Monthly archives: November 2022
Supporting you with cost of living: new health and wellbeing package
To help colleagues with the cost of living, a new wellbeing support package has been developed for everyone working in health and social care.
This offer has been designed collaboratively with all partners in our integrated care system to support colleagues with the ongoing impact of the national cost of living crisis, providing fast-track access to professional services centred around financial wellbeing, relationship support and low-level dependency. The services on offer are free to access and completely confidential.
This enhanced offer complements existing organisational wellbeing services and the Staff Mental Health Hub, which is also available to health and social care colleagues.
To find out more visit: www.birminghamsolihullics.org.uk/supporting-you.
Welearn QIHD Poster Competition – deadline extended to 30 November
The 2022 welearn Quality Improvement Poster Competition is currently open and actively seeking entries from colleagues across the Trust to share their good practice, quality initiatives, innovations, research and partnerships. This is an annual event and forms part of our weLearn programme of knowledge sharing inside our organisation.
Why? welearn aims to share good practice, quality initiatives, innovations, research and partnerships that have resulted in improvements for our patients, relatives and colleagues. To have this work celebrated and recognised with a chance to win a share of the £5,000 of prizes available to teams whose entries are judged as the very best by an esteemed panel.
How? We are looking to see improvement projects and programmes written up and captured in a poster. Don’t be put off by this because help is available. Medical Illustration will provide support to design and produce the poster and you can discuss your ideas on content with the Library services team.
Who? Entries are encouraged and welcomed from everyone whether you work with patients or provide non-clinical support, send in your posters.
When? Closing date for final poster submissions is Wednesday 30 November. Posters will be displayed in the Sandwell Education Centre. Online kiosks will be used in the Foyer of Hallam Restaurant, Main Corridor at City Hospital and Reception at Rowley Regis for staff to view. They will also be posted on Connect from in the New Year with an opportunity for staff to vote for their favourite ideas. The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony at the March 2023 Trust Board Meeting.
Full guidance for the poster competition can be found here: welearn Poster Guidance 2022.
Fraud Awareness Week
Throughout Fraud Awareness Week, RSM will be highlighting the most reported fraud across the NHS, providing some guidance on preventing these and identifying when you should report your concerns.
RSM will be hosting an array of sessions on everything fraud which can be accessed below:
Further support and advice can be found by contacting our Local Counter Fraud Specialist Sophie Coster (Tel: 07436 268747), Chief Finance Officer Dinah McLannahan; or the NHS Counter Fraud Authority on 0800 028 40 60.
Hypnotherapy with Ruby: 28 November
Ruby Phillips will be hosting an initial hypnotherapy session explaining about the working of the brain and language for a better understanding about what therapy sessions are all about.
Sessions are free for all colleagues at will be hosted at Sandwell and City wellbeing hubs. To book please email jatinder.sekhon@nhs.net.
For more information please email RubyPhillips1966@gmail.com or call 07854 734113.
Sandwell Day Nursery Christmas fun day: 3 December
Our Sandwell Day Nursery will be hosting a Santa’s grotto event for all to enjoy on Saturday 3 December, 10.30am – 1pm.
There will be lots of fun activities on the day including:
- Visit from Santa
- Face painting
- Christmas craft stall
- Christmas café serving refreshments
For more information please call 0121 507 3566.
How to complete your NHS Staff Survey online
The NHS Staff Survey is one of the important ways for SWB to find out what is working well and what can be improved.
It is essential that SWB colleagues are able to complete the survey in a safe and confidential manner.
As know the survey is administered by Quality Health, an independent external contractor to ensure that individual responses are not visible to the SWB.
Quality Health have provided a few tips to help you complete the online survey:
- Firstly – look for your email invitation to your work account from insightandfeedback@iqvia.com
- In that email you will find a unique link that will take you to the online questionnaire. The link is unique only to you, please do not share it with anyone else.
- The link will take you to an online confidential portal where you can complete the survey
- Started your survey but didn’t have time to finish? Not a problem! Your progress is saved. Just click your link again and you’ll immediately pick up where you left off.
Find out more in this video:
You can contact Quality Health Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm on 0800 783 1775 or helpline@quality-health.co.uk.
The survey will close on 25 November.
Forgot your NHS mail password? Don’t worry, the informatics team can help you reset your password and they can also loan your team devices to enable you to complete your survey. Just call them on ext. 4050. Make your voice heard!
Greener NHS: School for change
The climate crisis is a health emergency. That’s why SWB is taking action to build a #GreenerNHS
- In 2020 the NHS became the world’s first health service to announce a plan to become net zero, with two targets
- To be net zero by 2040 for directly controlled emissions
- To be net zero by 2045 for emissions that the NHS influences
Climate change is a health emergency. More than 13 million deaths around the world each year are due to avoidable environmental causes. Air pollution is the single greatest environmental threat to health in the UK, contributing to one in 20 deaths and increased cases of asthma, cancer and heart disease.
