2 March 2020 Dear colleague, There has been a lot going on over the past few weeks. Clearly the flooding has been significant in terms of the disruption and personal impact for many people, arising from firstly Storm Ciara and then Storm Dennis.
I know many people have been affected in some way—some with a devastating impact in terms of damage to their homes and possessions, and the emotional distress this brings, and others, by the huge increase in travel times to and from work, so I want to thank you for battling the elements to look after our patients. Should any colleagues need support, please do contact Care First by calling 0800 174319. In addition to the flooding, there has been constant headlines about Coronavirus in the UK over the last week and days. With more confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the UK last week, as well as the spread of the virus in Europe, it is important that we remain vigilant with effective arrangements in place. We’ll keep you updated through regular messages from Dr Arne Rose, our Medical Director, who is leading on this. These messages—and other information on Coronavirus—are available on a dedicated page on the Intranet. You may also have seen in the news reports on winter pressures and A&E waits. We know our performance against the national four-hour standard is not where we want it to be, but we are continuing to work both as a Trust and as part of the wider health and care system to address this. I’m delighted that the new 25-bed therapy-led ward/ discharge unit will be open at RSH soon and this will be followed by a 16 -bed ward at PRH in the vacated Midwife Led Unit. Look out for further messages as we will confirm the precise opening shortly. I recognise how much is happening across the organisation and the pressure that colleagues are under in their roles. Therefore it’s really important we all support and look after each other, so I want to thank those of you that took time out to take part in a two-day Mental Health First Aider Course recently. The course is to support you, promote and raise awareness of mental health, and tackle the associated stigma that can exist, so that we can support each other to be happy, healthy and resilient. I’m pleased to confirm that we have another course running in May, meaning we’ll have 30 qualified Mental Health First Aid trainers. There’s also support available for all staff including 24/7 counselling from Care First, help from Team Prevent and an online resilience module. You can find lots of information on the Intranet by clicking this link. Last week I had an induction into the Transforming Care methodology
to see how this is being used to drive improvement. I spent a whole day on Thursday at PRH with members of the KPO team, including Louise Brennan, Marie Claire Wigley and Richard Stephens accompanied by Dr Edwin Borman, Director for Clinical Effectiveness, to gain a better understanding of the tools and techniques and, importantly, doing Genba walks to meet colleagues and see for myself the work taking place.
It quickly became apparent to me, from the enthusiasm of everyone I met, how important this work is and how it is you, the teams on the ground, who must be encouraged and supported to come up with and test out improvements in your own areas. During the day I went to Pharmacy, Delivery Suite, Emergency Department and Catering and met with the RPIW team and was really impressed with the great ideas, energy, determination and sheer number of improvements, which have been put into practice and embedded. It was clear from colleagues what a positive difference some of these changes are making and I would encourage more of you to get involved, to make improvements for patients and for you and your team. On the subject of improvements, from today on all adult wards, we’ll be rolling out our new Enhanced Supervision Policy. This policy aims to provide a clear and consistent approach in the planning and implementation for enhanced levels of supervision and support for patients who pose a potential or actual risk to themselves or others. Over the coming weeks, Kath Preece, Head of Nursing for Scheduled Care, and members of the Think On team will be out and about to answer questions and provide support to wards. I also want to remind you that we have now introduced a weekly non-pay panel which will review non-pay requisitions to ensure we are spending our money wisely. Additional sign-off will be needed for all non-pay expenditure that are either non-catalogue, non-contract items not of a clinical nature or a requisition with a value of over £1,000. You can find out more in a One Minute Brief on the Intranet. Finally, SaTH has a proud track record of environmental work, and we’ve taken another step to making our Trust greener this week, with the launch of the Shrewsbury Cup at RSH. Anyone buying a takeaway drink from a number of outlets can pay £1 for the cup and then take it back when they have finished and get their £1 back. We’re the 27th establishment in Shrewsbury to sign up to the scheme, and I would encourage you to use it to help reduce the amount of waste we throw away. Thank you. Have a good week. Louise