Pristina pod launch - page 2
Prestigious recognition for NGOCpage 4
Election guidance - page 5
February star of the month - page 10
Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust becomes the first NHS organisation in Europe to start using the Pristina pod.
The pod will provide breast screening to the population of Gateshead with a dedicated state-ofthe-art facility
Read more on page 2.
Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust becomes the first NHS organisation in Europe to start using the Pristina pod
The Pristina pod uses a 3D mammography system to screen breast cancer patients. The pod is also designed to be more comfortable for patient positioning and ease anxiety and discomfort.
The pod will provide breast screening to the population of Gateshead with a dedicated stateof-the-art facility.
The new screening unit will be located outside the Windy Nook entrance at the QE Hospital which will allow easier access to appointments and will allow further clinics to be held to increase capacity.
Lead radiographer for breast imaging Joanne Brand said “The breast screening team and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to change the way we work to help benefit Gateshead patients.
“We are looking forward to welcoming more ladies to our ‘screening pod’ and the positive impact this will have on our patients.
“We are delighted to be the first in Europe to offer this facility and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for breast screening ”
Gateshead Health has been awarded funding from NHS England to enable the screening units to help recover the screening backlog due to the COVID19 pandemic.
The pod equipment was installed by GE Healthcare and the new screening unit started to screen patients in February 2023.
We have been through an extremely challenging few months with industrial action, thank you all for supporting our plans and working hard to keep our patients safe.
The most recent industrial action by junior doctors who are members of the BMA or HCSA unions led to significant operational pressures, particularly in the ED. As a result of the trust planning, a number of clinics, sessions and appointments were rescheduled over this period of this industrial action from across all business units and specialities.
Whether you have been involved in the strikes or not, we understand that your decision comes from a place of concern for the safety of our patients and service users and a desire to ensure the continued provision of safe, high-quality care The disputes are not between the Trust and colleagues
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has made an ‘offer in principle’ for changes to pay and conditions for Agenda for Change (AfC) staff. Talks are ongoing with other unions, which may lead to a resolution in time. While the consultation is ongoing, strike action has been paused.
Please can we remind all staff that we are a no smoking site and smoking on Trust grounds is strictly prohibited.
If you see anyone smoking on site, please call security via Vocera or on extension 2039.
These rules are made to protect our staff and patients.
Gateshead Health’s Gynaecological Oncology Centre has been awarded the accreditation by the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) as a centre of excellence for advanced ovarian cancer surgery.
The Northern Gynaecological Oncology Centre (NGOC) based at the QE provides highly specialised surgeries (tertiary surgical care) to patients from across the North East of England and Cumbria It has a well-established national and international reputation
The centre is known for being an early adopter of innovative technologies and techniques. There is a successful programme of clinical and translational research ongoing at the NGOC, which includes recruitment to clinical trials from the National Institution for Health and Care Research (NIHR), portfolio and laboratory based translational research projects.
This is an award attributed to institutions that offer patients the specific skills, experience, organisation, and dedication that are required to achieve outstanding levels of surgical care, proving, also, a network for education, training and research.
Local elections are proposed to take place on Thursday 4 May with the count/results on Friday 5 May.
The latest date that the pre-election period can start for the local elections is Monday 20 March 2023.
This briefing aims to help managers understand how the NHS as a whole must conduct itself in advance of a local election.
The pre-election period, previously known as ‘purdah’ describes the period of time immediately before elections when specific restrictions on communications activity are in place The term 'heightened sensitivity’ is also used
There are important rules for NHS organisations to obey, particularly relating to communications activity during the purdah period. This is to ensure that the NHS remains politically impartial at all times – especially in a climate where the NHS itself is likely to be a key issue for all political parties.
All proactive communication activities must cease during a general election This is to avoid criticism and to prevent the hospital being used favourably or unfavourably by candidates between each other. All communications professionals must therefore restrict public statements to factual explanations, statements and decisions.
Bring your Princesses and Superheroes along for a fun filled afternoon, with face painting, games, best costume prize and more, at our Princess and Superhero Easter Party in support of St Bedes Charitable Fund/QE Charity.
Location: Holly Hill Sports & Social Club, 1-3
Benson Terrace, Felling, Gateshead NE10 9NS at 2pm Scan the QR code to sign up
We are delighted to invite you to join #TeamGatesheadHealthGNR23 and take on the challenge of the Great North Run. This event is a fantastic way for you to celebrate a personal achievement, have fun, and make a difference to the lives of others.
