Monthly archives: June 2024
Drug Shortage Notice – Aciclovir Injection (250mg + 500mg)
The Trust is unable to obtain further supplies of aciclovir injection (all brands and strengths) until 28 June 2024.
Advice
IV aciclovir is the drug of choice for the treatment of many infections due to herpes simplex virus (HSV) and varicella-zoster virus (VZV). Alternative agents may not be as safe or effective.
The patient groups with the greatest clinical need for IV aciclovir are:
- Neonates with HSV infections
- Patients with HSV encephalitis
- Immunocompromised patients with HSV or VZV infections
- Pregnant women with severe HSV or VZV infections
IV aciclovir must be used accordingly with clinical discretion to preserve stock.
Actions
Use in line with Trust guidelines and Microbiology advice.
Optimise aciclovir use:
- Do not use for suspected viral meningitis.
- Email Microbiology swb-tr.SWBH-GM-micromedics@nhs.net when initiating IV aciclovir.
- Send appropriate microbiological investigations (i.e. CSF PCR for encephalitis).
- Dose based on ideal bodyweight (IBW) not actual/total body weight.
Centralise remaining stock:
Individual ward stocks must be returned to pharmacy (except ED, AMU, ITU, NNU, P4)
For further information, contact:
- Your ward pharmacist or technician.
- Pharmacy department – City: 5263 / Sandwell: 3783
- Lead antimicrobial pharmacist: a.brush@nhs.net
Agile working webinars – discover all you need to know about agile working
As you may be aware, we have launched our SWB Estate staff consultation and hosted a line manager briefing. This covered what will be happening with our SWB estate as well as our move to agile working.
MMUH will be our acute centre for care at SWB. The opening of our new hospital will act as a catalyst for change across our SWB estate and will bring different ways of working for all of us.
Before Midland Met opens, we have embarked on a formal management of change consultation to address these changes for:
- Cross site team moves from City to Sandwell.
- Teams moving from Sandwell offsite to Sandwell Council House.
There will also be teams moving locations within their existing site. This does not form part of the formal MoC consultation, but colleagues will need to be communicated and engaged around the impact of these proposals for them at the same time as the other site moves.
Moving to agile working
At the same time, we are also embracing an agile approach to working across SWB.
Agile working is having the freedom to do your work in a way that allows you to be most effective. Instead of colleagues being allocated offices and desks that only they use, a variety of workspaces for clinical and non-clinical colleagues will be available throughout our hospitals and our SWB estate.
These flexible workspaces allow colleagues to work according to their schedules without being restricted to a particular area. Agile working spaces are designed to support this flexibility.
We have created agile working principles to help teams get to grips with our new ways of working. A glossary of terms accompanies this to ensure everyone understands the terms we use when talking about agile working.
To support our colleagues through this period of change, we are hosting a series of interactive webinars designed to equip colleagues with the tools and knowledge needed for a smooth transition to working in an agile environment.
These webinars will feature expert insights, practical tips, and Q&A sessions, ensuring everyone feels confident and empowered to embrace our new agile approach. Details are listed below:
Elements of agile working – flexibility and environments – online
- 27 June – 9.30am -10.30am – Join the meeting now
Elements of agile working – technology and systems – online
- 3 July – 2pm – 3pm – Join the meeting now
Elements of agile working – collaboration and culture – online
- 9 July – 3pm – 4pm – Join the meeting now
To find out more read the agile working FAQs (Word)
BSCP Webinar: ‘Serious Youth Violence – Breaking the Cycle’ – 18 June
Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership is hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 18 June – 2pm – 4pm: ‘Serious Youth Violence – Breaking the Cycle’.
This case focuses on the tragic death of a 16 year-old, who was stabbed in Birmingham, it also examines the lives of nine other boys involved in serious youth violence in the city; some were victims of fatal stabbings, and some were responsible for fatal attacks. All the boys were believed to have been involved with inner-city urban street gangs.
