Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 15 December

December 15, 2023

I would like to start my message with a thank you from the Board and Executive Team.  Thank you to those colleagues who are preparing and planning operationally to cover the traditionally busy festive period which is now even more challenged with the pressure initiated from the industrial action which begins next week. I know there are so many people who are going the extra mile focussed on patient safety and staff wellbeing as we finalise our plans for the next few weeks.

We know our patients, who are able want to be home for Christmas , so let’s work together as a team to ensure we can make this happen safely whilst maintaining good patient flow and working together as a team .  Over the course of this year we have seen a number of strike periods and what myself and the Board has often reflected on is resilience and commitment of staff even under immense pressures, often going on and above their normal duties to ensure a safe and harm free environment can be maintained for our patients.  As well as clinical and operational staff, that includes our valued support staff who on a day-to-day basis provide those essential services, such as portering, ward services, waste and catering staff.  Our catering staff have committed to run outlets late at night over the strike period to provide nourishment and a place to rest for staff working out of hours.

As a reminder the first of two periods of industrial action by our non-consultant doctors takes place from 7am on Wednesday 20 December to 7am on Saturday 23 December and then again from 7am on Wednesday 3 January to 7am on Tuesday 9 January. We will provide further updates as needed via Connect so please ensure you are keeping up-to-date.

Against a backdrop of Industrial Action, we continue to see sustained pressure on our urgent and emergency care services.  Regrettably this is not  uncommon across the Black Country or indeed throughout the country. We must ensure we focus on patient safety, and we know that this is your top priority. Our immediate focus to help support colleagues is our investment in ED staffing medical staffing, Acute Medicine and Discharge Teams.  In early December we held ‘Winter Ambition Focus Weeks’ at both City and Sandwell Hospitals. Here members of our improvement ream integrated into our medicine and emergency care teams to identify how we could sustainably improve some of our basic practice on the wards regarding patient flow. This is very much a ‘team sport’ both in our hospitals and Place based community services.  The evaluation of those Focus Weeks will inform a further recovery focus over the next 8 weeks to embed consistent and sustainable changes, to improve patient flow and implement improvements to ensure we provide the very best patient experience.

Earlier this week, Sir David Behan, who is a non-executive director at NHS England and chair of the joint Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England Discharge Taskforce, paid a visit to Sandwell Hospital, to learn more about the discharge hub and the work we are doing within Sandwell Health and Care Partnership – our place-based partnership.

Sir David spent time with the place senior leadership team, including representatives from SWB and Sandwell Council, before heading over to the hub to talk to some of the team. He described the model as ‘brilliant’ and he was very impressed with the how staff from health and social care work together to get the very best outcomes for people leaving hospital. Congratulations to everyone involved in that visit, it was clear that our Trust values of ambition, respect and compassion were on full display.

It really is a wonderful asset for us to have and we need to make sure that we make full use of it to get our patients home more efficiently. If you would like any more information about the hub and how they can support with discharge, please contact amy.crumpton@nhs.net .

Last week,  were we were pleased to welcome Lord Markham, CBE who is the Undersecretary of State for Department of Health and Social Care and Minister responsible for the New Hospital Programme (NHP).

I was delighted to take him on a tour around the site alongside executives from NHP, Balfour Beatty and Lesley Writtle, Deputy Chair of the Trust. The Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) is one of the largest schemes to open in the new hospital programme portfolio and Lord Markham was keen to view progress and meet with partners involved. He was extremely impressed with build and level of enthusiasm and commitment being shown by all involved to get Midland Met open in 2024. The focus on the Midland Met as a benefit to the community was evident, be it through increased local recruitment, improvement to local transport connections, the onsite Learning Campus as well as the transformation in our care pathways.

In the afternoon we were joined by local MPs., Shaun Bailey and Nicola Richards, for a tour around the site. The connection with our local community leaders is essential to ensuring we make the best opportunity that the new hospital can bring to improving health outcomes and life chances. They were both also hugely impressed and remarked on what an asset that new hospital would be for their constituents and as a landmark for Sandwell and West Birmingham,

And finally, I would like to leave you with a thought and hopefully some inspiration, that we have approximately 14 weeks to go until we have the MMUH building handed over to us and start a period of what is called ‘ activation ‘. This is a 26-week period of where the hospital building is transformed into a functional , workable space for our patients to receive care and a safe, well-equipped environment for our staff to perform their duties.  This time next year the doors to MMUH will be open to patients and the community and your support to achieve this over the coming months will be invaluable in making this happen.

Thanks sincerely for all that you do at work.

Have a good week

Rachel