Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 18 December
December 18, 2020
It’s been great to see how well Your Health Partnership, the primary care network that has been part of the Trust since April, have done in delivering the COVID-19 vaccine. I know that they are really pleased and proud to be among the first wave of GP surgeries vaccinating their patients and, despite the complexities of the vaccine, they have managed to book in and vaccinate hundreds of people in the higher risk categories. Well done to everyone involved. It has been a real team effort.
Walsall Manor continues to be the hospital hub for the Black Country and we have this week been able to secure appointments for high and very high risk staff (based on COVID risk assessments) to receive their first doses of this vaccine. In coming days we expect to be able to continue offering this out to more staff, beginning with those who are most exposed to the virus for instance those who frequently carry out aerosol generating procedures (AGPs). When we will become a hospital hub is not yet known but we expect it to be early next year. Thank you for your patience. The vaccine will be available to all health care workers, so when you are contacted and offered a slot please make every effort to book your appointment and attend. If you have any questions about the vaccine you can read the FAQs here and if there are questions that haven’t been addressed please let me know and we will get back to you.
Thank you for your continued commitment to our patients during these difficult times. The tiers for our areas were confirmed yesterday with little change across the country. Sandwell and Birmingham remain in tier 3. Although there has been an overall reduction in community cases, we have seen cases rise over the last few days which is obviously cause for concern. Critical care remains under continued pressure and I am grateful to Nick, Becky and all the team for continuing to care so well for these patients who are very unwell.
Whilst we remain in tier 3, we have decided to allow limited visiting over the Christmas period. The detailed guidance will be in the COVID bulletin. I am sure this is the right thing to do, to enable one visitor, with the right PPE and after been screened, to be with their loved one. But, it clearly creates more risk and we need to make sure that visiting is controlled carefully. This means visitors being allocated slots at different times, adhering to social distancing, only staying for a short amount of time (30 minutes or less) and following our infection prevention and control policies. All of us, who are in when visitors are permitted, have a duty to ensure that those we see are following this guidance. What is really important is that all staff follow it too, or we won’t set the right example and it will be difficult to enforce.
I’ve really enjoyed continuing this week to take part in the star award presentations to the winning teams and individuals. All of the nominees and winners have been incredible and I know my exec colleagues have felt privileged to give out these awards in person, even though we couldn’t hold our usual glittering star awards event. With the vaccination programme underway I feel confident that next year we will be able to hold our awards with an “in person” event but we’ll continue to allow everyone to take part virtually in some way. My thanks to Carl Bellamy for his work in running a digital awards ceremony for our apprentices. There are some wonderful examples here of people who have achieved great things whilst learning on the job. These individuals are a real inspiration to many of us and I’m sure will continue to progress well in their careers.
The Christmas spirit remains alive and well at our Trust, although we are doing things differently. Our community continues to be generous and I wanted to particularly thank Key Construction, who are building the GP surgery at the Sandwell site for their generosity in donating construction toys for the Sandwell nursery children.
More gifts will be out next week for our patients who are in hospital or being visited at home. Being unwell at any time is not good, and can be particularly difficult at this time of year, with the additional restrictions and anxieties due to COVID-19. We hope our Christmas gifts can help bring a smile to those who need it this year.
Our Star of the Week is James Chapman, Porter, who was nominated for his work being “chief swab collector” at Sandwell Hospital. He was nominated for always having a smile on his face, greeting everyone he meets and being really friendly. The doctor who nominated James said that “in such a difficult time when people are stressed and generally down, he is guaranteed to make you feel better if you pass him in the corridor”. Thank you, James, for the important work you are doing and the way you go about it, boosting the morale of our stretched teams.
David Carruthers
Acting Chief Executive