Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 13 August

August 16, 2021

By Dr David Carruthers – Richard Beeken is away.

It’s great to see the new wellbeing hubs set up at Rowley Regis Hospital, City Hospital and Sandwell Hospital. These have been requested by staff to enable easier access to wellbeing areas so that colleagues can take the opportunity to have some quiet time during, before or after the working day. I hope you can make use of these and encourage your colleagues to do this too. As a reminder, the Sanctuary in the Learning Works building remains available for reflective time, a chat or certain relaxing treatments. Let’s make sure we look after ourselves and each other as we deal with this latest wave of the pandemic.

From next week the government regulations on self-isolation changes for those who are fully vaccinated (at least 14 days since your second dose). This will enable greater freedom for people on return from travelling and if you are identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. We are working through the detail of this for staff following receipt of guidance from Public Health England earlier today and will update you all next week on the arrangements. What we are certain of is the need for an individual risk assessment to be carried out and extra vigilance on social distancing, hand washing, PPE and regular testing (LAMP as well as daily lateral flow if you have been identified).

I know that many of you are working with limited staff numbers due to the needs of self-isolation so this new guidance should ease some of the pressures and enable people to get back to work sooner. There are lots of services under pressure at present and today I wanted to call out our maternity services who are experiencing record numbers of births this summer with around 500 new babies expected to be delivered by our maternity teams in August. Huge thanks to our midwives in the community and those on our delivery suite for the calm and compassionate way they are supporting families with their new arrivals, despite being busier than ever.

We continue to promote the important message about vaccination among all adults and particularly among pregnant women before the COVID-19 booster jabs campaign kicks off later this year. I remain dismayed by the small minority of the population who are persistently pushing anti vaccination views and being relentless and at times aggressive in their actions. No matter what myths and ill-informed attitudes there are, I know that all of you, who have supported the Trust and our patients throughout the pandemic, know only too well how real and devastating COVID-19 is. We have lost colleagues and loved ones and we are still treating very sick people in our hospitals. None of us want to go through wave after wave of COVID-19 and vaccination combined with testing and good infection control are the main ways we can overcome the virus.

You may have seen earlier communication about the global shortage of blood testing tubes and potential disruption of supply. In order to mitigate this risk all NHS organisations have been asked to take certain actions that will help to manage current stocks and ensure that urgent clinical care is not disrupted. My message to medical colleagues earlier today includes a summary of the actions to be taken. I want to ensure that we have a way of risk assessing and documenting the decisions we make on test prioritisation – the risk management committee will consider this next week. It is vital that we take the necessary action to limit future supply disruption. We should do so with due consideration of the risks to ensure that patient care remains safe.

I’m pleased that many clinical teams are continuing to take part in site tours around our new hospital. In our picture montage today we feature Harry and Ellie, HCAs from ED who were able to get a good idea of how the department will look when it opens. Reviewing our clinical pathways to make sure that we deliver the best care in our communities, in our diagnostic hubs and in acute settings is essential work that clinical and operational leaders are focusing on currently. Many services will need minor changes but major transformation is needed in a few specialties and departments and the work starts now. Where we can make changes now, ahead of the move to MMUH, we will do so, to ensure we make the most of the new facilities that will be available to us.

Congratulations to our two stars of the week, Sameer and Muj from the performance and insights team. It is unusual to have two people to get this prestigious award, but both individuals were put forward jointly for work they have done to gain silver QIHD accreditation for the department. They were praised for being diligent, enthusiastic and making the sessions enjoyable for everyone. There is much to learn from their approach so do get in touch with them to see how you can adapt what they have done to ensure your QIHDs achieve the right levels of accreditation.