Monthly archives: December 2023

Sustrans Winter Walking and Wheeling Challenge

Anyone living in Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall or Wolverhampton record your stroll every day for the week and you will be entered into a prize draw for a chance to win a £50 shopping voucher.

The competition runs between 1 December 2023 to 7 January 2024. Complete
your walks during this time and send a picture of the filled-in walk tracker, or you
own version of a walking log to westmidlands@sustrans.org.uk You must also
include the first three digits of your postcode in the email

It doesn’t matter how long you have walked, all participants who complete the challenge will be entered.

The competition will close on Sunday 7 January 2024 one winner from each local authority will be
chosen at random and contacted via email before Sunday 14 January 2024.

Sandwell main reception Costa closure this weekend

The main reception Costa coffee at Sandwell will be closed on this weekend. If colleagues wish to purchase any beverages or food products over the weekend, please visit Hallam restaurant across the car park at Sandwell. Hallam restaurant will be open 7.30am – 6.30pm on both days.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Clinical support system maintenance: 6 December, 7am – 7.30am

An essential CSS (clinical support system) maintenance will be taking place on Wednesday 6 December to ensure the Trust’s system remains stable. The work is being carried out by IT and is scheduled to begin at 7am for approximately 30 minutes and should be completed by 7.30am.

During this time colleagues using CSS may experience brief disconnections and be forcibly logged off the system but will be able to log straight back in.

We would recommend colleagues try not to upload documents into CSS, access the ‘CDA’ icon in Unity to view historical patient records, or complete eOutcomes from the link in Unity between 6.55am and 7.05am. This timeslot has been chosen as a quieter time operationally to minimise impact.

The activity will be closely monitored by our IT support teams.

As always, should you have any further queries please do contact the IT Service Desk on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050 or via Chat with the IT Service Desk

Free four weeks bus pass

In line with our commitment to work towards more sustainable practices and to achieve the actions in our Trust Board approved Green Strategic Plan, we are supporting staff in getting public transport to work. Working in the NHS, we all have a role to play in mitigating poor air quality.

In partnership with National Express and the bus improvement work, SWBH NHS are offering four weeks’ free travel on the bus. This offer is for staff who currently have a car parking pass and live within 5km of our hospital sites.

The initiative aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, alleviate congestion, and promote a healthier and more cost-effective mode of travel. Benefits include positive impacts on physical and mental health, financial savings, and a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions compared to car commuting.

For more information and to claim your code for 4 weeks’ free bus travel, please email Fran Silcocks (Head of Sustainability) on francesca.silcocks@nhs.net. Please only request the code if you intent to use it yourself.

For more information on bus travel, cost savings and bus routes to/from work, visit:

https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/estates/sustainability/bus-and-metro-travel/ Also see attached a useful guide and bus route information.

After trialling the free 4 week bus travel pass, you can buy a month pass at an exclusive NHS 10% discount here: https://nxbusportal2.co.uk/nhs/.

IT migration affecting multiple services: 4 December, 10pm – 5 December, 4am

This will affect all colleagues working the night shift on Monday 4 December.

This work is scheduled to begin at 10pm and should be completed by 4am on Tuesday 5 December. Unity will remain fully available.

However, this activity will result in the following services being unavailable for up to six hours. All affected areas will need to revert to using their local business continuity plans.

• The FreeStyle Glucose\Ketone meters can work independently during the upgrade however no results will be forwarded to Unity. As these are point of care tests clinical staff will have had sight of the result on the point of care device before it is transferred to Unity. These results go across to Unity once devices are docked/synchronised which is the normal workflow. However, we would recommend that clinical staff make a separate note of the result within the patient record (particularly if they are acting upon it).
• ICE Portal – this is used by GPs generally during core hours.
• Sentinel – management of ECG devices used by cardiology colleagues.

Please click here to see the full list of services which will be impacted by these works.

Desktop alerts will be issued from 8pm reminding colleagues about the planned downtime.

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.