Monthly archives: April 2021

COVID-19 Bulletin Friday 30 April

Number not statistics: This week (last week)

1. New: COVID-19 situation in India

The COVID-19 situation in India is severe and distressing. Many colleagues have loved ones overseas and are naturally extremely concerned about their wellbeing.

• For staff who wish to travel you are advised that overseas travel is not permitted other than for exceptional circumstances. The guidance from the UK government on travel to India is here. Travel must be discussed with your line manager.
• For staff who are in India, please keep in touch with your line manager about your circumstances and let them know if you need help.

Make sure you talk to people if you are worried. We have a range of support on offer for colleagues including The Wellbeing Sanctuary where you can talk to someone confidentially about your concerns in a relaxing space. For confidential counselling please call 0800 06 96 222. A chat in confidence can also be booked with the Wellbeing Sanctuary by calling 0121 507 5886.

Many of you have been asking how you can best support the crisis in India. NHS England are coordinating a response from the NHS including donations of equipment and remote clinical support. Our Trust is actively engaged in these discussions and arrangements. The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) have joined up with Doctors’ Association UK, APNA NHS and Akshaya Patra to fundraise for oxygen provision, free food for all in need and expert medical help through tele consulting / advice. To read more and donate please click here.

We have also added a translated voiceover to our awake proning video through the kindness of Dr Anand Arora, Consultant in Intensive Care and Anaesthesics. On providing the translation and voice over he commented: “Awake proning can be life-saving, especially when there is a resource crunch and lack of oxygen supply and hospital beds. It is being followed by those infected in India at home because of the current terrible situation. I  hope that this video will reach those who are unable to get to hospital and that ultimately it saves lives. I would urge colleagues to share this so we can get instructions on how to carry out this important technique out there.”

We have shared the video on our Twitter feed @SWBHnhs if you wish to retweet or please see it below.

2. New: Thank you vaccination hub

The Trust would like to say a huge thank you to all clinical colleagues at both City and Sandwell who have helped vaccinate patients and staff throughout the pandemic with both their first and second doses of the Pfizer – BioNTech jab. We would also like to thanks all of the operational staff who helped set up the hubs to ensure trained colleagues were able to vaccinate all who attended.

As you may be aware the vaccination hubs across our hospital sites closed earlier this week.

Still need your vaccine?

Tipton Sports Academy, Wednesbury Road, is available as a destination for you to get your first dose of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine with the hub running Monday to Sunday, 8am to 7pm. Book your slot via the national booking website.  Alternatively you can be vaccinated local to where you live – you can book yourself in via the national booking website

3. New: Welcome back – SWB to welcome back visitors on our stroke ward

From next week, we will begin a phased trial where we will slowly start to welcome visitors back onto our stroke ward, Newton 4.

All visitors will need to call ahead to relevant wards to book an appointment slot to visit. During this call visitors should be screened to ensure they do not have any COVID-19 symptoms. All visitors must wear a mask when on site. General patient visits will last a maximum of 30 minutes and should be limited to one visitor per patient.

Note: In line with national guidance, general visiting will only be allowed for patients that have been in the hospital for seven days or more.

We’d like to remind colleagues that there are exceptional circumstances where visiting is allowed in all areas, for example for young patients, patients who lack mental capacity and patients who are at the end of their life. For these patients it is important that we are able to safely facilitate visiting, so please if in doubt ask your group for advice.

It is essential to note that even for these groups visiting is NOT ALLOWED by anyone who is COVID-19 symptomatic or self-isolating, regardless of the circumstances.

It is strongly advised you arrive 15 minutes before your visiting time. The staff at the entrance will provide you with a face covering. Please ensure you wear this and keep your face and nose covered at all times. PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND IF YOU OR ANYONE YOU LIVE WITH ARE SYMPTOMATIC FOR COVID-19 OR HAVE HAD A POSITIVE SWAB IN THE PAST 14 DAYS.

Outside the ward you will be greeted by a staff member who will take your details for test and trace, ask you COVID screening questions, and ask you to sanitise your hands. The staff member will allow you onto the ward once your time slot has begun. You will be socially distanced from other visitors to the ward. Please maintain a 2m distance from staff and other visitors at all times. You must not use bathroom facilities on the ward. At the end of your time slot, you will be politely asked to leave the ward so that we can allow more visitors onto the ward to see their families.

