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Monthly archives: November 2024

Hallam Restaurant opening hours

 

Hallam Restaurant at Sandwell Health Campus will now be open Monday – Friday, 7.30am – 4pm where they will continue to serve breakfast, lunch and afternoon hot and cold food.

Note: Hallam Restaurant will be closed on the weekend.

International Fraud Awareness Week

 

This week is International Fraud Awareness Week, colleagues from our fraud team (RSM) have provided a week of events to help highlight fraud and how it can effect people in their every day lives.

To read about Fraud and the events taking place, click here.

A walkthrough level 5

 

It’s one week on since we welcomed our City colleagues into Midland Met and completed our final patient moves. With this in mind, we’re reminding you of the facilities and features that level 5 has to offer. From the Winter Garden restaurant to our newly opened Marks & Spencer, level 5 includes:

  • Welcome Centre
  • Winter Garden Restaurant
  • Coffee shop serving Costa coffee
  • Education Centre and the lecture theatre
  • Library Services
  • Art gallery (opening soon)
  • Marks & Spencer
  • Market Express powered by Amazon (opening soon)
  • Bereavement office
  • Patient Experience team
  • External terrace area
  • IT drop in shop and agile working area
  • Overnight stay areas

To help guide you through, we’ve created a short walkthrough video, here.

One Health and Care system maintenance: 21 November, 1pm – 4pm

 

Please be advised the One Health and Care system will be undergoing essential maintenance on Thursday 21 November between the hours of 1pm – 4pm.

During this time the One Health and Care link in Unity may 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

Mobile phone maintenance at MMUH impacting EE coverage: 27 November, 9am – 5pm

 

Please be aware that essential 3rd party mobile phone maintenance will be taking place at MMUH on Wednesday 27 November from 9am – 5pm which will affect the EE mobile signal coverage. This is required to move the EE transmission equipment.

During this time there will be multiple interruptions to the EE mobile service at MMUH impacting all work and ward mobile phones that utilise the EE network.

Please refer to the Quick Reference Guides (QRG): Enabling Wi-Fi calling on Android and Apple phones – this feature lets you make calls over a Wi-Fi network instead of a cellular connection.

This will not affect any landline calls.

This will not affect the 8×8 solution.

This will not affect the Bleeps application, emergency red phones utilised in our A&E, maternity and cardiology departments.

Once the work is complete, the EE signal will be re-activated and devices will reconnect automatically.

We would recommend that this information is included in ward handovers and that landlines are actively manned by ward leads during this time.

In the unlikely event of issues with the phone system, radios are located on level 2 at MMUH Security control room located at the back of ED Reception which will be fully charged and available for collection. Please return any radios taken to the Security control room as soon as the maintenance has finished.

Please be assured the activity will be closely monitored by our IT support.

As always, should you have any further queries then please do contact the IT Service Desk on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050. Alternatively you can live chat with the IT Service Desk.

Changes in logistics

 

Now the Procurement and Logistics service at SWB is up and running, stakeholders newly transitioning from City to MMUH should be reminded that the Logistics combines a number of specialties that were previously separate including waste, linen, non-patient facing portering, materials management, receipts and distribution, sterile services, theatres stores, the post room and transport.

See below a summary of the important changes that you need to be aware of:

Waste: The process for the movement, collection and disposal of waste will remain as before, but all Logistics Operatives will now work to a pre-defined schedule.  The schedules have been developed based on the expected levels of activity.

Linen: There is no change to the existing service. The Elis (external supplier) contract has been extended by 12 months.  For MMUH, there will be pre-packed deliveries to each ward area.

Non-patient facing portering: the logistics team will be responsible for the distribution of:

  • Pathology samples
  • Medical gases to hubs (in partnership with portering)
  • Medical pumps
  • Movement of mattresses and beds
  • Pharmacy Items

This will be with immediate effect at MMUH and Sandwell and at City from Sunday 10 November.

