Monthly archives: November 2023

Extended opening times at Costa, Sandwell Hospital

Costa in the Main Reception of Sandwell Hospital will be trialing an extension of opening hours from today (Monday 6 November 2023).

The new opening times of the Costa at the main reception are:

Monday to Friday 8 am-8 pm

Saturday and Sunday: 10.30am-3.30pm

Portable appliance testing at Birmingham Treatment Centre

Until Friday 10 November, portable appliance testing (PAT Testing) will take place at Birmingham Treatment Centre (BTC).

All wards and departments are asked to ensure that all portable appliances are made available for testing.

Any questions, please contact the contract management team at swbh.contractmanagementteam@nhs.net

UNISON Information Event -Taking Place Today (Monday 6 November)

A UNISON Information event is taking place today (Monday 6 November 2023) at Sandwell Hospital Education Centre, Room 13 from 10am – 2pm.

We would like to encourage staff who are going through any management of change to attend and share any concerns, or any of general workplace issues. We would also like to speak and hear from migrant workers at SWBH. This month’s UNISON theme is all about migrant workers.

UNISON will be available to speak to staff who are considering becoming a member.  Staff can come along and sign up on the day or take information away/join online if they prefer.  Existing members are welcome to come along to find out more about the benefits of existing membership such a saving on energy bills, car ensuring, free training/courses, free legal advice, financial advice and more.

For more information contact a.mccrory@unison.co.uk

Poppies for sale at Sandwell Hospital

The cancer services team are selling poppies for Remembrance Day, all proceeds will go to the Royal British Legion.

They will be available in the main reception at Sandwell Hospital from 10am-1pm until Friday 10 November

Occupational Therapy Week: 6 – 12 November – Meet Yasmeen Yafai

Occupational therapy is one of the allied health professions that helps people of all ages who have physical, sensory, or cognitive problems. Occupational Therapy Week aims to increase awareness of and celebrate the essential service occupational therapists provide in helping patients regain independence in all areas of their lives. This year’s Occupational Therapy Week will be celebrated between 6 – 12 November.

Meet Yasmeen Yafai

“My name is Yasmeen, I’m a band 5 Occupational therapist who joined the trust at the end of 2021. I have completed rotations in Medicine, Home Based Intermediate Care, Palliative, Trauma and Orthopaedics and currently started my fourth rotation in the community setting, where I have gained a broad range of Occupational Therapy (OT) specific skills in both acute and community settings.

I am proud to be an Occupational Therapist because I have a passion for helping people in need, focusing on their roles and goals and passions in life. My future career goal is to help deprived people in poor areas of the world. OT is a client-centred health profession concerned with promoting health and wellbeing through occupation. Fortunately, in the UK we have the resources to do so. People living in third world countries are disadvantaged in many ways and their quality of life is limited because of poverty or effects of war and therefore struggling to obtain the necessities – food, water and shelter. Occupation matters because it gives people’s lives meaning, purpose and structure (RCOT 2023) and taking part in occupations should be available to all people around the world.

When not working as an OT, I’m a florist working from home, this occupation is meaningful to me because it provides me with therapeutic joy. Social and therapeutic horticulture is proven to improve physical and mental health, as well as communication and thinking skills. Maybe one day I’ll be able to incorporate OT and Floristry in a world where there is peace but till now, I will aim to be the best OT I can be for people in need in Sandwell and West Birmingham.”

To celebrate Occupational Therapy Week, we will be hosting a special Occupational Therapy Week drop in event on Tuesday 7 November at Sandwell Education Centre from 10am – 3pm for all colleagues to attend.

For more information please email jannine.hall@nhs.net.

Changes to ordering Lateral Flow Device tests for patients

From 6 November 2023, LFD tests will no longer be available via GOV.UK or via 119.

Instead, patients/patients’ representatives can collect one box of five LFD tests from a participating community pharmacy, on confirmation that the patient is part of the cohort which is potentially eligible for COVID-19 treatments.

The test kits will currently continue to be supplied free of charge to these patients.

MLG drop in session for colleagues at City today from 1.30pm

The Muslim liaison group will be hosting a drop in session for all colleagues of all faiths should they want to have an informal chat or talk to anyone today (Monday 6 November) from 1.30pm – 3.30pm at the postgraduate centre at City.

At SWB we also offer:

• 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.

The MLG will be hosting their regular meeting with all the latest updates from their network tomorrow  (Tuesday 7 November), 6pm – 8pm at the postgraduate centre at City.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 3 November

This week I’d like to reflect on the pressure experienced by our emergency departments and our acute assessment units. As clocks went back last week-end signalling the early days of winter, already news is breaking about challenges experienced by emergency departments across the country. On Tuesday a critical incident was declared at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in response to extreme pressures across all services, whilst Norfolk’s largest hospital became the second in the county after the James Paget Hospital to do the same due to high demand for emergency services and a shortage of beds. Whilst this must never become normalised for us, for many of our colleagues in emergency and acute medicine it often feels like it is. So, on behalf of the executive and myself I would like to thank all colleagues currently working in our urgent and emergency care services, delivering the best care they can whilst demonstrating our Trust values.

