Monthly archives: April 2022
EPR usability survey
NHS England and NHS Improvement have launched their national electronic patient record (EPR) usability survey and are encouraging all clinicians to complete the survey.
The survey has been designed to capture the experience of clinicians who use an EPR system in their work, looking at how easy and intuitive it is to use, what functions they find most helpful and their views on the training and support they have received.
The questionnaire will take about 8 minutes to complete and is designed to explore your professional experience of using EPR system(s) where you work.
By participating in this research, you will help NHS England and NHS Improvement understand how your EPR system is working for you, including where it is performing well and where more can be done to enhance your experience.
Click here to complete the survey.
Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 15 April
Dinah McLannahan, Chief Finance Officer
Richard Beeken is away
As we head into the Bank Holiday weekend, I know many of us are feeling anxious about our capacity to continue providing safe patient care in the midst of the urgent and emergency care pressures that we are experiencing. As Richard said last week, the front door challenges affect all of us and we all have a contribution to make in supporting patient care and those colleagues who are most stretched. Thank you to everyone who is continuing to work really hard to put together a weekend plan that ensures safe patient care. What our teams do day and night is truly remarkable and your efforts are greatly appreciated.
I wanted to take this opportunity to remind us all, in the wake of the Ockenden report but also generally, of the importance of speaking up. I am really privileged to have recently taken on the executive lead role for speaking up. One of the key learnings in the Independent review of the maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford was to ensure a safe and supportive environment for people at all levels to speak up if they see a safety concern, listening carefully and acting on concerns raised.
I see my key role as executive lead being oversight of the speak up function in the Trust, supporting our speak up lead and freedom to speak up guardians in their roles, ensuring speak up is properly resourced, has the capacity and capability to triangulate information, ensuring there is a regular voice heard at the Board meetings, and above all, holding myself and my executive and non-executive colleagues to account for our behaviour in relation to speak up and of our teams and how we handle matters of concern raised to us. It is this that will ensure we have the right organisational culture towards speaking up in our Trust.
We took a paper to Public Board in April that sets out our 30, 60 and 100 day actions. This action plan was agreed by the Board and we are getting on with implementing it. We have a new Speak Up lead in the Trust, Emma Barton, who is starting with us this month working full time on Freedom to Speak Up – she has agreed the action plan also, and going forward she will be providing regular updates directly to Board. I have also met with most of the Freedom to Speak up Guardians for an initial conversation about where we are with freedom to speak up in the Trust at the moment from their point of view. I also meet regularly with Lesley Writtle, our Trust Vice-Chair and Non-executive lead for freedom to speak up in our Trust.
Creating an open, safe and constructive environment for speaking up is so important to me. Our job is to provide high quality patient care. We achieve that, I think, by having a psychologically safe culture with happy, productive and engaged colleagues. That isn’t possible without having the right approach to being able to speak up when things are not right. It is fundamental to everything we do. I have practised this philosophy in my team since I joined the Trust, I regularly reinforce to my team the importance of speaking up if something is bothering them, and if we can do something about it, we do.
If I had one key message, it is to please speak up if you have a concern at work. Ideally this should be to your line manager, but if that isn’t possible there are many ways in which you can raise a concern including our Freedom to Speak Up Guardians, Trade Union colleagues and Trust specialists including counter fraud, HR and our health and safety teams. Alternatively, you can contact me at dinah.mclannahan@nhs.net or on 07816 535761. Together we can create a safe culture where speaking is welcomed by all, and helps improve our care to our patients, their families and each other.
As always thank you for everything you do for our patients and for each other. If you have some time off over Easter I do hope you enjoy it, and if you are working, thank you.
Dunham McCarthy free online will writing session: 8 June
Dunham McCarthy, will be hosting a webinar on Wednesday 8 June, 12pm – 12.30pm discussing the free will writing service for colleagues at the Trust and also answering any questions colleagues may have.
Click here to access session on Wednesday 8 June.
Colleagues can also book an appointment to discuss creating a will by clicking here.
For further details about the service please click here.
For more information please email Donna.Byrne@Dunham-McCarthy.co.uk.
COVID-19 Bulletin: Thursday 14 April
Numbers not statistics: This week (last week)
| Colleagues who have received COVID-19 1st Vac. | Colleagues who have received COVID-19 2nd Vac. | Colleagues who have received COVID-19 booster Vac. | Current number of confirmed COVID-19 inpatients | COVID-19 inpatients not vaccinated against COVID-19 | Total number of our patients who have died from COVID-19 |
| 89.68% (89.86%) |
85.49% (85.61%) |
57.11% (57.11%) |
133 (107) |
36.09% (30.7%) |
1,521 (1,512) |
(Note: Percentages may decrease due to changes in the number of inpatients and in the number of staff members (starters and leavers).
