Monthly archives: July 2024

Unison recruitment event: 19 July, 11am – 2pm

Unison is hosting an information and recruitment event on Friday 19 July BTC, City from 11am – 2pm

The event will provide a wide range of information regarding Unison, including how to join, workers’ rights, and other information. Staff will also have the opportunity to share concerns or any general workplace issues.

Those colleagues who are going through any management of change are invited to attend.

Existing members are welcome to come along to find out more about the benefits of existing membership such a saving on energy bills, car ensuring, free training/courses, free legal advice, financial advice and more.

For more information email jodie.brown9@nhs.net.

Changes to inputting diet and fluid orders on Unity and new patient menu – Level 7 easy to chew

The previous ‘regular diet’ and ‘dysphagia diet’ orders that can be placed on Unity will be replaced by an all-encompassing “diet and fluids” order, which can be accessed the same way via “request/care plans.”

Between 1.30pm and 3pm on Tuesday, 16 July, all inpatients across all sites will need a new order placed under “diet & fluids” on request/care plans.

At 3pm, the old orders will be removed from Unity, and if new orders aren’t placed, nothing will show on the bed plan.

Meals ordered for evening meal service will not be affected as they will have already been ordered through the iPads.

There will also be an introduction of a new patient menu on Tuesday, 16 July – “Level 7- Easy to Chew”. This will go live on the iPads from 3pm, ready for lunch orders for Wednesday, 17 July. This menu is for patients who are not considered to be at risk of choking but require ‘easier to chew’ options of Level 7 / Regular Diet and cannot select appropriate items from the main menu.

We have developed this separate menu specifically for this patient group to offer more choice and reduce the restrictions of being placed on a Level 6 soft and bite-sized diet when they could manage a Level 7 easy-to-chew diet.

Note: No changes have been made to the ‘Light diet’ order on Unity that is used for some surgical patients

For instructions on how to input the new “diet and fluids” order on Unity, view the Reference Guide

For more information please email ellie.savage1@nhs.net.

Unity upgrade: 9 July, 6pm – 10 July, 6am

Please be aware an essential Unity upgrade will be taking place on Tuesday 9 July, 6pm overnight to Wednesday 10 July, 6am by our support vendor Cerner/Oracle to ensure the Trust’s EPR system remains up to date and compliant. The work is scheduled for approximately 12 hours.

From 12am on Wednesday 10 July to 4am the following Unity applications/functionality will be unavailable for up to four hours. During this period colleagues will need to revert to the business continuity plan for the services listed below:

• The following medical devices that automatically populate data into Unity will stop synchronising – (Philips monitors, draegar vents and anaesthesia machines)
• Unity Capman (capacity management)
• Unity Portering App
• CareAware Reporting (capman reporting)

Please note that medical device data will not be stored on the devices so will not retrospectively appear in Unity when the upgrade is complete.. For full recovery ensure all patient records are transcribed into Unity asap post upgrade.

Users will also be prompted twice to log out of Unity so server reboots can be performed around 3am to 4am. This is to ensure that colleagues are logging onto the new version of Capman after the upgrade.

This will affect colleagues working the night shift on Tuesday 9 July.

The activity will be closely monitored by our Unity leads, IT support and operational teams and our support vendor and an ICC will be set up. Please be assured task and finish meetings are underway to ensure for operational readiness.

Desktop alerts will be issued from 7pm on Tuesday 9 July reminding colleagues about the planned downtime.

Should colleagues need to reach out to senior porters during the upgrade they can do so at both acute sites:

• Sandwell – ext. 2501
• City – ext. 4291

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.

Drug Shortage Notice – Humalog (insulin lispro) 100units/ml solution for injection 10ml vials

Humalog (insulin lispro) 100units/ml solution for injection 10ml vials will be out of stock from early June 2024 until early July 2024.