By taking part in this event with QE Charitable Funds, you’ll be joining like-minded individuals and charities in raising vital funds to help improve the lives of the most vulnerable in Gateshead.
All it takes is raising a minimum of £250 and an entry fee of £64.
Scan the QR code to book your place
If your child would like to take part in the Mini or Junior Great North, please get in touch and run for #TeamGateshead!
Scan the QR code to the right to book their place.
We are running TED Team Leader Training which is all about improving your team culture. TED is designed to help you have conversations with team members about what it feels like to work in your team. It enables you to think about what works well within your team and what you’d like to do to improve the way you work together.
The 90 min session provides you with an introduction to team engagement, showing you how to set up a team diagnostic, how to run a feedback session with your team and opportunity to think about how you can implement a team action plan to continuously develop your team.
TED is an evidence based diagnostic structured around the key features of highly engaged and high performing teams. TED also contains a team development toolkit to help teams develop and maintain high performance . These are resources linked to the areas measured by the diagnostic to provide specific guidance and development tools
TED Team Leader training is aimed at team leaders who have teams of more than three people and will commit to using the TED tool as part of their team development.
TED Team Leader Training sessions are held over Microsoft Teams. We currently have the following dates available:
22nd March 10:00 – 12:00
17th April 14:00 – 16:00
9th May 13:30 – 15:30
9th June 10:00 – 12:00
6th July 13:30 – 15:30
Please fill out the application form to register your interest and we will be back in touch shortly
Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy days and nights to complete the annual staff survey and making your voice count I’m happy to say that our response rate is increasing year on year, with 51% of you responding in 2022. One in every two of you took the time to pause, reflect and tell us how you’re feeling, meaning that the results are more representative than ever.
The survey is vital, allowing us to understand your experiences and how we can improve for our staff, our patients and service users. We’re already learning from your feedback and using it to enhance your experience of working here at Gateshead
You can find out more about the results in our short film, or hear a presentation of the full results. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting a different area of our people promise and how we are doing in that area.
We will be at Bensham and The Hub once a week to just let people know their survey counted and what will happen next results on laptops We will also have a chat and find out more on the follo
Please remember this is a forum for staff to communicate, share achievements and provide key messages We have group rules in place and we closely monitor comments and posts If the group rules and social media policy are not followed, we will act and remove members and report to their line manager. You can download the social media policy on Pandora under the code OP79.
A we look forward and move to a phase of recovery, we want to give you the opportunity to capture your Covid experiences in an e-book which will be published in early summer of 2023
We know that there will be stories of hope, distress, compassion, fear, camaraderie and much more – and we want to ensure that as an organisation we capture this historic time in a way that we can look back on in years to come. By offering a safe space to share these stories, our people will feel supported and valued by the organisation – it’s good to talk
We welcome all stories – both positive and negative. However, please focus on your personal experience, rather than any processes involved – the aim of the project is to capture the reality of what it felt like during that time, rather than thinking about lessons learned. If you would like to share your story with a member of the team for it to be documented and published in an e-book, we will be running drop in sessions - no need to book:
If you’d like to speak to a member of the GLP team email ghnt.gatesheadod@nhs.net or call 07790 960 117. Alternatively, please fill out the form or scan the QR code to share your story directly with us.
The Clinical Skills Centre and Trust Library will be a formal exam centre on Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th March 2023 from 07:00 until 18:00. This is due to medical student exams taking place under exam regulations mandated by Newcastle University Medical School.
As a result, no trust staff, students or visitors will be able to access these areas during these times. Please contact Vicky Bailey, Clinical Skills Manager, victoriabailey1@nhs.net or on ext. 8050 if you have any questions.
Tier 1 dementia education will be uploaded to ESR for the start of April to mandate the training for all staff
Tier 2 dementia education is for any member of staff that is patient facing and is accessible via the Trust prospectus, Care Certificate Programme, Preceptorship programme and International Recruitment package of education.
Any queries please get in touch with christine.fawcett@nhs.net or laura.eccleston@nhs.net or julia.nevin@nhs.net
As part of the new Frailty CQUIN the Clinical Frailty Score is required to be completed on Nervecentre within 30 minutes of attendance to A+E and SDEC. This enables the frailty nurses to complete their assessments in a timely manner to meet targets.
