Monthly archives: February 2021

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 26 February

My thanks to all the teams working hard to progress the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital. It is encouraging that the construction work has continued despite Covid and 2022 remains the opening timeframe. Many clinical teams will begin to be re-oriented to the plans for clinical services in coming weeks.

The vaccination programme remains mission critical for teams in Sandwell and West Birmingham and great progress has been made. It is vital that people take up the offer of a vaccine. We know that there are attempts by anti-vaccination campaigners to thwart high uptake levels. My message to you is this – make your decision based on information you have from people who are trusted. Many of our clinicians have shared information about the vaccines and their effectiveness and will continue to do so. If you have heard stories about bad side-effects such as infertility, they are untested myth. If you have concerns talk to your line manager, or any of our clinical leaders. Our fabulous R&D team will happily talk to you about the rigorous process these vaccines had to go through before they were deemed safe to use.

I wanted to reflect here on integrated care.  It is a couple of words that has been banded about rather too loosely in NHS and social care circles for decades, often without a clear definition of what is meant by it or what it is intended to achieve.  As a result, clinicians and practitioners are left somewhat unclear about what is expected of them in this context and all too often, nothing happens and the status quo continues.

For what it’s worth, I have two definitions of integrated care which are applicable to our short, medium and long term future work in Sandwell & West Birmingham:

1. The simple, more prosaic definition of integrated care for me is the efficiency and effectiveness of a service user or patient journey, being so smooth and well-coordinated, that the service user “doesn’t see the join”.  The virtual walls in policy or process between staff in different agencies or even, rather worryingly, between departments in the same organisation, do not disadvantage the user of the service.  The end result is a journey, from referral to treatment or receipt of a service, in which the service user is kept well informed as to the next stage in their journey and the hand offs between services are seamless.  This may seem, to long time sufferers of the inefficiencies of our services, a nirvana which we may never reach.  But we must deliver it, because this is the simpler, more short-term definition of integrated care.  The harder, longer term integrated care dream is described in my next point below.  For now, try to think of it this way – ask yourselves the question “How do I stop REFERRING one of my service users to another service and instead COMMUNICATE with the receiving service or department to invite the individual to the next stage of their care?”  In Walsall, where I have come from, one of the ambitions we set ourselves in this space was to eradicate referrals and hand offs from one service to another, within five years.  We must think differently if we are to do differently.
2. The longer term definition of integrated care for me, relates to the effective improvement of population health and to reduce health inequalities in our populations.  You don’t need me to tell you that we serve a hugely diverse and often, very deprived population.  There are inbuilt inequalities in service access, digital exclusion, in clinical outcome.  There is a 10 year gap in healthy life expectancy between the wealthiest wards of our two populations and the poorest.  Let’s be frank with each other – COVID-19 and the probable economic problems associated with exit from the EU will compound that.  If we don’t change how we impact upon what determines better health, then the demand on our services will increase beyond that which we can service.  We have set up Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs) in each borough or place, all over England, to try to tackle this.  A functioning and successful ICP will have council, Trust, mental health Trust, GPs, housing and voluntary sector agencies all around the table.  Their aim?  To improve the social circumstances and life choices of people to add life to years and years to life.  To avoid chronic disease where we can and reduce the burden on society of poor health and mental health.  To achieve this, it takes investment, good planning and practical hard work.  We need to increasingly treat each ICP as an organisation in its own right and therefore break down the traditional walls between the different agencies.  We are only at the start of that journey in our part of the world, but the needs of our population, as well as the success of our new hospital care model, depend on it maturing quickly.

I will put integrated care for our populations locally, at the centre of what I prioritise and at the centre of our actions as a Trust.  Our vision is to be the best integrated care organisation in the country.  That’s a great vision.  But we have not yet begun to deliver it.  You can help us achieve it.

Richard Beeken

Fit testing at Sandwell – Temporary move to Education Centre

From Saturday 27 February through to Monday 8 March fit testing clinics at Sandwell will temporarily move to Vaccination Hall at the Education Centre in Sandwell.

Clinics at City Hospital remain unchanged.

Please ensure you keep to your appointments as fit testing is critical to keeping your safe.

