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Monthly archives: July 2024

RCN & Nursing Now Challenge programme local learning event

 

There is a development opportunity for registered nurses, students and health care assistants on leadership as an early career nurse/midwife.

The free online event will be hosted on Microsoft Teams on Wednesday 31 July – 2pm – 4pm.

Learn more about the Nursing Now Challenge, which works with health employers, universities and colleges around the world to create leadership development opportunities.

For more details and to book your place, please click here.

The Omnicell carts have arrived!

 

Some of our Omnicell smart carts have arrived at Sandwell. They will now be configured, ready for super users to begin their training in the next few weeks.

Omnicell’s technology will help eliminate some current issues we face such as the quick turnaround of patients, which impacts doing timely drug rounds. Quick and simple one hour training sessions will be available and we’ve made things easier for our colleagues by bringing the equipment to you now, ahead of our move to Midland Met in October.

For more information, take a look at Omnicell’s workflow video with Clinical Change Manager, Dionne Mullings and our video with Associate Deputy Chief Nurse, Marsha Jones.

There is a dedicated intranet page for all things Omnicell – you can find it here.

LGBTQ+ Staff Network meeting cancellation – 18 July

 

Due to unforeseen circumstances the LGBTQ+ Staff Network meeting scheduled for Thursday 18 July has been cancelled.

The next meeting will be in September and more information will be shared closer to the time.

Maintenance affecting pathology: 16 July, 6am – 8am

 

Please be aware that an essential IT maintenance is taking place on Tuesday 16 July from 6am to 8am by our external Pathology vendor which will affect the pathology service at Sandwell and City.

During the maintenance, Unity will remain fully available; however, from 6am to 8am all pathology orders placed in Unity will queue for up to two hours until service is restored. Colleagues will need to revert to requesting all pathology requests on paper forms during the maintenance.

As soon as the maintenance is complete, orders will be booked in electronically and reported through to message centre ready for endorsement. Colleagues can continue to make ICE requests during the downtime but there will be a delay receiving results. 

The laboratory will prioritise the most urgent requests from ED, ITU/CCS, AMU, coronary care and paediatrics/neonates during this period. Urgent results will continue to be phoned to the requestor during the downtime.

The activity will be closely monitored, and desk top alerts will be issued from 4am advising colleagues of the need to revert to BCP for requesting all pathology requests during the maintenance.

Should you have any further queries then please call pathology on 0121 507 6600 or email swbh.pathology-it@nhs.net.

Pharmacy drug safety notices

 

We have multiple drug safety notices of supply shortages from our pharmacy department which clinical colleagues should be aware of.

Please see the sheets below for advice and information:

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

Quarterly Pulse Staff Survey still open!

 

Listening to your views remains as important as ever to us. We are using the NHS Quarterly Pulse Survey to regularly check in with you and help improve the support we provide for all colleagues.

This will take just five minutes of your time to complete and allows you to tell us more about your experiences at work including how motivated you feel and what would make the biggest difference to improve what it’s like to work here.

Every colleague is being given the opportunity to have their say and the survey data is shared with our Trust Board, who hold us to account for how we respond.

The survey has been sent to you via email, though in if you prefer, you can simply visit the link below to complete your survey!

https://picker.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b8cMes96Xg3Nk1g?&Trust%20Code=RXK

You will be asked to add your email address at the start of the survey; however this is just to verify you are a member of staff. All surveys are completely anonymous.

Note: The survey closes on Wednesday 31 July. Should you have any questions or difficulties completing the survey, you can contact the survey helpline on 01865 208140. Alternatively, you can email staffsurveys@pickereurope.ac.uk.

 

Mediation/mediator training available for managers

 

In an effort to reduce formal escalation of breakdown of working relationships between staff, SWB are coordinating mediation/mediator training for managers via an external provider.

Feedback we have received is that mediation achieves a better resolution for all parties than a formal process.

The commitment (based on current mediation sessions) should be no more than one a month on an ‘as and when’ basis. 

