Skip to content Skip to main menu Skip to utility menu

Monthly archives: July 2022

Essential IT maintenance affecting the HIE Portal on Tuesday 19 July from 5am to 7am

 

Please be aware essential IT maintenance will be taking place affecting HIE’s supporting infrastructure on the morning of Tuesday 19 July from 5am to 7am.

During this time Unity will remain fully available. However, the HIE Portal that displays Unity and GP information will be unavailable for up to 2 hours from 5am to 7am on Tuesday 19 July. However, please be assured GPs have alternate means to view this information via the ICE system. Trust clinicians only use HIE for supplementary GP information on occasions.

Please do call the IT service desk on ext 4050 or 0121 507 4050 if you have any further queries. 

Did you know there is up to £100k available for research projects?

 

Colleagues working on innovative research are being invited to apply for a grant of up to £100,000 to kick-start their project.

The funding is being offered by the Birmingham Health Partners (BHP) and aims to provide early-stage support and proof-of-concept for projects which will have swift impact on patient outcomes and experiences but can also be further developed or rolled out more widely.

The BHP and its NHS partners have identified a number of broad themes which are both of key importance to the region and is strongly supporting applications for projects which directly relate to these priority areas for the region:

  • Health data and Artificial Intelligence
  • Engineering into health settings
  • Sustainability
  • Health inequalities
  • Health systems and evaluation

The Trust joined BHP in February this year. Membership will allow us to work on studies and trials in specialties as diverse as cancer immunotherapy, rheumatology and heart disease.

To apply please click here. Deadlines for all applications is Friday 15 July.

Maintenance affecting the pathology service: 14 July, 6am – 8am

 

Please be aware that essential IT infrastructure maintenance is taking place on Thursday 14 July between 6am and 8am which will affect the pathology service at Sandwell and City.

During the maintenance, Unity will remain fully available; however, from 6am – 8am, Thursday 14 July colleagues will need to revert to requesting microbiology tests and blood bank requests 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. Colleagues can continue to make ICE requests during the downtime but there will be a delay receiving results. 

Urgent results will be phoned to the affected users during the downtime.

The activity will be closely monitored, and desk top alerts will be issued from 5am advising colleagues of the need to revert to BCP for requesting microbiology tests and blood bank requests 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.

 

EPRR awareness to be included within your local induction for colleagues

 

It has been agreed that emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR) awareness is to be included within local inductions for SWB colleagues and managed by the groups and service leads.

The SWB incident response plan (formerly major incident plan) is an overarching document which details the Trust’s approach to responding to and recovering from a major incident, as well as touching on critical incidents and command and control arrangements. There are several documents which sit under this – CBRN Plan, Comms Plan, VIP Plan, Bomb Plan and the action cards which should be used as a baseline during a major incident. If you have a role during a major incident, you should have an action card – these should fall within your local major incident plans.

The EPRR page on Connect – has the latest version of all EPRR plans.

In your department there should be:

  • A current and up to date business continuity plan for your area, available in a folder which is easily accessible by all colleagues
  • 724 Machine and supporting downtime box, processes of checking, using, and backfilling all specific to your service.
  • What your local major incident plan is in terms of calling colleagues in, expectation of response times, attending site within a timeframe if requested to.

For further information please email philip.stirling@nhs.net.

Essential maintenance affecting the Pathology service – Thursday 14 July from 6am to 8am

 

Please be aware that essential IT infrastructure maintenance is taking place on Thursday 14 July between 6am and 8am which will affect the Pathology service at Sandwell and City.

During the maintenance, Unity will remain fully available; however, from 6am to 8am on Thursday 14 July colleagues will need to revert to requesting Microbiology tests and Blood Bank requests 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. Colleagues can continue to make ICE requests during the downtime but there will be a delay receiving results.

Urgent results will be phoned to the affected users during the downtime.

The activity will be closely monitored, and desk top alerts will be issued from 5am advising colleagues of the need to revert to BCP for requesting Microbiology tests and Blood Bank requests 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.

Alcohol training sessions

 

The alcohol care team will be hosting training sessions aimed at all clinical colleagues who may have any questions or queries regarding alcohol withdrawal and treatment. The sessions will also go into treating alcohol issues in and out of hospital. Attendees who complete the training will also be presented with a certificate. All sessions will be hosted at the Sandwell Education Centre from 2pm – 3.30pm on the following dates:

  • Friday 29 July
  • Tuesday 30 August
  • Friday 30 September
  • Friday 30 December

For more information please call ext. 5074.

 

Job of the week: Overseas Visitor Manager, Band 7

 

Are you looking for your next challenge but want to try something different? An exciting opportunity has arisen to join and lead the overseas visitors team.

As overseas visitor manager, you will work closely with the head of legal services who will provide you with the knowledge and understanding you need of The NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015 and NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 to carry out the role.

The role includes oversight of Trust processes for the identification, interview and assessment of overseas visitors, with a focus on maximising recovery of Trust income associated with patients who are not entitled to free NHS care, as well as liaising with clinical staff and managers across the Trust to embed policies, provide expert support, training and guidance.

You will need to have experience of managing within a team environment, and a track record of delivering complex project plans and service development. You will have excellent organisational, influencing and facilitation skills, and the ability to write and present operational briefing papers and reports to a range of audiences.

You will need to be self-motivated and enthusiastic, with excellent verbal and written communication skills, as well as an eye for accuracy and detail, and a desire to ensure high quality care and services to patients, staff and the public.

If you are interested in this role, please call 0121 507 5626 (ext. 5626) or email conor.lees@nhs.net.

Online Grand Round this Thursday

 

We will be hosting an online Grand Round on Thursday 14 July, 12.30pm – 1.30pm via Microsoft Teams. This session will see our clinical teaching fellows deliver a series of presentations showcasing educational research that they recently delivered at the prestigious Birmingham Conference.

To join this session via Teams, please click here. Should you be prompted for a password to join the event, please enter uMRL7E.

Limited spaces also available on site: The session will also be available to attend in person in room 10 of the Education Centre and the dining room at City Postgraduate Centre. Spaces will be available on a first come, first serve basis.

Commonwealth Games: Parking exemption letters for community colleagues – make sure you have your letter to hand

 

SWB colleagues who work in the community will need to print out the relevant letter below (which is applicable to them in the area they work in) in case they need to pass or park in restricted areas (pink roads on the Birmingham 2022 road maps) during the Commonwealth Games.

Colleagues should keep a copy of the relevant letter in their vehicle and clearly display it in their vehicle when it is left unattended.

Note: The parking exemption letter does not apply to no Stopping roads (orange roads on the Birmingham 2022 road maps) and the road events field of play area such as marathon, road race, time trial and triathlon routes.

We must remind colleagues that these letters are strictly for NHS colleagues to use during working hours to access patients at home. Colleagues should keep their NHS ID badge to hand as they may be requested by organisers of the games.

The Commonwealth Games will run from Thursday 28 July to Monday 8 August.

Return to mask wearing in all areas: With immediate effect

 

The decision has been taken to reintroduce mask wearing in all areas of the Trust. This includes non-clinical areas and shared office spaces.

Where face to face meetings need to take place, please ensure that masks are worn and that social distancing measures of at least one metre are in place.

The decision has been taken as a result of increasing cases of COVID-19 affecting staff Trust-wide, as well as numbers of inpatients with COVID-19 and cases in the community.

We continue to update our risk assessment to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, protecting the most vulnerable

← Older items Newer items →