Actions:

• Prescribers should not initiate patients on Humalog vials during this time. Where patients are insulin pump users and have insufficient supplies to last until the re-supply date, prescribers should:
• Consider prescribing either: NovoRapid 10ml vials for children and young people in paediatric care and women who are pregnant or in the first 12 months following pregnancy; or Trurapi or NovoRapid (insulin aspart) vials for adults (including young people under the care of adult diabetes services): After discussion with the patient, ensuring that appropriate education and training are provided (see Supporting Information); and ensure that all insulin pump users have a care plan that clearly documents a back-up Multiple Daily Insulin (MDI) regimens in the event of pump failure.
• The back-up insulin regimen, whether by prefilled insulin pens, or cartridges with pen device, should remain available on repeat prescription at all times so that the patient can request when needed. All insulin pump users should ensure they have back-up insulin pens/cartridges/needles available, and within the expiry date.
• Where an individual is administering insulin from a vial with an insulin syringe, prescribers should: Consider prescribing Humalog cartridges or Humalog KwikPens/Junior KwikPens where appropriate which can support the market during this time, considering the patient’s manual dexterity, vision, ability to use the new device correctly and whether support is required with administering the dose; and ensure that all patients initiated on a new device are counselled on the change in device, provided with appropriate reusable pens and/or needles and provided with training on their use, including signposting to training videos (see supporting information), as well as potential need for closer monitoring of blood glucose levels.
• If the above options are not considered appropriate, advice should be sought from the specialist diabetes team on management options.
• Pharmacy teams should: Ensure that all patients initiated on a new device are counselled on the change in device, provided with training on their use, including signposting to training videos, and advised closer monitoring of blood glucose levels may be required (see Supporting Information).

To see further alternatives and more information see Drug Safety Notice here

For further information, contact:

• Your ward pharmacist or technician.
• Pharmacy department – City: 5263 / Sandwell: 3783
• Lead antimicrobial pharmacist: a.brush@nhs.net

Drug Shortage Notice – Flixotide (flutiscaone) 125mg and 250mg Evohaler

Flixotide (fluticasone) 125 micrograms/dose and 250 micrograms/dose Evohaler is out of stock from late June until mid-July 2024.

Alternatives:

• Flixotide (fluticasone) Accuhaler 100 microgram, 250 micrograms, and 500 micrograms remain available and can support a full uplift in demand.
• Where these are not suitable options, alternative corticosteroid inhalers, including beclomethasone metered dose inhalers, are available.

Advice:

• Where patients have insufficient supplies to last until the re-supply date, clinicians should:
•  Review and discuss treatment options with them taking into account individual clinical requirements e.g., the need for a spacer, to aid selection of an alternative treatment option (see Supporting information).
•  Consider prescribing a sufficient supply of an appropriate strength Flixotide Accuhaler, a dry powder inhaler (DPI), to last until the resupply date in patients able to use this device.
• Where patients are already prescribed a Flixotide 125 micrograms/dose Evohaler and a salmeterol 25micrograms inhaler separately, consider prescribing Seretide 125 Evohaler as this combination inhaler delivers the same doses of these components.
• Where patients are already prescribed a Flixotide 250 micrograms/dose Evohaler and a salmeterol inhaler separately, consider prescribing Seretide 250 Evohaler as this combination inhaler delivers the same doses of these components.
• If the above options are not appropriate, consider prescribing an alternative inhaled corticosteroid in line with NICE asthma guidelines.

Further information can be found on the Drug Safety Notice here

For further information, contact:

• Your ward pharmacist or technician.
• Pharmacy department – City: 5263 / Sandwell: 3783
• Lead antimicrobial pharmacist: a.brush@nhs.net

AOVPN maintenance today, 6pm – 8pm

Please be aware emergency VPN maintenance will be taking place this evening Monday 8 July from 6pm to 8pm to out essential maintenance following the recent AOVPN issues to ensure the Trust’s VPN remote access remains secure and stable.

The work is being carried out by IT and is scheduled to begin at 6pm for two hours and should be completed by 8pm.

During this time colleagues using AOVPN may experience a brief disconnection and may be forcibly logged off the system but will be able to log straight back in.

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.

Black Country ICS Healthier Futures stakeholder newsletter – July edition

Welcome to the July edition of our Healthier Futures Newsletter.

