Monthly archives: March 2024

No Smoking Day: 13 March

Wednesday 13 March is national No Smoking Day which is an annual health awareness day across the UK which aims to help people quit smoking.

Smoking has many negative impacts on health and wellbeing including:

• Smoking is the nation’s no.1 killer.
• One in two long-term smokers will die from a smoking-related illness.
• Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. It is the leading cause of lung cancer, respiratory disease and heart disease as well as numerous cancers in other organs including lip, mouth, throat, bladder, kidney, stomach, liver and cervix.
• Smoking increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and dementia.
• Second hand smoke is dangerous for anyone exposed to it, especially children who breathe faster and have less well developed lungs, airways and immune systems.

Benefits of stopping smoking:

• You can save money – around £250 a month and £3,000 a year.
• Your sense of taste will return and you will enjoy the taste of food more.
• Your breathing and general fitness will improve.
• The appearance of your skin and teeth will improve.
• You’ll be more confident in social situations because you won’t smell of stale smoke anymore.

Need help to quit smoking? 

You can access a free individual quit smoking programme and support for up to 12 weeks – this includes free provision of Nicotine replacement therapy such as patches, gums , nasal sprays  or e -cigarettes /vapes. There are a variety of ways colleagues can be supported on their quit journey to suit their needs including face to face, telephone and digitally. Referrals can be made by visiting https://smokefreesandwell.co.uk/support/.

Early detection of lung cancer saves lives

One of our patients has spoken about the importance of the targeted lung health checks (THLC) after revealing how an early test saved her life.

Janet Cowley, from West Bromwich, was diagnosed with cancer after she had a routine X-ray for a shoulder replacement which found a lesion on her lung.

After catching the disease early, doctors were able to operate to remove the organ and she is now on the road to recovery.

However, Janet is raising awareness of the TLHC, after her brother was diagnosed with lung cancer at the same time – but sadly passed away after it was caught too late.

The TLHC is part of a national drive to screen current and past smokers, and those aged 55-74, to detect any problems with their lungs. In the Black Country, it’s currently being rolled out by the Trust to patients who have a Sandwell GP.

Those who fit the criteria will be sent out an invite to attend an appointment. If a CT scan is needed, it’s carried out on a mobile van which is in a convenient place, such as a supermarket car park or at a central location. The first cohort of patients were seen at the Mecca Bingo, in Oldbury.

Janet, aged 74, said: “I am one of the lucky ones, but my brother wasn’t. After my operation I was able to spend every waking hour with him as we found out he was incurable. I would sit with him at night, talking to him.”

In this video, Janet talks more about why early detection is so important. You can watch the video below:

Dr Arvind Rajasekaran, who has been a Respiratory Consultant at the Trust for 17 years, said: “The check is like an MOT for your lungs and is carried out by specialist nurses.

“These checks can help to spot any problems early, often before you even notice that anything is wrong. If a problem with your breathing or lungs is found early, treatment could be simple and more successful. Your lungs work hard every minute so it’s really important that you get them checked out as you get older.”

Have you joined our SWB Family Facebook group?

Our SWB Family is our staff only Facebook group managed by the communications team.

We understand that many of you don’t have time to regularly check your emails or read updates on Connect, so we have launched this as a way of keeping you updated on important Trust information, give you the opportunity to share good news from your teams or departments, ask questions and network with colleagues across the SWB family.

Joining is easy – you can search ‘Our SWB Family’ on Facebook or click here to join.

You will be asked some simple questions – just to help us verify you are a member of staff and then you will be good to go.

You are encouraged to share your own posts and comments, but please be aware of our group rules.  The SWB Family supports each other so please use this group to learn about each other and share your excellent work.

Please help us by spreading the word and inviting your colleagues to join us too – the more the merrier.

IT maintenance: 6 March, 8pm – 10pm

Please be aware an essential IT maintenance will be taking place on Wednesday 6 March from 8pm to 10pm to ensure the Trust’s Gold service database system remains security compliant. The work is scheduled to begin at 8pm for approximately two hours and should be completed by 10pm.

During this time Unity will remain fully available; however the following services will be unavailable for up to 10 minutes at around 9pm:

• Equitrac Printing services – Ricoh MFD (multi-functional device) printers and scan to email functionality. All other printing such as labels, pathology specimen and desktop printing will remain available as normal.
  We would recommend colleagues try not to send any print jobs between 8:55pm to 9.15pm as they may not be printed. This timeslot has been chosen as a quieter time operationally to minimise impact.

