Monthly archives: September 2022
Four tickets up for grabs to see the Villa at home in March next year
For Aston Villa fans out there or anyone who generally likes a game of footie, you are in for a treat!
Aston Villa Foundation have donated four tickets to Your Trust Charity for the home game against Bournemouth on Saturday 18 March.
Your Trust Charity are offering the tickets in a prize draw for two lucky winners to win a pair of tickets each.
All you have to do to be in with a chance is to donate £10 to the We Are Metropolitan Campaign. Simply follow this link to donate.
We Are Metropolitan continues to be the most important and ambitious fundraising campaign in Your Trust Charity’s history.
The cost of building the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital is already paid for. But our charity, through our minimum £2 million campaign, needs to make it more than a hospital. Through this, we will fund those things over and above core NHS funding, which will enhance our hospital’s ability to deliver exceptional care in a world class building. But we need your help to make it more than a hospital.
Every penny raised will help us make a real difference in the following 3 areas:
- Community spaces
These spaces will be within the hospital or the grounds, these might be play areas or a community garden. Midland Met will also house an 88 metre gallery space, one of the biggest in our region, open to the public where we will showcase exhibitions, visual art, and run cultural education programmes.
- A welcome, healing environment
Healing and getting better is more than curing ailments – it is about creating a positive atmosphere. As well as hosting play areas for children inside the hospital, we’ll also create engaging displays in patient waiting areas and departments, and display flagship sculptures in our hospital grounds.
- Research & development
Our fundraising will open the door to new research, not just with our facilities but also involving patients and the public. This will help us better understand conditions reflecting the growing ethnic diversity of our patients, and strengthening our ability to tackle future virus outbreaks.
Please donate to We are Metropolitan now. The raffle winners will be announced on Monday 17 October.
Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 30 September
This week we began our staff vaccination efforts to protect colleagues from COVID-19 and flu. This is probably the single most important thing we can do collectively to prepare for what we expect to be a very challenging winter period.
COVID-19 is still with us and it is still incredibly disruptive on healthcare services. We do have an outbreak at present within an inpatient area. It impacts on patient flow, bed numbers and our abilities to discharge patients to their home or another facility.
Flu is also predicted to be particularly severe this season and be under no illusion, it will come early this year, if the experience of the winter in Australasia is anything to go by.
My simple message to you all is this:
You must get both your COVID-19 and flu vaccination. And please get vaccinated early. The vaccines will protect you, they will protect your loved ones and they will protect your colleagues and patients. I believe that it is the professional responsibility of everyone who works for our Trust, clinicians and non-clinicians alike.
It is perhaps the best example of living our new values – Ambition – Respect – Compassion. Being vaccinated demonstrates your respect for others and your compassion. And, this Trust has in the past been amongst the best in terms of ‘flu vaccination rates, so let’s set our ambitions high and see if we can continue to set that standard.
Please make it a priority to pop-in to a clinic or book an appointment. Having just been jabbed myself I can confirm that you will be treated kindly, swiftly and the team will ensure, even if you are anxious, that you are put at your ease. You also get two stickers – one for each jab! What’s not to like?
Thank you for taking this important step.
Richard
Support our #SWBfamily: Vote for David Carruthers
We are delighted to see our very own Professor David Carruthers shortlisted for a prestigious Birmingham Award this year for ‘Contribution to Education’. The voting is open to the public and can be done online by clicking here.
David recently retired from his role as Medical Director and is currently continuing his work as a rheumatology consultant. This recognition comes from his passion for medicine and the teaching of medical students and junior doctors primarily in the field of rheumatology. As both clinician and academic he has taught over 1000 clinicians and inspired a generation of medics to undertake life enhancing research, benefiting patients both across Birmingham and further afield through publication of an impressive list of research and academic articles.
Voting closes on Sunday, so please vote now to support David in recognition of a career devoted to caring for others.
Farewell Terry
Terry January, Speciality Theatre Manager will be leaving the Trust today after 22 years.
Terry joined us in April 2000 straight from his training. He initially started as a recovery nurse and then went on to learn to scrub in gynae, urology, breast surgery, general surgery, vascular, trauma, orthopaedic and plastic surgery. It was during this time he discovered his love for orthopaedic surgery and became the E grade in that speciality. In 2007 he was promoted to his current role in theatres which he has done ever since up until now..
