Monthly archives: July 2024

Financial Improvement: Focus on procurement

As part of our ongoing financial improvement programme, we will be bringing you weekly updates on our progress and focus features on different areas of work.

Today we start with procurement. To improve our finances, the procurement team have been busy identifying and validating opportunities – following an ideas generation workshop that took place in June.

£1.7million of opportunities are currently being worked up into a delivery plan – and then go through an assessment process before they being to be implemented.

The procurement team generated lots of ideas including:

• Improvements around consumable expenditure, including theatre consumables and waste management
• Education colleagues around procurement processes
• Product changes to not only improve quality, but also saving money
• Looking at the IT procurement expenditure

Thank you to the procurement team for being so engaged and supportive of the process and for being full of ideas.

We will of cause bring you further updates as we progress the schemes.

Meanwhile, remember, those on the frontline often have the best ideas, so please do share yours with us.

You can either email swbh.recoverypmo@nhs.net or complete the online form by clicking here.

Working together, we can make small differences which will all add up.

Come along to our face-to-face sessions:  These sessions are an opportunity for colleagues from across all areas of the organisation to come together and share their ideas for our financial improvement programme. We will be hosting in person workshops on the following dates:

• Thursday 4 July, 11.30am – 2.30pm, committee room, Rowley Regis
• Wednesday 16 July, 9am – 1pm, meeting room 4, 3rd floor, the Lyng

This week is Insulin safety week

Insulin safety week aims to raise awareness of insulin and everything diabetes among healthcare professionals. Be sure to check out some free online education modules regarding the safe use of insulin in hospital by clicking here.

Timing of insulin is crucial to achieving and maintaining control of the diabetes.

• What steps can be taken to improve the timing of insulin on your ward?
• Did you know some insulin should be given before the meal?
• Harm may occur as a result of stopping the VRIII at an inappropriate time. Do you know how to safely stop an intravenous insulin infusion?
• How confident do you feel about making insulin dose adjustments to correct hyper/hypoglycaemia?

Want to find out more about insulin safety?

Our diabetes team will be hosting education drop in session regarding insulin safety on  Thursday 4 July, 2pm – 4pm in the diabetes centre, Hallam Building, Sandwell

For more information regarding insulin safety week and everything diabetes, please email  m.chakaza@nhs.net.

Insulin safety week webinar: Wojciech Stelmaszczyk and Deborah Holder, Diabetes Specialist Nurses and (Diabetes Inpatient Specialist Nurse UK Group committee members will be hosting an Insulin Safety Week webinar on Wednesday 3 July from 12.30pm – you can book their place here.

Be sure to also check out this short video featuring Marian, Paediatric Diabetes Nurse Specialist talking about tips around insulin safety.

Job of the week: Senior Communications Officer, Band 5

Creativity is key when it comes to delivering crucial NHS messaging to our staff and community around the Sandwell and West Birmingham area.

That’s why we’re after an external communications officer who has a real flair for writing and creating eye-catching campaign content so they can deliver key messaging to our diverse and vibrant community.

The Communications Department is a busy, fast-paced working environment so you will experience a steep learning curve.

To find out more information about the role, click here 

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 10 July at 11:59 pm.

Telephony system reboot at City, 3 July 10am – 12pm

The telephony controller at City Hospital will be rebooted at 10.15am tomorrow (3 July) until 12pm.

This could impact some calls being made at this time through the Mitel desk phones, but it is not anticipated that this disruption will be significant or long-lasting.

If you are a member of an emergency response team, you will be contacted separately to collect a radio as a contingency.

Desktop alerts will be issued tomorrow before the reboot, and again once the reboot has been completed and normal service has been resumed.

An introduction to Dementia inpatient training

Dementia affects 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 the hospital with reduced independence and poorer physical and mental health outcomes.

A better understanding of Dementia is key to providing dedicated care to meet the needs of people living with dementia, and that of their carers.

All staff disciplines including nurses and allied staff, FY Doctors and nursing and medical students are advised to attend.

The training will be delivered at Sandwell on the following dates:

• Monday 5 August, education centre, room 15, 1pm – 3pm
• Wednesday 28 August, education centre, room 15, 1pm – 3pm
• Monday 16 September, education centre, room 15, 1pm – 3pm
• Wednesday 25 September, education centre, room 15, 1pm -3pm
• Tuesday 8 October, education centre, room 15, 1pm – 3pm
• Wednesday 23 October, education centre, room 10, 1pm – 3pm

To book your place please email r.begum19@nhs.net. 

