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Monthly archives: June 2023

Managing an incident and duty of candour training

 

This training is aimed at colleagues that manage incidents on safeguard and will be delivered virtually via the Microsoft Teams platform on the following dates:

  • 4 July (10am – 11am)
  • 26 July (1pm – 2pm)
  • 8 August (10am – 11am)
  • 30 August (2pm – 3pm)
  • 5 September (10am – 11am)
  • 27 September (2pm – 3pm)
  • 4 October (10am – 11am)
  • 17 October (1pm – 2pm)

Each session will include:

  • Focus on how to manage an incident on safeguard
  • Sending an email through safeguard
  • Explanation on 72 hour briefs and incident assessment meetings
  • Identification of falls and pressure ulcers
  • Statement requests
  • Duty of candour

 For session booking details including joining links, please email swb-tr.RiskManagement@nhs.net.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 30 June

 

By Daren Fradgley, Deputy Chief Executive – Richard Beeken is away.

Many of you will have heard the term ‘No Criteria to Reside’ or maybe you are more familiar with the old term of ‘Medically fit for Discharge’ – but do you understand what it means and particularly how it affects patient flow throughout the hospital.

I wanted to spend some time in my Friday message this week raising awareness of this matter and what we can all do to help support timely and appropriate discharge.

Across the Trust we currently have approximately 56 patients who we class as having ‘no criteria to reside’ – this means that we have treated their original reason for being admitted and they have no clinical reason to be in a hospital bed.

There are many reasons why people may be staying longer with us such as waiting for equipment to continue their recovery at home, perhaps they need a package of care to support them to stay at home or in some cases they will be waiting for a placement within a nursing or residential care home. We classify these as discharge pathways:

Pathway 0: Simple discharge, no formal input from health or social care needed once home
Pathway 1: Support to recover at home; able to return home with support from health and/or social care
Pathway 2: Rehabilitation or short-term care in a 24-hour bed-based setting
Pathway 3: Require ongoing 24-hour nursing care, often in a bedded setting. Long-term care is likely to be required for these individuals.
Pathway 4 All end-of-Life pathways (either home or 24 hr care)

Having people within our care that are classed as no criteria to reside has an impact on our patient safety and flow, which means when people arrive at our emergency departments and the decision is made to admit them, we have (currently) 56 less beds to admit them into, which means they often face longer waiting times within the department – an issue I am sure you have seen lots about in the media.

This isn’t just a Sandwell and West Birmingham problem and responsibility – and it’s not one that is in our gift to solve either – it is a widespread issue across the NHS and social care, but what we can do locally is try to improve the experience of local residents.

We are aware that we need to be more pro-active in discharge planning and our integrated discharge hub and the recent introduction of the admission checklist on Unity are some good examples of how we are looking to improve this. The admission checklist asks clinical staff to identify any social care or complex discharge needs a person may have right at the beginning of their stay. This enables the discharge hub to start planning their safe discharge right away and doesn’t mean we are rushing to put things into place once they are declared as medically well. Although this is a relatively new process, we are already seeing positive impacts on our length of stay.

So, my ask is that you continue to be complete with the admission checklist and identify and escalate any complex needs to the discharge hub as soon as you possibly can. The team require a clear description of a person’s needs and you should describe not prescribe. For example, don’t tell a person that they are going to be discharged to a care home, because when the team start planning that discharge, they may discover that the person doesn’t meet the criteria. We have lots of community resource to make home a safe and valid option for many patients, rather than them going into a care setting. The more detail the team have and the earlier they have it, the more prepared we can be to enable a person to have a safe and effective discharge from hospital.

We also work as an integrated team with partners, including Sandwell and Birmingham Local Authorities and third sector organisations such as The British Red Cross, Sapphire, and Home from Hospital to help support the discharge of patients and the development of our ‘place’ partnerships will continue to support this too.

The discharge hub is open seven days a week, from 8am – 8pm and can be contacted on extension 3147.

Onto other matters. As you may be aware, our current E-Rostering system contract ends on 31 July 2023. NHS provider organisations need to be increasingly versatile as they manage challenges such as changing demography, new technologies and changing patient needs and expectations.

E-rostering enables organisations to respond dynamically to these challenges. As an organisation we have invested in the market leader of electronic rostering systems that gives us the tools to provide safe and effective staffing for our population, patients, and our people. We must ensure that all services using the trusts current electronic rostering system transition across to Allocate with some urgency.

If you have any concerns/ questions, please contact shila.patel@nhs.net.

