Look August 2015

the

Look

For Southend University Hospital staff & volunteers

Hospital Heroes

Medical model

There’s still time to nominate your colleagues Page 3

An in-depth guide to the latest changes Page 6

August 2015

In the spotlight

This month we take a look at theatres and critical care Page 11

New system will help improve patient safety and overall quality of care

Trust launches its new e-prescribing system

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With a £1.1 million investment, half from the government and half matched by the trust, the hospital has recently launched its electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) system, also known as e-prescribing.

Designed to save staff time, help improve the flow of patients and, most importantly, help improve patient safety and overall quality of care, it was successfully rolled out onto Balmoral ward at the end of June after several months of training and testing.

Benefits include the elimination of errors from handwritten prescriptions, decreasing the risk of medication errors. The system also offers decision support to providing clinical information which helps guide staff through the e-prescribing process.

It’s already having a positive impact on staff. Nurse Hayley Cross from Balmoral ward, said: “We were a bit hesitant

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Ambassador Colin George

Remembering Colin George

£1.1m investment Staff on Balmoral ward celebrate the launch of the change but have adapted to it quite quickly. We still have some of our patients’ details on paper charts and can’t wait for all the patients to change to e-prescribing.

The time saved in not having to search for paper charts and not having to send the charts to pharmacy is so invaluable on the busy ward.

“It’s better for us and better for patients.”

The move to ePMA is part of the government’s wider plans

to create a ‘paperless’ NHS by 2018. The project is partfunded via the government’s ‘Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards: Technology Fund’.

Its launch has been a successful group effort with teams from pharmacy, IT, nursing and clinicians all involved in the configuration, drug file building, testing and training to get the system ready for use.

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Continued on page 2

Colin George, chairman of the Southend Hospital Charitable Foundation, the driving force behind £3.7million of fundraising projects at Southend Hospital, has died.

Mr George, who was also general secretary at Southend Guild of Help and Citizens Advice Bureau from March 1973 to May 2003, died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 77.

He leaves behind a wife, Pamela, son Stephen and daughter Christine Chisholm.

Trust chairman Alan Tobias OBE said: “We are deeply saddened by the death of Colin George.

“He was not only an amazing ambassador for our hospital charity, but also a hospital governor for whom the care and respect of our patients was paramount.” news available at : More southend.nhs.uk

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“

This donation is going to help so many people

Pictured: Lucie Manna (far right) and the respiratory team.

John’s legacy donation

Continued from front Chris Overland, pharmacy electronic prescribing and computer services manager, said: “This newly installed JAC ePMA module will ‘close the loop’ between a doctor prescribing a prescription on the ward, the drugs being dispensed in pharmacy and nurses administering them to a patient. It will provide a complete electronic record of medicines prescribed, dispensed and administered.” e-prescribing will continue to be rolled out across wards and outpatient clinics over the next 18 months, with the stroke unit (Benfleet and Paglesham wards) going live next at the end of July and Windsor ward and Princess Anne ward to follow on August 18.

2 The Look

LOOK

insurance but although he worked abroad a lot he always saw this area as home, was always big on charity and would have wanted his equipment to be used by local people who have a need for it and would benefit from it.”

That equipment is worth thousands of pounds and comprises a hospital bed, continuous positive airway pressure (or CPAP) machines, and a home ventilator which

the

John Manna, 78, from Benfleet, passed away five months ago but his legacy lives on thanks to a donation of new equipment to the hospital’s heart and chest clinic.

His daughter, Lucie Manna, 25, from Rayleigh, explained why her dad would have been pleased to see the equipment come to his local hospital.

She said: “Through his work dad had private health

are all used for respiratory conditions such as obstructive sleep apnoea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and many other breathing problems. They also donated a blood pressure monitor.

Staff from the respiratory team were delighted and moved by the donation, as Lisa Ward, lead respiratory nurse at the hospital, explained: “We are so grateful for the kind gesture from

John and his family, thinking of others at a time when they have suffered such a loss.

“This equipment will make a huge impact on the care of these patients and will help so many people for many years to come.”

At any one time the Manna family donation could be helping to improve the lives of ten people, which will turn into hundreds over the years the equipment will be in use.

get in touch Claire Hankey - Head of communications Amanda Burton - Senior communications manager Carly Ross - Communications manager Dean Newman - Communications manager Alex Norman - Communications & engagement officer

All can be contacted through communications@southend.nhs.uk

August 2015

Night of celebrations Non-executive director, Fred Heddell, CBE and some of last year’s nominees.

