Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 17 February

February 17, 2023

Daren Fradgley, Deputy Chief Executive (Richard Beeken is away)

For this week’s message I’d like to focus on the value of partnerships. You all know that SWB is in the unique position of being one of only six NHS trusts in the country that sit directly across two integrated care systems. We sit in both the Black Country and Birmingham and Solihull systems, which brings its own benefits and challenges in the way we manage the relationships with partners.

It is fair to say that our relationship with the Black Country is far more established even more so now that we have a key role in leading and driving provision and delivery of care in Sandwell Place. As part of my integration portfolio, it is important that our work and relationships with Birmingham and Solihull (BSol) are just as strong as they are in the Black Country.

It is clear that the offer to West Birmingham is different to that in Sandwell. West Birmingham has more stakeholders, and the alignment of the system is not yet clear. However, whilst the way we work with the partners may differ, the service to our populations must be the same. Our aim therefore is to create real momentum to deliver this offer to the West Birmingham population before Midland Met opens.

In primary care, we have created an alliance with 74 GP practices in West Birmingham which involve us assisting them with the delivery of their quality standards through best practice sharing.

We will also provide them with formalised support for back office and leadership – all to be funded by the practices themselves. In return, they will work with the Trust to look at a partnership approach and the management of patients with long term conditions. This partnership will move to a more preventative management of medium to long term conditions so we are able to reduce attendances and admissions.

A final opportunity with primary care is to build a relationship that is so integrated that the need to refer between primary and secondary care is seamless and without delays.

In the last two weeks, we have met the exec team at Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust (BCH). We have shared community service models in areas such as urgent community response, integration on the front door, admission avoidance, and care navigation. Whilst BCH already have some of these services, it’s openly recognised that the visibility of them in our Trust is very poor. We have formally agreed with BCH to mirror our services and theirs as closely as possible. There is also a renewed focus on Ladywood and Perry Barr which will result in a plan that we expect to not be too dissimilar to that of Sandwell. It is also encouraging to see high levels of commitment from partners such as BCH, BSol, the Mental Health Trust, Birmingham City Council and third sector, to work collaboratively to manage demand and safely open the Midland Met.

Finally, one of the key components of our length of stay programme is the deployment of virtual wards. At SWB we currently have 40 beds open and this will now grow rapidly as new colleagues come onboard over the next two months to help create an additional 100 beds. We are also working in partnership with BCH and University Hospitals Birmingham to ensure our model is seamless with that in BSol. You will have your part to play in identifying patients early enough to be discharged on to virtual wards to reduce length of stay and the associated staffing pressures. As a general guide our virtual wards are currently only 50 per cent utilised and we have more capacity to offer. The virtual ward teams will be reaching out to all wards in the coming weeks to encourage you to get involved.