By now we will all be thinking about the future of the NHS with the newly elected government in place. Here in the Black Country we will continue to work with our partners to seek to improve the health of our population.

This edition shares summer and pharmacy campaigns, and how important talking about death and grief is when we worked together to deliver Dying Matters Week in late May.

We also share the latest updates from our Cancer and Out of Hospital boards with you. These updates share the work the boards do and their achievements across the System.

As usual, this edition showcases the great, and varied work going on in each of our places. Dudley hosted a special sign café for deaf and hearing loss people which was well attended and found to be helpful by attendees. Read about how Dudley Council have also been giving out toothbrushes and combatting loneliness with ‘Say hello’ benches inspired by comedian John Bishop. Sandwell have been busy educating safe swimming and offering children free swimming at their pools, whilst Walsall has been working in partnership to deliver on a two year diabetes programme which has been hailed a success by improving residents health and wellbeing. Wolverhampton highlighted infant mental health and wellbeing week in June by sharing the range of activities delivered across the city, as well as information on the Healthy Child Wolves App.

Read also stories about innovation and advances in healthcare procedures and services from our partners in this edition. Russell’s Hall hospital welcomed its 1000th patient on the Paediatric Virtual Ward, with the team leading the service also getting royal seal of approval at the Royal Garden Party for their great work. Across in Walsall Manor Hospital, visiting fairies help mums-to-be make an informed choice about whooping cough vaccinations! Not only do we have fairies in this edition, but on p21 you can read and see our superhero 5k fun runners (spot the familiar faces) for Dudley Group NHS Charity.

Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust showcases partnership working on a national project called WorkWell to support people to find and retain employment, and you can also read the latest update on the Edward Street Hospital refurbishment on p24.

This edition shares the work around homelessness and a workshop that was held to support Black Country partners to explore how best we work together to tackle homelessness and its issues.

Finally, the Our People section is bursting with Royal Garden Party attendees in their finest attire and also shares many special events and awards that our fabulous staff have worked hard to achieve. I feel so proud when I read about our staff successes.

Download the July newsletter or catch up on previous editions on our ICS website.

Best wishes

Jonathan Fellows

Chair, Black Country Integrated Care Partnership

Have you downloaded Thrive? Mental health app for staff

Sometimes we can all feel like things are getting on top of us. That’s why SWB have partnered with Thrive to give you exclusive access to Thrive: Mental Wellbeing, a clinically effective app for the prevention, screening, and management of anxiety, depression and stress.

Tissue viability training events at Sandwell

Three events have been arranged in July covering wound management, pressure ulcer prevention and complex wound management.

All sessions are available to acute and community staff and contribute towards revalidation.

• Wound management – Thursday 11 July, 9.30am – 3.30pm, room 10, Sandwell Education Centre
• Pressure ulcer prevention – Thursday 18 July, 9.30am – 4pm, clinical skills, Sandwell Education Centre
• Complex wound management – Thursday 25 July, 9.30am – 4pm,clinical skills, Sandwell Education Centre

Please contact Tissue Viability to book on this study day by calling 0121 507 3278 or emailing tissueviability2@nhs.net.

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 5 July

Dear colleagues,

We are now already three months into delivering our annual plan for 2024/25.  Colleagues will hopefully recall that the plan attempted to be far better at prioritising what we will be focusing on this year, rather than trying the usual NHS trick of effectively saying “we’ve got to try and do everything”.  The principle has to be we seek to go “inch wide, mile deep” as opposed to the other way round.

For the avoidance of doubt, our objectives this year are:

• Improve our management of deteriorating patients
• Achieve the shortest time necessary for patients in hospital
• Increase activity delivered in outpatient and theatre sessions (back to 2019/20 levels)
• Deliver recurrent financial improvement
• Increase response rates for staff and patient surveys
• Improve workforce controls/oversight

These are the things that we must prioritise before we do anything else.  You can see that much of this has the dual objective of both improving patient care (UEC and elective) as well as improving our financial sustainability in difficult financial times.

