Monthly archives: January 2024

Workplace fire safety training

Workplace fire safety training sessions are now available to all colleagues. Staff now have the opportunity to book a trainer to deliver workplace fire safety training within your departments.

To arrange these sessions all managers are required to do the following:

• Managers should liaise with the fire safety team to arrange a time and date that suits their service area.
• Managers are required to book suitable rooms to accommodate their number of staff.
• Minimum of three staff members per session.

To book a session please contact swbh.fire-safety@nhs.net.

Industrial action continues until 7am tomorrow

As you will be aware, our non-consultant doctors will be taking part in industrial action until 7am tomorrow (Tuesday 9 January)

Planning a hospital discharge early: It’s vital we plan ahead especially during industrial action. The integrated discharge hub can support you with this from 8am – 8pm, seven days a week. You can contact them on ext. 3147.

Be sure to check out this short video below about planning discharges early and the top three tips for planning a discharge.

Drop in for medics today: We will be hosting another wellbeing drop in session for senior medics today between 12.45pm – 2pm at both Sandwell and City. The drop in sessions will allow attendees to grab themselves and drink and a samosa as well as connect with fellow colleagues.

The Sandwell drop in will take place in the Berridge room, occupational health (near the courtyard gardens) and will be hosted by Dr Huma Naqvi and Dr Mike Blaber.

The City drop in will take place in the senior doctors rest space, wellbeing hub, Arches, 1st floor, corridor A (old physiotherapy corridor) Room B002/F/049 situated to the right of the corridor and will be hosted by Dr Vikranth Venugopalan.

For more information please call Dr Huma Naqvi on 07976 499360.

Give the year, your best shot

By getting your COVID-19 or flu vaccination.

The vaccination team is running another week of clinics across both sites.

If you would like to have your vaccination, please check the timetable below.

If you would like any further information please contact the team directly on 07977 687 586.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 5 January

As we end the first week of January, we are entering the latter stage of the longest consecutive strike action ever taken in the history of the NHS.

This follows, of course, the non-consultant doctor strike action which took place for three days immediately before Christmas, which led to large number of appointments being postponed , significant impact of almost all routine care and unnecessary disruption for patients and colleagues.

Industrial action comes in the middle of the winter period where the NHS is already under significant pressure from factors such as seasonal illnesses including covid and flu and following the Christmas and New Year break.  We have already seen an internal critical incident declared (and thankfully stood down) this week and I can predict that the Industrial action (and winter pressures) will continue to have a serious impact in the weeks after, as we recover services and deal with additional demand.

The executive team and I have done several walkabouts to our frontline staff this week and have been humbled by the resilience and strength of character being shown by staff working tirelessly against this continued pressure. We have seen kindness and compassion , for example, Dr Naqvi has been running some consultant wellbeing sessions, badged as ‘samosa support sessions’ during this period, and other colleagues have gone above and beyond their normal working commitment to help cover gaps and maintain safe, patient care.

Given this backdrop and the increasing pressures put onto our workforce, I can only imagine then, that the next topic I talk about, will frustrate some and cause some despondency amongst others.  We had a very disappointing response rate to the annual NHS Survey, being one of the Trusts in the lowest percentile for responses in the country.

Whilst we communicate and promote all of the surveys as regularly and visibly as possible, we remain, as always, at the hands of our line managers, who have a vital role in staff engagement by encouraging their teams to complete the survey. We need to turn this around. The next Pulse Staff Survey is now open for staff to complete, this is our quarterly survey that helps us make changes at a local level. The responses we receive are imperative to create opportunities for change and improvements for working life within this Trust.

Yesterday, James Fleet, Interim Chief People Officer,  and I held an on-line Line Managers briefing to discuss the importance of this survey and the role they take in ensuring that their teams feel happy to complete it and have the time to do so. I am delighted that there has been lots of very positive feedback from that session with over 260 colleagues joining the conversation. It highlighted to us that our Line Managers clearly like to be engaged with as an inclusive and extended management group. Our promise to you is that we will now establish this as a group to come together regularly to consider and discuss key agendas and issues.

Can I ask all Line Managers that if they haven’t don’t so already schedule some time in all team meetings for staff to complete the survey (just 5 minutes) and to talk about how the results will be used to make local improvements for staff.  Your support in improving responses to the survey will help enable real change to benefit your teams.

The survey closes on Wednesday 31 January, there is no need to search for an email – there is a generic link here so it can be accessed on any device and can be located on Connect.

Finally, I would encourage you to visit the Midland Met Hubs areas which are being held at Sandwell and City this month.  With MMUH opening this year, the hubs will showcase live news and updates of all what’s happening in MMUH and retained estate. Hubs will also have regular drop in themed sessions/special events throughout the coming months. More updates to follow.

Kind regards,

Richard.

Industrial action continues till Tuesday: What you need to know

As you will be aware, the second period of industrial action following the strike just before Christmas by our non-consultant doctors started earlier this week and will go on till Tuesday 9 January, 7am.

Could your patient be admitted to our virtual ward?

If your patient has past the acute stage of their illness, but still needs a level of intervention to support their recovery, they might be able to be discharged into the care of our virtual ward – these are consultant led and allow patients to continue their recovery in the comfort of their own home, but with constant monitoring and medical input. If you are unsure about what a virtual ward is, please watch the short video below:

You can contact the virtual ward on ext. 2664, (option 1, option 4) to discuss your patient with them. Our virtual wards cover the following specialities:

• Frailty
• Respiratory
• Cardiology
• Occupational therapy
• Paediatric (ext. 2602)

The service consists of MDT staffing support, including therapies, the integrated discharge hub and the wider community to support patients at home.  The virtual ward is available to all specialties where the patient meets the criteria and the team is able to support. If you are uncertain but believe your patient would benefit from the virtual ward, please contact the team.

