Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 29 January

January 29, 2021

It is no surprise that this week’s message contains another series of ‘thank you’s, beginning with the people who have set up, volunteered and worked at the Sandwell hospital hub which has been vaccinating thousands of people from the Education Centre facility since 29 December. You will know that this facility will be temporarily stepped down from 11 February. This is to enable our health system to focus the vaccine supply on where it is needed right now, which is in the many GP-led facilities across Birmingham and the Black Country so that those priority groups of patients and frontline workers can receive their first doses of the vaccine at the earliest opportunity.

Setting up the hospital hub within a matter of days was a huge achievement and my thanks to all involved. Many of you spent extra hours volunteering and being trained up in delivering vaccines to your hardworking colleagues and vulnerable patients. Estates, IT, nurse leaders and operational colleagues worked round the clock to transform our conference room into a fully functioning clinic open early til late, seven days a week. And thanks too, to the thousands of you who booked into a slot and received the protection from the first dose, as well as our fabulous booking centre.

Our vaccination programme is far from over. Your Health Partnership are continuing to vaccinate patients from the Whiteheath Medical Centre in Oldbury and the City facility in Sheldon Block that is run by three primary care networks in Birmingham remains. You can still book your appointment for w/c 8 February at the Sandwell site (call 0121 507 4112) and this facility will reopen in March to administer second doses of the Pfizer vaccine to all those who received their first dose there. Provision will be made for staff who need to be vaccinated but have not yet been able to arrange an appointment at the hospital hub. This is likely to be at one of the mass vaccination centres (Dudley / Birmingham) or one of the primary care facilities.

We announced this week that Richard Beeken will be joining the Trust as interim Chief Executive on a temporary secondment from his Chief Executive position at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust. Richard joins us to provide leadership support until Toby is able to fully resume his duties and we are looking forward to welcoming Richard when he starts on 8 February. He took part in this week’s Team Talk and talked about how he was looking forward to getting to know the Trust and visiting different areas during his first few weeks, so do look out for him as he gets out and about.

I am really pleased to welcome colleagues from the military to provide us with much needed additional support to our highly stretched clinical teams. The 18 soldiers are helping with non-clinical activities including stocking up supplies and collecting equipment, that should free up time for clinicians to focus on delivering patient-facing care. We are one of 23 hospitals across the Midlands who are benefiting from this assistance and we are grateful for their help at this time.

Our clinical ward-based teams are continuing to experience sustained pressure from the number of patients who need to be admitted which has at times meant people waiting in our emergency departments for longer than they should while waiting to move to a suitable ward. The Covid safety arrangements clearly have an impact too here as patients will move to different areas depending on their test results and symptoms. Despite these complexities, the number of patients we are able to discharge each day has been high. Each discharge often take a lot of co-ordination, arranging the care that is needed at home or specialist equipment, as well as the support that needs to go with patients who are going to a care home facility. Getting these arrangements in place as early as possible is crucial in helping people go home earlier in the day. None of us want patients to have to arrive home in the evening or at night when it is cold and dark, particularly as the weather deteriorates. I know that colleagues are focused on making arrangements the day before discharge and this needs to be part of our daily rhythm, to understand which patients are going home tomorrow and what needs to done today to make that happen.

We will shortly introduce “contact wards” at Sandwell and City Hospitals should we be able to create the right capacity to do this. This means that (similar to the lilac stream we had previously) we are able to cohort together patients who have been in contact with Covid+ patients but who have had a negative test result. We continue with regular swabbing in our amber areas to ensure that we can quickly identify patients who become symptomatic and test positive and move them to a more suitable environment for their care.

I wanted today to reiterate the tribute to our colleague Surangi Liyanamana, who sadly died whilst in our care last weekend. I know that all those who cared for Surangi and her friends and colleagues at our Trust remain deeply saddened by her loss and our thoughts are with Surangi’s family at this difficult time. As ever, support is available to anyone who has been affected by this, or by anything in your professional or personal life. Please take time to see what is available and look into what might help you feel more able to face the challenges that you are presented with each day. Many people at this Trust have testified to being significantly helped by one or more of the services or resources that the Trust has made available. And do speak up if you are aware of something you would like, that is not currently available. Our exec team have shared out different clinical areas within our Trust sites to keep in touch and as a way of providing some regular contact and support. We very much want to listen to your experiences and learn about the support that would really make a difference to you.

Congratulations to this week’s Star of the Week, Ash Turner, who received his award today from Martin Sadler, our Chief Informatics Officer. Ash is our clinical research charge nurse and he has been instrumental in the Covid-19 trials that the Trust is participating in. Research continues to be crucial in the fight against Covid-19 and I am delighted with the part our Trust has been able to play in this field.

David Carruthers