Monthly archives: October 2021

Today is World Menopause Day

Today is World Menopause Day which aims to raise awareness of the menopause and the support options available for improving health and wellbeing.

Be sure to check out this short video featuring Amber Markham, Group Director of Nursing – Surgical Services talking about her story around Menopause and how it affected her.

In the Trust’s continued effort to support health and wellbeing, we will be gradually increasing the range of resources available to our colleagues over the coming weeks and months.

All managers are particularly encouraged to take part in the sessions to help them understand menopause and how to support staff members who are going through the change.

As part of this effort, in partnership with our STP organisations a series of sessions on menopause are now available to colleagues who may wish to access these for widening their knowledge on a personal level. You can access the information and find out more by clicking here.

Details of the next two session are listed below:

• 21 and 27 October –  menopause in the workplace: How an environment of acceptance and openness about menopause can help to create an improved culture change. Hear about how seeking the right support can help to increase productivity in the workplace.
• 18 and 24 November – is it just hormones? Explore the major factors contributing to strained personal and working relationships. Discuss the direct and indirect impact of hormonal changes and how this may present.

Please also see the menopause guide regarding menopause by clicking here.

Missed the last session? You can check it out by watching the video below.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 15 October

Dear all,

Once again it was a privilege to cover for Richard this week as he took a well-earned break. It has been a busy week – it began with me being fortunate to receive my COVID-19 booster vaccination – almost exactly 6 months after my second vaccine back in April. I was beginning to be mindful of lower immunity, particularly as my 12 year old son has COVID-19 at the moment (and is enjoying self-isolating on his Xbox…!). After a 15 minute break, I also had my flu jab in the other arm, at the Sandwell Hospital Hub, both painless procedures and I had no ill-effects. Thank you to everyone involved, it was a very efficient process with a friendly team who put me at ease straight away. If I am completely honest I was wondering whether having both at once would cause me to feel unwell, but it was absolutely fine. If you haven’t yet booked your jab(s) then please do. You need six months between the date of your second COVID-19 jab and the booster and you can choose whether you want separate appointments for your flu / COVID-19 booster, or like me, have them both done at the same appointment. Our flu season is predicted to start early so please don’t delay – vaccination will keep you and your loved ones safe, as well as protect our patients.

The roll-out of Surginet in Theatres over the past two weeks has gone well – this should enable safer patient care and a more efficient service. This has meant new training for colleagues in surgery and a lot of hard work by the implementation team – thank you and congratulations on a smooth process.

Yesterday was National AHP Day, celebrating the contribution that Allied Health Professionals make across Health and Social Care in England, from Children and Young People through to Old Age, from Acute Hospital Care to pre and post Hospital Care and Primary Care, in Local Authorities, Education, Housing, criminal justice and the third and independent sector. I hope that you took the opportunity to recognise and celebrate as teams. Thank you for your contribution, particularly over the last 18 months.

This week has also had a strong planning focus – as Richard mentioned in a recent Friday message, we are moving in to the next phase of MMUH service and workforce planning that will enable us to construct a robust medium term financial plan that we can then use to build in to system plans in Birmingham and the Black Country, and we scoped out the workplan for this this week. We are also actively planning for the second half of the financial year; system financial envelopes have been issued and we are working through our share with system partners. Over the next two weeks we need to crystallise our winter support and bed capacity plans, and determine how much extra funding we can earn for Elective Recovery – and how much this will cost us. As always, ensuring we have a firm grip on our finances, funding sources for new or additional costs and the right governance on service changes whilst moving at pace, will be a really important balance to strike – please do get in touch with me or any of the finance team if you have any questions about finance processes, or funding questions.

This evening we hold our Star Awards event which is the first face to face awards ceremony in two years. There were over 500 colleagues and teams nominated this year, good luck to everyone on the shortlist. Although only a small number can be shortlisted with just 20 going home with a winner’s prize tonight, you are all winners! Everyone nominated is deserving of recognition and we all hope all of the shortlisted nominees enjoy the celebrations tonight.

As always, thank you for everything you continue to do for our patients – I know it’s tougher than ever. Please do look after eachother, #bekind – and if you haven’t yet booked some team time out funded by the Trust, please do take this opportunity.

Dinah McLannahan
Chief Finance Officer

Wolverhampton COVID lab suspension not linked to Black Country Pathology Services

You may have seen in the media recently that a lab in Wolverhampton has been suspended from testing due to inaccurate results for COVID-19 PCR tests.

Please be assured that this is in no way associated with Black Country Pathology Services.

Any results that you may have received for your patients, or your own LAMP test, will be accurate.

If you have any questions, please contact rwh-tr.communicationsdept@nhs.net.

Job of the week: Head of Acute Clinical Services – YHP PCN: Band 8a

Are you an enthusiastic and motivated individual seeking an opportunity to make a real difference in implementing integrated patient care?  Then this leadership post could be for you.  The post holder would have operational management responsibilities as part of the senior management team for an innovative mature primary care network which is now part of SWB.

For further details including key responsibilities and how to apply, please click here.

