Heartbeat February 2022

February 2022

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

The pulse of community health, Leasowes, Rowley Regis, City Hospital, Sandwell General and the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital

Issue 150

Opening the door to employment opportunities in healthcare Page 19

Highlighting some of the ways we are expanding our workforce with routes into healthcare including fantastic opportunities for young people and apprenticeships. Pictured: The widening participation team join Kickstart candidates, Jenny Smith praises apprenticeships, Wari Gharib who is currently on the SCORE programme and Rob Johnson shares his apprenticeship story.

Time to Talk Page 3

Service transformation and Midland Met Page 7

Charity initiatives pave the way for healthcare workers of the future Page 19

Teamwork makes the dream work Page 23

FROM THE CHAIR HELLO Welcome to the February edition of Heartbeat.

In this edition we highlight some of the fantastic opportunities for young people at our Trust including Supporting Career Opportunities, Recruitment and Employment (SCORE) programme, the Youth Volunteering Champions project and the Kickstart employment scheme - opening the door to employment opportunities in the healthcare sector.

We also highlight the success of our apprentices, the importance of talking about mental health and raising awareness of eating disorders in light of Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

Enjoy 

Contact us Communications Team

 Ext 5303  swbh.comms@nhs.net  C ommunications Department Ground Floor, Trinity House Sandwell Hospital

Sir David talks about…our new non-executive directors During this month’s edition of Heartbeat you will be able to get to know our new nonexecutive directors who have been appointed to the Board. (Hello my name is… page 28).

challenge to the executive directors. Nonexecutives are not full-time but will usually spend three to four days each month on Trust business.

I am really pleased that these four individuals have put themselves forward and been successful in the recruitment process to join the Board and jointly lead the Trust. They bring a wealth of experience in medicine, HR, finance and our local communities, both within and outside the NHS, that will be put to good use across our Board meetings and committees, complementing our existing nonexecutive team. They are looking forward to getting to know the Trust and will be starting a regular programme of visits to different departments and services, listening to staff, patients and families about their experiences.

The NHS is a precious institution that serves the whole population. Our own Trust is responsible for the healthcare for our local population and the Trust Board must ensure that we are accountable to the people of Sandwell and West Birmingham, taking decisions in their best interests, expending public funds wisely and ensuring that the high standards of public office are maintained. As we continue to develop and embed our Trust strategy the additional independent scrutiny and support will be invaluable in keeping us focussed on our new strategic objectives and grounded in the communities that we serve.

The role of a non-executive director of a NHS organisation is an important one. We are appointed to the Board, rather than employed by the Trust. This provides us with a level of independence where we can to contribute to the strategic direction, leadership and management of the organisation and provide

Published by Communications Team Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

Designed by Medical Illustration, Graphics Team Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

Submit an idea If you’d like to submit an idea for an article, contact the communications team

 Ext 5303  swbh.comms@nhs.net Stay updated We send out a Communications Bulletin via email every day and you can now read Heartbeat articles throughout the month on Connect.

Don't forget you can follow us on: Sir David Nicholson KCB CBE, Chair

Do look out for these new colleagues as they get to know our organisation.

Sir David Nicholson KCB CBE, Chair

Time to talk When we think of good mental health, we think of feeling happy, healthy and well. But as people, our thoughts, feelings and circumstances change and fluctuate as we live our daily lives; and this may impact on how we feel, how we view ourselves, our goals and how we cope with challenges. It’s important to take time to think about our mental health and to seek support if we aren’t feeling our best. What better way to do this than through simply, talking?

Time to Talk is the nation’s biggest mental health conversation and Thursday 3 February marked the day people across the country came together to encourage openness about mental health. Friends, families, communities and workplaces united to talk, listen, and change lives.

One in four of us will experience a mental health problem in a given year and creating supportive communities where we can talk openly about mental health helps us feel empowered to seek help when we need it.

Just a simple conversation through a text message, a phone call or a face-to-face chat could help you, or someone you know who may be struggling.

Here at the Trust, we value and champion positive physical and mental wellbeing across our workforce. There are a range of services offered through our occupational health and wellbeing service that might be right for you, if not, the team can signpost you to more appropriate support.

To access free, confidential counselling sessions, contact occupational health on

0121 507 3306. Our counsellors are trained to help with a wide range of issues and problems within the workplace and in your personal life. The service is completely confidential.

You do not need to leave your name with occupational health if you don’t want to, just your contact telephone number.

Dr Masood Aga, Clinical Director for Occupational Medicine and Specialty Lead for wellbeing said: “The importance of looking after the mental health of our colleagues does not need any emphasis as we all recognise this, especially after two years of relentless pressures on our teams. The Trust has been working towards providing effective and meaningful support to colleagues through wellbeing hubs, outreach sessions, in-house counselling service and efforts to have a greater engagement with colleagues who may be silently struggling. Our confidential mental wellbeing assessments help us to

identify those in need of support and I would encourage everyone to complete one and repeat it if circumstances change. We are working on a range of programmes which will be rolled out in the near future”.

Looking after our wellbeing isn’t just important when we know there is an issue. Colleagues are encouraged to complete wellbeing assessments throughout the year. You can access the wellbeing assessments via this link: bit.ly/3steImt. Once completed, our occupational health and wellbeing team can provide tailored support.

To support managers and colleagues, comprehensive mental health training will be rolled out in March. Contact Hajera Begum at H.begum5@nhs.net to find out more.

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Boosting the community in the fight against COVID-19 COVID-19 Since the introduction of the COVID-19 booster vaccine, our community colleagues have played a pivotal role ensuring some of the most vulnerable across the borough received their vaccinations. iCares support adults with long term conditions to remain at home in the community and avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital. The team help patients maintain health and wellbeing through careful care management, improve independence and function with community rehabilitation. During the pandemic colleagues in iCares stepped forward to to take COVID-19 booster vaccinations out across the community in to the homes of those patients who are housebound.