We want you!

Nominate your Hospital Heroes 2015 Categories

2014 winner Keith Blackman

Be a part of it and make your nomination count in one of the following eight categories: • • • • • • •

•

Innovation (£100) Quality care (£100) Unsung hero (£100) Chief executive’s outstanding leadership award (£100) Chairman’s outstanding achievement award (£100) Team of the year (£300) Patients’ choice award – sponsored by the Echo. This award is open to the public to make nominations (£200) Employee of the year (£250)*

Closing date for nominations is 9am on Monday 10 August and you can make your nomination by emailing hospital.heroes@southend.nhs.uk ensuring that the category is in the subject line with the name of the person/team you are nominating.

Nominations for the trust’s annual Hospital Heroes awards are open until Friday 31 July and it’s your chance to support the awards and reward your colleagues who go above and beyond.

You can nominate colleagues and teams who you feel promote good practice, inspire others and strive for high quality care for every patient, every time. *Employee of the year (£250) will be selected from the 12 monthly Hospital Hero winners. last year’s winners at : See bit.ly/SouthendHH2014

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www.morleynurseries.com 4 The Look

August 2015

Transformation programme news

Online maternity service launch

Maternity team Project leader Debbie Edwards (far left) and her team.

A new online maternity booking system will bring services into 21st century for women’s and children’s directorate.

The new maternity booking system, developed by the IT department, is going live during August as part of the transformation programme for the women’s and children’s directorate.

Women no longer need to see a GP to be referred for maternity care.

The new online system will provide a quick and convenient way to access maternity services, as self-referrals can be completed any time of the day, using

a computer or most mobile and tablet devices. The new system will include automatic referral to the smoking cessation service, with an opt-out option for women who don’t wish to be referred.

In addition, to reduce the number of wasted appointments, there is a facility for women who have been attending the fertility clinic to cancel their outstanding appointment now that they are pregnant.

Deborah Edwards, co-ordinator of the pregnancy booking line, who has been leading the project, said: “We are excited to be introducing the online referral facility – it brings our maternity services truly into the 21st century by providing a service that meets the demand of women in the Southend area as well as others who choose to use our service.

Once we receive the information, a midwife from the pregnancy booking line phones to discuss and take consent for the antenatal screening blood tests, give advice and confirm their named midwife. By providing information in advance, using our secure website, we will reduce the amount of time that calls take by up to 15 minutes. We can then use this time on the phone with women who need extra reassurance or who have additional questions – it’s all about individualised care and facilitating informed choice.” news available at : More southend.nhs.uk

LOOK BACK: Learning Disability Week June 15-21 was Learning Disability Week 2015, a national event led by Mencap.

Sarah Haines, clinical nurse specialist for people with learning disabilities at the hospital, organised a series of events including the production of a film raising awareness of consent (autumn release) and an awareness stand giving away information packs with details of the

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resources available in the hospital.

Sarah said: “Alongside it all we also did a Twitter campaign across the region featuring numerous people holding the Learning Disability Week sign. I’ve been tweeting them all week and it went viral, so we really helped raise some awareness for the week.”

The Look 5

MEDICAL MODEL

With the medical model changes well under way, we meet som

M

uch has been made of the benefits of introducing our new Medical Model but what do the staff actually delivering care in the new way really think?

As you are probably aware it took a huge amount of work during the past month to accommodate the new model, with colleagues from other areas relocating to different wards and areas.

This means that for the first time we are bringing together, into one area, the male and female acute medical units (AMUs), the day assessment unit (DAU), ambulatory care, a short-stay department of medicine for the elderly (DME) ward and a hospital to home (H2H) service.

As Dr John Day, clinical director for medicine, explains: “This will mean we are better equipped to cope with the needs of acute medical patients. We have also adopted an ‘assess to admit’ approach, which means we can provide tests and investigations for patients without the need for them to stay in hospital.

“Alongside these changes, the hospital is also developing its older people’s acute service (OPAS) to provide rapid assessment, diagnosis, treatment and access to specialist inpatient beds, health care and social services so more elderly patients can get home quicker and have the right support when they need it most.”

The change, although daunting, is good. It’s especially good for both staff and patients as the creation of a single medical model assessment area means patients are seen more quickly and most importantly by the right teams.

