Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 18 January
January 18, 2019
As the country continues to grapple with Brexit issues, I want to reiterate that we are working hard to prepare our supply chains for any disruption we see. Meanwhile, we have had some take up for our offer to pay settlement fees for anyone who is on our payroll and is required to apply for leave to remain as we leave the EU. Of course, immigration issues are not confined to our continent, and we are always in dialogue with the Home Office as we bring in staff from around the world. The huge success of our recruitment campaign in A&E means that we are working to secure even more permits for entry than normal. Meanwhile, as we move rapidly towards April, we will then be launching our guaranteed radiology turnaround time standard (from referral to report), which relies not just on the skills of our teams, but on overseas contracts for reporting, so that we offer both GPs and our clinical teams a much faster imaging service to improve care. Recruitment features in our photo montage this week as we look to recruit in therapies and in theatres. For 2019-20 the budgets for our Trust will be established with a vacancy rate of no more than 2 per cent, signalling the determination of the Board to reduce vacancy rates and temporary staffing, and move closer to a fully staffed organisation. In February we will launch our Flexible Working Pledge, under the weconnect programme, responding to your feedback that our arrangements were insufficiently clear across the organisation.
This coming Tuesday (22 January) in the Education Centre at Sandwell, I would encourage anyone who can do so to participate in either the morning or the afternoon engagement session around our Unity electronic patient record (entitled the Pain and the Gain). The event will include speakers from other centres who have deployed the product, as well as demos and a chance to ask awkward questions of the clinical team leading our deployment. Get in touch with Rosie Fuller if you wish to attend or see the link in daily comms https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/news/unity-the-pain-and-the-gain-2/
March’s Quality Improvement Half Day will also launch a month of intense activity to prepare for the way teams will work differently when Unity goes live. By then we will have the lessons learned from February’s dress rehearsal. And of course by then you will be trained! If you are among the few hundred yet to have basic training, please book in now https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/trustindigital/unity/unity-training/unity-end-user-training/ The deadline for completion is just ten days away.
The last few days have seen extraordinary determination by teams across the Trust to manage better the emergency care patients who rely on our services. Waiting times have improved, and each day has not begun with patients awaiting beds in ED. Emergency care is a whole institutional effort and we need every team to respond to the call to action. In thanking those who have, I am almost bound to forget someone, but I wanted to thank porters at Sandwell who are working to move patients from our AMU, duty and site managers who have altered how they work and the questions they ask in order to ensure tomorrow’s discharges, our night nursing teams – both RNs and HCAs – who are getting patients ready to sit out for breakfast if they are going home today. There are many other examples in patient transport and phlebotomy, and our weekend medical teams who are focusing first on dischargeable patients to release beds to admit those arriving. As you would expect me to write this is benefitting our patients hugely, but the most exciting vibe is the way in which it is making working life better for many frontline colleagues in our Trust. I hope that individuals and teams feel supported and listened to as we look to change ourselves and how we work. Hearing direct from our site nurse practitioner teams this week, it was clear the passion to do what’s right for patients, and the work we still have to do to make sure the way we deal with each other when under pressure is professional, dignified and respectful. For many leaders working this weekend there will be moments of difficult decision and prioritisation, and I know that those people will have your support in making choices that are not always popular or easy – like moving colleagues between departments where safety could be at risk.
Lots of work has gone on over recent months to try and make sure that joining the Trust as a new employee works well. It’s called on-boarding in the jargon. I know from formal feedback that the induction process has improved, and more people join with IT passwords and other essentials from day one. It was equally clear when I presented at induction on Monday that we have work to do to sort out uniforms. I met colleagues with no uniform, people waiting, and others not yet getting the five uniforms we promised. We will be fixing that, and changing our process to make sure that having a uniform on day one happens consistently, changing our uniform itself if necessary to make it fuss-free and off the shelf. Pride and image does have a place in what we do, and the way we work to give patients and relatives confidence in what we do and who we are. If you do have views on the uniforms we have, now and in the future, do get in touch with me or with our Chief Nurse, Paula Gardner.
While I am writing about problems and issues, I am pleased that the feedback from the local planning officers about our new car park plans is going well. Later this month we aim to confirm dates for construction, as well as explaining the support we will be providing to those parking and the extra alternatives we will be putting in place for people who want to use alternate forms of transport. One frustration I know many people have is paying for parking when you are not at work, or on days you take other modes of transport, and we will be re-launching our Pay As You Go staff car park arrangements this spring. Arrangements are being finalised to change the generator testing problems that especially bedevil our City site, and I am hopeful that within two months we should see an end to weekly testing interruption. I know Martin Sintler, among others who have repeatedly raised this issue, will keep the management’s feet to the fire to sort this out, and rightly so.
Finally, I wanted to ask everyone to consider where you work whether there is a role for a volunteer? We now have 500 volunteers on our books, of all ages and backgrounds. Around 150 remain to be placed into role, and via Ruth Wilkin I would ask you to put forward your service ideas for these volunteers. Ideally we want to place teams of volunteers so that you have coverage across the day or week. These are local people who really can contribute a little extra time to listen to patients or relatives, or help within your team. Huge value and insight can come from involving local people through our volunteering service, and I want to make sure that every part of the Trust considers actively their part in your work. Do get in touch with Ruth and her team if that is something you think might work for you.
I attach this week’s IT stats.
Informatics Data 18 January 2019
#hellomynameis…Toby