“We have vaccinated 100 housebound patients across the borough of Sandwell with the Pfizer booster vaccine. These patients could not get a booster by any other means,” said Andrew Churm, Matron – District Nursing.

tovaccinate in the community as well as we did.

“This is an excellent example of team working and shared care, delivering our service out in the community to benefit our patients.”

“These 100 people are some of the most vulnerable and susceptible to COVID-19 so to be able to get them jabbed was paramount for their health and the battle against COVID-19.”

In addition to this, our iCares service has been working alongside the Tipton vaccination hub at Tipton Sports Academy.

Keen to recognise the help and support the iCares team received to get them ready to take the vaccine on the road Andrew said, “All the team at the Tipton Sports Academy supported our iCares colleagues with training ensuring everyone was competent and confident in delivering the vaccine to our patients. I can’t thank them enough for their support especially our community continence team. Without their help and expertise, we wouldn’t have been able

Andrew Churm, Matron – District Nursing

Eligible children can now head to “Vaccination Street” Part of the vaccination hub at Tipton Sports Academy has been transformed into a mini “toy town” as it starts welcoming eligible 5-11 year-olds for their jab. Nicknamed “Vaccination Street”, the area boasts colourful shop fronts and road markings and aims to put clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) young patients who attend the clinic at ease.

Six cubicles have been decorated by colleagues working within the centre, including the clinical and admin teams.

They worked together, discussing their ideas to create the artwork. There are also games and a treasure hunt for the young children to take part in. Nena Mason, Clinical Lead at the site, explained more: “The drawings were completed by several different colleagues, but the idea came from Kayleigh Beardsmore one of our vaccinators.

“The games and other distraction techniques were my idea. The first two parents who visited the site with their children were amazed by the whole process and felt we had got it right as their kids were nervous before coming to be vaccinated.

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Some of the artwork created by colleagues at Tipton Sports Academy vaccination hub, where eligible children aged 5-11 are receiving their COVID-19 jab “The treasure hunt, which starts as soon as they arrive in the building, helped distract the youngsters whilst walking through the centre.

Ensuring they are calm before the actual vaccination is a big plus. The kids themselves were smiling and laughing all through the process as we made it fun. Afterwards the children wait 15 minutes following their jab; they are able to play with games thus creating a fun atmosphere rather than a clinical one.”

Mel Roberts, Chief Nursing Officer, said: “The space looks incredible and will certainly help the children attending to relax whilst

having their jab. Walking into a clinical environment like a large vaccination clinic can be a daunting experience especially if you are a child, so we hope this will really help. We’d like to thank colleagues for their amazing artwork and help in creating such a colourful and bright space.”

The parents of youngsters who are eligible are being contacted directly by the clinic’s staff to offer them an appointment, available between 3-6pm Monday to Friday and 8am-6pm on weekends.

What colleagues are saying about working at SWB In October 2021 we issued the national staff survey to all colleagues. The response rate was 39.3% (2,920). We received the initial results at organisational level in December 2021. Full results are likely to be published in March that includes comparative data.

The second Pulse survey followed in January

2022 and the response rate was 17% (1,307).

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS

Thank you to everyone who completed the surveys. Teams and directorates have been asked to review their own results and discuss areas for improvement.

Changes made will be shared across the organisation.

Look out for details of listening events throughout March on Connect and join in to give your feedback.

Below is a comparison of the responses to the nine mandatory engagement questions between the two surveys.

% Positive Quarterly pulse (Q4)

% Positive NHS Staff survey

I often/always look forward to going to work

48

51

I am often/always enthusiastic about my job

63

66

Time often/always passes quickly when I am working

68

71

There are frequent opportunities for me to show initiative in my role

62

69

I am able to make suggestions to improve the work of my team/department

61

65

I am able to make improvements happen in my area of work

51

51

Care of patients/service users is my organisation’s top priority

71

73

I would recommend my organisation as a place to work

51

54

If a friend or relative needed treatment I would be happy with the standard of care provided by this organisation

55

58

Question

111 – If it's not an emergency! to the best of its ability and people can get the right support and care that they need.

What happens when you contact NHS 111? On the website you will be asked about your symptoms and if you phone 111 you can speak to a fully trained adviser.

Depending on your symptoms you will be directed to local services, connected to a healthcare professional, get a face-to-face appointment if you need one, be told how to get any medicine you need or simply be given self-care advice. This means, you will be able to safely access the right care in the right place.

Just think 111 online first

When you think you need A&E, go to 111.NHS.UK. We can arrange for you to be seen at an urgent treatment centre.

It’s no secret that emergency departments remain to be one of the busiest areas of hospitals across the UK. A department that can become quickly overwhelmed when numbers of attendances rise rapidly.

With the number of 999 calls rising each year, and 2021 seeing a historical peak of 135,667 calls made in just one day, it’s important to understand when there is a need to use emergency services, or when other care avenues are more appropriate.

When we think we might be poorly, we have had an accident or need medical assistance, it can be a daunting prospect and calling 999

or heading to our local emergency department (ED), known to many as A&E, may be the first thing that springs to mind. But it’s important we think first and determine whether a trip to the emergency department is the right course of action.

The 'Help Us, Help You' campaign reminds us to consider using NHS 111 online to get medical advice quickly. If you have an urgent but not-lifethreatening medical need, make sure you visit NHS 111 at 111.nhs.uk first, rather than going straight to A&E. NHS 111 will help you right away and, if needed, a healthcare professional will call you. It’s important we share this message with our loved ones, to ensure our NHS can function

Michael Brennan, Matron, City Emergency Department said: “Our emergency departments are very busy at the moment; attending ED is not always the best option.

