gift sets (no razors or aerosols)
• Nice notebooks
• Nice stationery and art sets
• Jewellery
• Wallets /purses
• Fleecy blankets (no bedding)
• Hand warmers
• Torches /wind up lighting
• Playing cards/ small games
• Gloves
• Diaries

Toiletries:

• Roll on deodorant
• Foot cream
• Flannels
• Toothpaste
• Face wash
• Face wipes
• Towels (new)
• Dental floss

Cleaning:

• Strong black bin bags
• Tin foil
• Blue roll
• Aprons
• Christmas day resources
• Fairy lights
• Juggling balls
• Santa hats

Items for local animal rescue centres

• Old towels
• Old blankets
• Tins and packets of food
• Toys
• Treats
• Collars
• Leads
• Bandanas

If you would like to donate any goods please contact the cancer services on 0121 507 2776 to arrange drop off or collection.

Heartbeat: Portraits capture souls of NHS colleagues during the pandemic

It all started when Speech and Language Therapist, Kate Palser saw a feature on BBC news online about the #portraitsfornhsheroes campaign on Instagram – a project kicked off by the artist Tom Croft back in April, offering a free oil portrait to the first NHS frontline worker to message him.

The initiative then extended to thousands of other artists who offered to do the same, working from photos and providing the portraits free of charge – with the aim to have an exhibition once lockdown restrictions were lifted.

Kate felt it was important to make sure that speech and language therapy as a profession was represented. She contacted artist Timothy Sutton who kindly agreed to do her portrait.

Heartbeat caught up with Ellie Savage, Speech and Language Therapist who told us more. “Kate received her portrait back in May and that was when I became aware of the project,” she said. “I was so impressed with Kate’s portrait, I decided I’d like to have one done too as a memento of working during this unprecedented time.”

“It was easier said than done trying to match with an artist, as the project had become so popular that the moment artists were announcing their availability, people were snapping them up.”

“I did eventually manage to get matched and, from there, offered to help match any other colleagues who wanted a portrait. The aim was to get portraits of as many of the team done as possible.”

“The result is the eight different portraits in the picture – all by different artists who used different mediums and styles.”

Update – intermittent S: Drive issues

To fix the intermittent S Drive issues, IT have bought forward a planned change and upgraded the service.

You should not have lost any data and all data should be available.

Some colleagues may receive an error message stating that S:\ location is unavailable; if this affects you then please save your work and reboot in order for the change to take effect or simply sign out.

The situation is being closely monitored at all times.

Do call the 24 hour IT service desk if you experience any further performance issues on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050 for home workers.

Dr Sarb Clare receives MBE in Queen’s Birthday honours list

Dr Sarb Clare, AMU Consultant and Deputy Medical Director has been awarded an MBE for her dedication to the profession.

Sarb, aged 44, has been involved in a number of projects which not only improve patient care but also address the wellbeing of colleagues, said: “I am incredibly delighted and honoured to receive an MBE.

“It is a privilege for me to serve the local community who face huge health inequality and very humbling for my work to be recognised in this manner. It’s even more poignant in a year which has been turned upside down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Receiving this award means a lot to me as it recognises what we often do not see under the tip of the iceberg of success which is grit, energy, time, disappointment, dedication, sacrifice and much more. I applaud all my team who are critical to this success, especially my amazing nursing team who are the true heroes.”

Sarb has been a doctor for 21 years, 11 of those as an AMU consultant at our Trust. She graduated from the University of Manchester and was one of the first UK trainees within acute medicine and the first appointed acute physician at City Hospital in 2008.

She added: “I set up acute medicine within City Hospital and I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved in particular being the number one rotation choice for acute medicine trainees within the West Midlands.”

Sarb has gone on to deliver many educational initiatives as well as creating a new acute medical assessment nursing role and was pivotal in introducing an award-winning wellbeing initiative which brought in the use of energy pods for colleagues at the Trust. Dr Clare is also leading the teams into the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital.

Big congratulations to Dr Sarb Clare – she’s one of our own!