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) mandate – are you enroled?

The enrolment of MFA is an NHS England national mandate which means that all members of staff will need to be enrolled onto MFA.

Note: Failure to complete the enrolment of MFA will result in colleagues not being able to access their Microsoft programs which includes Teams, emails and SharePoint until they’re enrolled.

Why is MFA important to the NHS?

Cyberattacks on electronic health records and other systems pose a risk to patient privacy because hackers could access sensitive information, potentially causing harm to patient safety and care delivery. Hackers can use ransomware viruses to hold medical records or devices hostage, risking your access to vital tools and information.

Need support to enrol onto MFA?

We will be offering drop-in sessions at the IT department at the following locations to help with the process:

• Trinity House, corridor B, Sandwell, Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm
• 1st floor, pain management corridor, City, Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
• 1st floor, archer ward (admin corridor), Rowley, Monday – Friday, 8.30am – 4pm

Alternatively, there are also virtual drop-in sessions that staff can attend via teams until Friday 5 July:

• 11am – 12pm to join, click here
• 2pm – 3pm to join, click here
• 8pm – 9pm to join, click here

There is also a step-by-step user guide available here for members of staff to follow.

For more information please chat with the IT Service Desk.

Update to vacancy control process at SWB

There is a new vacancy control process within the Trust where all vacancies submitted for approval on Trac will now be subject to the following process:

1. Finance approval
2. GDOP/GDON level approval
3. Executive panel approval

When you are submitting your vacancy on Trac, please ensure that the VCP1 form has been completed and uploaded as an ‘internal document’ on the documents tab. Alternatively, you can send this back to swbh.recruitment@nhs.net.

Note: Any post submitted without this will be returned to draft status, and we will ask you to resubmit with the form.

Online ordering process for stationery from 15 July

From Monday 15 July the Trust will be moving to an online ordering process for printed stationery. The new process will replace the existing paper-based order form, which lists the items of printed stationery we use in the Trust. The new ordering system’s web address is below, and you will need internet access.

www.e4print.co.uk.

Staff who undertake the ordering currently, have been supplied with their usernames and passwords to log into the webpage. The deadline for placing an order is still Thursday, 9am and deliveries will go to Sandwell the following Monday and City the following Tuesday.

For more information please call ext. 4938, 4937 or 4939.

Wellbeing Hubs at Sandwell, City and the Sanctuary

Focusing on ensuring that colleagues have a good day every day, the new hubs aim to help improve mental health, relieve stress, build resilience and restore balance.

Recognising that colleagues need to be able to access services easily, the hubs are set to provide much-needed health and wellbeing for colleagues closer to their work base.

Services in the wellbeing hubs will include:

• Confidential chat – an opportunity for colleagues to offload and talk about anything which is troubling them
• Meditation
• Relaxation pod (massage chair)
• Back, hips, leg massager
• Seated acupressure massage
• Hypnotherapy (sanctuary only)

The wellbeing hubs are completely confidential, and all services and treatments are free of charge for Trust colleagues and delivered by trained wellbeing coaches and holistic therapists.

The wellbeing hubs will be a regular weekly service across all sites which are listed below between 8am – 4pm and the Sanctuary 10am -5pm

• Monday, Tuesday & Friday in the Jayne Wright therapy room, Trinity House, Sandwell
• Monday – Friday in the Wellbeing hub, arches, first floor, corridor A (old physiotherapy corridor) room B002/F/049 situated to the right of the corridor, City Hospital
• Monday – Friday in the The Sanctuary, Unett Street, Smethwick B66 3SY

Wellbeing events are available to book for group bookings of 16 staff +.

Our wellbeing events programme will help you to look after your mental health and well-being. Please submit your interest to christine.rickards@nhs.net.

If you would like to register your interest and book one of our sessions please contact the well-being team on 0121 507 3306, option 4 or email: Jatinder.sekhon@nhs.net.

Massage sessions available at Sandwell

Massage sessions are now available at Sandwell.

Seated acupressure massage sessions are just one of the ways to destress and are available for all staff in the Trust.

These can help to:

• Relieve back, neck, and shoulder pain
• Improve your mood
• Reduce your stress and anxiety
• Lift your energy
• Increase circulation

A full consultation is completed with the Therapist before the session and the massage is carried out safely over your light clothing.

These sessions are available every alternative Tuesday from 9am – 4pm at Sandwell

Please call the Occupational Health & Wellbeing Service on 0121 507 3306 to book an appointment between 8.30am – 1pm, Monday – Friday.