If you have a medical problem that does not need emergency care, contact NHS 111 online first. Only call 999 if you have a medical emergency such as a stroke, heart attack or massive blood loss. Attending the emergency department might not get you the answer you want and need – we are there to deal with accidents and emergencies, attending ED can delay lifesaving treatment for those who need it most.”

So should you, or someone you know find yourselves in a situation where you may need non-urgent medical assistance, think 111 first.

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Learning CPR despite tragedy: Caroline Welch’s story She said: “Clinical staff are trained in CPR as part of their mandatory basic life support training.

However, as not all clinical staff are exposed to cardiac arrests, it is known that skill deteriorate.

The Trust standard for CPR assessment of clinical staff is that this should be done annually, and clinical staff must be able to demonstrate an accurate standard of CPR practice.”

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS Community Staff Nurse, Caroline Welch’s husband sadly died following a cardiac arrest at the end of 2020, but despite this, Caroline still had the courage to update her basic life support (including CPR) training thanks to Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Isaacson, Sister and Resuscitation Officer from the Deteriorating Patient and Resuscitation Team (DP&RT).

Caroline’s husband, Jason Welch passed away on 12 December, aged 49 due to a cardiac arrest having had no previous health conditions.

“Jason was outside fitting some electrical cables when Ruby, my 12-year-old daughter at the time noticed something wasn’t right saying that he had turned blue,” said Caroline.

Jason was lying face down and whilst Caroline’s daughter called an ambulance, she gave chest compression. Unfortunately, Jason passed away.

After this horrendous ordeal, Caroline returned to work but felt even practicing CPR was just too much for her emotionally.

“The flashbacks to that nightmare felt too much to comprehend. I knew that a person having a cardiac arrest in the community has a very low survival rate, but I guess a part of me felt like I may have not performed CPR effectively.”

Caroline eventually reached out to the deteriorating patient and resuscitation team, and this is where she met Elizabeth Isaacson who immediately made her feel at ease.

“Lizzie listened with such empathy and was so kind, everything a good nurse should be.

She did not rush me into performing the CPR, and she really understood why I was so scared to do this again.

Carrying out CPR can be an emotionally traumatic event, and even more anxiety inducing when it takes place outside of the clinical context or must be given to family or friends.

Caroline and Jason “She told me afterwards that I had performed CPR effectively and that I would have given Jason the best chance I could before the paramedics arrived.”

Caroline added: “Without someone like Lizzie to support me I don't think I could have gotten over my fear of practicing CPR. Her role is so valuable to colleagues who have either witnessed or have had to perform CPR in helping them deal with the emotional trauma and supporting them to move forward.”

“During the session, I was sensitive, patient and understanding with Caroline because I knew that just by being there that she had managed to overcome a huge barrier. I was really pleased to see that Caroline was able to competently demonstrate her BLS skills without any prompts Out of hospital cardiac arrest is a sudden and lifebecause this meant that her CPR practice was of threatening event in which the heart stops pumping a high standard. It was a privilege to be able to blood around the body. This interrupts the blood support Caroline at such a difficult time in her supply to all parts of the body, causing oxygen life.” deficiency to the cells, which leads to cell damage Support is available for anyone struggling and eventually cell death. According to the British emotionally following a traumatic event through Heart Foundation, survival rates for cardiac arrests outside of a hospital environment are only around 1 the Trust confidential employee counselling in 10. However, knowing how to recognise cardiac service which is free of charge. To book an appointment, please call occupational health on arrest and perform effective cardiopulmonary 0121 507 3306, option 1. resuscitation (known as CPR) can improve the chance of survival. CPR is the act of providing external chest compressions to pump the blood around the body, so that cells of the brain and major organs can receive oxygen. These lifesavingskills can be called upon anytime, anyplace, and anywhere. The more people who are trained in CPR the better, because a cardiac arrest must be recognised immediately with prompt action.

Elizabeth believes it is essential all colleagues are trained in CPR.

CPR skill proves lifesaving at footie match When Julie Thompson, Group Director of Nursing went along to see her beloved Coventry City play rivals QPR – she had no idea of the drama that would unfold. She had been walking back to the car following the match when a fellow supporter collapsed in front of her.

Julie swung into action and immediately, with the help of another off-duty nurse, began CPR on the man, saving his life. Speaking of the

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When asked about Caroline’s situation; Elizabeth said: “Support is available for anyone struggling emotionally, CPR so knowing that Caroline had performed CPR on her husband and that he had died meant that I knew that annual re-assessment could prove to be a difficult and emotional time for her.

experience during National Heart Month, she said: “I immediately went into clinical mode and didn’t hesitate in starting CPR on the man.

There is also a confidential support line, operated by the Samaritans which can be accessed by calling 0300 131 7000 or 0800 069 6222 from 7am – 11pm, seven days a week. If you need to access the 24/7 service emergency Samaritans service, please call 116 123.

To contact the deteriorating patient and resuscitation team, call ext. 5908.

non-clinical to learn how to carry out CPR – you could save someone’s life.”

The man was taken to hospital where he has since undergone surgery.

Julie added: “I was tracked down by his sister who thanked me for saving his life. He was still in hospital and she’s been keeping me updated about his condition.”

“The main thing going through my mind was that I had to save this man. Luckily for him, both myself and the fellow nurse happened to be there at the right time and we did as much as we could for him before the paramedics arrived.

