Monthly archives: October 2023
Black History Month Event – Monday 30 October 2023
To Celebrate Black History Month on Monday 30 October an event will be taking place throughout the day at City Hospital Post Graduate Centre in Wolfson Room from 11am – 4pm
This June 2023 it was the 75th anniversary of the arrival of passengers of the Empire Windrush. We all have a lot to be thankful for and this would be a great way to get together and to celebrate the success and achievements of the Windrush generation and descendants!
The day is to be planned as followed:
11am – 12pm – Windrush Documentary part 1
12pm – 2pm – Food and stands – socialising
2.30pm – 3.30pm – Windrush Documentary part 2
3.45pm – 4.45pm – Windrush Documentary part 3
Everyone is welcome.
Travel disruption on M5 Junction 1 for 10 nights
Traffic signal upgrade works are taking place on the M5 J1 West Bromwich interchange through to Monday 6 November.
There will be temporary traffic signals during the daytime and partial lane closures during the night only affecting all approaches to the island, including the A41, Kenrick Way, and M5 slip roads.
The work takes place during the school half term when traffic is usually lighter. Any night-time lane closures will be in place between 9 pm and 6 am.
Bus
The National Express West Midlands 74 bus services crosses the motorway interchange. Buses will continue to operate, but there may be slight delays when traffic volumes increase in the area.
We advised colleagues to allow for extra time to their journey during this period. For further updates relating to roadworks across the West Midlands, please visit Transport for West Midlands.
Please dock your Glucose and ketone meters
Can colleagues please ensure they switch on all glucose meters and dock to update daily as this will update all staff and patient records. This will also send queuing results into Unity.
October is Speak Up Month
As you may be aware October is Speak Up Month. Freedom to Speak Up is for everyone who works here.
Speaking up enhances all our working lives and improves the quality and safety of care. Listening and acting upon matters raised means that Freedom to Speak Up will help us be a great place to work.
Speak Up Month in October is an opportunity to raise awareness of how much we value speaking up in our organisation. We see speaking up as fundamental to how we work, and we want to be part of making speaking up business as usual across SWB.
Be sure to check out this short video featuring Essie Li, Head of Transformation talking about the importance of speaking up.
To find out more about how to speak up at SWB and our guardians, please click here.
Meet our guardians: Our guardians will be visiting the City site on Monday 30 October so be sure to look out for them in your ward or area.
IT Migration planned for 31 October has been deferred
Please be aware that the Planned IT migration affecting multiple services on Tuesday 31 October has been deferred. We will of course advise once the activity is ready to be rescheduled in due course.
We apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused.
Should you have any further queries then please contact your line manager in the first instance or the IT Service desk on ext. 4050 or by contacting the chat with the IT Service Desk.
Alcohol care team education sessions at Sandwell
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 the identification and management of alcohol withdrawal in hospital, as well as treating alcohol issues and issues with addition both in and out of hospital. Attendees who complete the training will be presented with a certificate. All sessions will be hosted at the Sandwell Education Centre, 3pm – 4pm on the following dates:
- Thursday 9 November
- Friday 24 November
- Wednesday 6 December
To book a place please contact peter.smith53@nhs.net or call 0121 507 5074.
Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 27 October
I will never tire of acknowledging how privileged we are to work in one of the most diverse communities in the country. And I am proud that much of our SWB family comes from those communities that we serve. I can honestly say our diversity is our strength and we should remember and celebrate that.
And it is because some of our colleagues come from or have deep connections with countries far and wide, that I know some of you will be deeply affected when there is conflict in the world. The latest conflict in Gaza and Israel is a stark reminder of this enduring and tragic, reality. Please remember that our organisation is there for you whatever you may be going through, and I want to use this opportunity to remind you of the support available to you.
- Confidential support in the form of free counselling is available to those who want it through occupational health. To access this service please call 0121 507 3306 between the hours of (8.30am – 1pm, Monday – Friday). Alternatively, you can email swbh.ohreferrals@nhs.net where you expect a reply within 48 hours. In addition, the wellbeing hub also offer confidential chats for all colleagues which can be accessed by calling 0121 507 3306 or emailing. swbh.ohreferrals@nhs.net.
