Monthly archives: October 2022

Job of the week: Assistant management accountant, Band 4

Are you or someone you know interested in developing a career in finance? The financial management team have an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated individual to join our team.

The team are looking for someone who can demonstrate good Microsoft Excel skills and has experience using financial systems. An adaptive approach to meet deadlines whilst providing concise financial information and advice to non-financial managers is essential. This post is best suited to a self-motivated individual who is able to prioritise workloads and extract the most from themselves and others around them.

The department are committed to ensuring individuals receive full support in developing their career and will provide various learning opportunities that meet the post holder’s requirements.

If you are interest in this role or learning more about opportunities available within finance then please do not hesitate to get in contact with Emily Cook on emily.cook13@nhs.net.

To apply for the role please click here.

The closing date for all applications is Friday 4 November.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 21 October

Throughout Black History Month we recognise and celebrate black history and the valuable contribution of people from African and Caribbean backgrounds. A contribution that I believe is often overlooked.

Within the NHS, and our Trust’s history, this contribution remains hugely significant. The stories from our own people from the Windrush generation must be remembered as we appreciate the brave men and women who responded to the call for help and came to Britain at the birth of the NHS.

In Sandwell’s education centre you will see portraits of just a few of these individuals, many of whom are still working at the Trust. One of these is Janice Nelson, who is a clinical procurement specialist. This month Janice was crowned the winner of the Royal College of Nursing’s Black History Month “Making a Difference” award. She was selected because of her excellent work to champion equality, diversity and inclusion within the procurement and finance department and has developed a three-year plan that aims to improve EDI throughout the supply chain. I, along with her procurement team colleagues, could not be more proud of Janice and of this achievement.

This is one story out of many from a host of remarkable people within our Trust who are shaping and improving how we work and what we do, challenging prejudice and highlighting the experiences of Black, Asian and Minoritized Ethnic people working in the NHS.

The culture within our organisation is created through the diversity of our workforce that reflects our local populations. It is vital that we recognise and get to know people’s different backgrounds and experiences so that our workplace is inclusive for all.  We were given two ears and one mouth in that ratio for a reason – more listening and understanding of people’s heritage is required from all of us, me included.

I am really looking forward to Unison’s Black History Month celebration event on 28 October at City Hospital. I hope that as many of you as possible can join us on the day and also take time this month to understand a bit more about the history of our people from African and Caribbean heritage.

Earlier in the week our communications bulletin included a poem by Professor Laura Serrant, that was performed at the Chief Nursing Officer for England’s annual BME conference. It is a fantastic reflection on the contributions made by black nurses to the NHS and also highlights the experiences of prejudice and hardship. You can read it here.

Midland Met – Did you know?

Midland Metropolitan University Hospital is currently under construction. Once open, it will be part of our established Trust and our centre for acute care.

We have ambitious plans! Every detail of our new flagship hospital will help us to ensure we offer the best healthcare to the many people that rely on our services.

The new hospital has several interesting features, some of which you might not know about. To test your knowledge, you can check out our did you know facts right here.

Midland Met will house state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment

SWB research fellowship

Our research and development team are pleased and excited to announce two opportunities for those interested in research:

The first is Birmingham Health Partners Early Careers Fellowships. The scheme is an established scheme across the Birmingham Health Partners but this year is the first year that Sandwell and West Birmingham staff will be eligible to apply as a new organisation to the partnership. The call is now open and closes on Friday 2 December. The call is designed to provide a launch pad for clinicians interested in translational research. The one year fellowships are available to all. For more information see website https://www.birminghamhealthpartners.co.uk/education/starter-fellowships/ if you would like further support then please contact email swbh.randd.generic@nhs.net.

The second is an internal call for fellowships, this is the first of its kind across the trust and is open to those employed by SWB or have a relevant honorary contract with the organisation. These fellowships are aimed at ‘pilot’ and early stage research which will enable application for further competitive external funding by the end of the fellowships. Fellowships are for one year in the first instance. Applications are now open and will close on 4/11/2022. Please see the paperwork and application in the link below. If you would like further information or have questions/queries please email swbh.randd.generic@nhs.net.

For further details please see SWB research fellowship principles information document.

Heartbeat: Raising our game with cardiovascular disease research

Sandwell and West Birmingham has one of the highest levels of cardiovascular disease in England. In order to raise awareness we highlighted how the Trust is working to improve the statistics.