Marc Brant (pictured below), associate nurse practitioner, said: “The ambulatory emergency care approach means more adult patients are being managed safely and efficiently on the same day and avoiding admission to a hospital bed.”

He is joined by colleagues on a series of posters you may see around the trust promoting the new model.

Lynn Coley, a modern matron, said: “It’s exciting to be involved in the development of a new service that is responsive to the needs of the emergency medical patient.”

The posters that are being used across the trust show that everyone involved in the medical model are committed to its success and that success relies on every member of the team, whether you are a housekeeper, modern matron, associate nurse practitioner or healthcare assistant.

Janet Orchard, healthcare assistant, said: “The run up to our new services has been worth the wait, I feel so honoured to be part of this wonderful team and new services.”

They may be the people on the poster but it of course involves many more dedicated, hardworking people besides who are helping make this medical model a success for staff, patients and the trust as a whole.

“ This role enables me to work with a range of different people from across the trust

Welcome to: Jenny Galpin

Project director for transformation

Three weeks in to her new role and Jenny Galpin (above) says she is already impressed by the commitment staff at Southend have to our transformation plans.

As our new project director for transformation Jenny is taking up the baton from Andrew Murphy and the team from Kingsgate to continue our focus on changing the way we work to ensure our services remain fit for the future.

She said: “What is exciting for me is that this role enables

August 2015

CITIZENS

me of the staff backing it to work

WORD ON THE TWEET Highlighting some of the nice things said about us across the twittersphere in 140 characters or less, and the stories behind them. This month we hear from Sue Atherton, who tweeted: @sooziatherton Thank you @SouthendNHS for safe delivery of my 5th grandchild yesterday #proud sister Sue said: “When my granddaughter was born there was a little concern when she had to have her airway cleared, but both her mum and dad were kept clearly informed of all procedures.

“Samantha, my daughter-in-law, was exhausted after a long day but both mum and dad knew their new bundle was in safe hands.

“They send a huge thank you to the wonderful team that took care of them. My new granddaughter’s name is Florence and weighed in at 7lb 8oz.

“I was diagnosed with advanced metastatic breast cancer in 2006, so I wouldn’t be here today to enjoy the wonder of being a nannie without the dedicated oncology team and their staff.”

me to work with a range of different people from across the trust to help and support them to transform their services and deliver the best possible care for patients.”

A mum of three grown up children, Jenny comes to Southend having worked most of her NHS career at Basildon Hospital starting out in personnel before moving into project management and progressing to the role of Director of Estates and Facilities.

Recent experience has seen

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Jenny working in roles at Queens Hospital in Romford tackling referral to treatment times (RTT) and Barnet and Chase Farm on their clinical services strategy.

Jenny said: “We have a great deal of change coming up which will be a challenge for the organisation. From what I have already seen, particularly with the introduction of the new medical model, there is a strong commitment for staff to work together which will help us maintain focus going forward.”

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Sunday 20 September 2015 9.30am

Choose your challen ge !

or

'7km Seafro nt Stroll'

leigh Hike’ ‘18km Had

More info: 01702 385337 www.southendhospital-fundraising.org

S

outhend University Hospital, which has been providing sexual health services for over 30 years, is now part of SHORE, a newly launched sexual health service for Southend offering improved access to sexual and reproductive health care from a choice of venues for Southend residents.

Sexual Health Outreach Reproduction and Education (SHORE) sees the trust partner with South Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust (SEPT) and Brook. The three partners were awarded the contract by Southend Borough Council to provide integrated sexual health services in Southend for the next five years.

The three centres will eventually offer identical services, meaning no need to go to different centres for different advice and will provide help for people needing condoms, the pill, are worried that they have a sexually transmitted infection or just want some friendly advice and support.

The services will be offered at Southend University Hospital, the Kingsley Ward Centre, the Carlingford Centre and the Thorpendene Clinic, all of which currently offer sexual health support but will now offer it all under the umbrella of SHORE. Alison Keefe, sexual health clinic manager at Southend Hospital, said: “What’s great about this partnership is that it will offer a better choice for patients as the service expands.

“This means we can reach far more people than ever before and spread the right message and right help whilst having a positive impact on the sexual health of people, young and old, across Southend.”

The trust’s sexual health clinic manager Alison Keefe

ICE

RV EW SE

al u x e s health

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service details and opening hours at : Full www.southend.nhs.uk

The new IT self-service portal is now live!