Extended opening hours of Costa outlets at City and Sandwell: We will be offering hot and cold food as well drinks during the extended opening hours at our Costa outlets. See times below:

Get your empty tubs to the pub

From Monday 1 January – Sunday 11 February, Greene King pubs, restaurants, and hotels will accept your clean empty tubs in aid of Macmillian Cancer Support.

Simply leave your tubs with a Greene King staff member at the bar or welcome station within one of their locations.

After 11 February, all tubs will be collected and taken to a plastic reprocessing centre where they’re shredded, before being sold to plastic manufacturers to use in place of virgin plastics. All money raised from the sale of Tub2Pub plastics will be given directly to Macmillan Cancer Support.

The following tubs will be accepted:

• Confectionery tubs
• Biscuit tubs
• Cracker tubs

To find out more information about their Tub2Pub campaign, click the link here.

Drug safety notice: Phosphate Sandoz effervescent tablets

There will be intermittent supplies of Phosphate Sandoz effervescent tablets with normal supplies expected to return in late March.

For advice and alternative solutions, please see Phosphate Sandoz information sheet.

For more information please contact the pharmacy department on ext. 5263/3783.

Message from Richard Beeken, Chief Executive: Industrial Action 3 – 9 January

Colleagues,

I am writing to you on the eve of what will be the longest continuous stretch of industrial action in the history of the NHS. My message is new, but the sentiment is not – as we face what could be one of the most difficult periods in over 75 years of the NHS – I am asking you once again to dig deep to keep the wellbeing and safety of our patients at the forefront of your mind as we work together through the next long week.

I recognise the challenges that you have faced over the festive period, and I am aware of exhaustion in faces around me but also, I see too the fierce determination to do the right thing, to step up to where we can be of most use to others and to reach out to help those we see struggling. My executive team and I are determined to support you, support our patients, and we will never tire of saying thank you for all that you do to keep our patients safe and cared for.

And so, here we are again, in a situation not of our making, but one we must manage. Our planning concerns your welfare and what we can do to make shifts a little more comfortable for you. To this end we have implemented an extension of opening hours for our Costa coffee shops, serving hot and cold food and drinks. We hope that this small gesture brings some comfort and respite. Your wellbeing remains a top priority and we will continue to explore additional avenues of support.

Meanwhile communication is key to ensure patients understand how industrial action might impact our service, and our strategy has always been to reassure, to inform and to signpost. I would urge you to adopt this simple strategy in any conversation you have with patients, friends or your family when discussing using health services during the forthcoming action.

• Firstly, to reassure – our services are open, and we are still providing emergency care for those who need it. Please ensure this message is relayed to prevent any tragic misunderstandings.
• Secondly to inform – we want to advise patients that industrial action does not necessarily mean wholescale appointment cancellations. Where it is necessary to cancel appointments, we will contact patients directly. We acknowledge that the disruption to staffing will cause a significant reduction in elective activity and this may mean some appointments and procedures may need to be rescheduled. However, the most important point here is that if they don’t hear from us then they should still attend booked appointments.
• Thirdly to signpost – what this means is we let everyone know how to choose the service that best suits their need, and so significantly reduce waiting times for patients waiting to be seen in A&E when they could have been treated quicker at the GP, pharmacist, or Urgent Treatment Centre. Choosing services appropriately during industrial action helps ensure care is available to patients who need it most. This includes using 111 online as the first port of call for health needs, and only using 999 if it is a serious or life-threatening emergency. For more information on when to call 999 and when to go to A&E, visit the NHS UK website.

Additionally, I would like to reinforce the importance of early planning for hospital discharges. To streamline this process, please make good use of the Integrated Discharge Hub, available from 8 am to 8 pm, seven days a week. For any assistance, contact the team on extension 3147.

Please take care of yourselves and each other, and do not hesitate to reach out if you need support or assistance.

Industrial action starts tomorrow

Message from Richard Beeken, Chief Executive:

Tomorrow at 7am will mark the start of the longest period of industrial action by our non-consultant doctors, who are striking for six days – until 7am on Tuesday 9 January.

The first week of January is always a difficult time of year for NHS services and this will make it even harder – this strike represents the highest level of risk yet. I am under no illusions as to the pressure you will all be working under. Your efforts so far have been amazing, but we must keep going, we must all support each other.

I know it is not going to be easy, but I want to remind you of our two objectives to keep focused on:

• To support our non-consultant doctors in their right to take industrial action
• To keep our patients safe whilst they do so.

We have a collective responsibility to keep our patients safe and treated and we need to maintain urgent and emergency care. The action will mean significant cancellations of elective activity, clinics, and procedure lists.

We need your support – we need to mobilise our teams in a way in which we saw during the first round of strike action, with a particular focus on AMU/medicine out of hours/overnight. We require clinicians to work at junior doctor level, and as such general internal medicine (GIM) accreditation is not a must. Shifts will be remunerated at BMA rate card rates – please refer to the Industrial Action connect page.

If you feel you can offer support, please contact Jayne Redfern to discuss.

Thank you for your ongoing support – I do appreciate how difficult this is for all concerned, but our focus must always be on maintaining patient safety.

Kind regards,

Richard