Monthly archives: December 2023

Communications bulletin: Your thoughts?

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 8 December

From Rachel Barlow – Richard is on leave

As we enter the last month of 2023, I have taken some time to reflect on what has been achieved over the past year on the journey to opening Midland Met (MMUH).

As Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the MMUH Programme Company I could not be prouder of what you have all achieved during the past year to ensure that we keep on our trajectory of opening MMUH in autumn 2024.

With under a year to go to before we open the MMUH doors to patients, I would like to share with you some of the highlights of the year that you and your teams have worked hard to drive forward and, in some cases, achieve well before the target dates we had set ourselves.

These highlight the expanse of the work which is being undertaken daily to ensure not only we hit our move period of autumn 2024 but do it in safe and measured approach.

Many of these have required colleagues to step up and volunteer to take on roles and responsibilities to get ready for Midland Met. This includes move champions who are now readily engaged in preparing detailed plans with our appointed move partner Healthcare Relocations to prepare for a safe move.

Other highlights include working hard to achieve our trajectory for bed right-sizing to ensure we fit into the new hospital, we have been working closely with system partners to ensure appropriate pathways are in place for our patients, we have dedicated business change managers who working with clinical teams are ensuring we are operationally ready to move and another major milestone included MMUH being connected to the SWB main IT infrastructure.

Every aspect of the work that we have been undertaking has been done against a backdrop, for many, of working hard to maintain business as usual in the here and now, whilst also planning new clinical pathways, preparing our workforce and local communities for a future work in which MMUH is open to provide acute care in wider health and social care system.

I have witnessed over the last few weeks in particular much momentum and pride on site as technical commissioning has reached some major milestones. Four generators are now switched on and the building is heated with hot and cold running water flowing.  I would like to thank our colleagues across different disciplines and organisations such as Balfour Beatty and the New Hospital Programme for helping us to achieve this progress.

In addition, during November we continued to hear view from local stakeholders with the second stage of our near neighbours’ meetings taking place. Both were well attended, and we were privileged to meet residents living within a mile of the new hospital. Responding to feedback from previous events about improving transport and connectivity locally, we also invited leads from the local police, Sandwell Council, Birmingham City Council and Transport for West Midlands. This provided a very productive listening and engagement opportunity which will help inform future transport plans and experiences.

As we enter the New Year, we should not underestimate the amount of work that is needed to get us over the line. The first period of 2024 will focus on finalising the building to get us ready for building handover from Balfour Beatty in spring 2024, continuing to ensure our people are ready for the activation and induction period and taking our biggest group of colleagues ( who will be moving base to MMUH) through a management of change process.

As acting CEO for the next couple of weeks, as Richard is on leave, one of my main tasks will be working with colleagues to plan for the upcoming non-consultant doctor industrial action which has been announced from 7am on 20 December to 7am on the 23 December and from 7am on 3 January to 7am on 9 January 2024. The turbulence and impact that these periods of action have on protecting our patients’ services cannot be underestimated and I want to thank you in advance for your continued hard work and support to ensure care for our patients.

Please listen out for more information over coming days.

Best wishes

Rachel

Join the Birmingham and Solihull ICS open conversation: 14 December

We are determined to make working in health and care in Birmingham and Solihull the best place it can be.

We can only do this by tapping into the wisdom of our workforce – by sharing your experiences, thoughts, and ideas, you will help us understand the root causes of our cultural and performance challenges and lay the foundation for genuinely transformative change.

Our open conversations differ from staff surveys as they allow you to not only share your own views, but to also comment and vote on the thoughts and ideas of your colleagues in an interactive and ‘live’ discussion.

Some ideas already shared via the open conversation are:

• Support staff wellbeing by introducing measures to assist with the cost of living and mental health support
• Improve patient access and experience through a system that allows frontline staff to share ideas
• Tackle cultural issues by implementing changes in welfare policies
• Work harder to attract and retain new talent; improve induction and recruitment processes and review mandatory training and wider training opportunities

Please join the conversation to help us co-create an action plan to make Birmingham and Solihull the best place to work in health and care.

To join the open conversation visit https://openconversations.clevertogether.com/welcome and click the “Register” button to sign up.

The first open conversation will be open 24/7 until 11.59pm on Thursday 14 December – you can join as many times as you like during this time.

