Monthly archives: May 2021

Execs launch Midland Met Corners

Over the last few weeks, members of our executive team have been meeting colleagues from across the Trust to share floor plans of where they will be moving to within Midland Met.

As part of the visits, teams have been tasked with creating dedicated Midland Met Corners, similar to the Unity ones we used previously. These corners will be the go to places for colleagues to get the latest news and updates for their specific areas.

Rachel Barlow, Director of System Transformation, explained: “There is a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes to ensure that Midland Met is a well-constructed hospital. I am pleased that we’ve been able to share plans with colleagues to give them a feel for where they will be working when they move to Midland Met.

“There is also a lot of work going on with teams to ensure we can get our services ready to safely move into the building and take advantage of the new design. We have 800 people on site daily working hard to get our hospital ready; things are starting to pick up pace now, and we all have a part to play in making our move into Midland Met a successful one.”

There are clinical tours available so that you can go up to Midland Met and see the areas you will be working in. Three tours take place every Friday for up to five people in each group. If you would like to arrange a visit, please email mmuhprojectoffice@nhs.net. Find out more in the video below.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpXtC7J8pwc[/embed]

 

SignHealth: A specialist domestic abuse support service for deaf adults and children

SignHealth work with and support deaf people of all ages, gender, race and sexualities regarding domestic abuse.

SignHealth are the only domestic abuse service in the UK that communicates with deaf people directly, using a variety of communication methods, predominantly British Sign Language (BSL).

Communicating in sign language means SignHealth are able to offer deaf people the support and advice they need, in a language they can understand.

Deaf people are often isolated from hearing people, as most people do not know sign language.

If you wish to refer anyone to the service please call 0203 9472600 or email da@signhealth.org.uk.

For further details about the service please click here.

Heartbeat: Hello my name is… Donna Mighty

Donna Mighty has recently been appointed as our equality, diversity and inclusion lead.

A passionate belief in the rights of all colleagues to feel equal, included, empowered and understood has helped Donna rise to her latest challenge – leading our Trust in delivering our equality promises to colleagues across the organisation in her new role.

Donna Mighty is no stranger to the subject, having joined our Trust four and half years ago and led the Black and Minority Ethnic Staff Network as their Chair for four successive years following its inception. Donna is also our in-house NHS England Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) Expert.

To find out more about her newest challenge, Heartbeat caught up with Donna. She told us: “Our Trust sits right in the middle of one of the most culturally diverse regions in the UK, and this isn’t just seen in our community – it is mirrored in our workforce. Representation matters.

“The Trust Board and Non-Executive Directors have recognised the need to have an infrastructure in place to drive forward our EDI ambitions and to fulfil our EDI responsibilities linked to the NHS People Plan.

“Equality, Diversity & Inclusion should not be viewed as a nice to do or an optional extra. It is a collective responsibility.

“How staff feel and how staff are valued and treated has a direct impact on patient care, experience and outcomes. Therefore authentically embedding EDI into our systems, the way we work, is vitally important.”

Donna added: “I look forward to working with colleagues to make our Trust an inclusive and compassionate organisation. We owe that not only to our staff, but we also owe that to our patients and our communities.”

Mouth care matters display board competition – more of our other entries

Thank you to all the teams that took part in the mouth care matters display board competition and congratulations to our winners Cardiology (first place), Priory 3 (second place) and D11 (third place).

Judging took place on Friday 14 May with the panel comprising Acting Chief Nurse, Melanie Roberts, Clinical Procurement Specialist Nurse, Janice Nelson and Group Director of Nursing – Medicine and Emergency Care, Julie Thompson.

In the communications bulletin we will continue to feature the display boards that were submitted for the competition. Today we highlight Windmill Theatres at City, D15 and ITU Sandwell.

 

Help us improve your governance database

Did you know the governance database (Safeguard) is used to capture, manage and report on a wide range of things: incidents, risks, audit, complaints, PALs, litigation, inquests and information requests?

This information is really important for monitoring, learning and managing activities and we think it is really important that the system supports colleagues to use it.  We want colleagues to be able to provide high quality and relevant information as quick and easily as possible – it’s also vital that the information is accessible as required by teams.

To support the review and improvement process, we want colleagues to help us, by completing a short survey. This will help us identify key areas of improvement that would make a difference for colleagues using the system. Don’t worry about telling us about any frustrations with the system, we really value this – if we don’t know about the issues, we can’t address them!