Note: This position is only for internal applicants.

If you would like to find out more about the role please email jackie.clarke@nhs.net.

Closing date for applications is Tuesday 26 October.

No vaccination booking, no problem!

We will be hosting pop up clinics for both Flu vaccinations and COVID boosters at Rowley Regis Hospital on Monday 18 October and Monday 25 October on Westwood Ward, 9am – 4pm. No appointment needed.

With the winter months fast approaching, it’s more important now than ever to protect yourself against flu and COVID.

Colleagues can rest assured that both vaccinations are perfectly safe to have together. Should you not wish to have both vaccines at the same time you can split your vaccinations by booking two separate appointments or just make it clear when you attend a walk in clinic. COVID-19 boosters will be Pfizer booster vaccines and those eligible include those who have had their second COVID-19 vaccine (including Pfizer or Astra Zeneca) and have no contraindications to the Pfizer vaccination.

Please be aware that there must be at least 6 months (180 days) between your second dose and booster dose of your COVID-19 vaccination.

How to get your vaccinations:

Walk in: Simply pop into any of vaccinations clinics this week and a member of our clinical team will be on hand to support you getting your vaccinations:

You can walk in to either Sandwell or City vaccination hub seven days a week 8am – 1pm and 2pm – 6pm.

Book an appointment:

 Using our easy self-booking system you can arrange an appointment to have your vaccinations at a time & date to suit you.

Receiving your COVID booster/flu jab elsewhere?

If you receive your COVID booster and/or flu vaccination elsewhere please ensure to have your place of work recorded as Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust on the system at the time of vaccination. This will help keep your occupational health records updated and avoid any further chasing for having the jabs.

Boost your immunity this winter, protect yourself and protect others – get your flu jab and COVID-19 booster.

Tonight we announce our Star Awards 2021 winners

This evening at Villa Park we will celebrate the work of our amazing colleagues at our annual Star Awards.

This year we had a wonderful turnout of nominees with colleagues and patients both keen to share their amazing stories of care they had experienced from our colleagues throughout the Trust.

You can check out all the shortlisted individuals and teams in the video below. You can also see the full list on Connect by clicking here.

Good luck to all the nominees.

Congratulations to all who have been shortlisted and good luck to all of the nominees for the awards ceremony tonight!

COVID-19 Bulletin: Friday 15 October – Focus on infection prevention and control

Numbers not statistics: This week (last week)

1. New: Sticking to the safe ways of working

You will notice that our bulletin this week is focussed solely on infection prevention and control (IPC) messages. This is to demonstrate how important our procedures are to ensure the safety of our colleagues, patients and visitors.

COVID-19 has not gone away, and we cannot afford to let strict infection control standards drop because we forget to follow them, or feel precautions are not necessary. There can be a devastating effect to dropping our guard, leading to an outbreak among those most vulnerable.

Our procedures are tried and tested and have been put in place to protect you and protect those we are responsible for. Please maintain your vigilance, follow the rules and do not hesitate in challenging those who forget or ignore IPC procedures. Our Medical Director Dr David Carruthers has recorded a short video to remind you of the key points, and IPC Lead Julie Booth talks about the importance of challenging one another as we all work together to make our Trust a safer place. We are expecting an external inspection soon of our IPC procedures, so please do not be the ward or area that lets us down. To remind you here are the key points:

Seven rules of Infection Control:

1. Hand Hygiene: Make sure you take the time to practice good hand hygiene, this means make sure your sleeves are rolled up, rings and watches off and you take the time to carefully wash your hands.
2. Wear your face masks: It’s critical to ensure that when you are in shared areas and in clinical spaces you wear your face masks and ensure you take the time to put them on properly, ensuring a good seal around the masks.
3. Bare below the elbows: Good hand hygiene and safe care can only be achieved by being bare below the elbows. This means that you must not wear watches or bracelets or jewellery that interferes with your ability to effectively wash your hands. This also includes removing ties, lanyards and accessories that pose a cross contamination risk moving from patient to patient.
4. Right PPE in the right environment: Make sure you take the time to wear the right PPE suitable for the task you are undertaking, the area you are working in and your own risk assessment.
5. Test yourself for COVID-19 regularly: Weekly testing for COVID-19 is available for all staff which involves a painless saliva sample being submitted. This can provide you with proof and assurance that you are COVID-19 free and proof that your infection control practices are successfully keeping you safe from harm.
6. Regular patient swabbing is critical to providing the right care: It’s important that colleagues involved in the delivery of clinical care take the time to understand the swabbing pathways in use. These documents describe in details the schedules of swabbing that should apply to each patient depending on their circumstances. Swabbing ensures we are able to provide the right care to patients as well as ensuring that we are able to protect colleagues and patients around them.
7. Clean equipment is key to being able to provide safe and effective care: Follow the rules of the Use it, Clean It, Store it programme to continue providing safe care to our patients.

2. Updated: Use it, clean it, store it

The regular cleaning of shared patient equipment is key to reducing the risk of cross infection between patients and staff.  Patient and staff equipment can harbour potentially harmful bacteria that is unseen to the naked eye.

