Monthly archives: September 2021

Message from Sandwell Council: Be on the lookout for bogus callers

Sandwell Council have recently had an influx of complaints regarding bogus callers. With this in mind, they have put together a Bogus callers warning leaflet with useful hints and tips to avoid getting scammed and ultimately staying safe.

Bogus ‘officials’ may be smartly dressed and claim to be from the council, utility companies, police, charities or any other organisation.

Bogus ‘dealers’ may offer to buy your antiques, furniture or jewellery, at what seems a good price.

Bogus ‘workmen’ may say that they have been sent by the council, a neighbour or someone and need to come in to check something (for example – pest infestation) or make urgent repairs. They will often ask for money in advance.

REMEMBER … STOP AND LOCK – Think: “Am I expecting anybody?” “Have they made an appointment?”

Make sure that your door is locked and look through your spy hole or window to see if you recognise the caller.

CHAIN – If you to decide to open the door to someone, make sure you use a door bar or a chain before opening the door.

CHECK – Ask to see the caller’s ID. If you are still unsure, call the company they claim they are from using a phone number from the phone book or online, not a number on their identification.

If they are genuine they will be happy to arrange an appointment for a more convenient time when you can have somebody else with you. Genuine callers will normally make an appointment first and will carry identification with their photograph on.

Note: If you would like to report any suspicious activities please call the police on 101. In an emergency you should always call 999.

R&D careers open days: 6 and 9 September

Do you know what the research team do to help our patients participate in research? Have you seen one of our clinical research practitioner job adverts and wondered what the role entails?

We have started using the job title clinical research practitioner (CRP) to make the role more inclusive. Traditionally research nurses worked in research and development (R&D) to recruit and support our patients to take part in research, but you don’t need to be a nurse for many our studies. For example, Gina Dutton, our head of R&D, was a research radiographer and we know that many Trusts have research physiotherapists and occupational therapists.

In addition to registered healthcare professionals, we also have a role of clinical trials practitioner, which was previously for unregistered staff. From this year, CRPs can be registered with the Academy of Healthcare Scientists which is a positive step forward to recognising the equivalence of the work that our CRPs do and to professionalise the role.

R&D would like to increase the diversity of healthcare professionals into our research team. The team would like to speak to colleagues who might like to join the R&D team in the next few years.

We will be holding a series of open events for colleagues to come to the department and meet with members of the team to explain the work of the patient facing R&D team. Following the open days, we will have several posts to advertise, some of which will be available on a secondment basis so that you can try out the role.  We also have non-patient facing roles and we will hold similar events in the future when we have posts available.

For more information and to attend, please email judith.cox@nhs.net.

Support critical care in raising funds for Your Trust Charity

Our critical care team will be taking part in 10k Wolf Run on Sunday 5 September to raise vital funds for Your Trust Charity.

If you wish to support the team, click here to visit their Just Giving fundraising page.

Heartbeat: Safety huddles in pharmacy

The safety huddles journey in our workplace continues at pace and this month we share pharmacy’s story.

We caught up with HoJan Senya, Senior Pharmacist (Clinical Trials) & Safety Huddles Lead (pharmacy) who explained that the huddles concept has been in practice for a number of years within the team.

“A couple of years ago, the pharmacy department started trialling huddles in both our dispensaries,” said HoJan. “As with most improvement initiatives, we went through many adaptive and iterative changes, learning day after day how to improve in utilising huddles. During the Unity kick-off week and also initially during the COVID pandemic there was a requirement to get information out to our team members on a very regular basis. Our existing huddles were a great way to get information disseminated and also an effective opportunity to mitigate any issues.

“Our current huddle is now online – the morning one is a department-wide huddle and the midday one is mainly supporting the ward-based teams with workflow. Often the huddle leads can re-direct members of the team to the area where support is required. The huddles have improved teamwork within the department and created an environment where we can ask for help.”

HoJan also reflected on her involvement with ward based safety huddles in her capacity as patient safety specialist. “The ward based safety huddles are a great way for pharmacy colleagues to contribute towards better and safer patient care. They also highlight the initiatives that are already ongoing on the wards such as safe and secure handling of medicines audit, CD audits and antimicrobial audits.

“The best thing about safety huddles being launched in all the different areas within the Trust is that we learn from a variety of specialities. It provides us with an accelerated form of learning. Within pharmacy, a feedback form will be launched to gather information from the ward-based teams. This information will be used to capture any safety issues our department can work towards.