4. New: Cardiac Rehab SOP for face to face exercise classes

As the number of COVID infections fall, the Trust has been looking at ways of restarting some of the services which we had to pause during the pandemic. One service which we are restarting safely next week is cardiac rehab, which has had a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and risk assessment signed off at tactical. Please see the SOP here.

In order to minimise the risk of COVID-19 infection, patients should only be invited for face-to-face exercise classes following discussion at the Cardiac Rehabilitation MDT. All patients who have been sent an appointment to attend the gym for a face-to-face exercise session should be contacted the day before and screened for symptoms of COVID-19. Patients must attend their appointment alone, unless a translator or a carer is needed. Should the latter be necessary, the patient will attend one-to-one classes instead of group based classes. Please see the risk assessment here.

5. New: Elective swabbing pathway

Colleagues should be aware that a new elective swabbing pathway has been signed off by tactical this week. The purpose of it is to define the Covid-19 swabbing pathway for patients attending green wards for elective surgery. All patients are instructed to adhere to social distancing for seven days prior to their admission, and must self-isolate from the point of having their covid swab. All patients must have a telephone pre-assessment appointment booked and for those who require an interpreter or carers to attend with them (e.g. if patient has Dementia/learning difficulties) then these patients must be booked a face to face pre-op appointment at Rowley Regis Hospital. You can view the full document by clicking here.

6. New: Change to front door checking arrangements

Since early in the pandemic when we paused visiting, we introduced an enhanced security presence on our entrances, to ensure people were adhering to new PPE rules. As time has passed, the requirement for wearing PPE and practising good hand hygiene has become embedded in behaviour, so the need for security in addition to PPE staff is no longer required and will be stood down from next week for all but ED entrances (these areas will reviewed again at the end of May.) The eventual aim is to move to purely self-serve stations across the Trust, and we are looking at a number of options of how to ensure we manage this well, including ensuring the supply is kept stocked. Until we move completely to self-serve, our PPE staff will remain in situ. On standing down security from stationary positions on our entrances we will increase the number of foot patrols and visibility of security officers.

7. Reminder: Ensure you are doing your regular LAMP test – Book your slot to collect your testing kit now

It is now essential to make sure you are completing your weekly LAMP tests. This is to identify any asymptomatic cases quickly. LAMP is a speedy and reliable COVID-19 test which requires you to collect a saliva sample once a week in the morning before you brush your teeth or have your breakfast or an hour after eating.

When you arrive at work, you can deposit your sample into a collection box – and you’ll receive your result via text message.

We’ve produced this video guide which shows how to carry out the test. Click thumbnail below to watch the film:

We must remind everyone that LAMP testing is open to both clinical and non-clinical colleagues. It is vital that we continue to test despite colleagues having had the COVID vaccination and infection rates starting to drop.

Please drop off your sample into phlebotomy department Monday – Friday from 7.30am – 3.30pm in the following locations:

• OPD first floor Corridor D Sandwell Site
• Ground floor BTC
• Ground floor Rowley Regis Hospital
• First floor Neptune Health Park
• Second floor Lyng Health and Social Care Centre
• Victoria Health Centre
• Oldbury Health Centre

Alternatively you can drop off your samples in the LAMP collection bins at Sandwell outside the Bryan Knight Suite, outside pathology or A&E.

At City, the LAMP collection bins can be found outside pharmacy main spine, outside pathology and A&E.

Further information on LAMP testing can be found in the attached FAQs.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 30 April

A colleague I haven’t yet met in person, took time out of their day to contact me about email etiquette.  The content of the discussion we had has inspired me to raise this in this week’s Friday Message.

We have all had concerns or frustrations with email over the last 20 or so years, haven’t we?  The frustrations with the people who treat it as an instant messaging service and express irritation with you because you haven’t replied within hours, sometimes minutes.  The colleagues who insist on copying in everyone in the original thread even when relaying the most banal of confirmatory responses.  The colleagues who forward emails containing sensitive or personal identifiable information without thought.  The passive aggression in text, which most wouldn’t dare to express in person.

