Monthly archives: December 2024

Sarah Cooke says goodbye to City

“I joined, what was then known as West Birmingham Health Authority, on 8 October 1989.” Sarah explains. “It was a position which had a 50/50 split between West Birmingham and Walsall Manor.  There were three of us in this brand new team called ‘IT’, and so my new journey began.”

Sarah had already started her NHS career in 1984 as a clerk, but she reflects on the excitement of joining SWB during a time of big changes.

“When I started my NHS career at a previous Trust, there were no computers. I expressed my interest in IT which led to the introduction of a data collection system. Whilst it was deadly boring, I jumped at the chance to use my IT knowledge from school! After that, I never really looked back.

“Around three years later, West Birmingham’s agreement with Walsall ceased and our IT team were taken on full time. Following this, our department grew. I set up the first service desk where I was offered numbers to choose as “the IT Helpdesk number”. I chose 4050, and it remains today.”

Later, Sarah recalls when Sandwell joined together with West Birmingham. “We formally merged with Sandwell Health Authority in February 2002. Prior to this, the IT and Information teams had already started working together from both organisations. I was really lucky to be given the lovely Medway PAS support team. Induction Training Manager, Andy Page, was a member of the team back then and I’m still in touch with other members too.”

With a main base at Brookfield House at City Hospital, we worked across sites. Sadly, we left City, eventually forming a base at the Hallam building in Sandwell followed by Trinity House.”

Sarah describes her favourite thing about working at the Trust. “I have loved working at the Trust – the family feel and community spirit is real. The friendliness of staff has been, and remains, lovely.

“I have been lucky enough to try most roles in IT and I have loved the variety. These have included the Servicedesk, Field Service, Training, Applications Support, Infrastructure and Relationship Management. In a previous role, I also tried coding.  I have worked with the most amazing people in IT, some of whom are still here. It is interesting when we get what I call ‘boomerangers’ – colleagues who leave to go elsewhere, thinking that the grass is greener, and then before you know it, they’re back.”

Sarah is no stranger to the many changes in IT over the years. “We had one computer in IT in the very early days that was connected to the internet. This computer was the only place in the Trust an email could be sent too. I remember my colleague, Scott Paterson, using a thing called the ‘world wide web’ to find a photo of the moon from NASA’s servers. It took ages to show up on the screen – but when it did, we were all amazed! Likewise, I remember first using Microsoft Windows. I still remember some of the old commands to run things on computers from a blank screen with a prompt shown as ‘C:>’. People thought Microsoft Windows would never catch on.”

With pride, Sarah shares her best memories of City and SWB. “Undoubtedly, it’s the people I have met along the way. I have had the privilege to work with many colleagues, some of which I had the opportunity to manage and nurture through their careers. I value the real friendships that I have made here. I’ll never forget the support I have received from those friends and the wider organisation during pivotal moments of my life, such as the loss of close family members.”

Sarah recalls another exciting memory in the years gone by. “It was New Year’s Eve, 1999, and we saw in the new millennium at City! As the clock struck midnight, we all climbed to the top of the fire escape stairs at Brookfield house. The fireworks went off for 10-15 minutes, and we stood in awe just watching – It was wonderful and none of our IT systems failed that night!”

Continuing, Sarah recalls large changes that have happened in the wider Trust over the years. “One of the momentous moments was the introduction of the PiMS patient administration system at City. Likewise, the Eye Hospital moving from the centre of town to join City’s campus as Birmingham and Midands Eye Centre (BMEC), and the Skin Hospital moving from Edgbaston to Sheldon block. I remember when Birmingham Treatment Centre (BTC) was opening too and so much more. Of course, not forgetting being part of the huge opening of Midland Met – what a tremendous way to end my career. Two days after its opening on 6 October, I celebrated 40 years working in the NHS.”

Sarah concludes: “Midland Met is a beautiful place and the views are incredible. It’s nice to be able to look out over the city and pick out landmarks. It feels like a calm and modern space to be in. I love it, and I have been very humbled to have played a part in the opening and SWB over the years.”

Senior medics coffee and chat

Join us for a Wellbeing Coffee and Chat. Get together, meet colleagues, and talk about your experiences and challenges. This is a drop-in session no need to book!

Consultant / Senior Doctors

Time: 4.30pm – 6pm

Venue: Senior clinicians rest space Level 5 MMUH

Date: Thursday 5 December

Time: 4.30pm – 6pm

Venue: Berridge Room, Sandwell General Hospital

Date: Thursday 19 December

Time: 4.30pm – 6pm

Venue: Senior clinicians rest space Level 5 MMUH

Date: Thursday 9 January 2025

Time: 4.30pm – 6pm

Venue: Berridge Room, Sandwell General Hospital

Date: Thursday 23 January 2025

For further information please contact email  Syeda.naqvi@nhs.net or  vikranth.venugopalan@nhs.net.

Higher Development Award (HDA) Information Webinar

On Thursday 5  December 2pm-3.30pm, Dudley College is hosting an online information session, via MS Teams, promoting the Higher Development Award (HDA) aimed at AHP Support Workers.  It is an opportunity for anyone interested to attend to find out further information and to ask any questions they may have.

Anyone interested needs to scan the below QR code or healthcare@dudleycol.ac.uk  in order to be sent the MS Teams meeting link. A copy of the Q+A’s handout related to the HDA – click here

Would you like to purchase a gift for a child this Christmas?

Our children’s department are working with Your City and Metropolitan Hospital Charity to create our very own Children’s Gift Appeal for those who will be us during the festive period.

To purchase a gift, please visit their wishlist here or scan the QR code.