Finally, you may have seen in the media this morning that the NHS has published the first ever NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. The plan looks at how the NHS will work to put staffing on a sustainable footing and improve patient care, focuses on retaining existing talent and making the best use of new technology alongside the biggest recruitment drive in health service history to address the gap.

You can watch a short video from NHS CEO, Amanda Pritchard explaining the plan by clicking here.

I was pleased to see that this plan aligns so well with our own People Plan, which we launched earlier this year. It will make the NHS and particularly SWB an exciting place to work.

Have a good weekend.

Lunch and learn – sharing the progress at Midland Met

 

Thank you to all those who participated in the recent lunch and learn sessions focused on the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital. Your active engagement and valuable contributions have made these sessions immensely fruitful, and we are grateful for your continued support.

As promised, we would like to provide a brief recap of the key discussion points covered during these sessions. The purpose of these lunch and learn sessions was to delve into the changes and developments surrounding the Midland Met programme, fostering a deeper understanding among all colleagues.

Attached to this message is a copy of the presentation shared at the session, but we would like to take the opportunity to summarise some of the questions that were covered.

  • Will there be agile work areas at Midland Met? Yes, there will be approximately 230 agile working desks, these will largely be dedicated to acute clinical teams and their administrative colleagues. There will be home admin zones for specialties / departments that includes a small meeting / interview room. In addition, colleagues will have access to approximately 15-20 bookable seminar rooms, a lecture theatre as well as the Winter Garden on the 5th floor that colleagues are welcome to use.
  • Are we recruiting more roles at Midland Met? The Trust board have agreed to 484 more staff at Midland Met and there are a number of active recruitment campaigns underway to support us in being fully staffed.
  • What will the transport links to Midland Met be? Whilst Midland Met has been designed to accommodate plenty of covered parking within the building for staff and patients, there are a number of programmes to support sustainable travel. Bike lanes from Sandwell and Birmingham will converge on Midland Met, the canals are being redeveloped to offer a scenic route to site and buses will be regularly scheduled, arriving and departing from the front of Midland Met. We are working with Transport for West Midlands on the public transport routes with potential for on site bus stops and a new bus route.
  • Can we get a tour of the inside of the new hospital? Whilst Midland Met is still an active construction site tours are limited to mainly Fridays with small groups. To book a tour please contact projectoffice@nhs.net. As we progress through to building handover, all colleagues will be able to visit the site and see their department and the other public areas. We will also be making regular videos available showing progress, colleagues can tour the site using our virtual reality sets or simply keep up to date with progress on staff comms or through our dedicated Midland Met Facebook group.
  • What is the learning campus that’s been mentioned to be developed on the Midland Met site? The learning campus is a major new education and skills resource, developed in partnership with several further and higher education providers, that will be being developed on the Midland Met estate offering training from entry level to level 7 skills. It will be linked to the new hospital and focussed on widening participation in education. Find out more about the development on the learning campus consultation website:  https://mmuhlearningcampus.co.uk/

As we move forward, we encourage you to continue engaging in future lunch and learn sessions. These sessions will provide us with further opportunities to delve into key aspects of the programme, share updates, and address any further questions or concerns that may arise. Colleagues can send any ideas for discussion topics or questions they have to swbh.mmuh@nhs.net

Dates for future Lunch and Learn sessions:

Alcohol Awareness Week: 3-9 July

 

This year’s Alcohol Awareness Week takes place from 3-9 July and for this year the theme is alcohol and cost. Alcohol Awareness Week is a week dedicated to raising awareness, advocating for change, and helping to improve individual’s relationship with alcohol. The alcohol care team aim to ensure that colleagues, patients and visitors have better knowledge around alcohol which will then enable them to make informed choices about their alcohol intake.

Are you curious about the impact alcohol may or may not be having on you or someone else? Want to know more about its short and long term effects, its effects on your physical mental health, on families, society, money and even crime? Want to know about units or even try some alcohol free drinks? If so why not pop along to one of the alcohol awareness stands being hosted by our alcohol care team from 1.30pm – 3.30pm at the below locations.

  • Tuesday 4 July, main entrance, City
  • Wednesday 5 July, main entrance, Rowley
  • Thursday 6 July, main entrance, Sandwell

The alcohol care team will be on hand answering your questions, offering advice, handouts and signposting to a variety of alcohol support services across the borough. The team will also be joined by Aquarius (the alcohol, drugs and gambling service for adults across the Midlands) and other community alcohol service providers.

For more information please email amy.thompson18@nhs.net

Do you know how to contact health and safety?

 

Did you know our health and safety team recently changed their email address? Previously colleagues would contact either Calloway and Dalvinder Masaun, but the team have now created a new shared inbox where all health and safety enquiries should be sent to going forward.