This new area on STAFFnet will make it easier for staff to ask for help with IT issues, or to raise a request for an IT service such as ordering a piece of equipment or setting up an account for a new member of staff.

Logging calls through the self-service portal will mean your request goes to straight to the right place, reducing any delays which may occur if you are hanging on the phone waiting for the team to get to your issue in the queue.

If you have an immediate IT issue that is urgent and affecting your ability to work you can still contact the service desk by telephone on extension 5678.

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To make the process to request IT services simpler, you can now log all the information yourself without having to email or fax a form to the IT service desk.

This includes: • • • • • • • •

New starter requests Placing orders for equipment such as a laptop Medway ad hoc requests Voice mail requests Bring your own device (BYOD) requests Push mail Call forward all Direct dial In

The process won’t take any longer than it does now and will mean the IT service desk can process your request faster.

How to log calls •

You can access the IT self-service portal from STAFFnet here: http://servicedesk.southend.nhs.uk/ sw/selfservice/

•

Use your normal login and password that you would use to login to your computer.

Click on My Services from the left hand menu or by clicking the My Services icon.

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The Look 9

Each month we will be profiling new clinically-led directorates.

Theatres, critical care & anaesthetics

“

Our focus is always on patient safety.

Pictured: Blanca Boira Segarra (clinical director); Karen Kinnear (associate director lead nurse); Sherrie Tucker (modern matron).

This directorate also encompasses pre-op assessment and acute pain providing services to the whole trust. This is very much a service delivery directorate interlinking with all other directorates.

Karen Kinnear, associate director lead nurse, said: “Due to its very nature it’s a high risk area with complicated anaesthesia and critical care. Ensuring patients have a safe journey through our area is our priority. The directorate has been clinically led for the last few years and that helps to keep us focussed.”

Sherrie Tucker, modern matron, added: “Our focus is always on patient safety, we monitor the five steps to safer surgery on an ongoing basis. Staff are encouraged to speak up and we have an open and honest culture.”

Blanca Boira Segarra, clinical director, talked about some of the forthcoming challenges and innovations: “With the new transformation plans we are looking at how we work together with the specialities to become more productive whilst remaining safe and providing high quality care for patients. It’s a big challenge which we will rise to as a team, not just this directorate but as a hospital together.”

One of the most exciting developments the directorate

is involved with is the Nervecentre which will provide electronic information on patients’ clinical observations, highlighting any deteriorating patient and facilitating rapid assessments and appropriate treatment.

Blanca added: “This will benefit staff across the whole hospital as they will have real time information at their fingertips, ensuring quick escalation to the appropriate people meaning patients are seen quickly by the right people at the right time.”

Another interesting development is a brand new simulation centre due to start running in the education centre soon.

Blanca said: “We are very lucky in our directorate that we have internationally recognised simulation trainers so we can provide in-house training for our directorate, other areas and even externally, creating income generation.”

There is a national recruitment issue for theatres across the country and the directorate has a robust action plan.

Karen explains: “Excellent practice development and education is one of our priorities.

High quality practice development and education helps recruitment, retention and ensures staff across all of our areas are well trained.”

A new team will assess, treat and manage patients with feeding & swallowing difficulties.

Meet the team (l-r) Ashley Edwards, Laura Royce, Grace Rossiter and Greg Heather, all speech and language therapists

Better swallow safety E

ating and drinking is something that most of us take for granted, but for some patients it can be a major issue, causing an increased risk of food, drink and medications going down the wrong way and serious chest infections.

But now, the trust’s expanded team of nine speech and language therapists is on hand to assess, treat and manage patients with feeding and swallowing difficulties.

To assist nursing staff in identifying patients who may need help.

The team is carrying out ‘water swallow screening’ to enhance awareness of these issues and increase insight into the warning signs of swallowing problems. The screening tool provides a straightforward and safe way for nurses to establish when a patient’s swallow safety is in question.

There was no speech and language therapy service to the acute wards and gradually the team has grown to its current size. A bigger team means that it can offer more training, faster, with just over half the hospital having

received the training to date.

This important initiative is being led by four members of the team across the hospital.

As swallowing issues can arise in a great variety of medical conditions, the screening will be useful in all ward areas.

Heading up the team is speech and language therapist, Greg Heather, who said: “Providing this training to nursing staff means that the team can get to an unsafe patient faster, decreasing the occurrence of hospital acquired pneumonia secondary to aspiration.”