We currently have seven places available. It will mean two consecutive days in August (tentatively 14 and 15 August) at Sandwell. We will allocate to the first seven managers who email nick.bellis@nhs.net.

Note: There will be more training early 2025 and a more sophisticated system of allocation.

Our financial improvement journey

 

Over the last month, the financial improvement team have held workshops with staff and clinical groups. These have been designed to get your thoughts, suggestions and ideas on things that can help us to deliver our £44million financial improvement target. Thank you to everyone who took the time to engage with these workshops.

The main topic of each workshop was an ideas brainstorm on how we can help generate more income for the Trust and where are there are opportunities to improve our ways of working, that will result in savings. A variety of ideas were put forward, ranging from improving the letters we send to patients and GPs, to optimising the use of our resources such as the utilisation of our estates and facilities and our clinical time. Here’s a flavour of the ideas that were put forward:

Reviewing and reducing waste as much as possible, ranging from plastic cups to clinical waste.

  • Can we buy products with less packaging, so we don’t need to pay for recycling costs
  • Are we sorting our clinical waste correctly?
  • Could the Trust become a paperless Trust?
  • Could we switch to reusable cups?
  • Can we prevent unused stock going to a landfill?

Solutions for reducing the number of patients who do not attend appointments (DNA)

  • Reviewing the accuracy of patient contact details to avoid delays in letters arriving
  • Calling patients from a dedicated phone so our numbers don’t show up as blocked, but as SWB
  • Avoid DNAs caused by transport issues: ensure letters detail if consultation is face to face or online and what to do if patients have transportation issues

We will now review these initial ideas with the clinical groups and our finance colleagues to see what might bring the best improvement and then prioritise them for delivery.

There will be some further workshops – including some held online following your feedback – so please do keep an eye out for these.

However, you don’t need to wait until a workshop to submit your thoughts and ideas – you can tell us anytime! Remember – the people on the frontline often have the best ideas – so please do come forward and let us know yours. No idea is a bad idea.

You can submit your ideas via this online form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/financialimprovement

Or if you prefer you can email swbh.recoverypmo@nhs.net.

We will be in regular conversation with you as we go through this journey – the financial wellbeing of our organisation doesn’t just sit with finance – we all have a part to play in enabling us to achieve our goal.

Aspire – summer holiday activity camps

 

Active Camps is a safe, affordable and flexible option that keeps children happy and healthy throughout the school holidays.

Action-packed days of sport and physical activity await, offering your child a safe space to learn, socialise, stay active, form friendships, develop interests, build confidence and create lifelong memories.

Their camps run throughout the summer from Tuesday 23 July – Friday 30 August.

A 10 per cent NHS discount is available for those who wish to book by entering the discount code ES10.

For more information on the dates and times of the camps, click here.

This week on site

 

As you know, we have stood down our induction tours for a few weeks, this is to enables Balfour Beatty to focus on some key final areas for testing and completion, before they hand the building over to the Trust.  

This doesn’t mean that our activation work has stopped. Over the last two weeks, our Infection Prevention and Control team, David Shakespeare and Jamie Whitehouse, have been carrying out a final review of all areas with Balfour Beatty. This is the culmination of continuous reviews undertaken monthly with the Balfour Beatty team during the construction phase, ensuring infection, prevention and control has always been at the heart of Midland Met.   

All rooms have been reviewed with the final floor (level 2) to be completed next week. This final review helps Balfour Beatty in their preparation for completion and hand over of the site to the Trust.  

Key things to focus on: 

  • The first of our Omnicell Automated Drug Cabinets arrive on site on Monday 15 July. Please ensure that any relevant staff are rostered correctly in order that they can attend the training – if you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail swbh.clinicalchangemanagers@nhs.net – more information on Omnicell is included in today’s Get Set for Midland Met bulletin 
  • Job planning for staff should be complete by the end of July, please ensure these reflect the work schedules for MMUH and upload them onto E-Allocate 
  • Dump the junk – it’s never to early to start planning for your move – why not plan some time to have a sort out of things that you don’t need to move to your new location? More information available here 
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