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Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 23 August

August 23, 2019

I wrote to everyone who works in our Trust earlier this week about Unity. We have work to do to be ready for go-live, and the Board will determine on 5 September which of two dates will be used. The expectation remains that we will go live over the weekend of 21 and 22 September. To support that ‘planned care’ volumes will be reduced by 40 per cent for ten days, and staffing levels in Gold and Silver teams will be increased over the same period. In addition, floorwalkers, super users and digital champions will be available to help. For the avoidance of doubt, given misinformation, reduced workload in that ten day period will not need to be “repaid” – our Trust plan for the year took Unity implementation into account.

Going live depends on everyone who needs CapMan training completing it by the end of August. If you are one of the 650 people who is still outstanding please log on and get that done.  6% of our Unity All About U competencies are not yet signed off, and Paula Gardner and David Carruthers are now personally contacting those individuals who are outliers. Thank you to the vast majority of colleagues who have completed this checklist.  68 out of 118 teams have made great progress with the UniTeam simulation work – and there is still time to catch up. This makes sure that we are not using Unity together for the first time on the morning of go-live. It is this simulation work that we need to focus on through September, which is why we need other competencies and training finished in August.

At the very start of September, three big things happen. Firstly every new device will be in place and we will be conducting a mass test of all of those, including our printers, over the first weekend of the month. Secondly, the final version of the Unity product will return from Cerner, complete with all the changes agreed with our clinicians, including those in neonatal intensive care. Finally, thirdly, the Tap & Go product which allows rapid log in to the Unity system will be available. It is this that in 2020 we will develop as a single sign on product for other applications.

I am very aware that there is a constructive anxiety about go-live which we will all share. Improving IT at the Trust is a shared priority, but the act of improving it creates new risks and challenges. If you do have anxieties about Unity do please raise them with me. Connect has an extraordinary amount of training and support material on it, but nonetheless, we need to help individuals to be ready.  That is why we will have 250 licences running now for the Play System to give more people through September chance to practice. Our Access Fairs and other events advertised through the bulletin give you various types of opportunity to ask questions and get informed before the big day.

Beyond the world of Unity much else goes on. Over the next two weeks for example we have:

  • Our Sustainability Garden Party in Thursday’s sunshine – details in the bulletin
  • Our cricket match against local GPs, on Sunday 8 September – again in sunshine!
  • The voting starts for our Star Awards finalists in ten days’ time – who is your Team of the Year?
  • New CT scanners are being delivered to the City site as we continue to invest in imaging, and facilitate the reconfiguration of respiratory medicine to that site later this winter
  • Additional lighting goes into our New Square car park, as we get ready for safe use over the winter months
  • Building work starts on the Sandwell GP practice in Lower Lyndon which opens in 2020
  • Recruitment efforts continue as we look to fill our shifts and create more stable teams. Theatres are pictured but I know we have over 700 job offers made and more to come.
  • Our pilot Sleep project gets started in key wards, as we look to make a really important set of changes for patient experience, but also direct health gain, tracking 7 hours of good sleep!
  • We expect the Midland Met Final Business Case to move from DHSC to Treasury, as we look to sign a contract with Balfour Beatty in the next two months
  • The first learning set for our Pioneer teams takes place next Wednesday, looking at how we are improving engagement and involvement in frontline teams across our Trust.

Thank you to everyone for your hard work, and perhaps especially to our cleaning and infection control teams as we prepare for the external inspection in October, and the Board’s review of infection control when we meet at Rowley Regis on 5 September. Whether it is making sure we are cleaning drip stands, or using the Five Moments well, we need to raise our Trust as a whole to the standard of our best and I am sure that Julie Booth and Taran Saluja will help us to do just that – no pressure!

Attached are this week’s IT stats: IT Performance Stats 23 August 2019

This week’s Brexit Bulletin: SWB Brexit Bulletin – 23 August 2019

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