Monthly archives: July 2024

Important update on recruitment at SWB

Following the Executive-only panel on Monday 29 July, another Executive-only panel will be held on Monday 5 August. Posts that fall under the following categories will be reviewed and considered for approval. The identified categories are:

• Hard to fill roles
• MMUH priority roles
• Recruitment previously agreed by a Vacancy Control Panel

As previously noted in Richard Beeken’s Friday message, the VCP process has been paused to allow clinical groups and corporate areas to finalise their establishment reduction plans. A further pause is required whilst those submitted plans are assessed in advance of any further actions that may be required.

Meanwhile, the executive team has been assessing hard-to-fill posts individually to determine if they can be advanced through the recruitment process before the VCPs are fully restarted.

Please continue to submit your vacancies on Trac for approval so they will be ready once the regular VCP process resumes.

Information for all prescribers of TTO Medications

Our pharmacy department has reported that 20-25 per cent of TTOs have ongoing queries that require the pharmacists to contact the prescribing doctors/practitioners.

This is increasing the unnecessary length of stay for our patients, and reducing the overall length of stay is a priority to support our MMUH bed fit.

In order to help reduce these queries, the pharmacy team created a short training video here

If you require any further information please contact Zoe Ford via email.

Have you completed your pulse survey yet?

It’s your final chance to complete July’s Pulse Survey!

Have you ever thought about fostering?

Foster Sandwell is the not-for-profit fostering agency responsible for all children in care in the Sandwell borough.

They have the skills, experience and knowledge to support you and help you to find the right type of foster care for you; whether you are single or a couple, or you want to carry on working or dedicate your time to fostering.

Children have many different needs and foster carers, like all families, come in many different shapes and sizes.

Foster Sandwell are ready to talk to anyone about fostering, as they want the best for the children in their care and community.

Visit https://fostersandwell.co.uk/ to find out about fostering, watch the award-winning film ‘Any of Us’.

If you like to get in touch with the team, please visit the website above to find out more details.

Limited lift access in August at Sandwell main reception

During the month of August, we will be caring out maintenance works on our lifts in the Sandwell main reception. Though there will never be a point where there will be no lift access, the number of lifts available to patients and staff will be limited. We ask staff take extra care when travelling around the Sandwell site and plan in advance where possible.

Please see lift phase plan for details of what lifts will be out of use on what dates.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Message from Black Country ICS: Black Country NHS Financial Improvement Plans

Message on behalf of the Black Country ICS:

Dear colleagues,

We are writing to provide an update on the financial improvement plans for the NHS in the Black Country.

Working within such a complex health and care system inevitably brings with it some challenges. Since the pandemic, the system has seen an increase in demands across acute, community, primary care, mental health and learning disability services as well as more people using our local services from neighbouring systems. Increased staffing numbers and inflation means it is costing us more to run our services.  At the same time, we have a growing population who are living longer with greater need for our services.

Recognising that our budgets faced real pressure we have developed a financial recovery plan. Despite this plan, we still anticipated significant deficits this year for some of our NHS organisations.

We have submitted a plan to NHS England which would see us end the current financial year with a collective NHS deficit position of £119 million.

Given the overall financial position of The Black Country NHS system, NHS England has assessed the system and increased the regulatory support to us through financial undertakings.

In addition, we have agreed with NHS England that we will engage external support to urgently review the financial position and review our financial plans to identify any missed opportunities for further efficiency and productivity.

This proactive support will cover controls over areas such as workforce and will also look carefully at our efficiency plans to make sure that they are deliverable, or to take action where this is not the case.  The support will be expected to show rapid results and should be in place for around 8 weeks.  Any decisions to reduce spending will be subject to routine governance and oversight, to make sure that service delivery, quality and patient safety are not adversely impacted.

Good financial health is key for us to be able to improve the health of the people we serve for the years to come. The NHS in the Black Country performs well and provides high quality care, we welcome the external support and review as an opportunity to see how we can continue to do that and find ways to be more productive and balance our books financially. Whilst we already have a challenging financial recovery plan in place, we are working with system partners and NHSE to continually improve this position.

We know it will take time to get back to a sustainable financial balance and we need to collectively transform how we provide services.

We are asking everyone to support these vital measures towards financial recovery which will put us in a much better place over the coming months

New Learning Disability team

The Trust has a new Learning Disability team that will be offering their services to patients who typically face barriers to accessing health and care.