By performing regular cleaning of equipment and using the green ‘I am clean’ labels  this will help to give both patients and our staff, confidence that equipment is clean and ready for use!

Remember that you need to clean patient equipment after every use and between each patient.

To keep equipment fully charged or to help to keep your ward or area neat and tidy, once you have cleaned, store it in the appropriate place.

So the next time you use a work station on wheels or a dinamap… clean it and store it….use it clean it store it!

3. Updated: Keeping yourself safe around our Trust – Knowing what PPE to wear

It is important that colleagues take the time to understand what this means for their personal protective equipment and working practices.

Red Areas: These remain and represent Very High Risk and High Risk areas where patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 are being treated or, alternatively, where aerosol generating procedures are being undertaken. The poster also clarifies when a clinical staff member should and shouldn’t be bare below the elbows.

Amber Areas: The photograph shows the clinician is now wearing eye protection in addition to a mask, apron and gloves. It just unifies our classifications with those nationally.

Green Areas: These are areas of low risk where patients have been self-isolating prior to attending or may have had a negative COVID-19 swab result.

Protect yourself and protect others

Colleagues should strive to strictly follow the guidance on the PPE posters, ensuring at all times you adhere to the correct PPE for the area you are in.

Where staff and patients are seen to be disregarding infection control practices, colleagues should feel confident to respectfully challenge, remind and support those to meet the infection control guidelines.

Enhanced PPE is available for any colleague whose risk assessment requires it.

To remind you of your obligations see the guidance on Connect.

4. Updated: How to safely package your saliva test

Many of you have signed up to the weekly saliva (LAMP) testing programme – which is a speedy and accurate way of determining whether you have COVID-19. Colleagues should be aware that with an increase in other respiratory viruses, regular testing can further reassure you of the nature of any upper respiratory illness you have, and sticking with IPC guidance will reduce the spread to your colleagues.

You can book a kit collection slot for the weekly test which simply requires you to spit into a tube in the morning before you brush your teeth or later in the morning but you must not have consumed anything for at least an hour before taking your test.

When you arrive at work, you can deposit your sample into a red collection box. Many of these are positioned around our acute and community sites.

Here’s a pictorial guide on how to package your swab:

Uptake of the weekly saliva test is monitored to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect our patients, the public and each other.

You can also watch a video on how to do your saliva test here.

The latest data by group is below:

5. Reminder: Boost your immunity this winter

With the winter months fast approaching, it’s more important now than ever to protect yourself against flu and COVID.

Colleagues can rest assured that both vaccinations are perfectly safe to have together. Should you not wish to have both vaccines at the same time you can split your vaccinations by booking two separate appointments or just make it clear when you attend a walk in clinic.

COVID-19 boosters will be Pfizer booster vaccines and those eligible include those who have had their second COVID-19 vaccine (including Pfizer or Astra Zeneca) and have no contraindications to the Pfizer vaccination.

Please be aware that there must be at least 6 months (180 days) between your second dose and booster dose of your COVID-19 vaccination.

How to get your vaccinations:

Walk in: Colleagues can pop into any of our vaccination clinics this week and a member of our clinical team will be on hand to support you getting your vaccinations. You can walk in to either Sandwell or City vaccination hub seven days a week 8am-1pm and 2-6pm.

Book an appointment:

Using our easy self-booking system you can arrange an appointment to have your vaccinations at a time & date to suit you. You need your NHS number to book which you can find on the NHS app or request by following the link here (add link to national website)

Click here for the online booking system to register for your jab – all available time slots will be listed here.

 6. Reminder: Do you need a disposable FFP3 masks?

If you require a disposable FFP3 mask please call stores on ext. 4938 (City) or ext. 2824 (Sandwell).

If you are in charge of a clinical area, please ensure you have an ample supply of these masks.

Note: We must remind colleagues they should not be reliant on their silicone mask only.

If you have not been fit tested for a disposable masks please book an appointment via ESR. If you have issues booking through ESR, please call ext. 5195.

Lawrence Kelly shortlisted for Contribution to Education Award of the Year – voting closes on Monday!

Congratulations to Lawrence Kelly who has been shortlisted for the Contribution to Education and the Frontline Worker of the Year gongs, in the Birmingham Awards.

Lawrence heads up the Learning Works at the Trust which oversees the educational development of colleagues. He has been nominated for supporting our diverse community in reaching their education and employment goals including specialist programmes to tackle youth homelessness and support for refugee healthcare  professionals.

You can vote for him by clicking here. Voting closes on Monday 18 October.

Essential maintenance affecting Pathology service: 17 October, 11am – 5pm

Please be aware that an essential IT infrastructure maintenance is taking place on Sunday 17 October between 11am and 5pm by our supporting vendor 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 IT service desk on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050 for home workers.

D17 ward moving to D28 for up to seven days

In order to facilitate a deep clean, D17 ward at City Hospital has now moved to D28 ward for seven days.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.