Monthly archives: October 2024

#MedSafetyWeek: 4 – 10 November

All medicines can have side effects; in some people these can be severe.

Reporting an adverse drug reaction, if it occurs, makes the details of that reaction available to be analysed. This information can be used to add cautions and warnings. This knowledge can be used make sure the right medicines are given to the right patients.  This makes medicines safer for everyone.

Adverse drug reactions are reported online on the MHRA Yellow Card website and there is also an app. This feedback is crucial to ensuring medicines are safe.

For one week each year the Pharmacy department raise awareness of the reporting system and promote recognition and reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions.  The 2024 campaign will run from 4 – 10 November and will call on patients and healthcare professionals to report all side effects.

The Pharmacy department is raising awareness during this week (4-10 November) by running an information stand outside of Pharmacy and in the BTC,  joined by Pharmacy Foundation Trainees. Please join them to learn about the Yellow Card Scheme, take part in quizzes and find out how we can all play our part in making medicines safer.

Saying goodbye to City with Esther Richies

As we gear up to say goodbye to City shortly, we look back on the reflections of former colleagues who joined together last year to say a fond farewell to their beloved City Hospital.

City Hospital, or Dudley Road as it was then known, was home to countless nurses and medical staff. Unlike today, former colleagues would receive their training on site, whilst working and living there too. What is now the derelict Anne Gibson rooms was once home to a vibrant medical community of student nurses and doctors who called it their home.

Esther Richies, former RGN at City Hospital, reflects on her career. Watch the full video here.

Take a walk through the wards at Midland Met with us

To help you find your way around Midland Met, we’ve created simple ward videos to guide you to departments and wards.

Watch the route to the Trauma and Orthopaedic ward with Ward Sister, Felicia, here.

IT maintenance: 11 November, 2am – 6am and 12 November, 10pm – 6am

Please be aware an essential IT maintenance will be taking place on Monday 11 November from 2am to 6am and from 10pm overnight to Tuesday 12 November, 6am to carry out security patching and reboots to ensure the Trust’s systems remains compliant.

On Monday 11 November from 2am to 6am and again from 10pm overnight to Tuesday 12 November 6am Unity will remain fully available;

• Equitrac Printing services – Ricoh MFD (multi-functional device) printers and scan to email functionality. All other printing such as labels, pathology specimen and desktop printing will remain available as normal.
• Wristband printing  

Colleagues will need to ensure they revert to local business continuity plans during this time.

This timeslot has been chosen as a quieter time operationally and 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

Unity printing maintenance: 21 November, 10pm – 11pm

Please be aware essential Unity maintenance will be taking place on Thursday 21 November 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 21 November Unity printing will be unavailable for up to one hour 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.

Clinical support system maintenance: 6 November, 7am – 7.30am

Essential clinical support system (CSS) maintenance will be taking place on Wednesday 6 November to ensure the Trust’s system remains stable. The work is being carried out by IT and is scheduled to begin at 7am for approximately 30 minutes and should be completed by 7.30am.

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

We would recommend colleagues try not to upload documents into CSS, access the ‘CDA’ icon in Unity to view historical patient records, or complete eOutcomes from the link in Unity between 6.55am and 7.05am. This timeslot has been chosen as a quieter time operationally to minimise impact.

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

Telephone diverts

We have a new and improved telephone service meaning diverts can be controlled by you without any need to contact IT.

Please see below on how to use the divert:

To add divert:

• dial #9 then the number you need to call within the Trust (please add 9 to this if it is an external number you are contacting)
• for example – #9907123 456789

To remove divert:

• dial ##9

 

Warren Chapman closes his final chapter at City

After nearly four decades since his career began, Warren Chapman is preparing to say farewell to a place that has been more than just a hospital to him.

As November approaches, so do the final farewells to a hospital that has been a cornerstone of the community since 1887. For Warren and many others, City Hospital – once known as Dudley Road Hospital – is far more than just a place of work. It’s been a place where careers have grown, friendships have been made, and memories have been created.

Warren’s journey at City Hospital began in November 1984, when he first donned his uniform as a student nurse. “I started my nurse training right here, at Dudley Road. I qualified in 1987 and took my first post in Trauma and Orthopaedics on Ward D9,” he recalls. It was the start of a long career in healthcare that, despite a brief detour, Warren never lost touch with.

That detour took him to Birmingham Accident Hospital and later into the world of advertising copywriting. But despite trying new things, the pull to come back was strong. “I continued working here on weekends,” Warren says, “and by 1994, I decided to return full time.” His return led him to the field of endoscopy, where he has dedicated himself to the specialty for 30 years.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSOx3BRH9bM[/embed]

Warren’s role has evolved over his career. One of his proudest achievements was being among the first nurses in the UK to perform endoscopy procedures – traditionally a role reserved for doctors. Today, he is the specialty lead for endoscopy at SWB, managing his endoscopy lists and seeing patients in clinic. “When I started, you didn’t see nurses doing things like this,” Warren explained. “Now, we’re performing roles that used to be done by doctors. It’s a huge shift.”

But it’s not just the advancements in medicine and technology that Warren remembers most—it’s the people. The diversity of the workforce has been a memorable part of his career. “When I first started, I worked alongside the Windrush generation,” he says. “I was fortunate to learn from their experiences and be enriched by the culture my new colleagues brought.”

Over the years, City Hospital became even more diverse, welcoming staff from the Indian subcontinent, the Philippines, Nepal, and Africa. “The multiculturalism of the workforce and the patients has made City Hospital such a vibrant, welcoming place.”

Among his fondest memories, Warren speaks about the band he co-founded at the Trust, The Corridors, named after the hospital’s main spine, that many bandmates worked on. “It was supposed to be a one-off performance for the Year 2000 Trust celebrations, but we played as a band for a decade. We played at Trust functions, private events and pubs. The band included a surgeon, a gastroenterologist, two operating department practitioners from Theatres, my sister, and me. It was such a fun and unexpected part of my career here.”

As we prepare to make the final moves to Midland Met, Warren told us: “I’m looking forward to working in a modern hospital with state-of-the-art facilities. The Winter Garden looks like a fantastic place to take a break, so I’ll be grabbing a drink there.”

Warren added: “It’s fitting that as we approach November 2024, it will mark exactly 40 years since I started here as a student. It feels like the closing of one chapter and the start of another.”

Outside of work, Warren’s passions continue to grow. Recently, he added “author” to his list of accomplishments, publishing his first book, Koftas and Yellow Rice.

[gallery ids="581136,581137,581141,581143"]

Your latest Midland Met line manager briefing: 28 October

In case you missed the Get Set For Midland Met: Line manager briefing from earlier this week, please see the video below to watch back the session.

You can also access the slides from the session here – Get Set for Midland Met Line Manager Briefing 28 October

As we gear up to Get set for Midland Met, it is important to attend line manager briefings if you can. These take place bi-weekly and will involve our directorate and group leaders.

The next meeting is on Monday 25 November, 12pm – 1pm. Click here to join the meeting.

One Health and Care system downtime: 7 November, 10am – 4pm

Please be advised the One Health and Care system will be undergoing essential maintenance on Thursday 7 November between the hours of 10am – 4pm.

During this time the One Health and Care link in Unity will not return any data, this will have no impact on any other Trust system and the rest of Unity will continue work as expected. The Health Information Exchange (HIE) will also continue to work as expected during this time allowing access to West Birmingham and Sandwell GP records.

Colleagues should not use the system during the maintenance window as data may only be partially complete.