Covid and Flu vaccination update

The occupational health and wellbeing team are making it easier for colleagues to get their flu and COVID-19 vaccinations this season, with increased visits to wards and clinics moved to more accessible and prominent locations.

We’re now at the time of year when respiratory infection figures start to increase, with the strong likelihood of a surge of COVID and seasonal flu. All colleagues at our Trust are urged to protect themselves with a COVID-19 booster jab and a flu vaccination. Not only will this protect yourself, your colleagues and your loved ones; crucially, you will help protect our patients who may be at serious risk if they contract flu or COVID-19 whilst in our care.

The vaccination team will be visiting work areas across all sites to vaccinate colleagues who don’t have time to attend a clinic, which can be found here.

Unsure about why you should have a vaccination, watch this short video here. 

If you’d like to book in a specific time, the team are able to work with you to arrange a vaccinator to attend the department. To discuss this, managers should contact Cara Shelton on 07507 523924.

Points to remember:

• You can have the flu and show no symptoms meaning you can be unknowingly spreading the virus to your family, friends and our patients.
• It’s important to have vaccinations as soon as possible, it can take up to two weeks for your body to build up good level of immunity.
• Our flu vaccines do not contain any porcine or egg ingredients.

You will be able to have either or both of the vaccines, administered in two separate injections, on the same day.

You must have had two primary doses of either Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna. Your last vaccine must have been more than 91 days ago and you must be 18 years or over to meet the criteria. Flu vaccine being offered to SWB colleagues is cell-based quadrivalent influenza (QIVc).

If possible, please have your NHS number to hand upon attending, as this will help speed up the process.

We know that many of our colleagues have had their vaccinations outside of the Trust, at their GP surgeries, in the community or perhaps at another trust.

In order to ensure we have accurate and up to date vaccination figures, we need to know which of our colleagues have been vaccinated, wherever they have had these! If you’ve been vaccinated elsewhere, please click here to fill out a quick survey and help ensure our data accurately represents our Trust.

A message from Sir David Nicholson KCB CBE, Trust chair

We are happy to announce that our Chair, Sir David Nicholson KCB CBE, will be continuing in his role until 2027.

Sir David, who has more than 40 years’ NHS leadership experience, will serve a further term as Chair of Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, while his terms of office as Chair of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust have been extended. He will also continue in his role as Chair of The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust.

He has held some of the most senior posts in the NHS. He was chief executive of the NHS for seven years from 2006-2013 and became the first chief executive of the organisation now known as NHS England from 2013-2014.

Since his retirement from the NHS in 2014, he has taken on various international roles providing advice and guidance to governments and organisations focused on improving population health and universal healthcare coverage.

He was awarded a CBE in 2008 and knighted by Her Majesty the Queen in 2010.

He said: “I feel privileged to be asked to continue my Chair role at such an important time for the NHS – an organisation that I am proud to be part of and that means so much to me and my family.

“The government recently launched a huge consultation on our NHS to make it fit for the future and Black Country communities can play a vital role in this as we work together to move the focus of healthcare from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention, and from analogue to digital.

“Set against this backdrop, the work we’re doing through the Black Country Provider Collaborative has never been more essential but having seen the innovation and passion to drive change that we have among our teams I’m sure we can collectively make a significant impact.”

Getting to know the lifts at MMUH

To provide more information for you when using the hospital lifts, we’ve put together a table that informs you about whether there are stairs associated with the lifts or where they can be called from the car park.

Click here to view this in full.

Have you updated your department location?

Our internal postal department are currently experiencing issues whereby internal post is still being labelled to old locations leading to post being returned to Sandwell Hospital Post Room.

Although post room staff will continue to do their best to redirect post it would be appreciated if all letters can be labelled with the correct addresses/departments.

The team also receive internal mail containing staff member’s names only; again they try their best to find out where they need to go.

Post must be sent with the correct information on, such as:

• Staff member or department name –  for example The Communications Team/Joe Bloggs.
• Floor / Ward / Corridor or building name – for example, Trinity House/Corridor A/ Level 3/Ward A3
• Site location – MMUH/Rowley Regis/Sandwell Hospital/BMEC/BTC etc

Our postal team are working incredibly hard to ensure that both staff and patients receive their post within a reasonable time frame.

Please can all departments ensure mail is labelled correctly and letter templates are all up to date.

Essential Omnicell SMARTCART planned downtime: Wednesday 4 December, 2.45pm – 4.15pm

On Wednesday 4 December the Omnicell (AMIS) Smartcarts will be unavailable from 2.45pm to 4.15pm while essential maintenance work is complete.

Any planned medication administration should be completed prior to the outage or delayed if clinically appropriate. Urgent medication must be administered without the use of the Smartcart (Omnicell ADCs and MedX from other devices will remain functional)  

 By 2.45pm all users MUST:  

• Exit all programs on the Smartcarts 
• Ensure no medication is left in Smartcart drawers 
• Store Smartcarts in clean utilities 
• Place any Smartcarts with low battery on charge 

A reminder notification will be displayed from 2.30pm. A confirmation of completion of works will be displayed once the maintenance work is complete and the Smartcart can be used as normal.

Essential Winscribe maintenance: Wednesday 11 December from 6pm – 8pm

Please be aware essential Winscribe maintenance will be taking place on Wednesday 11 December by our support vendor to ensure the Trust’s transcribing system remains secure and stable. The work is scheduled to begin at 6pm for approximately 2 hours and should be completed by 8pm.

During this time Winscribe should remain available. However, colleagues may experience a blip in connection to the audio service whilst the maintenance takes place. This timeslot is the preferred time operationally to minimise impact.

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.