We are encouraging each one of you to log in and make your voice count. Let’s build the best place to work together.

If you have any questions, problems, please get in touch with the clever together team by emailing  support@clevertogether.com

National Grief awareness week 2-8 December 2023

This week is National Grief Awareness it’s to raise awareness of the impact of grief and loss on a national platform at a difficult time of year for so many of us who are bereaved.

Sue Edwards and the chaplaincy team will be present today in main reception at City opposite Archers restaurant between 11.30am – 1pm if anyone would like to come and have a chat with us.

For More Information visit this link

Black Country Integrated Care System Allied Health Professionals Apprenticeship Handbook

The NHS Long-Term Workforce plan (LTWP) published earlier this year sets out
an ambitious plan to grow the NHS workforce to ensure it can meet its demands now and in the future

The plan recognises the important contribution Allied Health Professionals
(AHPs) make to the delivery of NHS services and sets out an ambitious target to
increase the AHP workforce by 71,000 by 2036/2037. To achieve this target,
the LTWP calls for 25% increase in AHP apprenticeships by 2031.

In order to raise awareness of apprenticeships an AHP apprenticeship
handbook has been developed in collaboration with key stakeholders from
across the Black Country Integrated Care System.The handbook provides information about the range of apprenticeship programmes that are available to AHP registrants and support workers.

The AHP apprenticeship handbook can be found on the AHP Apprenticeship
page via the following link – AHP Apprenticeships (swbh.nhs.uk) or you can
contact the Apprenticeship Team via swbh.apprenticeship@nhs.net for more
information.

Santa came to town!

The children’s ward had a very special visit today from the big man himself…Santa. All thanks to the staff at Littleton Lodge Care Home.

The children were gifted presents by Santa and enjoyed spending the afternoon with him. This is one of the many Christmas events organised by the play team.

Maternity resources newly refreshed for healthcare professionals

Three maternity modules within the Cultural Competence e-learning programme have recently been reviewed and updated.

Being culturally competent is not only about respecting and appreciating the cultural contexts of patients’ lives. Neither is it a one-size-fits-all approach – it’s about understanding the way we deliver healthcare and respond to the needs of our diverse population. This programme aims to support clinicians to gain knowledge and understanding of the issues around culture and health; and how this might reduce disparities in healthcare outcomes.

The updated modules – two generic sessions applicable to a wide range of healthcare professionals and one maternity specific session – now include the recent evidence base and literature on culture, the potential impact on health outcomes and lived experience.

These resources support the delivery of the Better Births vision of improving maternity care in England and helps to deliver the three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services’ ambition to reduce the rate of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and intrapartum brain injuries in babies in England by 50% by 2025.

For more information and to access the sessions, please visit the Cultural Competence programme page

Christmas jumper day – Tomorrow

Drug safety notice: Carbomer containing lubricating eye gels

Preliminary investigations have identified a potential association with carbomer containing lubricating eye gel. Though investigations are still ongoing and these findings are not conclusive.

With this in mind,  as a precautionary measure until further information is available, it is recommended that clinical colleagues avoid carbomer containing lubricating eye gels for dry eyes where possible.

Please see carbomer containing lubricating eye gel information sheet for further details, advice and alternate solutions.

For more information please email i.nzewi1@nhs.net or contact the pharmacy department on ext. 5263/3783.

Reporting and Managing an Incident Training Session

This training is for staff that need to report & staff that manage incidents on safeguard and will be delivered virtually by Microsoft Teams

Each session will include:

• Focus on how to report an incident on the new format including the new Learning from Patient Safety Events (LFSPE) and inclusion of SWARM huddles for reporting.
• Manage an Incident (managers perspective) including completion of questionnaires for certain topics.
• Changing Department & re-notifying of incidents
• Levels of harm including teaching on psychological harm, physical harm and actual impact
• Duty of Candour
• Actions management on Safeguard for Serious Incidents (SI’s)

Dates:

19 December 2023            (10am-11.00am)

9 January 2024                   (2pm- 3.00pm)

23 January 2024                 (10am- 11.00am)

8 February 2024                 (2pm-3.00pm)

21 February 2024               (12.30- 1.30pm)

5 March 2024                     (2pm- 3.00pm)

19 March 2024                    (10am-11.00am)

To book on a session please email: swb-tr.RiskManagement@nhs.net and the MS teams invite will be sent to you.