“It shows you how important this skill is and I would urge anyone – even those who are

Julie Thompson, Group Director of Nursing

1 TRANSFORMATION PLANNING Welcome to the future

A period of controlled change and planning

Service transformation and Midland Met - spotlight on day case surgery

Pull this out and pop it up in your areas to remind your team of the six stages to Midland Met.

Our Trust delivers care to a diverse local population with patients treated at Sandwell, City and Rowley Regis Hospitals, Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, Birmingham Treatment Centre, Lyng Centre and Leasowes Intermediate Care Centre. Plus, our community teams provide integrated services in GP practices and at home as well as for children in schools.

Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) is our new hospital, currently under construction, and once once open will bring together specialties from all areas of SWB, it will provide a hub for emergency care, acute medical wards, maternity, general and specialist surgery. This change means that care will be consolidated, ensuring that acutely unwell patients are able to be quickly assessed and treated under one roof at the Midland Met. In preparation of the move to MMUH a crucial programme of work is being undertaken across several areas to transform our services, focusing on our acute care model (ACM). Our ACM comprises of several services such as cardiology, endoscopy and surgery.

As part of our move, we’ve identified a need to engage with patients and stakeholders around a proposal to change where we complete day-case surgeries.

Jayne Salter-Scott, Head of Public and Community Engagement, explained: “The Trust has developed clinical pathways

‘cold’ site where capacity can be planned, reducing the risk of postponing operations due to urgent cases or infection control implications. Outpatients would continue to be delivered from Sandwell, City and in community settings so we could deliver speciality day-case surgery from concentrated sites.”

As part of our move to Midland Met, we’ve identified a need to engage with patients and stakeholders around a proposal to change where we complete day-case surgeries including a new theatre model that proposes to allocate surgical specialties to a single treatment centre. The new theatre model, if approved, will result in a change in location of day-case surgery for general surgery and trauma and orthopaedics (T&O).

“In practical terms it would mean a change in location of day-case surgery for general surgery (Birmingham Treatment Centre) and trauma and orthopaedics and plastics (Sandwell Treatment Centre) rather than carrying out all day case planned surgery on both sites.

“The proposal seeks to separate ‘hot’ acute services and ‘cold’ planned services.

Planned day cases would take place on a

Jayne added: “As this is a change in our original care model, we will be talking to patients and key stakeholders to get feedback on our proposals. We must do this as these are the people that will be using our services, and they need to have the opportunity to input into our plans.

“Working together with our colleagues, patients and the communities that support them, we will focus on improving quality standards, the patient experience and achieving better patient health outcomes across our services. It’s a collaborative process, and we want to hear views from colleagues too when our engagement programme starts.

“Our next steps involve liaising with stakeholders, commissioners, the public and launching a formal conversation externally. For anyone that would like some more information, please email swbh. engagement@nhs.net.”

Want to know more about our move to Midland Met? • Visit our Midland Met pages on Connect - connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/mmuh • Email any questions to swbh.mmuh@nhs.net • Contact your clinical/operational leads for more information.

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Shout out has been a regular feature in Heartbeat and it is fantastic to see colleagues regularly taking the time to give positive feedback to each other.

We regularly receive positive feedback from our patients too, and this month we wanted to share some of those heart-warming messages which have been sent via our website and social media platforms.

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS To – Una Peplow

To – Audrey Kwong

To – Shila Patel

Una has been a fantastic and really supportive manager to me in difficult times. She has listened to me and consistently showed me kindness and good humour. Una's practical approach balances with this nicely and she has also supported a newly qualified member of the team very well who commented how approachable and helpful she has been.

Thank you Audrey for always going above and beyond for your colleagues and your patients, it doesn't go unnoticed. You are a great team player and it is always a pleasure to work with you.

Always being on hand and willing to offer expert guidance and support in regards to the audit system and everything else.

From – Alice Murphy

To – Julius Buensalido

To – Maternity Night Staff 30.12.21 Colleagues worked tremendously hard overnight to keep all our women and babies safe under challenging circumstances throughout the night. This included staff mobilizing at short notice to cover other areas within maternity!

Excellent example of team work and supporting one another! Thanks for making me feel welcome for my on-site on call. Lisa Hall as coordinator demonstrated genuine kindness and compassion to all staff, women and babies in our care.

From – Randeep Kaur

From – Tiffany Jones

From – Lydia Bateman To – Ahmed Khan - IT

Just wanted to say a BIG thank you for your support, flexibility and your constant willingness to help. BMEC is really lucky to have you as part of the team.

From – Lauren Davies

To – Rachael Ridley

Thank you Ahmed for your help setting up our IT in the ops and TG offices at Sandwell Diabetes Centre. No matter how complex the issues are, you always go above and beyond to get the job done.

From – Community Medicine Ops Team

To – Louise Fisher

Rachael has been highlighted to have an excellent approach to teaching, providing a safe and productive space for learning for those people that she line manages.

She demonstrates excellent communication skills and great patience and we are very proud to have her.

For her contribution to the case file audit afternoon in relation to children with disabilities. It was so very clear how well Louise knew her children and families and was able to articulate the impact the child’s disability had on the whole family whilst keeping focused on the voice of the child and safeguarding.

From – Clair Finnemore

From – Jane Ryall

To – Claire Wilson Thank you so much for going above and beyond to help gynaecology 6A prepare and be compliant with audit standards.

From – Tiffany Jones

To – Dr Deepak Sharma Performed an echocardiogram to help us to assess the heart function on a child on Lyndon ground. He kindly did this as the ITU consultant to help us make an assessment in the absence of a paediatric cardiologist on at the weekend. It is not often we would not get this level of support over a weekend so we are really thankful.