It is the financial improvement work that I would like to address head on in this week’s Friday message.  I know there has been a lot of concern about the number of interim expertise we are currently deploying to help us to develop better plans for delivery of urgent or elective care improvement, and the fact that this seems to contradict the messages we send out about workforce cost control.  I understand this.  However, I want to be clear with you about why we are doing this.

In essence, we are facing clinical leadership and managerial challenges that are greater than most other Trusts in the NHS at the moment.  The MMUH readiness challenge, the financial improvement ask and the relentless push to improve patient safety and access standards, is putting a huge strain on you all.  To expect our existing management teams to deliver all of this, concurrently, without external help, was not something I was prepared to tolerate.  You should never ask others to do something that you couldn’t or wouldn’t, do yourself.  That is why this interim support is in our organisation at present.  However, I know it is financially unsustainable and I know we must develop plans that will allow us to manage everything in a post-MMUH world, ourselves, without such help.  We are doing so.  I want to assure you of that, for the avoidance of doubt.

Please do keep engaging in the work being done by the financial improvement team, they are already progressing some of your ideas, and would love to hear more. Remember you can submit them here.

In other news:

Today is the 76^th birthday of the NHS. Since its founding on July 5, 1948, the NHS has been a cornerstone of British society, providing healthcare that is free at the point of use and accessible to all. This revolutionary concept has not only transformed the lives of millions in the United Kingdom but has also served as a beacon of inspiration for healthcare systems worldwide. I, like many of you, feel very lucky to not have only been cared for by the NHS, but to have had such a wonderful career working in it too. Today is not only a day of celebration, but also recognition that this milestone wouldn’t have been achieved without our hardworking and dedicated staff, who, across SWB, improve the lives of our patients and our local community every day. Your unwavering commitment to our health and wellbeing is truly invaluable.

Many of you will have memories of your time working within the NHS, and I wanted to take the time to share some of mine with you – and some of the lessons that I have learned along the way.

• Being rejected by Marks and Spencer because they knew my heart was in public service – I knew I wanted to join the NHS at that point – life in retail just wasn’t going to cut it for me
• Having 17 job interviews before getting my first NHS job – if at first you don’t succeed, the NHS will always have an avenue you can pursue, in career terms
• Being told by a grumpy ENT surgeon that I was an NHS manager and therefore I was doomed to fail –  and that success was only going to be measured by how long I survived in post – I’d like to think that I, and many others, have debunked that theory!
• My first executive job – at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the joy of reducing waiting times and generating financial surpluses to invest in patient care, because the NHS actually had enough money to achieve its strategic ambitions then
• My first CEO job at Wye Valley NHS Trust – and being placed in Special Measures by the CQC on my first day – the tenacity and professional pride demonstrated by that Trust’s staff to get out of special measures, was unforgettable
• Being appointed as CEO at Walsall Healthcare – and achieving special measures exit there, as we had at Wye Valley, through the same family-like loyalty and esprit de corps
• Coming to SWB and having the unique privilege of playing a part in opening only the second new hospital development in the NHS for 10 years (beat that!) Which we will also achieve, by having incredible, dedicated, and committed staff.

The themes above centre around people, and that’s because people are at the heart of the NHS – I am incredibly proud to be part of this organisation, surrounded by so many wonderful colleagues – and what a year we have to come  – how exciting is it to think that we will be celebrating NHS 77 in a brand new hospital, which will make a real difference to the people of Sandwell and West Birmingham – I for one can’t wait.

Two more things:

As you may be aware, last month, we invited applications for the roles of chair and vice chair for some of our staff networks. We had over 30 applications which was fantastic to see, so thank you to those who took the time to complete their application. These have been shortlisted and now it’s over to you so please get voting by clicking here.

And finally, the quarter two pulse survey opened this week. I have talked about the importance of our staff surveys many times in my Friday messages, so please do take five minutes of your time to complete it. To save you searching your e-mails, you can simply click here to access the survey.

Have a good weekend.

Richard

P.s come on England!