- If you wish to access a similar service outside of the above hours, please call Samaritans on 116 123. This helpline in available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Alternatively, you can speak with our chaplaincy service. The chaplaincy service is trained and skilled to support colleagues of any single religion. The team includes men and women from all the major faiths established in our wider community. You can reach out to the team by calling 0121 507 3552 or 0121 507 4055. Note: During evenings, weekends and bank holidays, chaplains of all faiths cover emergencies and can be contacted through the switchboard.
I urge you to use these services should you need to. Please also speak to your line managers for further support.
As I talk about embracing diversity, I wanted to share a letter that is going from all chief executives in the Black Country to our equality, diversity and inclusion leads, in response to a letter from the Secretary of State, effectively calling for the recruitment of roles promoting this agenda to be stopped.
Our response to the Secretary of State’s letter reinforces our full support and commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and think it is proper to share it in my blog this week.
“We wanted to write to you as health leaders from across our Integrated Care System in response to the letter issued from the Secretary of State on Thursday afternoon. As a system and as individual organisations we have done so much already working with you as Chairs and your members in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion staff networks to improve the experience of colleagues and citzens across the system.
We agree with the Secretary of State that we should spend all of our funding appropriately but recognise we still have so much more to do together :-
- We need to continue to improve the experiences of our staff from all backgrounds and ensure as organisations we have the right approach to achieving that and learn from each other
- We need to ensure the NHS is a rewarding, welcoming and attractive career prospect for future generations from all communities of the Black Country where people can achieve their great potential and have rewarding careers
- We need to continue to listen to communities to ensure our services are developed to be accessible to and to meet the needs of our diverse communities.
We, therefore, want to reassure you of our shared continued commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We recognise this is a priority area of focus for our organisations and we will continue to support investment where it is appropriate and reasonable to do so.”
Have a good week.
One Health and Care: Your local shared care record
Plans to bring together health and care records across the Black Country and West Birmingham – and beyond – are taking the next steps forward.
Since Unity was launched in November 2019, we have been able to see information from our local GPs such as current medications and diagnoses by looking in the Health Information Exchange (HIE) in Unity and via SystmOne.
Two separate sources of information are being linked to Unity and SystmOne, and the information available will provide professionals responsible for a patient’s direct care with a holistic view of a person’s care and treatment across all settings.
The aim is to improve patient outcomes and save staff and clinician time, by:
- Enhancing collaborative working between individuals and organisations
- Giving clinicians the information needed to make faster and more accurate decisions – reducing the need to order repeat tests and request records
- Reducing the burden on patients to relay key information with each new contact
HIE now contains information from the West Midlands Shared Care Record (WMShCR). The WMShCR includes information from across the region from eight acute Trusts, five mental health Trusts, and 346 GP practices (including University Hospitals Birmingham, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s, and the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust.) Information coming into HIE includes radiology and blood results, hospital visits, allergies. Data that has come from the West Midlands SCR will be labelled WMShCR.
From early November we will have access to the One Health and Care Shared Care Record (OHC SCR), which will provide access to information from across the Black Country from a wide range of health and social care organisations. (GP records, allergies and hospital appointment data; future expansion includes blood results, radiology, clinical correspondence, care plans)
OHC SCR will be accessed by a link on the left hand menu in Unity, and a dedicated icon in SystmOne, and a user guide is attached.
The first time you access this you need to enter your name and role so that the system can link your profile to the shared care record.
For full details about the OHC ScR system, its benefits and how it will work, visit the dedicated One Health and Care webpage here.
Training materials including a short explanatory video can be found here.
Cancer services fundraising event
On Friday 27 October our cancer support services will be selling samosas to raise money for cancer patients here at the trust. This event will run 11.30am – 1pm, outside the courtyard information and support service, main reception, Sandwell.
Due to the previous success of their recent cake and samosa sale, the team are requesting for colleagues to reserve their samosas if they require more than 4, to ensure they can accommodate all requests.
Please email jennifer.donovan@nhs.net or call 0121 507 2776 to pre book your samosa’s.
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