From – Dr Nick Makwana

To – Carmen Nuttall Congratulations Carmen for working extremely hard over the last four months on building a new neonatal community outreach service that has now successfully launched. Your work will have a positive future impact on parents, babies and their families.

To – Serena Bains For being amazing! Covering the phone calls to the service over the past week due to staff sickness. You are a star!

From – Karon Povey

From – Tracy Ring To – Posy Bidwell

Excellent patient care, I appreciate the kindness, care, compassion and reassurance given to a family member. It was truly appreciated.

Posy's help was invaluable to myself and other band 7 midwives during an extremely busy period between Christmas and New Year. Posy was willing to help in any way she could clinically and it is really encouraging to see management working alongside us when we needed it most.

From – Toni Hardwick

From – Laura Sydenham

To – Newly qualified nurses on ward D5/D7

To – Sabrina Thomas

Well done to the newly qualified nurses and overseas nurses who have joined the speciality through the pandemic and how well they have handled the transition from student to staff nurses.

Stepped in to help the community respiratory service to mange the caseload on Christmas Eve!

To – Mr Sintler & Miss Hoar (Breast Clinic)

To – Laura Taylor Cardiology guardian angel: Laura arranges all our mandatory training, booking it for us a lot of the time. She also arranges extra curriculum and training to put towards our PDRs. Where would we be without her?

From – Simone Falconer

From – Simone Falconer

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From – Kelly Redden-Rowley

Celebrating our stars of the week

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS

Star of the Week

Star of the Week

Janet Jones, PPE Warden

Carmen Nuttall, Neonatal Community Outreach Team (NCOT) Team Leader

Janet has been working as the PPE warden for the last two years. She always works hard during her shifts, meeting and greeting colleagues and patients as they come through main entrance and outpatients at Sandwell, handing out sanitizer and masks and directing patients which way to go.

She is always very welcoming, kind, caring and goes the extra mile with every person she is in contact with. She has had numerous compliments from both colleagues and patients alike, for her kindness and commitment and people look forward to seeing her at the door as she always ready to meet them with a big smile.

Nothing is too much trouble for her.

Janet is very dedicated to every role she does and she is always first to step in to help anybody. She is a real credit to the Trust.

Carmen has taken on a new role, completely different to that which she was doing before, developed a service and team, which comprised of procuring new equipment, writing guidelines and SOPs, learning new data capture techniques, interviewing colleagues, writing patient leaflets, scoping out other services both established and relatively new, and

much more. The service, known as NCOT (Neonatal Community Outreach Team) recently launched and will be a fabulous addition to neonatal services, enabling our babies to be cared for in the community by their parents/ carers through facilitating special care treatment at home, empowering them in the care of their child/children.

Do you know someone in your team that has gone above and beyond the call of duty? Why not put them forward for Star of the Week by visiting Connect.

Have you made the switch to Office on the cloud?

In a world where we are moving sites, offices, wards and working practices at a moment’s notice, it’s critical that we are able to continue working, with access to the same files, applications and processes as we would do normally. But how often have you logged on to a computer to find your emails, files and folders missing? This is a painful reminder to make the move to Office 365.

Office 365 takes the office applications that we have come to rely on for our emails, documents, presentations and data and moves them to the cloud. This means that instead of being stored on servers in site, they’re stored online and available to you wherever you need to login to them – work or home.

Most importantly, the new Office 365 suite does away with the need for traditional desktop applications for all but the most advanced users, opting to allow users to edit their files and access their data online in web browsers.

Remember, from 1 April, the current version of Outlook will stop working, and colleagues will be forced to move online.

Don’t wait to be locked out, move to the new system before you run out of time.

What does this mean for you? Office 365 does all of the hard work, it lets you access your emails from any device you have, whether that be a personal or Trust mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop with no restrictions. You can login to any device you have access to at a moment's notice and have access to all your emails, files and folders – without the need to phone IT, memorise file paths or know anything more than you NHS mail email address and password.

What do you need to do? Take the first steps to adopting Office 365 by moving to using Office.com to access your emails instead of the desktop application. Login online and begin to familiarise yourself with the new Office 365 online system. Everyone at our

Trust already has access to Office 365 whether your department has already officially made the switch or not.

What do we need to do to get everyone on board? Office 365 makes working with your files incredibly easy, it’s a system designed with teamworking as one of its core principles so it can revolutionise how your department works and collaborates. From being able to edit the same document at the same time as members of your team to being able to organise and share your files and folders yourself – without the need to involve the IT service desk.

Further information on how you can switch to Office 365 is available on connect, if you would like one to one support with your move, you can book in for some support by emailing swbh.sharepoint.migration@nhs. net or calling ext. 4050

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Value Partnerships Creating more value for you

We work in partnership with NHS Trusts across the UK, supporting them to optimise operations, expand capabilities and advance innovation. From technology management and refresh, through to comprehensive reviews of approach and workflow, our innovative business models help you to increase enterprise-wide value to meet both your immediate and future goals.

Optimise: enhance processes, streamline operations, and improve patient experience Expand: add new capabilities and scale up existing ones to transform care delivery while maintaining quality and financial sustainability Advance: elevate the quality and precision of care delivery by advancing the level of innovation in your organisation Value Partnerships optimise care delivery to create more value for you. siemens-healthineers.co.uk/value-partnerships

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#CheckWithMeFirst: Supporting the survivors with trauma-informed care Survivors of sexual abuse and violence have said time and time again that one thing that would really help them get through their medical appointments would be for healthcare professionals to let them know what they need to do and why, and to ask for consent for every step of the procedure.

This is the core principle of the #CheckWithMeFirst campaign – understanding that taking a moment to consent, discuss and support a patient goes a long way to supporting them to have a positive experience.