1. New: IPC changes to be considered based on risk assessment
As colleagues no doubt know, there is an increased pressure across the Trust and in the community as numbers of COVID-19 cases remains high and flu cases rise. Surge plans are in place and being actioned. We must continue to keep our patients safe by assessing the situation and acting accordingly when needed.
Our Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) team have been monitoring the situation very carefully and have devised a risk assessment document based on regional and national guidelines which sets out options to change IPC arrangements in light of capacity and patient safety, when the following triggers are met:
- Demand for red capacity cannot be met
- Increased numbers of patients in the bed base are testing positive for COVID-19
- Limited or no elective capacity
- High number of beds not accessible due to outbreaks or contact areas
The options include:
- Reducing isolation periods for COVID-19 positive and contact patients to seven days following two negative lateral flow device (LFD) tests on days six and seven with a further potential reduction to five days.
- Consideration of change to chlorine cleaning from HPV/UVC cleaning.
- Consider stepping down outbreak areas when ward is out of isolation at day 10.
- Cohorting / isolating and treating asymptomatic flu positive patients, and stepping down after five days of treatment as long as they remain asymptomatic.
The assessment includes actions for clinical colleagues to follow if needed and will remain in place until the end of April.
The IPC team will work with you to ensure this is in place when required and are available to advise should you have any questions.
The risk assessment can be accessed in full by clicking here.
2. New: COVID-19: Recording absence in ESR
Thank you to colleagues who continue to follow the Trust guidance for COVID-19 testing and return to work instructions after a positive test result.
Managers are reminded that if a colleague is unable to work from home, their absence must be recorded on ESR.
The section to record absence can be found on ESR using the following path:
ESR Self Service > My Team Personal Information > Absence
- Search and select the correct employee record
- Select Create Absence
If the related reason is added correctly to ESR, it will not be counted as an episode of sickness by HR and the employee’s pay and entitlement to sick leave will not be reduced.
Please see below for the correct method:
- Absence Type – Sickness
- Level 1 Reason – S15 Chest and Respiratory Problems or any other appropriate reason (such as S13 Cold, Flu)
- Enter the Start Date
- Scroll down to Related Reason and enter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Do not enter an end date until they have returned to work
- Click Submit.
The ESR team will be updating and adding information to the comments to provide more detail regarding the reason for absence. It will be displayed as Code A, B, C etc. Please do not delete this information on the form.
Do not record a period of absence if the employee is working from home whilst COVID positive.
Colleagues can read the full information on how to record COVID related absence here.
3. New: Ensure inpatient referrals for imaging are clinically justified
As we have mentioned earlier the Trust is very busy and experiencing high levels of inpatients, whilst we have also seen a rising number of colleagues with COVID-19. This of course is having an impact on some services.
Clinical colleagues should only refer inpatients to the Imaging Service if this is clinically justified and cannot be performed at an outpatient appointment.
This will ensure high priority patients are treated and diagnosed, receiving the right care whilst they are being looked after as an inpatient at our Trust.
We’d like to thank everyone for their continued support and understanding.
4. New: Only use purple bags if you have an urgent sample
Colleagues are reminded that they should only use purple sample bags for urgent COVID-19 PCR tests, as they will be processed as a priority.
Rapid tests are limited to 50 a day so please do ensure that your patient fits the criteria for an urgent swab to be taken.
These purple bags can be collected from the Pathology laboratories at Sandwell and City sites. Please ensure you are calling the correct site when arranging to collect.
For the Sandwell laboratory, please collect between 9am – 4.30pm, Monday to Friday.
For the City laboratory, please collect between 9am – 1.45pm Monday to Friday.
Samples submitted as urgent between 8am – 8pm, Monday to Friday, will be processed the same day up to the 50 limit. There is no overnight service meaning rapid swabs are not processed overnight but will be done the following working day.
If you have an urgent sample:
- Place the correctly labelled specimen into a clear specimen bag and sealed fully
- Repeat this process, using the second larger clear zip locked specimen bag
- Add this doubled bag specimen to a purple urgent COVID-19 sample bag
- The purple urgent bag can now also be posted into the URGENT COVID-19 drop off box
Further information on processing samples can be found on Connect by clicking here.
5. Updated: Ensure you continue to reduce the risk of transmission in work and at home
We continue to ask you to be cautious about your activities, for yourself, your patients and for your loved ones, particularly as COVID-19 cases in the community and in hospitals are high.