People with a learning disability often have poorer physical and mental health than those who don’t and are dying earlier than they should, many from things which could have been treated or prevented entirely.

Recently moving from the Community Learning Disability team, the team has strong links there and extensive knowledge of support and service in the community. As a service, the team will aim to:

• Reduce health inequalities
• Supporting with reasonable adjustments
• Stopping diagnostic overshadowing – where a person’s ill health is attributed to their learning disability, leading to them not receiving equitable investigations and treatments

If you require any more information or have any questions for the team, please email dawn.love1@nhs.net or charlotte.horton6@nhs.net. Alternatively you can call either 0121 553 1831 or 0121 507 4349.

Clinical and Operational Readiness Away Day: A briefing from Marsha Jones

Yesterday, we had our Clinical and Operational Readiness Away Day for our new hospital. As we continue to Get Set for Midland Met, it is more crucial than ever for us to have regular checkups on the status of our progress.

Associate Deputy Chief Nurse, Marsha Jones, takes us on a journey of what took place during the day.

Managing Director, Rachel Barlow, shared that we are 73 days away from moving (as of today, Thursday 25 July). Rachel acknowledged the fantastic work across the Trust that has been completed so far, but also reminded colleagues of the final sprint of delivering operational readiness and focusing on moving safely.

Several Ted Talks were delivered by support services such as Soft FM and Logistics which provided an opportunity to talk about the innovative and new ways of working. For example, the movement of equipment, post and ensuring positive patient experiences through a high standard of cleanliness within our hospitals.

Teams discussed the many positive impacts of Hospital Standardisation, including just-in-time stock management through Scan4safety. This is an initiative that provides unique barcodes, associated with detailed information, accurate identification and tracking for patients, medical equipment, and products used in healthcare settings.

Our clinical groups produced excellent TED Talks to provide an overview of their new ways of working and their readiness. Marsha comments: “A number of useful interdependency exercises took place which enabled some of the interdependencies to be closed through collaborative working and agreeing on next steps. Medical Director, Professor David Carruthers, discussed the important work being completed by the MMUH safety group to ensure all 41 critical patient flows are tested and to avoid a negative impact on safety, experiences and reporting.

Clinical Safety Case graphic

Similarly, he shared the overview and dependencies on all elements of the Safety Case that will be taken to the Board ensuring we are ready to move on 6 October.”

The day ended with a Q&A and positive feedback of the away day, reminding us that the Trust and its colleagues remain wholeheartedly committed to moving our Patients, People and Population into Midland Met #morethanahospital.

Group ‘O’ red cell shortage – amber alert

NHS Blood and Transplant and the National Blood Transfusion Committee have issued a red cell shortage alert notice.

Stock levels are expected to drop below the two-day threshold, reducing blood stocks in the laboratory.

The Trust has been asked to implement emergency blood management arrangements for red cells at the amber shortage level immediately.

We ask clinical teams to take the following actions:

• For all patients, optimise anaemia without transfusion as much as possible
• Where possible, use alternatives to blood (e.g. erythropoietin, iron ) and agents to reduce blood loss
• Transfusion decisions to be made by a consultant only
• Transfusion thresholds are to be reviewed in line with local guidelines and/or national guidelines
• Clinical teams should consider postponing elective surgery, which is likely to require blood support.
• The transfusion laboratory will challenge blood use.
• Review period: The alert will be removed once NHSBT is confident that stocks have reached a sustainable level, but it is anticipated that this will continue for a minimum of four weeks.
• Further communication will be sent if there is any change in alert status.

Drug Safety Notice: Ipratropium bromide 250micrograms in 1ml and 500micrograms in 2ml nebuliser liquid unit dose vials

Problem:

• There are limited supplies of ipratropium bromide 250micrograms/1ml and 500micrograms/2ml nebuliser solution.
• The anticipated re-supply date is Friday, 28 March 2025.

Advice:

• Existing supplies of ipratropium nebules should be prioritised for the management of severe airflow obstruction, such as in acute asthma and exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and in patients with a tracheostomy for whom the nebulised route may be more suitable.

To see further advice and alternatives, see the Drug Safety Notice here

For further information, contact:

• Your ward pharmacist or technician.
• Pharmacy department (City ext. 5263, Sandwell ext. 3783)
• Email lead antimicrobial pharmacist a.brush@nhs.net