Three simple steps that healthcare professionals can take which make a difference to survivors' experiences: 1. Check that the service-user is

happy before proceeding with

and during each step of the appointment/procedure.

2.

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS SESSION A

SESSION B

Includes: introductions; overview of sexual violence and impact on the NHS; effects of sexual violence and trauma on service-users; survivors’ experiences accessing healthcare; overview of a trauma-informed approach.

Includes: responding to and minimising triggers; a trauma-informed workplace; vicarious trauma and looking after yourself; talking about sexual violence (challenging the taboo); responding to disclosures; next steps.

Date and time options:

Date and time options:

•

Friday 4 March, 09.30-12.30

•

Friday 11 March, 09.30-12.00

•

Friday 18 March, 13.00-16.00

•

Friday 25 March, 13.00-15.30

•

Tuesday 29 March, 09.30-12.30

•

Tuesday 5 April, 09.30-12.00

•

Tuesday 12 April, 13.00-16.00

•

Tuesday 26 April, 13.00-15.30

The workshops will be accessible to Trust colleagues and will cover traumainformed practice, the prevalence of sexual abuse and how this impacts the way that survivors access healthcare services, handling disclosures, and how to refer survivors to specialist support.

Explain what you need to do at each step and give the person opportunities to ask questions.

3. Reassure the person that they can

stop the procedure at any time. Let

them know that they are in control. #CheckWithMeFirst aims to encourage NHS professionals to make small but crucial adjustments in their approach, for example, explaining what will happen and asking the person under their care if there is anything that makes them feel anxious about the procedure before and during it, enabling the person to feel more in control. It also aims to empower survivors to let their practitioner know what might help them to better cope with their appointment, whether or not they choose to disclose recent or non-recent abuse.

Colleagues are invited to sign up for virtual sessions which aim to encourage NHS professionals to make small but crucial adjustments in their approach.

For those wishing to attend, you should sign up to one session A (first session) and one session B (second session). We recommend that colleagues give themselves at least a week between the two sessions to give them time to reflect on the discussions held in session A. Sign up for the sessions online by going to https://bit.ly/3H1FUOz or scanning the QR code:

Opportunity to become a... champion!

Survivors of sexual abuse may

The Survivors Trust is inviting you to join free, CPD avoid medical appointments due accredited trauma-informed workshops running to feelings of anxiety and panic. throughout 2022.

Sign up today to find out how to help survivors of sexual abuse or violence feel more comfortable when accessing healthcare services.

For more information email nhs.checkwithmefirst@thesurvivorstrust.org

Survivors of rape, sexual abuse or assault can find healthcare appointments particularly difficult - but your small actions can make a BIG difference!

Supported by NHS England London

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Be a cleaning champion programme through this link: www.e-lfh. org.uk/programmes/cleaning-for-confidence you can access and complete the e-learning via the electronic staff record (ESR). The e-learning sessions take approximately 20 minutes to complete and you will receive a certificate on completion.

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS We all know cleanliness is of huge importance - whether that’s where we live, where we shop, where we socialise, where we work or where we receive a service. It’s reassuring to know that the places we spend our time won’t be presenting a potential risk to our health thanks to good cleaning practices. The Cleaning for Confidence campaign, led by the Midlands’ Nursing and Workforce team, helps to stop the spread of COVID-19 by encouraging colleagues to become cleaning champions with a 20-minute e-learning programme designed to further their knowledge of good cleaning practice.

The cleanliness of organisations is often one of the first things people notice and for us here at the Trust, it can impact perceptions, patient experience and patient health. Having confidence that the environment we work in, our hospitals, offices and community practices, and the equipment we use to treat patients are clean and free of germs and harmful bacteria is a top priority to all of us here at the Trust. Exceeding

Ward service officers Jackie Barnard and Sharon Bruce said: "We love to clean and it shows. A clean hospital is a safe hospital."

Jackie Barnard, Ward Service Officer and Sharon Bruce, Senior Ward Service Officer are cleaning champions hygiene levels not only keeps everyone safe and healthy, but it also creates a positive working environment and impacts overall wellbeing of both patients and employees alike. It’s a commitment that we all share and is the duty of every person within the NHS family to maintain that commitment to keep our premises clean in order to keep people safe.

Take a few minutes to find out more about the Cleaning for Confidence e-learning

The programme promotes further knowledge of good cleaning practice and the personal precautions needed to ensure the risk of environmental transmission both for patients and staff is reduced. This aims to help stop the spread of COVID-19 and, as always, reinforcing other behaviours that can help minimise the outbreak of other infections.

With the outbreak of COVID-19, the need for stringent cleaning practices across hospital sites has been highlighted. Gone are the days when visitors, customers, and employees will accept poor levels of hygiene within shared spaces. Our best defence against stopping the spread of infections is a clean workplace.

Demonstrate your commitment to keeping colleagues, patients and their families safe each and every day.

Become a cleaning champion.

Trust joins Birmingham Health Partners Building on many years of successful collaboration between the Trust and Birmingham Health Partners, we have joined the University of Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (BWC), and West Midlands Academic Health Sciences Network (WMAHSN) in a bid to extend BHP’s research and education capabilities.

We will be working on studies and trials in specialties as diverse as cancer immunotherapy, rheumatology and heart disease. This announcement follows publication of a joint report from BHP, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) which showcased the huge potential of the West Midlands’ life science ecosystem and recommended a joined-up approach to regional leadership

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and collaboration, in order to tackle the specific health burdens of the West Midlands and beyond.