For everything health and safety, please now email swbh.healthandsafety@nhs.net.

Calling all AHP support workers

 

Are you passionate about your role as an AHP support worker? Are you looking for development in your role now or in the future? Could you be a voice of AHP support workers in your area?

If so, you should consider joining our AHP support worker forum!

You’ll be supported to develop your knowledge, skills and experience, working with like-minded colleagues, helping us to shape the future direction of AHP support workers across the Trust.

If this is something interest, please click here to complete the expression of interest.

To access the latest opportunities available to AHP colleagues, please see the dedicated Connect page by clicking here.

Rear drive at City behind critical care closure until further notice

 

Due to ongoing health and safety issues, the rear drive at City Hospital (behind critical care) has been closed until further notice. This drive is sometimes used by colleagues when exiting City. As a result of the closure, the City gym will also be closed until further notice. Should colleagues wish to use gym facilities, the outdoor gym at City outside the BTC remains open between 7am – 6pm and the gym at Sandwell in Trinity House remains open too.

We ask colleagues plan ahead to allow for delays when leaving City if they usually use the rear drive.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Industrial Action: Sandwell refuse collections

 

Due to industrial action being taken within the Sandwell refuse service there is the possibility of fly tipping within the hospital containers.

Can staff who use the compound/bins around the Trust, please ensure that the compound gates are kept locked when not in use.

These strikes are expect to last until Friday 21 July.

Any problems please contact the waste management team or contact Dawn Hall on ext. 2542/07818 063796 or Colin Cheesborough on 07870 835139.

Getting ready for the big move – Health Care Relocations touring City Hospital today

 

This week marks a significant milestone in our journey to Midland Met as we welcome the team from Health Care Relocations (HCR) to our hospitals and offer an opportunity to have our army of ‘Move Champions’ meet face to face with the experts in hospital relocations.

HCR, renowned experts in healthcare facility relocations, have been on site all week and today have been welcomed into City Hospital to start preparations for the safe and efficient move of equipment and supplies from City Hospital to the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital.

HCRs on-site presence signifies a significant milestone in our move plans and stands as a call to action for all colleagues to ensure they have discussed their move plans with their department.

 

The HCR team will be touring various wards and departments, working closely with our colleagues to gain valuable insights into the equipment that needs to be relocated. They bring with them extensive experience and military precision in planning such moves, ensuring that every step is meticulously organised to guarantee a seamless transition.

Health Care Relocations have 30 years of experience and have supported over 500 hospitals move internationally.

We encourage all staff members to take this opportunity to engage with the HCR colleagues when they visit your department. Feel free to share any concerns, queries, or specific requirements you may have. Your valuable input will play a crucial role in ensuring that the move is tailored to meet the needs of each department and that the transition is as smooth as possible.

For more information please email the Midland Met mailbox at swbh.mmuh@nhs.net.

Wesleyan Foundation donation to transform hospital experience for children at Midland Met

 

Children being treated at the Midland Met will be met with an incredibly welcoming and engaging experience, thanks to the generosity of the Wesleyan Foundation with their £35,000 donation going towards a play unit and interactive artwork for the children’s ward.

Dr Nick Makwana, a consultant paediatrician, is thrilled about the donation and the impact it will have on young patients. “This fantastic generosity from the Wesleyan Foundation will help us provide an even greater level of care for our children and young people,” he said. “We want to do as much as we can to encourage our young patients, and any siblings they may have, to seek, find, and learn through play. These funded activities are also particularly beneficial for young patients with physical and sensory disabilities, where they can play and forget about their treatment.

Nathan Wallis, Chief of Staff at Wesleyan, expressed his delight at being able to support and create a welcoming and healing environment for young patients at the new hospital. “Not only will they receive world-class care, but their experience in the hospital will be greatly enhanced,” he said. “As a financial service mutual for teachers, doctors, and dentists, it is very important for us to support the things that matter most to our customers, and supporting the Midland Met campaign is a fantastic example.”

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBgDBvgO6p8&list=PLoYmVhk1vF7WISITSw-uXuW9JO2YMiF2H[/embed]

Johnny Shah, Head of Your Trust Charity, added that the donation is a huge boost to the campaign and brings them closer to their target. “We remain on track to achieve our target for our We Are Metropolitan fundraising campaign,” he said. “However, we still need local businesses and our community to help us get to £2 million by the time our hospital opens. To make the Midland Met more than a hospital, we must continue raising these much-needed funds.”

Overall, the Wesleyan Foundation’s donation is set to make a significant difference to the lives of young patients at Midland Met, and highlights the importance of philanthropy and community involvement in creating a better world for all.

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