Monthly archives: July 2021

Essential maintenance affecting pathology service this Sunday, 11am – 3pm

Please be aware that an essential IT infrastructure maintenance is taking place on Sunday 11 July, 11am – 3pm affecting the pathology service at City and Sandwell sites.

During the maintenance, Unity will remain fully available however colleagues will need to revert to requesting pathology tests on paper forms as well as on Unity.

Paper requests will be required to process pathology samples during the maintenance period and as soon as the maintenance is complete, orders will be booked in electronically and reported through to message centre ready for endorsement. Urgent results will be phoned through.

The activity will be closely monitored at all times and desk top alerts will be issued advising colleagues of the need to revert to BCP for requesting pathology tests during the maintenance.

Should you have any further queries then please do call the 24 hour IT service desk on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050 for home workers.

Congratulations to our top cyclists in June

As part of Clean Air Day and World Bicycle Day, throughout the month of June we encouraged both clinical and non-clinical colleagues to cycle to and from work as part of their daily commute. We are proud to announce that throughout the month of June colleagues totted up over 2,900 miles worth of cycling!

Please see below our top 23 cyclists across the Trust. Well done all!

Job of the week: Secondment opportunity – tissue viability specialist nurse

We are currently seeking a registered nurse to join the tissue viability team on a six month secondment. The post is suitable for experienced band 6 nurses and band 5 nurses (to match the persons current banding and depending on experience) who are seeking to broaden their knowledge and skills in general and complex wound management. You must have a minimum of 3 years post registration experience, have an interest in pressure ulcer prevention, complex wound management and be committed to high standards of care delivery, clinical quality and continuous improvement.

This is an exciting opportunity to spend time working alongside the tissue viability team to gain valuable experience in all aspects of wound management. The successful person will be able to develop confidence and expertise in managing a wide range of wounds including pressure ulcers, leg ulcers and surgical wounds. While predominantly hospital site based, this secondment includes opportunities to gain a wider understanding of wound care across primary and secondary care.

You will be working alongside experienced tissue viability colleagues who will guide and support you to develop key skills in all aspects of the tissue viability nurse role.

Note: Experience within complex wound care management would be desirable, but not essential.

Start date for this role is Wednesday 1 September but can be negotiated. Agreement must be sought from the applicant’s line manager to be released for this secondment.

Applications should be sent in the form of an expression of interest letter as well as a simple CV detailing your experience and suitability for the role to lesley.mcdonagh@nhs.net.

The closing date for all applications in Friday 23 July, 5pm.

For further information please call 0796133426 or email lesley.mcdonagh@nhs.net

Boost your wellbeing and come aboard the Heart Bus at City: 9 July

Heart Movement Bus offer simple, practical ways to bring calm and connection to everyday life. It provides a warm and friendly atmosphere to try a range of wellbeing tools.

The Heart Bus will be at City Hospital opposite the BTC (next to hearing services) between 10.30am – 3.15pm. You can see the full schedule below:

• 10.30am – Mindfulness
• 11am – Heart intelligence
• 12pm – Mindfulness
• 12.30pm – Introduction to listening spaces
• 1pm – Heart intelligence
• 2.15pm – mindfulness
• 3.15pm – Introduction to listening spaces

Note: There are only five places available for each session with each session lasting 20 minutes long.

For booking and information please call ext. 3854 or email Jatinder.sekhon@nhs.net.

Drug supply notice: Dexamethasone 0.1 per cent (Maxidex) 5ml eye drops

There are currently limited supplies of preserved dexamethasone (Maxidex) 0.1 per cent eye drops in a multi-dose container until early August 2021 due to a manufacturing issue. During this period stock will only be available to order directly from Novartis and subject to order limits.

For patients with insufficient supplies until the resupply date, clinicians should consider prescribing an alternative preparation as appropriate. Patients who are on long term treatment should be fully counselled if switched to alternative preparations, particularly preservative free single dose preparations, due to the need to dispose of the unit dose after use.

Please see Maxidex supply disruption information sheet for further details as well as advice and alternative actions for clinical colleagues.  

For more information, please contact the pharmacy department on ext. 5263/3783.

National Express West Midlands benefits for colleagues

Trust colleagues can now benefit from discounted bus travel with National Express West Midlands, the region’s biggest bus operator.