Heartbeat caught up with senior research nurses Sibet Joseph and Paddy Donaghy along with Professor Derek Connolly, our director of research and development, who is also a consultant cardiologist.

Prior to starting in his research role, Paddy spent six years on our coronary care unit treating patients with heart attacks. “There is no doubt that many heart attacks are preventable,” said Paddy. “We are making big strides in getting people to stop smoking and that has had the biggest effect in reducing heart disease over the last 20 years.”

Sibet has undertaken many heart studies with Professor Connolly and they have looked especially at cholesterol, developing many new therapies to lower cholesterol levels that are now used in clinical practice. “There have been great strides in the research of cholesterol,” said Sibet. “But we need to keep going and we are about to start several more studies looking at new targets such as Lipoprotein (a) which runs in families and is particularly prominent in several of our wonderful ethnic communities.”

Professor Connolly said our Trust research department has been part of delivering several major studies which have developed new therapies to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

He stated: “Heart attacks and strokes can devastate lives and we know that they are the biggest cause of death in our area. One of the key things that is important is that many studies are undertaken on caucasian populations, and it is imperative that we make all research available to our minority ethnic communities. This will ensure that the therapies work just as well in those groupings.

“We have shown during the pandemic that the Trust can be a real world leader in research but it is now time to get back to our fundamental diseases such as heart disease so we can find new treatments and cures for patients going forward.”

SWB has been very fortunate to receive a donation of nearly £200,000 towards cardiovascular disease research from a grateful patient of Professor Connolly which will help us with our studies. Along with our new Head of Research, Kelly Hard, the whole of the research team are keen to put our patients and population at the heart of our research.

Be assured – the staff survey is completely confidential

When we run a staff survey, a comment we commonly hear is ‘But is it actually confidential?’, today we set the record straight, ‘The NHS Staff Survey really is absolutely confidential’.

At our Trust we use a supplier called ‘Quality Health’, they are an independent external contractor who are in place to ensure that individual responses are not visible to SWB, and are there to protect your anonymity.

If you receive a paper copy of the survey you will notice it has a barcode – a random number generated by Quality Health’s systems and is used as a way of ensuring that no personal information has to be printed on the document. This means that responses can be logged against the right organisation and staff member, ensuring that reminders are only sent to those who do not respond.

If you were to scan your questionnaire barcode using a smartphone, you would see for yourself that it does not contain any information about you. The number is totally meaningless unless it is entered into Quality Health’s secure system.

Similarly, if you are completing your questionnaire online, you will have a unique link or log in details for the online survey, which is only useful if it is entered into Quality Health’s secure system. These references are redundant for any other purpose and could not be used within the Trust as a means to track responses.

Quality Health have produced a short video showing their processes and how the survey remains confidential. You can watch it below:

You should have got your staff survey by now. Many of you will have received an invitation via email to your NHS account from insightandfeedback@iqvia.com. Colleagues in catering, transport, portering and domestic/ward services will have received paper copies with a freepost envelope to send the feedback straight to Quality Health.

If you have any queries about the survey please contact Quality Health, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm on 0800 783 1775 or helpline@quality-health.co.uk.

Heartbeat: Dangers of “laughing gas” drug warn Trust’s clinicians

Two of the Trust’s clinicians have stepped into the media spotlight to raise awareness about the rise in cases of nerve damage linked to the use of nitrous oxide.

We’ve seen a marked rise in admissions – from six patients between 2015 to 2020, to now roughly one every two weeks.

Both neurologist Dr David Nicholl and toxicologist Dr Mark Pucci have been talking to the media about the serious harm the substance can have on users. Dr Pucci said: “Even when we had around one admission per year, that was felt to be frequent.”

“But in the past year or so there has been an exponential growth in hospital admissions. We’re now seeing one admission every two weeks or so.”

Like Dr Pucci, Dr Nicholl sees only the most severe cases, with one of his patients still relying on crutches to move 18 months on from admission, despite being young and otherwise healthy.

He fears there could be far more, less severe cases who need treatment elsewhere.

“This is something I rarely saw in the past ten years, but it has gone through the roof over the past two, and it’s getting worse,” he said.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, we were seeing around two admissions every two months and now it’s almost weekly. I’m seeing patients with life-changing neurological injuries.

“And there will be others who we don’t see in primary care of other emergency departments.”

Users typically inhale by filling a balloon with laughing gas.