The survey is anonymous and will be used to prioritise improvements that ultimately help us improve quality and safety for patients and colleagues at our Trust. Click here to access the survey.

For more information please email Kristina.Murphy2@nhs.net.

Essential work affecting Trust’s main contact number: 10 June, 12am

Please be aware BT will be carrying out essential maintenance in their telephone exchange which will affect the Trust’s telephone system on Thursday 10 June between 12am and 3am.

For approximately 30 minutes from 12.15am – 1.15am on Thursday 10 June all incoming calls via the Trust’s main contact number (0121 554 3801) will be temporarily unavailable.

Note: This will not affect the emergency casualty red line in A&E at City or Sandwell as such calls are routed separately.

The activity will be closely monitored at all times by BT and by our IT support teams.

Please do call the 24 hour IT service desk if you have any queries on this on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050 for home workers.

Star Awards 2021 – Clinical Team of the Year (adults)

Do you know a team that has provided consistent, high quality care for adults whilst meeting financial and operational targets, a team that has demonstrated best practice or has driven forward improvements in patient care or has pulled together through particularly difficult circumstances?

Nominate them as the Clinical Team of the Year (adults) at this year’s upcoming Star Awards!

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Ways to nominate:

• You can complete a paper nomination form which you can download by clicking here.
• You can send in a video nomination for free to swbh.comms@nhs.net via www.wetransfer.com. Choose go to free. When doing the recording remember to state clearly who you are and the name of the person/team you are nominating.
• You can complete the online form by clicking here.

Be sure to check out last year’s award ceremony featuring last year’s winner for the award, the palliative care team (timecode: 55 minutes, 6 seconds).

If you have any questions regarding the Star Awards, please contact the communications team on 0121 507 5303 or email swbh.comms@nhs.net.

For more information, please visit our dedicated Star Awards page on Connect.

Star of the Week – Wilhemina Goodwin

Our Star of the Week is Wilhemina Goodwin, Nursing Associate on Newton 3.

Wilhemina recently qualified as a band 4 nursing associate – she has done really well adjusting and always goes above and beyond her duty of care.

She has continued to develop and progress beyond expectations and has a strong work ethic. Wilhemina has never shirked in respects to her work and has been highly recognised by the junior doctor team that works within trauma and orthopaedics.

Wilhemina works well with the team and is always willing to help. The doctors and other colleagues on the ward have commended Wilhemina’s dedication and hard work. She is an asset to the team and department and the Trust.

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.

LGBTQ+ health inequality webinar series

Yorkshire and Humber Public Health Network are hosting a LGBT+ health inequality webinar series throughout June and July:

• Understanding the health needs of LGBT+ people, Monday 7 June
• Understanding and tackling Health Risk Behaviours among LGBT+ people (smoking, substance use and physical activity), Monday 14 June
• Sexual Health and Wellness for LGBT+, MSM and WSW, Sunday 27 June
• Parental care of LGBT+- how can we do it better?  Tuesday 29 June
• Being young and LGBT+- issues affecting LGBT children and young people, Tuesday 6 July
• LGBT+ equality in later life and ageing well, Thursday 15 July.

For more information and to register please click here.

Heartbeat: Creating leaflets – follow the process

We all know the importance of keeping patient information leaflets up-to-date – and this also includes those which are focused on COVID-19.

A process has been introduced to ensure that those produced about the virus are approved by Tactical – the emergency response team which makes the operational decisions needed to keep the Trust functioning and our patients and colleagues safe – before they are distributed to patients.

The library and knowledge service should be contacted in the first instance when a leaflet needs to be produced and if it is related to the virus, should then be marked as COVID-urgent to ensure that it is expedited.

The leaflet will then go through the usual assurance process, making sure source material has been referenced and patients consulted, but once it has been approved by the library service and the end user, it will then be sent to Tactical for final sign off. Any changes recommended by Tactical will then be actioned and the leaflet will be ready to distribute. A flow chart explaining the process has been created and can be found on Connect, under the library services tab, which sits under teams.

Nicola Ager, Service Development Librarian, said: “The purpose of introducing this process is to ensure the COVID-related leaflet goes through the correct approvals before it is given to the patient. It’s an important step and will mean that leaflets are created alongside the latest national guidance.”

Services are encouraged to share digital versions of patient information leaflets rather than printing when appropriate.

For more information about leaflets please email swb-tr.clinicallibrary@nhs.net.