• ​ICE System
• Medisoft system
• Mediconnect Cardiology system
• BadgerNet reporting will be unavailable; this will not affect the main Badgernet maternity application.

Colleagues will need to ensure they revert to local business continuity plans during this time. This timeslot has been chosen as a quieter as there are no scheduled clinics during this time and please be assured affected service leads have been informed in advance.

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

Unity maintenance: 7 March, 6pm – 1am

Please be aware an essential Unity maintenance will be taking place on Thursday 7 March from 6pm overnight to Friday 8 March at 1am to ensure the Trust’s EPR system remains up to date and compliant. The work is being carried out by our support vendor Cerner/Oracle and is scheduled to begin at 6pm for approximately 7 hours and should be completed by 1am.

During this time Unity will remain available; however, between 11pm – 11.30pm on Thursday 7 March, Unity users will be required to log off the system and log straight back in to allow the installation of a new update. Colleagues will receive a fifteen-minute count down warning within Unity prior to being forcibly logged off.

The activity will be closely monitored by our support vendor and IT support teams and desktop alert updates will also be issued.

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 Service Desk Live Chat Chat with the IT Service Desk.

Dementia training

Dementia effects all of us, be it our patients, our own loved ones and potentially ourselves in the future as diagnosis rates soar. Across the NHS nationally people living with dementia populate 25 per cent of inpatient beds on average and often sadly are leaving hospital with reduced independence and poorer physical and mental health outcomes.

We must all strive to make the experience of people living with dementia using SWB services and that of their carer’s better. With this mind, we are hosting dementia training session aimed at all colleagues on the following dates:

• Thursday 25 April, 2pm – 4pm, Hayward lecture theatre, Postgraduate Centre, City
• Wednesday 29 May, 1.30pm – 3.30pm, , room 10, Sandwell Education Centre
• Monday 24 June, 1.30pm – 3.30pm, dining room, Postgraduate Centre, City
• Monday 29 July, 1.30pm – 3.30pm, , room 10, Sandwell Education Centre

To book your place and find out more, please email r.begum19@nhs.net.

Drug safety notice: Co-trimoxazole sugar free and oral suspension

The following medication for co-trimoxazole is currently out of stock:

• Co-trimoxazole 40mg/200mg/5ml sugar-free oral suspension is out of stock until early July 2024
• Co-trimoxazole 80mg/400mg/5ml oral suspension is out of stock until mid-March 2024

Alternatively, co-trimoxazole 80mg/400mg tablets remain available and can support increased demand.

For advice and alternative solutions, please see co-trimoxazole 40mg 200mg 5ml oral suspension.

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

‘Right Care Right Person’ – assisting police with when to respond to incidents

Right Care Right Person (RCRP) has now launched across all NHS Trusts in the Black Country.

The approach is a process to assist police in making decisions about when it is appropriate for them to respond to incidents, including those that relate to people with mental health needs.

Please note, that the threshold for a police response to a mental health-related incident is:

• to investigate a crime that has occurred or is occurring; or
• to protect people, when there is a real and immediate risk to the life of a person, or of a person being subject to or at risk of serious harm.

As healthcare providers, we have been tasked with changing our practice and implementing due diligence before contacting police for support, and only to do so in the instances described above.

If you would like any further information or require advice, please contact the following teams below:

• Lee Hurst, mental health lead, ext. 2677 or mobile 07977145610
• Vulnerable adults team, ext. 8607
• Mental health liaison team ext. 6063
• Mental health liaison team (external): 0121 612 8607
• Non emergency: 101 (in am emergency always call 999)

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

An essential CSS (clinical support system) maintenance will be taking place on Wednesday 6 March 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.

SWB launches food and retail survey

📢 Calling all colleagues, patients, and stakeholders 📢

We are excited to announce the launch of our food and retail survey!

At SWB, we care about putting our people, patients and population first – that means YOU. That’s why we have created our food and retail survey to capture your feedback that we will consider when revamping the services we provide across all our sites, including Midland Met, our brand-new acute hospital in Smethwick, opening its doors this year.

Your insights will not only help us understand what you like now, but it will also pave the way for the future. Whether you like a grab-and-go snack or visit one of our cafés where you enjoy a catch up, we want to hear it all!

By participating, you’re actively shaping the services we provide. Your input will help to influence the decisions we make and the services we provide.

So, what are you waiting for? It is your chance to share your thoughts.

You’ll find the survey online here – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SWBretail

Alternatively, you can scan this QR code to access the survey:

Thank you for your time and feedback.