Monthly archives: April 2022

Putting the FUN into fundraising with Your Trust Charity

2022 has landed, and we have big plans as our Trust looks to the future. As we look beyond the  pandemic, we have begun the most important and ambitious fundraising campaign in our history – We are Metropolitan. Our campaign has one clear focus, and that is the opening of our new acute healthcare facility, the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital.

Our mission at Your Trust Charity is to:

Enhance the experience of all people using our services, including staff, patients, and their families. We will provide additional facilities and support innovative projects that create a comfortable and secure environment.

With your continued support, we will fund play areas for our young patients, create a beautiful garden where people can sit and reflect, and hire research nurses who will help to find treatments and cures for illnesses.

Looking for ideas or inspiration for your fundraising activities this year? To help get your fundraising off to a flying start, we’ve put  everything you need to know in our new fundraising supporter pack containing all our insider tips on how to plan and promote your events. Be sure to check it out here.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Your Trust Charity via trustcharity@nhs.net

Good luck with your fundraising! You’ve got this 😊.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 22 April

The NHS England and Improvement’s priorities and operational planning guidance for this new financial year has 13 national priority deliverables that demonstrate huge political ambition for the NHS to “recover” post COVID.

This guidance reconfirms the ongoing need to restore services, meet new care demands and reduce the care backlogs that are a direct consequence of the pandemic.

While the future pattern of COVID-19 transmission and the resulting demands on the NHS remain uncertain, there is wide recognition that organisations need to continue to increase capacity and resilience to meet the full range of people’s health and care needs.

To support this national ask, at SWB we are putting the finishing touches to a plan which seeks to set the right balance between delivery of elective recovery, a safe urgent care service, incremental investment in admission avoidance and integrated care, together with financial expectations.

Our plans will require us to have the right amount of people delivering our services and there will be a real focus on recruitment, retention and colleague wellbeing.

At next week’s Board will discuss and agree the operational plan, capital programme and the financial budget for the year. Our goal is always to operate within our limits and the Board will only sign up to a plan that they feel is deliverable. Our expectations of you financially and in terms of care will be challenging yet attainable.

In light of the above, we also need to recognise the achievements of an exceptional and difficult 2021/22 and the Star Awards process does just that.

Nominations are open until Friday 3 June, so get thinking about those colleagues who have gone above and beyond this year, been part of something extra special or made a positive difference to the way we work or the quality of care our patients receive. Please get your nominations in via the page on Connect .

We will continue to develop our approach to recognition of excellence and invest up to £1 million in staff facilities such as staff rooms, wellbeing services and more accessible food/drink provision both in and out of hours.

Requests for new furniture or equipment to improve rest areas and also requests for minor works such as painting and shelving can be made via the form on Connect and emailed to Dinah McLannahan, Chief Finance Officer – Dinah.mclannahan@nhs.net . Dinah will then get in touch to progress your requests.

Seizing the once in a lifetime opportunity to transform care – an update from Chairman, Sir David Nicholson

The development of the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) is the kind of event that will usually only happen once if at all in a person’s career in healthcare. The new hospital is a game changer in how we deliver care and will create a fantastic environment for patients that we can all be proud of. One of the main reasons I took on the role to become your Trust Chair was to help contribute to the opening of this wonderful hospital. 

But, of course, MMUH is not just about a shiny new building for acute care. We are after all #morethanahospital. MMUH is a whole scale transformation on how care is delivered. It will only work if we get the right support in place for people at home. That means transformation within our community and primary care services, as they develop innovative new ways of working across sectors and organisations, to provide a network of care, wrapped around people at home. Services in the community are where we should expect to see the biggest transformation.  

The MMUH programme is, of course, complex. Balfour Beatty are building a truly unique hospital facility. The design is innovative and based around key principles of a building that impacts lightly on the environment, that supports patients to be independent, and that breaks down barriers between NHS institutions and the communities we serve. 

MMUH has, too, had more than its fair share of delays and disruption, with the collapse of our first contractor, a redesigned financial model, a new construction partner, altered cladding requirements and a global pandemic. Yet, despite all this, the building itself is in really good shape. Work has continued to progress at pace; wards, departments and rooms are being completed and signed off to the required standards; and we can begin to see the positive impact the hospital will have on its patients and all those who visit or work there. 

In March and April, the Trust Board has the opportunity to review in detail the clinical pathways and associated workforce and financial requirements. The nearer we get to opening, the more precise we can be about these plans that take account of the changes in relation to COVID-19 plus the new roles and innovation that we can adopt to make sure our services are at the forefront of a modern NHS. 

We have the benefit of additional expertise from the national new hospital programme team. That team have been working alongside ourselves and Balfour Beatty to review the construction programme and to set out a realistic forward view to inform our plans.  Once their work is completed, we will be able to share our opening date with confidence. Our focus must remain on getting ready for a move in May 2023. We cannot be the reasons for any delay.  