Quality of care is of paramount importance and as such hospital staff have welcomed the initiative and been enthusiastic about the training and benefits it brings.

This latest round of training has focused on Blenheim, AMU 2, Gordon Hopkins and Sita Lumsden wards.

The speech and language therapists for the acute stroke unit have also been training their nurses in the screening tool, as this will form part of the SEAMLESS electronic stroke care pathway which is going live at the beginning of August.

Disclaimer: This magazine is printed on recycled paper and is cost neutral. It is designed and laid out in-house by the communications team, and we are working in partnership with CPL Media who provide the advertising contained in the magazine and print the copies free of charge. Southend University Hospital does not endorse or recommend the goods or services provided by the advertisers in this magazine. The trust makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of advertisements contained in this publication, but does not accept any responsibility for the content of the advertisements, promises made or the quality or reliability of the products or services offered in the advertisements. The trust will not knowingly run an advertisement that is untrue or fraudulent.

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The Look 11

> STAFF NOTICES > child safeguarding nurse Kate Sheehan recently joined the hospital as a child safeguarding nurse specialist. Kate said: “I am looking forward to progressing the local and national child safeguarding agenda to include targeted training for departments, delivering child safeguarding supervision and providing advice and support to all staff.”

Contact Kate on extension 8159. > doggie day venture Natalie Crane started her NHS career at Rochford Hospital as an HCA in 1991.

She transferred to Southend Hospital and continued working as an HCA until she undertook her training in 1998.

She has worked across different clinical directorates in a variety of roles (HCA, staff nurse, ward manager, clinical site manager and matron). She played a large part in setting up the stroke service with her colleagues and is well respected and liked by staff and she will be greatly missed. She is leaving the NHS to set up her own doggie day care business. We know Nat loves her animals so so much and that the dogs in her care will get 5 star treatment. > Dr vijay dixit Dr Vijay Dixit, who has sadly passed away, started his medical career in Kenya and worked as a MO and Police Surgeon before he moved to the UK with his family, in 1983 and joined the hospital in 1988 until his retirement in 2012.

Vijay was very well known throughout the hospital and was much loved and respected. He dedicated his life to his career, but was also a family man. He was hardworking and loyal to the institution, a caring clinician to his patients, a person who could be relied on by colleagues and made many friends at work, who still remember him warmly.

A Look ahead Foulness Island Bike Ride hosted by the Rotary Club of Thorpe Bay, Sunday 30 August Various start times available, choice of distances (11-23 miles) Venue: Great Wakering Primary School TO BOOK: www.thorpebayrotaryevents.co.uk/bikeride.html Boogie at the Barn hosted by Funky Floors Ltd & the Rotary Club of Westcliff, Sunday 30 August (7pm until 12am) Venue: Tabor Farm Barn, Rochford TO BOOK: www.rotaryclubofwestcliffonsea.co.uk/concert.html Walk for Wards, Sunday 20 September (9.30am) Venue: Southend Seafront (7km Seafront Stroll or 18km Hadleigh Hike). Price: Free entry. Minimum sponsorship requirement: £20 TO BOOK: www.shcwalkforwards2015.eventbrite.co.uk

12 The Look

CLOSER Each month The Look meets with colleagues from around the trust.

This month we meet Nadia Salama, a radiotherapy mould room technician... and Egyptian dancer!

Tell us about yourself...

I have worked at the trust for 13 years, coming originally from studying art and design in college and working with the elderly and disabled.

Outside of work I am a dancer and teacher of Egyptian belly dance and I live on a 1936 German Navy personnel carrier boat brought over from Amsterdam.

Tell us about your role...

My role is part of radiotherapy treatment planning and I am involved with certain patients starting this part of their cancer journey. I work closely with the consultants, radiographers, physicists, dietitian and nurses to ensure each patient’s care needs and complex treatment positioning needs are met. I cannulate patients for planning CT scans with contrast and run phlebotomy clinics for radiotherapy patients.

what does a mould room techniciaN do?

The technician is known for making plastic masks to immobilise patients with head and neck or brain cancer. I take impressions, make casts and moulds for various parts of the body and work in plaster, plastics, wax, lead alloy and silicone. I enjoy inventing new techniques and accessories to suit the more unusual challenges that come my way whilst doing my best to put patients at ease.

If you would like to be featured in a future edition of the The Look, email: communications@southend.nhs.uk

August 2015