The problem is, because we have a new technological enemy in our sights, in the form of WebEx or MS Teams meetings, we have forgotten just how much damage poor email etiquette can cause.

Compared to everything else we are handling at the moment this may seem trivial, but it is a subtly important undercurrent of our working lives which we need to give more thought and consideration to.  Maybe we could initiate a bit of a campaign on this just to jog people’s thoughts and appeal to their inner professionalism. Maybe a poster that will display on the home screen just to remind people of good e-mail etiquette.

Some examples of what we can improve are;

• CC function – do we really need to copy all those people in?  The psychological damage caused by persisting in copying in three layers of management above us, for example, mustn’t be underestimated
• Staff working very late/very early and sending e-mails then putting pressure on other staff when they have then not completed tasks.  We all have a right to a home life and not everyone works the same hours or pattern of working day.  I never want to hear the dreaded line – “I sent you an email at 10pm last night – haven’t you read it yet?” again!
• Reply all – don’t do it automatically.  Think about who needs to see what
• Forward function without checking content – confidentiality of staff and/or patients is crucial.  Information governance is everyone’s concern

Thank you for taking the time to read this week’s message.  I hope it resonates with you and has made you think.

Huge thanks to everyone who has contributed to the set up and running of the vaccine centre at Sandwell, housed in the conference room of the education centre. The hub closed its doors this week having completed a staggering 18000 doses of the vaccine. The hub was set up almost overnight during the Christmas period and many colleagues had to rapidly get trained and put processes in place to ensure safe and effective care. Thank you to everyone for their help – a great team effort. It will reopen for a couple of days in June to complete second doses for those who received their first vaccine in the last few days.

I wrote last week about the tremendous service shown by our Trust Chair, Richard Samuda who steps down today. And I am delighted to welcome Sir David Nicholson to the Trust as the new Chairman. Sir David is greatly looking forward to meeting colleagues and getting to know the Trust and our communities.

Star of the week, this week is Nurse Associate Nicola Coley who was nominated by Senior Sister, Danielle Graham, for her efforts to arrange a complex discharge for a patient at end of life. I wrote previously in this blog about the importance of a good death and it is just this approach by Nicola that should be commended. Nicola worked hard during a busy shift to keep the family updated at all times, fully involve them in the arrangements and ensure that the patient’s wishes were met. Thank you, Nicola.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the minute’s silence to remember international workers on Wednesday, particularly this year as we recognise those who have contributed to the NHS response to the pandemic. Our NHS would not exist without the commitment of those from overseas and you are truly part of our #SWBfamily.

Best wishes

Richard

Back road closure at City Hospital: 4 May

In order to remove a decommissioned chiller supplying theatres and lift the replacement into position, the back road that leads from the rear of City Hospital ground to the A&E exit on Aberdeen Street will be closed from 9am until 1pm on Tuesday 4 May.

Note: At no point will the load pass over any occupied areas.

Please see image below for further details and location of works.

We ask that colleagues please be mindful and remain vigilant when accessing City Hospital and the surrounding areas on foot.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Palliative care and bereavement service teaching session: 5 May

The palliative care and bereavement service are providing a WebEx teaching and update session on Wednesday 5 May from 9am -11am aimed at all ward champions (both qualified and non- qualified).

Any colleagues who wish to attend should call ext. 3611 for WebEx joining instructions.

Delays to cross matching of blood

Due to a laboratory IT issue, electronic issue of blood is suspended.

• Cross matching of blood will take longer.
• Emergency blood is available immediately.
• Fully cross matched blood may take up to an hour to issue.

At Sandwell from 12midnight to 8am fully cross matched blood may take up to 2hours.

Where possible please ensure you plan transfusions ahead and account for the additional time.
We will update you when the situation improves.

If you have any further queries please direct to the blood bank 0121 507 4251/ 3110/on call bleep (OOH).

Clinical query can be directed to Dr S Pancham via Trust Mobile.

Q-Park parking enforcement to commence from Tuesday 11 May

In recent weeks some polite warning notices have been placed on vehicles that have been parked inconsiderately around our hospital sites. These warning letters are designed in the short term to educate and to give any inconsiderate parkers a chance to rectify their parking habits. These warning letters will be replaced with £30 fines from Tuesday 11 May. If the fine remains unpaid for 14 days this will then increase to £60.