I’d like to be clear that these colleagues should not consider themselves alone, they are one part of the bigger organisation and a significant part that needs our support. And I have an ask for every single colleague across the organisation to demonstrate that this winter we are all in this together. Regardless of your job, role or function please ask yourself ‘what can I do to support the organisation through winter?’ And in that question find the answer, whether it is ensuring our inpatients are discharged in a more timely manner, sharing ‘choose wisely’ messages with your family, friends and communities, getting your flu and covid vaccination, practicing and demonstrating good hand hygiene or even making healthier lifestyle choices, the power to help is your hands. In the next few weeks I will be hosting a media briefing for journalists across our patch and I’ll be putting to them what we ask of our communities, and what we intend to deliver for our patients. At this point it is reassuring to know that this will be our last winter before we move into the Midland Met, so please hold that thought as winter advances.

You are our strength and without our people we cannot serve, which is why as this year we mark the 20th anniversary of the NHS Staff Survey, I am asking everyone who hasn’t yet completed the survey to do so, it takes just 10 minutes to complete. The staff survey incorporates the NHS People Promise and reflects the commitments within our own People Plan. The results of the NHS Staff Survey provide valuable insights into how to improve the way that we engage, resource, support, develop and communicate with our people. To date our response rate is standing at 20.8% with colleagues in our corporate group leading at 34%, Imaging at 23%, PCCT 22%, WCH17%, Surgical services 16% and MEC 11%.  Know that we can do much better! I will make a commitment to you all that we will take forward actions, based on the feedback that we receive through the survey, at Trust, Group, and local team levels, to improve the working lives of our staff. I will also ask that, wherever possible, leaders create space in team meetings during the next couple of weeks to give those attending the opportunity to complete their survey. The survey is a great opportunity for everyone to influence our people agenda, we want to hear about where we can improve, as well as what works well for staff, so that we can build on good practices and experiences and share these across our organisation for the benefit of our people.

Only recently joining the organisation as interim Chief People Officer James Fleet has already met with some of our clinical group operational leaders to discuss a new approach to developing and implementing high impact improvements from both the national staff survey and our own pulse survey, using our Trust People Plan as our guide. To improve engagement it has been agreed that each clinical group and corporate services leader will identify three high impact actions for their area. For example, actions within surgical services include a positive focus on empowering and enabling all staff to ‘have a voice’ providing forums to share ideas, challenge decisions, discuss development and raise concerns openly, and a commitment to ensuring retained estate areas are adequately equipped with appropriate equipment and provide pleasant working environments, whilst within medical and emergency care plans are in place so teams receive regular feedback and have the opportunity to discuss how the move to Midland Met will affect teams at local level. They will also improve recognition and develop a local newsletter and senior leaders will visit local areas to actively listen to concerns.

Within PCCT actions include development of a methodology to improve communication regarding changes that do not involve Midland Met, whilst they will increase participation of clinical support and opportunities to participate in future surveys looking at IT access and enabling paper versions for those who choose to respond this way, and similar to MEC, senior leaders will visit local areas to understand environmental concerns and escalate appropriately.

The Trust’s staff networks will be engaged to support the development of improvement plans to ensure that the actions being taken forward reflect the diverse needs of our staff communities.  The publication of the annual staff survey is expected next spring and once received we will work at pace to have ‘Big Conversations’ with colleagues to develop improvement plans. Progress will be visible across the Trust as monthly updates will be published, and all line managers will have an annual objective relating to strengthening staff engagement and morale, as measured through the staff survey results.

And finally, our IT and communications teams are working hard developing our new website and intranet. It’s not before time as our current website was developed over fifteen years ago and is well past its prime. The team is focussed on ensuring the content that represents our services is accurate and accessible, so if you are contacted please respond promptly. Not only is our website a digital window to our organisation but a necessity in an increasingly online world, so it is in our interest that it represents us professionally. The launch is coming in the new year – in time to make the most of the build up to our big move and celebrate 200 years of BMEC. Don’t miss it.

Temporary closure of community midwife parking bays at City Hospital

The community midwife parking bays between the back of the maternity block and the Gift of Life sculpture will be temporarily closed from the evening of 5 – 7 November. This is to allow work to be undertaken to relocate the Gift of Life sculpture to Midland Met.

During this period, we ask colleagues to utilise the Trust multi-storey car park and other car parking spaces available across the City Hospital site.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Latest edition of Heartbeat now available!

The latest edition of Heartbeat is now available to read! This month, we’re celebrating the achievements of our colleagues at the Star Awards 2023 – turn to page 16 to see the winners in each category, and learn more about the evening with Lesley’s column on page two.

If you’re yet to get your vaccination, you can find out more about the programme and see a full timetable on pages four-five.

This month, we’re also marking the achievements of a number of colleagues, such as Meagan Fernandes who won Deputy Director of the Year in the HPMA awards, and Scott Shenton, nominated for the Health and Social Care Award by The Ladder Apprenticeships.

Click here to read the latest issue of Heartbeat!