Most of the boys had suffered significant childhood trauma and adverse childhood experiences. For almost all the boys, partnership intervention attempted to break the cycle and divert them from gang affiliation and criminal exploitation. However, there were missed opportunities to engage better with some of the boys at crisis points.
The webinar will begin with an overview of the case which will focus on the emerging themes and learning identified, delivered by Dr Russell Wate. This will be followed by a talk from the Birmingham Children’s Trust EmpowerU Hub further exploring the issue of serious youth violence and sharing tips and guidance for improving safeguarding practice.
All practitioners working with Birmingham children are welcome to join, spaces are limited so sign up here and secure your place.
Do you care for people as they are dying in our hospitals?
Maintenance affecting HIE Portal: 12 June, 4am – 7am
Please be aware that essential IT maintenance will be taking place on Wednesday 12 June, affecting the HIE Portal. The work is being carried out by our support vendor Cerner/Oracle and is scheduled to begin at 4am for approximately three hours and should be completed by 7am.
During this time Unity will remain fully available. However, the HIE Portal that displays Unity and GP information will be unavailable for up to two hours from 4am – 6am. Please be assured GPs have alternate means to view this information via the ICE system. Trust clinicians only use HIE for supplementary GP information on occasions.
The activity will be closely monitored by our Cerner/Oracle and 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 for home workers or via service desk live chat.
Surgical services drop in session at Sandwell: 13 June
Amber Markham alongside some of her surgical services colleagues will be hosting a drop in session for staff on Thursday 13 June from 2.30pm in the Sandwell Education.
There will be a variety of delicious treats available and will give staff the opportunity talk with senior colleagues about how things can be improved in surgical services.
For more information please email amber.markham@nhs.net.
Be aware of Cyber scams
Technology has become a key part of our everyday life whether it is at work or at home. Fraudsters are increasingly using technology as a tool to commit fraud. These types of frauds are known as cyber frauds and are often committed by those with low levels of IT sophistication, but who have access to tools freely available on the web.
Cyber fraud is now more prevalent than ever, with instances of data theft and compromised financial systems causing organisations significant losses and reputational damage.
Action Fraud reports that 70 per cent of fraud is cyber-enabled.
To find out more about what to look out for, visit Fraud spotlight – Cyber scams
Don’t forget – all suspicions of fraud should be reported to NHSCFA by calling 0800 028 40 60.You can also report fraud anonymously on 0800 028 4060 or online.
Unity printing maintenance: 20 June, 10pm – 11pm
Please be aware essential Unity maintenance will be taking place on Thursday 20 June to ensure the supporting infrastructure remains secure and security compliant. The work is scheduled to begin at 10pm for approximately one hour and should be completed by 11pm.
During this time Unity will remain fully available; however from 10pm until 11pm on Thursday 20 June Unity printing will be unavailable for up to 60 minutes at the following site locations:
- Sandwell – all areas
- City – all areas
- BMEC – all areas
- BTC – all areas
o This will affect specimen label, requisition, and pharmacy printing.
o Any print jobs submitted during this time will be held and printed once the print servers come back online.
If clinical staff are due to collect a sample between time above, we would advise them to wait until specimen labelling functionality returns. If staff have a very urgent specimen to collect that cannot wait to collect and send to pathology, then a manual pathology request form will need to be completed and sent with the sample. It is envisaged that this requirement will be rare and unlikely at those times.
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
Tissue Viability team email now available
The Tissue Viability team now have access to their team email – following an issue that prevented this on Friday 7 June.
Many thanks for your patience while this was resolved.
Are you a dad and have your son or daughter working here? We need you!
We are looking for fathers and their sons or daughters who work here in the Trust to be featured in our ‘ Fathers Day’ comms across Trust social media channels.
All it requires is 5 – 10 minutes of your time, where Hermione from our Communications Team will take a picture of you both and ask you to answer a few questions.
If you would like to be featured, please get in touch with Hermione on 07977 704705
The deadline is Thursday 13 June.
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