There are many things you can do to best protect yourselves and those around you to reduce the risk of catching COVID-19 or passing it on.
It’s important to follow the guidelines below if you do have to meet in person or when on Trust sites:
- Remain within the allocated ‘max capacity’ of each meeting area to allow for one metre+ social distancing.
- Colleagues should continue to wear fluid resistant surgical face masks when in a shared space, this includes when meeting with team members and close colleagues.
- One metre social distancing space should be adhered to ensure colleagues remain safe
- Ensure you complete and report a lateral flow test twice a week before attending work.
6. Updated: Vaccination pop up clinics throughout this week and bank holiday
The vaccination programme has contributed greatly to building a barrier against COVID-19 across the population. There is still time to get vaccinated, whether that’s your first, second or booster dose. We are also now offering COVID-19 boosters for the over-75s and those with a weakened immune system at our vaccinations sites. At Tipton Sports Academy, we are now welcoming five to 11 year-olds for their first jab.
There are a number of pop-up clinics taking place across our sites throughout the bank holiday period. See the schedule below:
| Date | Location | |
| Thursday 14 April | Sandwell main reception 8.30am – 4.30pm | City maternity main reception, 8.30am – 4.30pm |
| Friday 15 April | Sandwell main reception 8.30am – 4.30pm | City BTC, ground floor, 8.30am – 4.30pm |
| Saturday 16 April | City main reception, 8.30apm – 4.30pm | Sandwell main reception 8.30am – 4.30pm |
| Sunday 17 April | Sandwell main reception 8.30am – 4.30pm | City main reception, 8.30am – 4.30pm |
Don’t forget, the vaccination hubs are open daily at City and Tipton and no appointment necessary – you can just drop in.
Here are current opening hours:
| Tipton Sports Academy vaccination hub | City vaccination hub, Sheldon Block |
| 8am – 6pm | 8am – 6pm |
7. Updated: Rules for visiting wards – what is and isn’t allowed
We continue to review the visiting arrangements throughout the pandemic and now have updated guidance for paediatrics.
From today, two nominated parents/carers will be allowed to accompany their child being cared for on our wards. They will have to be named at the start of the admission and can only be changed in exceptional circumstances. Additionally, two parents/carers will also be allowed to accompany their child to an outpatient appointment.
The following points summarise our rules and are for those wards where visiting is allowed (amber wards only). Visiting red and green departments is only allowed on compassionate grounds (this is where a visit by a carer or family member is central to ensuring that the patient’s fundamental care needs are met).
All wards regardless of COVID status should ensure robust systems remain in place to support regular communication between patients and their loved ones. Please note, there will be no visiting in outbreak areas.
To visit a patient on an amber inpatient ward:
- All visits must be booked in advance by telephoning the ward to allow wards to limit the number of visitors on a ward/bay at any one time. Ward staff should ensure that visitors are given the following information prior to visiting:
- All visitors must be free of COVID-19 symptoms and must not attend if they are a household contact of a COVID-19 positive case. We regret children (under 16 years) or those who are immunocompromised are currently not allowed to visit.
- Patients in amber areas should be supported to receive one visitor for up to 30 minutes per day. Patients can nominate two individuals who can visit for the duration of their stay, ideally from the same household. There should be no more than two visitors per bay.
- Visitors must use hand sanitiser and wear a fluid resistant surgical face mask on entry to the hospital site and ward.
- All ward areas must ensure adequate supply of PPE for all visitors and recheck they are wearing a mask on entry to the ward and have sanitised their hands.
- Staff should continue to strongly advise patients to wear their masks and ensure a minimum of one metre distancing is in place at all times.
- Bay/ward areas should be well ventilated.
- Weather permitting – visiting can be conducted in the hospital grounds as long as the patient is medically stable and can be kept safe.
Our usual exemptions apply for inpatient children, those at end of life and people who lack mental capacity.
We continue to review visiting arrangements based on a risk assessment taking into account COVID-19 case rates in the community and numbers of COVID-19 cases in our hospitals.
For more information see the visiting information here
8. Reminder: What to do if you are a household contact of someone with COVID-19
Colleagues who have household contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 should continue with twice weekly asymptotic Lateral Flow Device (LFD) testing before attending work.
However, you should be mindful that it can take up to 10 days for infection to develop. Colleagues should therefore discuss ways to minimise risk of onwards transmissions with their line manager.