The Clinical Frailty Score can be found in the Alerts / Tags profile and the Admission Nurse profile It was previously recorded as a Rockwood score
If any departments would like training on completing the Clinical Frailty Score then please contact us via Vocera / email: r.taylor-jacobs@nhs.net or deborah.whitaker2@nhs.net
This month congratulations go to Helen Philips from Maternity and Karen Haley from Paediatrics who have been named February’s Stars of the Month by the Executive Team for their outstanding contribution.
Helen was nominated by Pav McIntyre and Karen was nominated by Michelle Thomas and were recently awarded with a voucher for either an afternoon tea for two or a treat tray from The Hub at the QE as a token of appreciation for their fantastic effort.
To see all of the nominees for February, visit StaffZone.
Ovarian cancer can affect women of all ages and symptoms are often mistaken for less serious conditions like IBS
Gynaecology Cancer Nurse Specialists will be in the Hub on Wednesday 22nd March 11-2, to raise awareness of this disease and its symptoms .
There is some confusion throughout the Trust with regards to IG Core Skills training. The following will hopefully help:
IG Trust compliance level must be at 95% this is set by NHS Digital
You are responsible for ensuring your core skills never go out of date
If your training is out of date complete it as soon as possible
If your training is due to go out of date DON’T wait for it to expire do it as soon as possible before the deadline date passes.
ESR is the Trust preferred route to complete most core skills training
If you have any issues with ESR updating, access, reports, please contact the ESR team.
If you have issues with ESR recording your training compliance please contact the L&D Team
The IG team provides materials and capacity to support core skills training outside of ESR and currently offer a monthly face to face session that can be booked via the POD Prospectus here: Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust Intranet (ghnt.nhs.uk) Also look out for session details in #GatesheadHealth
You can request IG attend a staff meeting to provide training simply ask the team Life, is precious, and so is the data of someone, understanding how to manage information in the right way is essential to every NHS employee.
Thanks IG Team - ghnt.ig.team@nhs.net
In partnership with Citizens Advice Gateshead, we’re delighted to confirm a number of upcoming free financial wellbeing sessions for colleagues.
Two sessions are available, with one designed to help you to improve your budgeting skills and another all about improving your understanding of debt.
Sessions will take place across multiple dates throughout April, May and June, both virtually and in-person, each lasting an hour and with multiple dates confirmed for the coming months.
To see a list of dates, times and venues and book a place, please visit the dedicated health and wellbeing website.
The Occupational Health and Wellbeing Team have launched the #TeamGateshead Item Bank, established to provide colleagues with the opportunity to bring in and donate items to other colleagues who may be in need.
Amongst the items that collected and shared through the Item Bank include non-perishable foods and toiletries (including sanitary products) Donations of these products can now be made via a dedicated drop-off box at the entrance to The Hub on-site at the QE Hospital.
The Item Bank itself is located in the Listening Space, also on-site at the QE Hospital. Donations are regularly collected from The Hub and stored in the Listening Space, free to collect anytime and on a no-questions asked basis.
To gain access to the Listening Space, ensure your ID Card has access added to it - you can obtain this from QE Facilities or ECC Reception.
PALS have received a significant increase in the number of complaints from the public and local councillors about staff parking on neighbouring streets.
Please be mindful not to park on surrounding streets and use our park and ride facilities.
For an queries on parking please get in touch with ghnt.carparking.admin@nhs.net
The following new and revised policies are now available on Pandora:
OP37 – Group Taxi Policy v 5 0
RM88 – Group CERA – Clinical Environmental Risk Assessment policy v 2.0
Top tips
Remember that OP27 Group Policy for the development management and authorisation of policies and procedures provides a step-by-step guide to policy review and the sign-off process.
All policy templates and forms can be found here: Policies and Procedures - Related Templates
Consider whether your policy applies to the Trust only or the Trust and QE Facilities’ colleagues and choose the correct policy template.
Remember to consult our Local Counter Fraud Specialist and Staff Networks for all policy reviews.
Remember to complete an Equality Impact Analysis for all policy reviews.
All policies are now sent to Policy Review Group for approval and should be submitted to ghnt foundation enquiries@nhs net
Please remember to use Microsoft Edge to access Pandora (Google Chrome is not compatible).