We are truly fortunate to have this brand new hospital that will open in the very near future. It is a once in a lifetime development that will change how we deliver care for millions of people for generations to come. MMUH has the full support of the government, the national NHS team and of course, this Trust Board. Whatever is needed to complete and open the building will be provided. Of this, you should have no doubt. 

Your Trust Board will continue to support the Trust teams in ensuring that the building progresses at pace and that we carry on refining our plans so that, come opening day, we are ready to make the most of this new opportunity, transforming care for all within our local communities. 

Understanding the difference between a transfer and a discharge

Patient going to an iBed ward in Leasowes or Rowley or simply moving to another ward? That’s a transfer!
Patient going home to their usual place of residence? That’s a discharge!

Good quality patient records are critical to ensuring that patients receive the care they need, simple mistakes such as processing a patient moving from one ward to another as a discharge rather than a transfer can delay their discharge whilst records are corrected. Likewise, failing to complete a discharge summary can mean that GP colleagues can be left without critical information they need to keep patients safe and cared for in the community.

Attached below is a good practice guide that colleagues can refer to for further information.

Discharge tips and completing summaries

Nursing associates and the administration of intravenous drugs

Currently, registered nursing associates working within the trust are unable to check or administer intravenous medications. However, increasing numbers of registered nursing associates are keen to support registered nurses with this clinical task with the objective of improving patient care.

In response to this, we are undertaking a consultation process to ascertain whether the nursing associate role could be extended to include this clinical task. However, this is complex and requires input from various teams across the trust hence your patience is appreciated.

Until this work is completed, nursing associates are not to check or administer intravenous medications. Once the position is clarified and policies and procedures reviewed, there will be an update issued with clear guidance.

In the meantime, any queries should be directed to swbh.nursingassociates@nhs.net. For more information please call ext. 3461

TeamTalk: 27 April

TeamTalk is our monthly Trust-wide team briefing, it’s an opportunity for colleagues to hear about what’s happening in our organisation as well as putting their own questions forward.

Everyone is encouraged to join in with TeamTalk sessions, they’re not simply for managers. Sessions take place once a month and are hosted online – so colleagues who are ward based, working from home or simply want to stay up to date can join in.

TeamTalk sessions last an hour and are equally divided between updates from the organisation and an opportunity for colleagues to pose their own questions to the executive team.

The next session will take place on Wednesday 27 April from 1pm. Everyone is welcome to join. Please ensure you are able to access a computer with speakers or headphones to enable you to participate.

Click here to join the meeting

Note: Ensure you are logged in to Microsoft Teams using your NHS.net email address and password. 

If you have any questions about how you join the briefing please email swbh.comms@nhs.net.

Vaccination clinics taking place next week

Thank you to those who have already received your vaccinations. There is still time to get vaccinated, whether that’s your first, second or booster vaccination. We are also now offering COVID-19 boosters for the over-75s and those with a weakened immune system at our vaccinations sites.

There are a number of pop-up clinics taking place locally next week. See the schedule below:

Do you know about Discharge to Assess?

Discharge to Assess is a new model of care for all adult inpatients, and as part of that the language we use to describe discharge plans has been simplified and is nationally recognised.

Unity has been updated to reflect the changes to discharge pathways used as part of the Discharge to Assess (D2A) process.

The change means that inpatient teams need to:

• Be clear on the meaning of each pathway
• Select the appropriate pathways (0, 1, 2, 3 or 4) when setting TDDs for all inpatients (there is a short definition on each drop down to help)
• Use a ‘home first’ approach – being clear that home should be the default destination for a person, before pathways 2 or 3 are selected
• Continue to flag people as ‘Clinically Fit for Discharge’ at the appropriate time

Please see the D2A Unity change poster for further details including screenshots of the change in question.

This is a significant step forwards in using our systems to help us proactively manage and arrange discharge plans for people in our care.

For any queries, please contact the Integrated Discharge Hub on extension 3147 or via integrated.discharge-hub@nhs.net (open 8am – 8pm, 7 days per week).

Are you doing all you can to protect patient data?

We can all play our part in better protecting patient data. Below are just a few little things we as colleagues at SWB can do help increase safety with our IT systems.

• Unlocked screen: It’s an open invitation to patient data theft. Keep screens and devices locked when they aren’t in use.
• Unrecognised email: It could be a hacker trying to access patient information. If an email looks untrustworthy, forward it to spamreports@nhs.net and delete it.
• Weak passwords: They risk breaches in patient confidentiality. Use strong and varied passwords, and don’t share them.
• Swiping people in: You could risk unauthorised people swiping patient data. Don’t let tailgaters follow you into restricted areas.

Long term effects of COVID-19

NHS Black Country and West Birmingham CCG have put together a short video featuring Dr Mohit Mandiratta around the post-COVID-19 syndrome known to many as long COVID as for some people, COVID-19 can cause symptoms that last weeks or months after the infection has gone.

Be sure to check out the short video below for more information.