This may include (but not limited to) considering:
- Redeployment to lower risk areas for staff if they work with patients whose immune system means they are at higher risk of serious illness despite vaccination
- Working from home for non-patient facing colleagues
- Limited close contact with other people especially in crowded, enclosed or poorly ventilated spaces
- Whilst attending work, staff must continue to comply rigorously with all infection control procedures
9. Reminder: Lateral flow testing twice a week is a Trust policy
We must continue with our robust programme of testing and reporting to ensure we understand the spread of the virus. Lateral flow testing lets us do this.
All colleagues are required to complete a lateral flow test twice a week before coming in to work.
All completed lateral flow tests must be reported on the Trust Lateral Flow Test reporting form which can be found by clicking here.
Please ensure you only report your test results on the Trust system and not to duplicate your submission on the national reporting system.
Colleagues are no longer required to confirm a COVID positive lateral flow result with a PCR test.
Lateral flow tests are free to NHS staff. You can order your lateral flow kit by visiting https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests. You will be prompted to set up an account using your NHS email address. Once set up please select “Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust” from the list and continue to place your order.
| Isolation guidance if you test positive
If you test positive you should follow the return to work guidance. All colleagues who have received a positive COVID-19 test result, regardless of whether they have symptoms, are advised not to attend work for five days
Household Contacts Colleagues who are household contacts of a positive COVID-19 case will now be able to continue to work as normal if they remain asymptomatic and continue to test twice weekly. They will no longer be required to have a PCR test in order to return to work. If the LFD tests positive then follow the above guidance. |
10. Reminder: Wellbeing Hubs at Sandwell, City and the Sanctuary
Focusing on ensuring that colleagues have a good day every day, the hubs aim to help improve mental health, relieve stress, build resilience and restore balance for colleagues closer to their work base.
Services in the wellbeing hubs include:
- Confidential chat – an opportunity for colleagues to offload and talk about anything which is troubling them
- Meditation
- Relaxation POD (massage chair)
- Back, hips, leg massager
- Seated acupressure massage
- Hypnotherapy (sanctuary only)
The wellbeing hubs are completely confidential, all services and treatments are free of charge for colleagues and delivered by trained coaches and an holistic therapist.
The wellbeing hubs are a regular weekly service across all sites (see below list of venues), operating between 8am – 4pm, whilst the Sanctuary is open between 10am – 5pm.
- Monday – Friday, Jayne Wright Therapy Room, Trinity House, Sandwell
- Monday – Friday, Wellbeing Hub, Arches, 1st Floor, Corridor A (old physiotherapy corridor) Room B002/F/049 situated to the right of the corridor, City Hospital
- Monday – Friday, The Sanctuary, Unett Street, Smethwick B66 3SY
Wellbeing events are available to book for groups of 16 or more staff. Our wellbeing events programme will help you to look after your mental health and wellbeing. Please submit your interest to christine.rickards@nhs.net.
To book or register your interest contact the wellbeing team on 0121 507 5886 or 0121 507 3854. Alternatively you can email Jatinder.sekhon@nhs.net
Alcohol care team availability through bank holiday period
The Alcohol Care Team will be not available on Friday 15 April (Good Friday). If you require any urgent advice during this time then please contact the on call toxicology consultant via switchboard.
Note: Normal service will recommence on Saturday 16 April and Referrals to ACT can continue to be made through Unity and as they will be picked up on Saturday when service resumes.
Heartbeat: A safe and sustainable infrastructure within community midwifery
By Randeep Kaur, Clinical Lead Midwife for Transformation
Delivering a service that meets national and local standards and takes in to consideration our diverse and often deprived population is a challenge, but one that we are now on the path to address so that we can ensure all of our women receive the care they need. We know mortality rates remain higher for babies of Asian and black ethnicity, stillbirth rates are over twice those for babies of white ethnicity and neonatal mortality rates are 45-60 per cent higher than for babies of white ethnicity.
National reports including the NHS Long Term Plan 2019 and Better Births 2020 have for a long time advocated improvements across all maternity services.
At SWB we started our process of transformation and innovation in January 2021. We analysed the feedback we regularly receive from patients and staff and put in place plans to address the common issues that have been raised about our services. Learning is an important factor to support our improvement journey. How were we learning from incidents? What could we do about missed care and missed opportunities?
There was a need to take immediate action to improve outcomes to support the Best Start in Life agenda (2021). To take this agenda forward, our staff and their wellbeing was placed at the heart of everything we do, so we put in place mechanisms for feedback such as surveys open door sessions.
As a result,15 priorities were identified and a process put in place to tackle each priority using the Quality Service Improvements and Redesign (QSIR) tools and framework.