Contributing around 4% of UK emissions, or 40% of public sector emissions, the NHS is both a part of the challenge and the solution; it must tackle climate change at source if it is to protect the health of its patients and the communities it serves.
The new, amended Health and Care Bill now places a duty on NHS organisations to deliver net zero and take action to mitigate against the impacts of climate change in their operations, making the NHS the first healthcare system to embed net zero in legislation.
Every ICB and all 212 NHS trusts in England – including more than 1,000 hospitals and healthcare facilities – now have a green plan in place which together will cut more than 1m tonnes of carbon emissions in the next three years, the equivalent of taking 520,000 cars off the road.
There is overwhelming support for a Greener NHS across the system and 9 in ten staff support the NHS net zero ambition (You Gov, 2022).
Supplier alignment is essential to deliver on net zero. From April this year, all NHS tenders must include a minimum 10% weighting for net zero and social value. From April 2023, all suppliers of contracts above £5M will be required to have a carbon reduction plan.
Sign-up to discover how the NHS is becoming greener and join a community of people taking action by clicking here
Job of the week: Associate Director of Clinical Support Service AFC: Band 9 (subject to AFC assessment)
Our new acute hospital serving SWB, the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH), opens in 2024 and will provide care to our local population from first class, purpose-built premises. The development of the new hospital will play an important role in the regeneration of the wider area and in improving the lives of local people and reducing health inequalities. The new hospital will also keep integration at the heart of our journey, providing an opportunity to design and shape services that are fit for the future and offer exceptional quality of care to our communities.
As part of the temporary programme structure focused on delivering the correct operational and clinical changes for the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) SWBH are currently recruiting an Associate Delivery Director for Clinical Support Services on an interim basis.
The candidate will need to have knowledge of the MMUH programme as well as very senior operational experience in an acute setting.
Accountable to the MMUH Delivery Director, focused over the next 22 months on the delivery of clinical support operational changes in preparation of the new hospital
If you are interested in this opportunity and would like an initial discussion about the role please email Liam.kennedy@nhs.net.
Note: This opportunity is open to employees of any of the Black Country and West Birmingham Integrated Care Partner organisations. If you are interested then please complete the Expression of Interest (EOI) Form highlighting your experience (in line with the person specification and job description) and suitability for the role and submit this to Patricia.lee13@nhs.net by Thursday 17 November, 5pm. Successful candidates will be interviewed on Tuesday 22 November.
Heartbeat: Segregate for safety – laundry service need your help
The Trust’s dedicated in-house laundry team are requesting colleague support to segregate linen properly to safeguard against cross infection risks and to limit the amount of linen being mislaid and mishandled.
Aner Marcelo, Head of Support Services, told Heartbeat: “In-house, we launder pyjamas, curtains, nightwear, scrubs, oven gloves, mops, tea cloths and lab coats, amongst other things.
“The operation requires a very particular set of skills which are easy to overlook. However, there is lot more to laundering than meets the eye.
“My day-to-day job involves handling chemicals, operating machines, good coordination, and impeccable timing to ensure that linens leave the laundry room clean, crisp, and on time.
“If not segregated properly there is a high possibility of cross infection. Furthermore, we get charged by an external contractor if the above items get mixed with theirs and as a result, the items end up in waste bins.”
Aner added: “It’s important for colleagues to be mindful on how to prevent cross contamination and reduce cost pressures.
“Linen can be made safe by washing it to remove any contaminating body fluids, but it is often not practical to wash domestic linen at high temperatures because of the heat lability of fabrics.
“And so, we encourage all colleagues, clinician and non-clinical alike to follow proper linen segregation.”
All PJs, curtains, nightwear, scrubs, oven gloves, mops, tea cloths, and lab coats need to be segregated and sent to internal laundry. PJs need to be put in the green bags, whilst scrubs are to be put in the blue bins. All other items are to be sent to external providers.
International Stop the Pressure Day display board competition
To celebrate International Stop the Pressure Day, the tissue viability team are encouraging colleagues create a prevent pressure ulcers display as part of a display board competition.
The challenge is to design a ‘Stop the Pressure Day’ display board for your ward which shows
- Factors that can increase/decrease the risk of patients developing pressure damage
- How you assess your patient for their level of risk of pressure damage
- How you reduce the risk of pressure damage
- What you are doing to prevent pressure ulcers in your area.
The judging process will take place on Monday 21 November.
All those entering the ward board competition for Stop the Pressure Day should email tissueviability2@nhs.net by 4pm on Friday 18 November.
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