COVID-19 Bulletin: Friday 26 February

Numbers not statistics: This week (last week)*

1. New: Responding to changing numbers of COVID-19 patients: Moving forwards

As you can see from our data updates in today’s bulletin we are beginning to see sustained reduction in the number of patients in hospital beds with COVID-19 which is good news. The government have also published the roadmap out of COVID-19 restrictions which will see, should the cases remain on the current downward trajectory, a gradual opening up of schools, workplaces and the hospitality sector in coming weeks with an end to COVID-19 restrictions in late June.

Numbers in the community remain high (Sandwell has one of the highest rates of infection per 100,000 people in the country), so the numbers of COVID patients needing admission and those needing critical care support will continue for some time. We will also need to be mindful of the importance to keep within the current restrictions and follow our infection prevention and control policies in terms of PPE, social distancing at work and frequent handwashing.

However, in light of the down trend in COVID-19 cases we are now in a position to plan towards the next stage that includes:

• Critical care is aiming to move out of Newton 1 over the next few days if possible. The facility will initially remain available to re-open should that be required.
• We are planning for elective surgery to restart on 22 March for all those patients whose have been classed as Priority 2 – treatment required within one month. This will enable procedures to be rescheduled for those patients who have had their treatment plans unfortunately delayed.
• Wards will move from red to amber in a phased approach reflecting the numbers of patients with COVID-19 requiring admission.

All staff who have been redeployed into ICU or medical wards will be communicated with individually over the coming weeks and by no later than the 19th March setting out when they are able to return to their substantive roles.

2. New: LAMP continues to light the way

Our roll out of LAMP (Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) testing continues and from 1 March, we will be going live with the following areas:

• Anaesthetics
• Specialist Surgery
• Theatres
• Ophthalmology
• General Surgery

They will join:

• Admitted Care A and B
• Emergency Care
• Gynae and Gynae Oncology

Colleagues from the following Directorates should start to register for LAMP from next week, as they will go live on 8 March:

• iCares
• Operations
• iBeds
• Maternity & Perinatal Medicine

LAMP testing is a weekly test where you collect a saliva sample first thing in the morning (before you brush your teeth or have your breakfast). You collect your sample at home and as you come into work, you deposit your sample in to one of collection boxes in phlebotomy on our acute and community sites which are then sent off to the lab to be tested. LAMP test results are processed quicker than the usual PCR swab tests and notifications of both positive and negative results sent back to you via text message.

Instructions on how to perform the test can be accessed by clicking here.

If the result comes back positive you and your household will need to immediately isolate for 10 days and you will not require a PCR swab test to confirm the result. By 22 March, we will have testing available for all staff. You should continue with the lateral flow testing until you move to the LAMP testing programme.

If you have kit left over from your lateral flow tests please return these to your service area and we will arrange for left over testing kit to be collected. If you are at the end of your Lateral Flow Test kit and not due to transition over before you run out of kit, please contact the Community Contact Centre on 0121 507 2664 option 6.

You can read the Frequently Asked Questions by clicking here.

3. New: Still not too late to get vaccinated – New vaccination centre open in Tipton

If you are yet to get the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination, you can still book in to get your jab at either Walsall Hospital, at the Black Country Living Museum or now at the newly opened at Tipton Sports Academy vaccination centre.

Alternatively colleagues can also book their jab through the Your Health Partnership Primary Care network.

To book your jab online use one of the following links:

Black Country Living Museum

Walsall Hospital

Your Health Partnership

NHS COVID-19 Vaccination booking

We advise all colleagues to take the time to read the COVID-19 guide for healthcare workers.

Please ensure you take your Staff ID with you when you attend your appointment as it’s important you’re able to confirm you are eligible for the vaccination.

4. Reminder: Misinformation and Mistrust – Don’t delay getting vaccinated

Our vaccination programme for staff is continuing, as outlined above, and we want to thank all of you who have stepped forward and had your jab. This means you are not only protecting your patients, but also your family and teammates.

However, there still remains an amount of misinformation and mistrust around the life-saving vaccine.

Deputy Medical Director Chizo Agwu talks about why she was vaccinated and is encouraging colleagues to do the same.

You can watch her video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuZ0mFwRfSo

Her message is echoed by Dr Masood Ahmed, Chief Medical Officer for the Black Country and West Birmingham CCG.

He recently urged members of the BAME community to ignore the myths around the vaccine in a series of videos produced by the Trust, which feature hard-hitting footage of an intensive care unit at City Hospital.