“Our senior management team is very supportive of colleagues attending the ward based huddles. Unfortunately, we have not been able to attend all huddles due to timing, but we are working hard to maximise our workforce capacity.”

Jiten Vyas, Pharmacy Clinical Services Manager added: “Effective safety huddles involve agreed actions, are informed by visual feedback of data and provide the opportunity to celebrate success in reducing harm to service users and teams. It is a simple and efficient tool for front-line staff; these small briefings represent an opportunity to share information about actual or potential medication safety problems and concerns regularly. Brainstorming leads to suggestions for interventions that are implemented in a timely fashion. Safety huddles can be used to identify and address factors contributing to medication errors, educate staff about medications, and promote a culture of change among participants. Ultimately, safety huddles would help to reduce the risk of medication errors and improve the quality of patient care.”

Stephanie Parkes, Lead Pharmacy Technician is also heavily involved in the safety huddles. She said: “In addition to attending the safety huddles, we started meeting with ward managers every month since June 2021, to learn more about their audit, medicine management, medicine related health and safety and to explore continuous improvement opportunities.

“Our team rotate across the groups to enhance service alignment and to provide all team members development opportunities by having exposure to all clinical areas. Band 5 technicians rotate every six months Band 4 technicians every three months.”

Safety huddles have been helping pharmacy colleagues to work closer with the wards as part of the preparedness for the MMUH ward based pharmacist model.

Pun Sharma, Chief Pharmacist, is very proud of his team. He said: “I am delighted that our team members are embracing the safety huddles. They have been working proactively with all the clinical areas, to highlight the issues around medications, patient care and flow then work out solutions together. It won’t be too long for us to achieve ‘tomorrow’s discharge is today’.”

Latest edition of Heartbeat now online

Check out the latest edition of Heartbeat online now!

This month we shine a spotlight on our ward service officers as they work tirelessly to support our doctors and nurses and help keep our hospitals safe and clean. We share updates on how to make the most of Office 365 and we explore the fantastic work of Your Trust Charity and the impact of their work on the local community. We also take a look at how the Respiratory Hub are tacking growing number of long COVID cases and how surgical services are ensuring patient care is at the centre of their service.

Plus we’ve got all of this:

• Clinics for long COVID sufferers
• Could an apprenticeship be right for you?
• New fleet goes green

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

Wellbeing Wednesday: Unwind at the sanctuary

Managing our stress and mental health is as important as our physical health and the sanctuary is a place to do both.

Join us for some well-earned relaxation, a chance for a relaxing massage, mediation or a confidential chat. These are all complimentary services available to all our colleagues you can book several at once.

At the wellbeing sanctuary we are here to support you with the following Monday – Friday:

• A confidential conversation – A totally private conversation to support you
• Relaxation hypnotherapy – a chance to unwind and work on improving unhelpful behaviour
• Single session therapy – a chance to work on something that concerns you
• Meditation – unwind let go and escape to exotic places to unwind
• Massage – Tracey really helps ease those tension spots to relieve stress
• Mindfulness – helps you to relax in the here and now and it’s a chance to let go
• Relaxation pod – massage from your head to the tips of your toes

The Sanctuary is only a 5 minute drive away from City Hospital and a 10 minute drive away from Sandwell Hospital (Learning Works on Unett Street, Smethwick, B66 3SY) with free secured parking right outside. To book please call 0121 507 5886/3854.

Have you considered improving your Fitness?

The Couch to 5K programme has helped people to do something they never thought possible. Amazing results for beginners build up your approach from sitting on your sofa to running 5K in just 9 weeks. Enjoy as you build up your fitness levels. If you fancy getting fitter why not take part in the couch to 5k.

Support cancer services in going green!

Cancer services are looking to recycle the following in their continued efforts to keep green whilst supporting the local community:

• Good condition bras for funds to support secondary breast cancer for the breast unit at City or Hallam Building
• Empty spirit and wine bottles for our crafters
• Clean crisp packets to make into sleeping bags for the homeless (you can put crisp packets in a pillow case and they go in the washing machine)
• Wire coat hangers to make wreaths
• Old Christmas decorations
• Used stamps for the blind
• Material to make Christmas gift bags
• Gift sets or items to go in hampers.

If you have any of the above listed items, please arrange to drop them off to Jenny Donovan in the Hallam Building. To arrange drop off or to find our more, please call ext. 2776 or email jennifer.donovan@nhs.net.