Below are examples of the criteria the Q-Park team will be adhering to regarding parking enforcement:

• Parked in a disabled bay without displaying a valid badge
• Parked across two or more parking bays
• Parked outside of a designated parking bay
• Parked outside of parking permit times
• Parked in a staff only car park without a staff permit
• Unauthorised staff parking in a visitor only car park
• Parked in a service critical bay
• Parked on double red/yellow lines or red/yellow hatch.

Why are we enforcing these rules? We need to make sure we always maintain emergency access and keep traffic flowing. To ensure people are parking where they should, we have to patrol and penalise vehicles that are parked where they shouldn’t be. We also have a duty to keep junctions free of parked cars so that pedestrians can see when it is safe to cross and motorists have a clear view of traffic and pedestrians.

For more information please email sandwell@q-park.com.

Heartbeat: COVID speeds up investment in induction suite

Maternity colleagues are celebrating the opening of a new induction suite, which offers a brighter and larger area for women being induced.

The area was opened in November and has been very well received by patients. It replaces a smaller three-bedded induction facility which was based on labour ward.

The five-bedded facility has a separate examination/treatment room where the women are able to undergo an induction. This room can also be used for staff performing reflexology and aromatherapy sessions on women. It also boasts a comfortable kitchen area for women who will be able to heat their own food and relax in a different environment.

Laura Padder, Midwife told us: “I think it’s much better for our ladies. It gives them much more space to get around, it’s a more peaceful environment and staff can assist them easier than when they are on the labour ward. It helps us to provide better one to one care and to build up relationships.”

Cathleen Price, Midwife, said: “Our new induction suite has been in the pipeline for a little while now. As of November 2019, we opened this area and it has been very well received.

“The ladies that have used the area have said it’s welcoming. We have a kitchen area for food to be warmed up, a sitting area and five beds along with an examination room. Feedback overall has been positive and we’re very pleased with this new space.”

Louise Wilde, Deputy Director of Midwifery, said: “We pushed forward the development of the new room due to the pandemic. Feedback from women about the previous facility told us that they wanted somewhere which was a larger area and so we acted upon this by creating the new suite.”

Every action counts: Implementation survey

The every action counts resource suite was developed to support NHS organisations to address some of the key drivers of behaviour with COVID-19 infection prevention and control (IPC) measures.

The suite includes an implementation toolkit supported by communication and operational resources to strengthen IPC leadership and culture, colleague and patient engagement, training, and operational management.

NHS England and Improvement are now seeking to understand how well the resources have been implemented across the NHS and gather early feedback on impact.

Note: IPC, communications, and other leads who have an interest in implementing the resources are particularly encouraged to complete the survey.

The implementation survey can be accessed by clicking here.

The survey closes on Friday 7 May.

Heartbeat: Service shows patients the way through video

The breast screening service has released a video to share with their patients showing them what to expect when attending an appointment.

The video has been shared with the Clinical Commissioning Groups and the GPs within the area that the service screens.

The film is a short guide depicting what will happen, from the moment they arrive until they are ready to leave the mobile unit. It is expected to be translated into Sandwell and West Birmingham’s top six community languages and shared on the Trust’s YouTube account, as well as social media.

“By using video, it can be easily translated into different languages and understood by those whose first language isn’t English.”

There are four mobile units located at different sites across the region. Breast screening appointments have continued throughout the pandemic as it is deemed essential.

As well as producing the video, with assistance from the communications department, the breast screening team has also put together helpful leaflets and guidance, designed by Medical Illustration, for clients.

Rose added: “As a service, we are doing everything we can to reassure the clients invited that it is still safe to attend their screening appointment.”

International Dance Day: 29 April

Did you know that Thursday 29 April is International Dance Day? 

International Dance Day is a global celebration of dance and takes place every year on 29 April. The day aims to raise awareness of all forms of dance and strives to encourage participation and education in dance all over the world.

Get your boogie on: Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Nick Makwana has led us through a variety of  dance routines to encourage us all to get moving and improve our health and wellbeing. Be sure to check out all his previous routines by clicking here.