The effects can be devastating, with both Dr Nicholl and Dr Pucci seeing patients with spinal cord damage and an inability to walk.

Nitrous oxide can inactivate vitamin B12, which is essential for healthy nerves, Dr Pucci explains.

“Patients have symptoms including pins and needles, numbness, electric-shocktype symptoms in their hands, arms, feet and legs, while the most severe cases have damage to the spinal cord, when they can’t walk,” he said.

“They tend to be young adults that are otherwise generally fit and healthy, they don’t tend to be hardened drug users on other drugs. The average age in the patients we have seen is 22.”

With the recent wave of nitrous oxide highs seemingly driven by young adults between 18 and 30, some suspect social media is one potential factor behind the increase.

Searching for terms such as ‘Smartwhip’ and ‘Goldwhip’ on TikTok or Twitter produces videos and pictures of users fainting or sustaining other injuries.

Dr Nicholl believes boredom that came about over several lockdowns led many to take up balloons, which then turned into a habit – so much so that he sees even patients who have lived the worst effects take it up again after leaving hospital.

On the other hand, a lack of awareness around the gas’ effects can lull users into a sense that they are taking up a safe drug, Dr Pucci said, which can become a “psychological addiction.”

But what many experts single out as the most significant factor is the apparent ease with which even teenagers can get hold of nitrous oxide cylinders.

welearn Wednesday: Recognising a deteriorating patient

In case you missed it, each month as part of welearn Wednesdays we present a new learning pack identified as a key learning topic from local serious incidents, investigations, complaints, litigation, or coroner cases. The learning may not have a direct link to your area of work, however the learning provides an opportunity to reflect on some of the wider issues that could be useful for you to consider.

This month we are we are sharing learning from incidents relating to identifying, escalating, timely response and planning care of deteriorating patients. The deteriorating patient is a patient that moves from one clinical state to a worse clinical state, increasing their risk of disease, organ failure, prolonged hospital stay or death. Learning alerts for deteriorating patients can be found by clicking here.

Click here for this month’s newsletter to find out more.

For further details please see How to recognise a deteriorating patient information sheet.

Heartbeat: My Part in Midland Met – Zaheer Iqbal

From now until when we move into Midland Met, we will be sharing updates with you about the many people involved in the project and the role they each play.  

The successful opening of Midland Metropolitan University Hospital relies on many people, teams and stakeholders. Once open, it will have a far reaching impact – not only on those we care for but also on colleagues and our community in terms of regeneration, jobs, housing, charitable endeavours and so much more.

Getting us to Midland Met is a team effort. We all have a part to play in making it #morethanahospital! 

How long have you been at SWB and what is your current role?  

I have been at SWB for four years now. I manage the portering and security teams cross-site. 

What part does your role contribute to the Midland Met project?

I’m involved with workforce planning for both departments, the design for our security control room and the positioning of cameras, including access control. 

How are you preparing for the opening of Midland Met in your area? 

We’ve been on site visits to see the space at Midland Met. We are engaging with workforce planning, and regular communication updates are available. 

In what ways will our new hospital help to shape your role for the better? 

The back of house will be more efficient and private for patients when transported from A to B. Our new hospital will also benefit from enhanced infection control by reducing cross-contamination due to less traffic in these areas. 

The biggest benefit that Midland Met will bring in your opinion is…  

It is our brand new acute hospital that will serve Sandwell and West Birmingham.  

It will have state-of-the-art facilities, promote regeneration of the areas around the site, and will create jobs on the back of our plans. The possibilities are endless – that is what is so fantastic about this build. 

Any other thoughts? 

I have visited the site a few times, and I can see massive improvements on each visit. The size of the hospital is breathtaking, and the large windows for the patients and families to admire the views are positive features. The décor is colour coded with natural light flooding in, and it’s a welcoming environment.

If you would like to feature in My Part in Midland Met, please email swbh.mmuh@nhs.net.

Star Awards 2022: Be sure to check out the photos!

Friday 7 October we held our 2022 Star Awards where a total of 14 awards were handed out to both clinical and non-clinical colleagues across SWB.

Our awards ceremony, which was held at Aston Villa Football Club, aims to recognise the hard work and dedication of our colleagues and volunteers, both on the frontlines and our supporting services.

In case you missed it, be sure to check out all fantastic photos from the evening in the 2022 Star Awards photo library by clicking here.