Skip to content Skip to main menu Skip to utility menu

Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 8 January

January 8, 2021

I will begin again with my thanks to all of you for your extraordinary commitment to our patients and each other at this time. We continue to see increasing numbers of patients with Covid-19 and more of those need the support from our critical care unit. The pressures remain and are set to do so for a few weeks before the impact of the lockdown is seen in hospitals right across the country. Your determination to provide safe care, supporting patients and each other with kindness remains exemplary.

There have been some changes at Executive level that I wanted to share with you all. I am delighted that Frieza Mahmood was appointed substantively as Chief People Officer following Raffaela’s departure in October. Liam Kennedy, our Chief Operating Officer, has returned from shared parental leave following the birth of his new daughter and Mel Roberts has moved into the Acting Chief Nurse position whilst we continue to recruit substantively into this post. I am delighted that Mel has agreed to take on this opportunity. Mel has extensive experience as a lead nurse and within operations and I am sure she will excel in this new role.

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending our QIHD poster competition awards ceremony which was a real treat amidst the difficulties of the current times. It was fantastic to be part of the judging of this annual event. Despite the pandemic, it is testament to all of you that we received 98 entries this year – our highest number in the three years that we have run this contest. I echo the comments from all of the judges who expressed their delight at having the opportunity to review so many fantastic quality improvement projects from every corner of our Trust. 11 were shortlisted and there were four chosen winning entries announced yesterday.

Our winning entries are:

  • 1st prize: Service Improvement – Speech and Language Therapy Service to Mainstream Schools, K Dunn, Speech and Language Therapist
  • Highly Commended: Quality Improvement Project – Assessing patient perspective of pre-printed consent forms in vitreo-retinal surgery, Ophthalmology
  • Highly Commended: An innovative surgery which offers women with cervical cancer the opportunity to preserve fertility, Pan-Bham Gynaecological Cancer Centre
  • Popular vote winner with 238 votes received: A well-timed innovation in image-guided pre-operative breast localisation, L Tromans, Breast Imaging

Congratulations to all of you. The winning entry receives a cheque for £5,000 with the others receiving £500 each. All of the posters can be seen on Connect.

Our vaccination programme continues to progress and this week we welcomed patients to get their first doses at the Sandwell Hospital Hub. YHP patients are accessing the vaccine at Whiteheath Medical Centre and were this week visited by West Bromwich MP Nicola Richards, putting her support behind the vaccination campaign. Vaccination remains a key way out of the current pandemic and we are doing all we can to support the vaccination hubs across the region. Thank you to everyone who has worked hard at short notice to get the hubs up and running. We expect that the mass vaccination hubs will begin in the next few weeks. We will contact you when it is your turn to receive your vaccination. I know there has been some confusion over when the second doses will be arranged so check in the Covid bulletin as it is different depending where your first dose was administered. The change in the national guidelines for the second doses to be given up to 12 weeks after the first seems sensible in light of the need to offer the protection quickly to the most number of people. Join our Covid-19 vaccination staff Q&A webex on Tuesday at 12noon to find out more.

Our Trust Board met in public yesterday and all Board members wanted to pass on their thanks to everyone at SWB for their commitment. Along with important updates on the Covid-19 impact we discussed the next decisions that are required on the Midland Met build which is progressing well with our construction partners Balfour Beatty. We also reviewed our assessment against the recommendations within the recently published Ockenden review of maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust. Our maternity team have worked through the immediate and essential actions and continue to progress their own improvement plan to ensure the safety of mothers and babies and improved experiences for families and staff within our department. My thanks to the whole team for their willingness to embrace this learning and their commitment to continuous quality improvement.

Dr David Carruthers, Acting Chief Executive