During his time at the hospital he has served under 7 matrons and has himself been a matron twice during this time. He will be sorely missed by the theatre team and SWB. We wish Terry all the best in his new adventure.
National Inclusion Week: Equality Impact Assessments
National Inclusion Week is recognised from Monday 26 September – Sunday 2 October to raise awareness of inclusion in the workplace. Now in its tenth year, the 2022 theme for the awareness week is ‘Time to Act: The Power of Now.’
Equality Impact Assessments
Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is a way of examining your services, functions and policies to see if it could have a negative or has the potential for a negative impact on any member of staff or patient who has any of the nine protected characteristics.
The Equality Act 2018 covers nine protected characteristics these are the grounds upon which discrimination is unlawful.
To find out more and download an EIA toolkit, please click here.
Give your feedback and be in with a chance to win £200
Imagine what you could do with £200 worth of shopping vouchers so near to Christmas. That cash could be yours, all you have to do is feedback on how you feel about working for our organisation.
The NHS Staff Survey is out now and everyone in our workplace is being given the opportunity to take part.
- How motivated do you feel about coming to work?
- How safe do you think our organisation is?
You can tell us what you think about this and a lot more. All it takes is 15 mins of your time.
You will have received an invitation to take part via email from insightandfeedback@iqvia.com. Some colleagues will get paper surveys delivered directly to their home addresses with a freepost envelope to send the feedback straight to Quality Health.
Do take the time to share your views. Senior managers will use the results to make improvements locally.
If you don’t win the £200 – then there are opportunities to win one of six vouchers worth £50!
If you have any queries or have not received your survey please contact Quality Health Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm on 0800 783 1775 or helpline@quality-health.co.uk.
The survey will close on 25 November.
World Heart Day: 29 September – keep fit at Sandwell or City gym
Looking after your heart is vital to your overall health. Tragically, heart disease and stroke remain two of the world’s leading causes of death. But there is lots you can do to help, including staying active.
Have you thought about joining one of our gyms?
If you wish to use the gym facilities at Sandwell, simply register your interest with the wellbeing team. Following an online induction, you can commence using the gym which is located in Trinity House, ground floor. The gym accommodates a maximum of two users at any one time and colleagues will be limited to a maximum of 40 minutes each.
At City gym, we’ve created the space you need to work out while keeping a safe distance. The gym has also been rearranged and clearly marked out for you to use safely, so it is easy for everyone to follow. The maximum number of users is five at any one time with the maximum gym time usage being one hour per visit, in order to allow other colleagues the opportunity to use the facility.
We’ve placed more hand sanitiser dispensers and wipes around both gyms so it’s easy to regularly clean your hands and equipment during your visit. We ask that you also sanitise your hands before entering the gym to keep yourself and others safe. For ventilation, colleagues will be responsible for opening windows whilst exercising and closing when finished.
Existing members: Your pass will already be activated ready for use.
For new members: Please contact Jatinder Sekhon, by emailing jatinder.sekhon@nhs.net to complete your registration. The relevant forms can be found below
Scheduled upgrade of safeguard incident reporting system: 30 September
On Friday 30 September there will be a scheduled upgrade of the safeguard incident reporting system, this includes all systems, such as Risk and Complaints. This means the system will be inaccessible between 10am – 12pm.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Section 2 social care and Section 5 referrals moving to verbal referrals
From 28 September Section 2 social care and section 5 referrals will no longer need to be manually completed by ward staff for any patients who require social care input or packages of care for hospital discharges (irrespective of their area of residency).
Instead, colleagues must call the Integrated discharge Hub on ext. 3147 to complete a verbal referral of the patient’s social or care needs. The Integrated Discharge Hub is available from 8am through to 8pm 7 days a week.
Crankhall Lane Medical Centre takes new name and moves to Friar Park Road
Crankhall Lane Medical Centre has now moved to its new home on Friar Park Road, Wednesbury, WS10 0JS (next to the Friar Park Millennium Centre). The practice has also had a name change and is now known as Tame Valley Medical Centre.
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