BHP’s founder-members and SWB already in place, it is a natural next step to bring the Trust on board as a full member – demonstrating BHP’s regional leadership, commitment to Trust Medical Director David Carruthers, delivering on our recommendations, and commented: “We are delighted to be part of BHP dedication to improving the health of our and contribute to the development of research in diverse population.” the West Midlands. This will build on the strong track record that we have in delivering research that involves and is relevant to our patients. This partnership will reinforce our commitment to the development of our staff as well as improving the health of our local population through high quality research opportunities.”

BHP Director Professor David Adams, who is Head of the University of Birmingham’s College of Medical and Dental Sciences, added: “Our city and region is home to a concentration of multidisciplinary health and life sciences excellence, and has the potential to strengthen the UK’s position as a world leader in the sector.

This can only happen if we work inclusively and collaboratively across the Midlands. With a strong track record of research partnership between

David Carruthers, Medical Director

Identifying patients with a short prognosis At SWB we use the end-of-life dashboard, a platform for collating information, stats and feedback relevant to the end-of-life care delivered on a particular ward.

We caught up with Dr Hannah Mottershead, Elderly Care Consultant who told us more about how the dashboard is used to plan the care of some of our patients.

She said: “The dashboard is very useful for looking at whether your ward is meeting end-of-life quality care indicators, establishing whether performance is improving over time and for easily identifying which aspects of end-of-life care require more attention than others.

“As a summary you can also look at the data and ask yourself – does this match my perceptions as to how we are doing?

If it doesn’t, this is a great triggering question for asking yourself why. Perhaps our documentation isn’t truly matching our actions, perhaps we aren’t recognising early enough that people are in the last phase of their life? How can we improve these things? Also, you can look to see how different areas are working – maybe a different ward has some great lessons that they could help us with so that we can improve too.”

Hannah went on to explain the challenges

of having end of life discussions with patients and families.

“These conversations are challenging, no one will ever argue with that, but that doesn’t mean we should be put off from having them.

If a patient chooses not to discuss it then that is their choice and should be respected, but that is different from not being given the opportunity to talk about it.

“The frail elderly patients I see are rarely shocked that I think they might be dying - they think that themselves and are often relieved that they get to talk about it and tell us what they want. Mostly I feel that I am able to provide reassurance that help is available rather than worsening fear. Not talking about the inevitable (and often clinically obvious) development of events towards the end of life, can increase a patient’s fear.

“End-of-life care can be physically and emotionally draining and some colleagues have a natural ability to have more difficult conversations and to recognise that a patient is end-of-life. They have had clinical, and probably personal, experiences that have equipped them with the expertise they need to deal with caring for the dying in an empathetic and holistic way.

“I believe that our staff want to provide patients with the best end-of-life possible, even when they are struggling to do so.

Skills can be improved with training, cycles of

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS quality improvement projects, continued campaigns to increase awareness, championing the topic and rolemodelling quality care. The end-of-life quality improvement project is looking at all of these issues realistically, that’s what is going to make it a success.”

Hannah also shared her top tips.

“I would suggest being open minded to the possibility that patients are within the last year of their life. Ask yourself the question, use the SPICT tool, which is now embedded within Unity, and ask for help. Don’t be afraid to gather the opinions of your juniors, your nurses and your wider MDT. Maybe they have seen something that you have not. Look at the dashboard, get training.

“I could go on about top tips for years.

Better than all of this, if you are not recognising that people are dying, if you don’t feel comfortable having these conversations, if you find yourself questioned on end-of-life care regularly, please don’t get frustrated and downhearted, but please do take the time to question why. There is training and help available.”

The frailty team

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Black Country Integrated Care Board recruitment update CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS Recruitment to fill key positions within the Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB) continues with the announcement of eight new members, one of which Heartbeat readers may recognise from her service to our Trust Board - Gianjeet Hunjan.

These appointments follow that of Mark Axcell, who was confirmed as Interim Chief Executive Designate for the ICB in November last year. He was previously Chief Executive of the Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and has over 25 years’ experience in the NHS. The eight new Board members have been appointed as the Black Country prepares to take partnership working across health and care to the next level, as the Health and Care Bill currently progressing through Parliament - is set to create a new NHS organisation (Black Country Integrated Care Board) and statutory local partnership of health and care organisations (Black Country Integrated Care Partnership).

The eight appointments which have been made to the ICB designate are:

people of the Black Country. I am delighted to see the Board now taking shape with these inspiring new members who are • Mr Alan Edwards, Audit Committee compassionate, credible, and driven to work Chair • Mrs Gianjeet Hunjan, Chair of the Finance, with partners, people and communities to deliver the best possible health outcomes Performance and Digital Committee for all members of our community.”

• Dr Sonia Ashraf, Chair of the Quality and Safety Committee The NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB) - due to be established on 1 • Mr Ranjit Sondhi CBE, Chair of the July 2022 - will be the NHS organisation Remuneration and People Committee with responsibility for planning to meet • Bishop Llewellyn Graham, Non-Executive local health needs, allocating resources, Director for Inequalities ensuring that services are in place to deliver • Dr Ananta Dave, Chief Medical Officer against ambitions, and overseeing delivery • Mrs Sally Roberts, Chief Nursing Officer of improved outcomes for their population.

• Mr Tom Jackson, Chief Finance Officer These independent members of the new Board will start their roles in April to support Their purpose will be to: the new organisation to develop.

• Improve outcomes (population health and care) The ICB will form a formal partnership with • Tackle inequalities in outcomes and access the four Black Country local authorities. The • Enhance productivity and value for money Black Country ICB will be responsible for improving health outcomes for 1.25 million • Support broader social economic local people. It will have responsibility for development.

