Monthly archives: January 2024

Black Country Measles/MMR webinar follow up

Tuesday’s Black Country Measles webinar, hosted by Sally Roberts (Chief Nursing Officer for Black Country ICB) was recorded. You can watch it back by clicking here

Paul Fisher, Consultant in Health Protection at the UK Health Security Agency, gave a situation overview available here. Paul recommends that staff interested in diving deeper read UKHSA’s recently published Risk assessment for measles resurgence in the UK.

Presentation slides given by Dr Tania Hussain, Black Country ICB, which covered the medical diagnosis and treatment of measles are available here.

Donald Dobie presented slides on testing and disease management available here.

Infection prevention and control slides were presented by Shirina Stokes, Black Country Integrated Care Board available here.

Also attached is a summary of the questions asked  during the session and the response from the ICB’s Immunisations and Health Protection Team.  If you do have further questions which were not covered during the session, please email comms.blackcountry@nhs.net

Watch 24 hours in Black Country Healthcare

Throughout the day we will be showcasing the fantastic workforce and services across Black Country Healthcare.

SWB will be teaming up with other health care organisations across the area to profile the wide range services we offer.

So far, we have showcased our virtual wards team and given an insight into how our advanced clinical practitioners support our patients. Tonight, we will be shadowing the out of hours district nurse team, to see how they avoid admissions to our hospitals.

Be sure to follow us across all our social media platforms using #BlackCountryHealth247

Introduction to PSIRF tools

The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) will replace the Serious Incident Framework from Monday 1 April. The four main tools the Trust will use are:

• SWARM huddle – hot debrief to be used asap after an event/incident has happened.
• After-Action Review (AAR) – used to capture learning from an event/incident that has gone well or not so well. Can be used retrospectively or if a swarm is not possible.
• Multi-Disciplinary Team meeting (MDT) – to be used if further learning or unpacking of the event/incident is needed.
• Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) for in-depth investigations and in general for thinking about wider issues not just the actual incident (example below)

Note: You are not restricted to using one tool, you may need to use several..

Examples of each tool will be provided in the following weeks, the video below provides more detail.

Working Dads Employer Awards 2023: 25 January

We would like to invite you to the launch of the Working Dads Employer Awards Case Studies online at 12.30pm – 1.30pm on Friday 25 January brought to you by the Equal Parenting Project and Music Football Fatherhood. These case studies give examples of good practice around policies and culture designed to inspire other organisations to improve their support encouraging more fathers to take on childcare responsibilities and promote gender equality in the workplace.

The online launch event is hosted by our Support For Returning Fathers case study organisation PwC and will give you an opportunity to learn about the awards, get tips from the case study organisations and hear from a panel of experts in the field. We will have Maria Caulfield MP, Minister for Women providing a recorded message about the importance of this agenda at the start of the event. Speakers will include:

• Dr Holly Birkett, Co-Director Equal Parenting Project, University of Birmingham
• Dr Sarah Forbes, Co-Director Equal Parenting Project, University of York
• Elliott Rae, Founder of Music Football Fatherhood
• Sajjad Hassam, Lead Advisory – Restructuring M&A, PwC
• Richard Cartwright, Senior Manager & Midlands I&D Co-Chair, PwC
• Devyani Mahajan Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Assistant, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
• Charlee Williams, ER Policy Specialist, E.On
• Nikki Lees, People Director, Culture & Employee Experience, QBE

We hope you are able to join us. If you are able to please complete this form. and a link for the event will be sent to you.

One Health and Care downtime: 25 January

Please be advised the One Health and Care system will be undergoing essential maintenance on Thursday 25 January. The maintenance window will be between the hours of 1pm – 4pm during which time One Health and Care will be unavailable. Users should not use the system during the maintenance window as data may only be partially complete.

Artificial intelligence aids faster stroke diagnosis

The Stroke team can now diagnose the condition faster and more accurately thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) software accessed on their smart devices.

Patients who are rushed to our acute hospitals with a suspected stroke, will undergo a CT scan with the results being checked by RapidAI – new software that processes images and detect brain abnormalities.

An alert is sent to the doctor which will be checked. If there’s a blood clot detected, the patient will be either injected with a clot-busting drug called thrombolysis, or where a large artery is blocked, will undergo a procedure, known as a mechanical thrombectomy, to remove the clot, restoring blood flow to the brain and preventing long-term harm. This will take place at a specialist neuroscience centre.

Dr Kamel Sharobeem, Consultant Stroke Physician, said: “I am delighted that we have launched this crucial cutting-edge technology to further improve timely assessment and treatment decisions for our stroke patients.

“Each minute of delay has the potential to cause an increase in long term disability to the patient and it’s vital treatment is given quickly. Utilising a digital platform to view images in a faster way enables decision-making and transfers for a thrombectomy to be as efficient and quick as possible.

“The clinical team still make the final decision, but the AI software allows the speedy transfer of images to review the scans (CT head and CT angiogram).

“Stroke is a life-threatening and disabling condition where the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. For every minute that treatment is not given, a person will lose nearly two million nerve cells, increasing the risk of long term disability. If more patients with a stroke are then able to access thrombectomy, we know that this improves outcomes and reduces disability and dependency for patients.”

Watch the video to find out how it works:

Join our Speak Up drop in session on D22 today!

Our Freedom to Speak Up Guardians will be hosting drop in sessions for colleagues in the D22 meeting room at City today until 4pm.

Our Trust values are Ambition, Respect and Compassion. Without an effective and healthy speak up culture we cannot live by these values. Speak up is a crucial factor in all three.

For more information please email jamiljohnson@nhs.net.

Abloy wall PDs Guide

Please can all nurses take note of the information regarding their Abloy keys.

Nurses should keep an eye on battery levels according to the PD display and get a battery change when prompted. Nurses should also be aware that keys need charging daily and information contained on the key will be downloaded for auditing purposes and firmware updates will take place. This means that the time taken to charge will be longer if the key is not charged every day.

Keys are not transferrable and pharmacy are de-activating keys allocated to former employees. If nurses did not get their key direct from pharmacy, i.e. from another nurse or your manager, then your key may stop working and this needs reporting to Pharmacy as soon as possible

Note : Nurses need to take good care of their keys, the cost to replace a key is around £100. Locks cost even more, from £300 to £500 each so please treat them with care to ensure they last as long as possible. 

For more information please see Abloy Wall Guide Poster.

New postgraduate scholarships launched for Muslim women

Murray Edwards College, Cambridge has announced a new Masters scholarship programme that will fully fund postgraduate tuition for talented British Muslim women.

The all-women College is launching the scholarships in partnership with the Aziz Foundation, a charity which funds British Muslim scholars to study at UK universities and then supports them to make meaningful contributions in their careers, communities and wider society. The programme is the first to be targeted by the Foundation exclusively at women.

Under the new partnership, funded jointly by the College and the Foundation, recipients of the Scholarships will have their tuition fees paid for an eligible Masters degree at Murray Edwards College.

For more information and to see how you can qualify, please click here.

Applications open on Monday 15 January candidates must first be accepted for a scholarship, and then apply to Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge

Maintenance affecting Trust reports service: 23 January, 10pm – 11.30pm

Please be aware that an essential maintenance will be taking place on Tuesday 23 January from 10pm – 11.30pm to the supporting infrastructure for the SWB Trust reports system. This will help continue to ensure the reporting system remains security compliant and should take around 90 minutes.

During the upgrade, SWB Trust Reports service will be unavailable for approximately 10 minutes from 10.50pm. The maintenance has been scheduled at this time to try to minimise impact and the overall works should be completed by 11.30pm.

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

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