What’s gone well: Transformation continues to set the foundations for long term sustainable change and improvement. Work to date includes building governance structures and devising specific assurance tools to improve the safety and quality of our maternity care. Assurance tools include Use of digital calendars, Electronic allocation of work, Implementation of daily duty midwife, Monthly record keeping audit, AN Booking Tracker, Caseload data submissions, Assurance meetings and x3 weekly with head of midwifery. Governance in regards to regular meetings within all management structures have been reviewed and introduced where required to support assurances from ‘floor to board and board to floor’.
What to work on: Ongoing review of assurance tools by managers and staff at all levels to ensure processes are enacted so there is continuous improvement, development of a safety and civility culture by embedding a sense of shared ownership/responsibility and accountability. Refined community provision in regards to we need to ensure ‘we get it right’, for both the population we serve and our staff. The team leaders have supported the initial scoping for this new provision and identified the following key changes and work is well under way; Early Bird Clinics prior to booking, Out of area bookings, new enhanced and efficient ways of working, Making every contact count and Bespoke Caseload Tool specific to SWB to enhance Birth Rate Plus.
Where we want to be: Deliver ‘high quality care’ that is Safe, Effective, Timely, Efficient, Equitable and People-centred to ensure we meet the needs of our community we serve for the Best Start in Life (2021) and beyond here at SWB.
I want to thank all colleagues for their valued contributions to date. We must continue this journey together as we have a long way to go. Improvements and transformation are everybody’s business.
The impartiality and support afforded to transform roles has enabled colleagues to challenge leaders and stakeholders at every level to improve outcomes for the babies, women and families we serve.
Our transformation and improvement outputs have generated interest and will be presented at the Maternity Festival to be held in Birmingham later this year.
Do you know how to contact the pharmacy service during the bank holiday period?
During the bank holiday weekend, the Sandwell pharmacy dispensary will be closed. City pharmacy will be open from 10am – 3pm and ward service pharmacy to AMUs on both sites will also be open from 10am – 3pm.
Please can colleagues ensure sufficient stock including controlled drugs are ordered prior to the weekend. The urgent stock and controlled drugs over the weekend cut off time is 1pm for same day return.
For general enquires you can contact the City dispensary on ext. 5263. The on call pharmacist can be contacted for urgent queries outside of opening hours via switchboard.
Colleagues can also check the prescription tracker for live updates on prescription status by opening ‘Clinical Systems’ on the Connect homepage then clicking ‘Pharmacy Tracker.’
Note: Normal Service will resume across our sites from Tuesday 19 April, 9am.
Meet the executive team
Click graphic to enlarge[/caption]
Do you know who is on the Trust’s executive team and how to contact them? The team have recently reviewed their roles and responsibilities.
To find out more, and who is accountable for what, please click here.
Time for a better car? Why not Tusker?
There’s something for everyone with Tusker and if you make the switch to an electric vehicle, Benefit-in-Kind tax is only 1 per cent in 2021/22 rising to just 2 per cent in 2022/23.
Not only is a brand new car of your choice included in your monthly amount, but you also benefit from:
- Inclusive motoring package
- No deposits
- Exclusive manufacturer discounts
- Routine service and maintenance
- Contactless doorstep delivery
- Fully comprehensive motor insurance including business travel
- Annual road tax
Plus, there are protections for resignation, redundancy and other life events, so there may be no fees to pay if you need to leave the scheme early.
Prepare yourself an online quote and see the full range of cars available via your benefits portal.
Need help or advice?
For more information, call Tusker on 0333 400 7431 or email EET@tuskerdirect.com.
Personal development review process (PDR) for 2022
As the COVID-19 pandemic has continued, the Trust has again carefully considered its approach to the Personal Development Review Process (PDR) to ensure that it is both meaningful and conducted in a way which is practical, given ongoing constraints on capacity. For these reasons, for this year, it has been decided to extend the process introduced last year where the focus was changed from traditional scoring against objectives, to the development of a personalised discussion and plan for each individual.
The process for 2022 consists of the following:
- Part 1 – Personalised discussion and plan
- Part 2 – Review of previous year’s work objectives, work objectives for 2022/2023, development aspirations, personal development plan
Some pre-set work objectives are included in the form and these should be customised for your own job role. The PDR form has been amended to reflect this and the form for 2022 can be found by clicking here.
Note: All colleagues need to have had their PDR with the date(s), aspirations and objectives entered into the form on Connect by the end of July 2022. This form can be found via the link on the Connect home page: ‘Record Completed PDR’
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