Meanwhile, Dr Harj Kainth, a consultant in the acute medicine unit at City Hospital, delivers her message about the vaccination in Punjabi. The BBC Asian Network also has a series of myth-busting videos in five South Asian languages, which can be viewed by clicking here.

Last week ITV weatherman Des Coleman also recorded a video exclusively for the Trust encouraging people to take up the jab. We would encourage you to share these films with your patients, family and friends.

They can be accessed by clicking the names below:

ICU – featuring Dr Masood

Dr Harj Kainth

Des Coleman

5. Reminder: Keeping you safe by shielding, isolating and working from home

You may have seen in the press recently that the 1.7m people nationally have been added to the shielding list, encouraging them to safely remain at home to protect themselves. At the start of the pandemic, our Trust was quick to adopt remote working, allowing teams and departments to keep themselves and each other safe, this rule remains in place and we have over the past 12 months demonstrated that we can continue to deliver safe and effective services, by using technology and remote working.

Whilst remote working is encouraged, we have to be clear that this must be done with the agreement of line managers and risk assessments regarding working practices completed.

• If you are working from home you must have the written agreement of your line manager and work in a non-clinical function
• If you are self-isolating because of your own symptoms or those of your loved ones, you must contact your line manager who will register your absence on ESR / eRoster.
• If you are shielding because of a notified condition having received a letter from your GP or NHS England, please make sure your line manager has updated your record on ESR.

If you are not sure if you qualify to work from home or if you feel that you have reason to be shielding, please contact the HR department on extension 3116 or email swbh.hr-advice-for-COVID-19@nhs.net

6. Reminder: Face masks – They’re not one size fits all

There’s more to face masks than you would think. It’s not simply a matter of grabbing the closest mask to you as you enter a ward, they only really work if they fit well. Under no circumstances should staff simply wear any mask they have at hand or ask for an FFP3, unless they know what mask they have been fit tested for. Colleagues working within the PPE hub have a responsibility to ensure that all staff are safe by issuing specific masks following a fit test.

This is because masks that are ill-fitting allow particles to pass by the side of the covering leaving the wearer at risk. You MUST be fit tested to be able to safely wear a face mask and be assured it is working properly.

Please make it your aim to remember which FFP3 mask you have been tested for. If you don’t know, please ask your line manager to check ESR. If ESR does not contain the information, please contact Dinah McLannahan (dinah.mclannahan@nhs.net) who will access fit testing records.

There is availability at both sites most days this week and next for fit testing.  Please call 0121 507 5050 to get booked in at a site, date and time that suits you. Fit testing clinics are available everyday between 8am and 4pm. Phone lines are open till 8pm daily.

Essential network maintenance and cable tidying at City Hospital during February and March

Please be aware throughout the remainder of February and March, IT will be carrying out essential network maintenance at City Hospital.  This is to ensure that all the network switch cabinets at City are clean, secure and follow an agreed cabling regime. This will help to improve resolution times in the event of a network outage. It will also help to prevent network downtime caused by accidentally removing the wrong cable or breaking a connection as a result of poor and untidy cabling.

During the works an approximate 30 seconds loss of wired network connection and up to 5 minutes loss of Wi-Fi access will be experienced for each connection that requires replacing. Please be assured once the activity has taken place it will be closely monitored to ensure all services are fully available.

During the maintenance both IT and our supporting vendor Midland Networks will be present, we envisage this will take around half a day for each cabinet location during the hours of 9am to 6pm. IT will work closely with all Department and Ward leads that are serviced by the affected cabinets. This will ensure colleagues are informed in advance before the works take place allowing sufficient time for work to be saved.

Detailed below is the proposed rollout schedule which may be subject to change:

• Friday 26 February 2021 Cab 29 City Hearing Services Centre
• Friday 26 February 2021 Cab 19 City Ward D18
• Monday 1 March 2021 Cab 22 City Child Care & Assessment Unit
• Tuesday 2 March 2021 Cab 35 City Ophthalmic Ward – Sheldon Block
• Tuesday 2 March 2021 Cab 42 City Maternity Department
• Wednesday 3 March 2021 Cab 41 Pathology Department
• Thursday 4 March 2021 Cab 45 City Nuclear Medicine
• Thursday 4 March 2021 Cab 43 City Labour Ward
• Friday 5 March 2021 Cab 44 City X – Ray – Main Department
• Monday 8 March 2021 Cab 49 City A.M.U.1
• Monday 8 March 2021 Cab 50 City Toxicology
• Tuesday 9 March 2021 Cab 52 City Pathology – Computer Room
• Tuesday 9 March 2021 Cab 53 City Pathology – Clinical Chemistry
• Wednesday 10 March 2021 Cab 62 City Maternity
• Wednesday 10 March 2021 Cab 63 City Rheumatology
• Thursday 11 March 2021 Cab 57 City Telephone Exchange
• Friday 12 March 2021 Cab 64 City Maternity
• Monday 15 March 2021 Cab 65 City Fracture
• Monday 15 March 2021 Cab 71 City Neo Natal Unit
• Monday 15 March 2021 Cab 73 City Neo Natal Portakabin
• Tuesday 16 March 2021 Cab 76 City Histology (Old Ward D10)
• Wednesday 17 March 2021 Cab 23 City Geriatric Administration (DGM)
• Thursday 18 March, Friday 19 March and Monday 22 March Cab 58 City BTC
• Tuesday 23 March to Thursday 25 March 2021 Cab 59 City BTC

 As always, should you have any queries or experience any issues during or after the maintenance then please do contact the 24 hour IT Service Desk on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050 for home workers.

ESR Downtime this weekend beginning at 6pm tonight (Friday 26 February)

Users are advised that the ESR Production Service will be withdrawn at 6pm tonight (Friday 26 February), in order to carry out essential ESR Production maintenance.

The Service is expected to become available by midnight on Sunday 28 February.

Co-operation is requested to ensure that all Users are logged off by 6pm tonight.

ESR, e-Learning, ESRBI, ESR Data Warehouse, ESR Portal and TRS will be unavailable during this period of downtime.

The TRS, ESS over the internet and ESR Portal services will display maintenance pages.

Please ensure you log in and approve any pending notifications prior to to the close at 6pm tonight (Friday, 26 February).

Does your medical equipment need a service or repair?

Please ensure all medical equipment which needs a service or repair is taken to the medical engineering department (if portable) or is logged via the online service (e-Quip AM in ‘Corporate Systems’ on Connect).

It is vital that all equipment service requests in your areas are reported promptly. Our workshops are located opposite Trinity House at Sandwell and on the ground floor, main corridor opposite histology at City.

For further information please contact the team on ext. 4070.

Do you know the new language for discharges?

We have launched a new Discharge to Assess model of care for all adult inpatients, and as part of that the language we use to describe discharge plans has been simplified and is nationally recognised:

• Pathway 0 = Person can be discharged home without any follow up
• Pathway 1 = Person can be discharged home but will require community support (e.g. a package of care)
• Pathway 2 = Person requires a temporary bed (either for further inpatient therapy or assessment via an Enhanced Assessment Bed)
• Pathway 3 = Person requires a new permanent care home placement
• Pathway 4 = All end of life pathways, regardless of discharge destination

If you need any advice regarding the progress of a patient’s discharge, call our new integrated discharge hub on 07815 647936, open 8am – 5pm, 7 days per week!

Race and space – events and dates for your diaries

Throughout March the Black Country and West Birmingham STP People Board will bring an array of events and workshops available for colleagues to attend focused on Black Lives Matter. The RAS podcast (race and space) allows people to come together and talk openly about race in a safe space.

There will also be an opportunity to learn how to recognise and understand racism and deal with racist incidents as an ally. To find out more about the events on offer, click here.

Administration of blood transfusions

Do you administer blood transfusions? Please watch the short video, available on the blood transfusion pages on Connect which shows the correct checking procedures to follow for the administration of blood transfusions.

Note: The transfusion practitioners have also developed a transfusion checklist to aid in the pre-administration process which is linked below.

• Transfusion Check List

Reminder: The electronic cross match report form must not be used as part of the checking procedure. For more information please email swbh.bloodtransfusion@nhs.net.

TeamTalk is taking place today

TeamTalk is our monthly Trust-wide team briefing. The next session will take place today, Wednesday 24 February from 1pm.

Please ensure you are able to access a computer with speakers or headphones to enable you to participate.

Details on how to login are as follows:

• To join the session from your computer click on the following link: https://swbhnhs.webex.com/swbhnhs/onstage/g.php?MTID=e3cc5ec623d4237fdd1354c03e41b4dc8
• Event password is TEAMTALK

If you have any questions about how you join the briefing, contact Subtan Mahmood by email:  subtan.mahmood@nhs.net.