We have been working with National Express West Midlands so that you can now order and renew your bus pass online. This new web-based ordering process will replace the season ticket loan scheme to become your gateway to organise and buy all your bus travel benefits.

You can access your bus travel benefits by clicking here.

How does it work?

Under this new system, you won’t have to contact the Trust to access your benefits. Your discounted payment for travel will now go directly to National Express West Midlands.

National Express West Midlands are making many ticket types available via this scheme to suit everybody’s travel needs – from monthly direct debit, weekly passes and flexible ticket options.

What do I have to do?

• If you currently have a season ticket loan, you do not need to do anything until the end of your current loan period.
• If you need to renew a pass or order a new pass, you can now do this online.

For further details please see National Express West Midlands travel online FAQs.

Latest edition of Heartbeat now online

Check out the latest edition of Heartbeat online now!

What can you expect to find inside this issue?

This month we show thanks and appreciation to our wonderful volunteers for their continued hard work and support for patients and colleagues throughout a particularly trying year. We celebrate the one year anniversary of the children’s emergency care unit, the opening of the Lyndon Primary Care Centre and what Midland Met means to those who will move across to our new flagship hospital. Plus we’ve got all of this:

• Keeping patients hydrated
• How teams are making the most of the Sanctuary
• Shaping our future – be part of our development plans.

You can email lauren.jones104@nhs.net if you have an idea for an article or call us on ext. 5303.

Click to view the latest edition.

Microsoft Teams available to all colleagues from 8 July

Following the successful pilot of Microsoft Teams we are deploying it to all email users on Thursday 8 July.

This means that:

• You will be able to access all Microsoft 365 functionality alongside your web browser based email and calendars.
• An icon will appear on all computers giving you access to MS Teams.
• As with your emails, MS Teams will also be available on your Trust mobile phones and from any computer, Trust ones or otherwise.
• Microsoft 365 allows a great degree of collaboration and we will be training teams to use the full functionality, but we encourage you to have a look and use it now.

Simply download the Microsoft Teams Training Guide to get started

https://support.nhs.net/knowledge-base/intro-to-teams/

WebEx will still be available and when we are familiar as an organisation with Microsoft Teams we will be migrating meetings and calls to that platform along with the majority of other NHS organisations.

Please note when using Microsoft Teams for the first time you will be required to log in via your NHS mail account using the @nhs.net domain and NOT the xCHT.nhs.net which may get auto-populated.

Should you have any further queries on this then please contact IT helpdesk on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050 for home workers.

NHS code changes: Standardisation for nasal cannulas

Adult nasal cannulas have been standardised to offer a softer tubing thus improving patient comfort and safety.

Please see attached Standardisation of Adult Nasal Cannulas to a Softer Tubing information sheet for order details regarding new codes.

Standardisation of Adult Nasal Cannulas to a Softer Tubing Comms

Note: The new codes will be introduced from Monday 19 July.

For more information please email clare.nash@nhs.net.

Register and find out more about LAMP testing at pop-up sessions

Special pop-up sessions where colleagues can sign up to the Trust’s weekly saliva testing programme (LAMP – Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) are being held this week.

The pop-up sessions are taking place on the main spine at City (near pharmacy) all week from and will also continue at Sandwell main reception both from 7.15am – 11am.

The sessions mean those of you who haven’t yet signed up to this new speedier and more accurate way of testing for COVID-19 can register – you will then be given a booked slot to collect your kit from phlebotomy.

The weekly saliva test is an easy way to help us all ensure we are remaining safe and playing our part in the battle against COVID-19.

Even if you are vaccinated it is vital that you register and carry out the weekly tests as they will help identify if you’re asymptomatic. Your saliva sample is ONLY used to test for COVID and is disposed of after testing.

Note: Colleagues will only be able to register for LAMP testing at the pop-up sessions meaning they will still need to attend phlebotomy to collect the testing kit but a time can be arranged at your point of registration.

Alternatively, you can ring 0121 507 2664 (Monday – Friday, 8am – 6pm)  and select option 6, to register and book a kit collection slot. On weekends (Saturday – Sunday, 8am – 4pm) please call  07816992873 or 07970428995. If you are coming to the end of your first 12 weeks’ worth of LAMP testing kit, please also ring the relevant above number to order your second batch.  For more information please email  kulwinder.johal@nhs.net.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to register and continue with the testing programme.