Materials Management/Scan4Safety: The materials management team has been rebranded as the Scan4Safety Team, led by Lisa Southall. The new Scan4Safety Team will provide a full ordering and stock put away service for managed items. Stock levels will be managed by the new inventory management system (Genesis). The team has implemented standardised stock rooms to make things easier for clinical staff.

Receipts and distribution: The team are operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The City Warehouse will close in 2025.  At MMUH, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) will operate alongside logistics personnel. A video relating to the AGVs can be found here.

Sterile services: The sterile services team now operates from MMUH. The set up and external provider will remain the same until November.

Theatres stores: The team has been rebranded Theatres Scan4Safety. The Team will order and put away stock for theatres.  Stock will be tracked using barcode technology.

The post room: There will be a post sorting area at Sandwell, City and MMUH. Sandwell will be the main hub for the Trust and will become a central sortation area. Royal Mail delivery will be at 8am each day. Royal Mail collection will be up to 8pm. Post will be distributed by the Logistics team between 10am and 2pm each day. BMEC samples will continue to receive Tracking IDs for Unique Samples on site at City.

Transport: The shuttle bus is now stopping at MMUH, as well as continuing with journeys to City and Sandwell. The full shuttle bus schedule can be found here. Community routes and transport routes (including new Pathology routes) between City, Sandwell and MMUH will change from Sunday 10 November, timings have been shared with stakeholders.

To contact our logistics team across any of our sites during Monday – Friday, 7.15am – 6.30pm, please call 0121 507 3869 and select option four.

Should you need to contact Logistics outside of these hours, please see numbers below:

  • MMUH: 0121 507 5846
  • Sandwell: 0121 507 3135
  • City: 0121 507 4945

NHS Smartcards: Planned maintenance taking place on Saturday 30 November 9am to 4pm

 

Please be aware essential national NHS Smartcard maintenance will be taking place on Saturday 30 November from 9am through to 4pm.

During this period we will not be able to issue new smartcards or reset passwords on smartcards, however cards already in use will remain fully functional.

The work is scheduled to begin at 9am and should be completed by 4pm.

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.

Dog Therapy guidance now available

 

The patient experience team have been working alongside our clinical teams to ensure that our ‘Dog Therapy’ guidance is in align with other Trust policies.

If you would like to use the service you can read the guidance here, or contact Julie Thompson via email – julie.thompson40@nhs.net for more information.

What you need to know about City after the big move

 

As the final patient moves from City take place on Sunday, 10 November, please note that limited patient services will remain on the main spine until 18 November. These services include:

  • Clinical Immunology and Allergy – D42.
  • Diabetes and Endocrinology in the diabetes centre.
  • Medical Photography (move date to be confirmed)

Patients and colleagues working in these areas will be able to gain access to the main spine via the BTC link bridge – all other access points to the main spine will be closed off.

Signage will be in place notifying people of this, but please be helpful with any queries should people need support to get to where they are going.

Here are some useful things to be aware of:

  • Car parks will be open as normal and can be accessed via the Western Road entrance.
  • Catering facilities will remain in place at the BTC and BMEC.
  • Security patrols will be in place at City Health Campus. Should you need to contact the security team please call 0121 507 4133 or ext 4133.

More broadly the following services will remain on site at City Health Campus:

  • Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre
  • Birmingham Treatment Centre
  • Sheldon
  • Outpatient services
  • Diagnostics
  • Day surgery
  • Pharmacy hub
  • DGM building
  • Ophthalmology A&E

For a full breakdown of how we’ll use our SWB estate click here.

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Are you following the correct procedures for lab requests?

 

We are experiencing an increasing number of calls into the laboratory for requests in Unity.

We ask that colleagues  do not call the laboratory to add on tests as the request will print in the laboratory if the procedure in table 1 (see below) is followed and a member of our team will process the request as soon as possible.

Table 1 gives a step by step procedure for making add on requests. The outlined procedure must be followed for the add on request to be received in the laboratory.

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