NHS budgets and functions, and for working Mark Axcell said: “Health and care locally with the full range of statutory and local faces some big challenges moving forwards community partners to achieve healthier as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. places with healthier people and healthier We are building a strong team to lead the futures across the Black Country. Our system NHS through this and to work hand in hand has now appointed Jonathan Fellows as ICB with partners to tackle those wider issues chair-designate. which influence health outcomes for the

Do you know how to declare your interests?

The Trust are introducing a new way of declaring interests through ESR. As NHS staff, we need to declare any interests – including gifts, hospitality or sponsorship received from third parties – to ensure transparency on how public funds and assets are being used and accessed.

It’s important to know that having an interest isn’t necessarily a problem – it’s the perception that can be damaging to individuals and the Trust, especially if something isn’t declared – but it is necessary to be open about what interests we have so that they can be taken into account in the appropriate way.

All colleagues are required to declare any interests on appointment and again if they change job or their circumstances change (e.g. they take on a second job outside of the Trust). Additionally, all ‘decision-making staff’ – that is those who are: • Executive and Non-Executive Directors (including Associate Non-Executive Directors) • Those at Agenda for Change band 8c

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• • •

and above Medical consultants All staff in the procurement team All staff listed as having delegated financial authorities per the Scheme of Reservation and Delegation.

All of the above are required to make a declaration at least twice a year, even if it’s just to say they have no interests to declare.

Soon you will be able to make your declarations through a specific module on ESR called ‘Conflicts of Interest’.

Some key tips on what to declare: • Any non-cash/voucher gift (e.g. from a patient) of over £50 (gifts under £50 don’t need to be declared but it’s good practice to) • Any sponsorship received from suppliers/ individuals • Any secondary employment or private practice.

Staff should also always: • Decline gifts of cash or vouchers (to individuals) – cash donations can be made

•

as a donation to the Trust charity Decline any gifts from suppliers or contractors doing business (or likely to do business) with the Trust.

There is helpful specific guidance from NHS England for the following staff groups: • Q&A for Managers: https://bit.ly/3huXUpW • Q&A for Medical Staff: https://bit.ly/3K5kiT7 • Q&A for Clinical Staff: https://bit.ly/3hv7bOO The Trust’s Associate Director of Corporate Governance / Company Secretary, Dan Conway can also help provide advice on interpretation of the guidance; however, decisions about what to declare or not are the responsibility of individuals. Please don’t hesitate to contact Dan at swbh.declarations-admin@nhs.net if you have any questions.

He will also be offering online drop-in sessions on 11 and 24 March for a live demonstration of how to make your declarations on ESR and a Q&A session. Details on how to join can be found on Connect.

Eating disorder awareness: a parent's story Eating disorder awareness week takes place between 28 February and 6 March this year, which is quite poignant as it marks almost a year since Emma Barton, SWB Convenor and Unite the Union Senior Workplace Representative found out about her daughters eating disorder. In this two-part article, Emma shares her experience.

Around 1.25 million people in the UK suffer from these illnesses, many in secret. They are of all ages, genders and backgrounds – eating disorders do not discriminate. They steal childhoods, devastate relationships and pull families apart. But, with the right treatment and support, recovery is possible.

I want to share my experience as a parent of a child who suffered with anorexia nervosa to help raise awareness.

Discovery My daughter was 16 years old. I thought things were going well, she had a boyfriend, had friends and great plans to become a zoologist. I guess I didn’t notice anything untoward at the time. But that all changed on 11 March last year. I took a call from my daughter’s college with concerns regarding attendance. After raising this with her she said there must be a technical error with how she logs on to the virtual sessions.

I wasn’t phased by this as she was very studious and her grades were good.

disorders, who could give some telephone advice.

The advice was to offer food, little and often.

I was aware that she needed to eat but also the dangers around refeeding. Refeeding syndrome can occur when someone who hasn’t been eating starts eating again and can cause serious clinical complications.

One day she was complaining of chest pain. I took her straight to A&E, she had blood tests and an ECG. I saw my little girl scared for the first time. I remember her asking me: “have I caused permanent damage, will I die?” I reassured her that she could recover fully. I had thought that might have been a lightbulb moment and it may have shocked her into eating, but eating disorders are complex, and sadly things got worse before they got better.

Two junior Drs asked my daughter about her weight, and she said she felt overweight, and they told her that was silly to think that.

This had upset her and she felt that her feelings were not validated. A person with anorexia nervosa often has a distorted view of themselves even when they are dangerously thin. Thankfully her bloods and ECG remained fine, the registrar was happy that the GP had referred her onto an eating disorder service and she came back home.

CAMHS When we got to the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) it was Later that evening, she seemed withdrawn, surreal. She had gained some weight and I quiet and she looked unwell. I was was confident we were on the right track. concerned about her subdued state. I asked But the ED specialist CAMHS consultant said if she was ok, unwell maybe? She said she she needed to go to hospital for an inpatient was fine, but later that evening she broke stay. I was left questioning why two weeks down in tears and told me that she had ago when I took her to A&E when she was a problem with food. I knew that night at a lower weight she wasn’t admitted then. that life would become different and that I I can only assume that there was a lack of needed to seek specialist help. awareness of the dangerously low weight I was mortified that I hadn’t noticed. I hadn’t by professionals - who were not ED disorder heard wretching, I thought she was eating, I specialists or CAMHS specialists and probably saw her eating meals - she sat and ate with did not understanding anorexia nervosa. Those the family most of the time. I went through weeks were scary, and I was frantically trying a journey myself, as to why I hadn’t noticed. to research all I could about eating disorders.

The guilt of not noticing and then piecing Hospital all the behaviours that I hadn’t thought of My daughter was on a paediatrics ward and being odd, now seemed to make perfect she had a food plan. I had been giving her sense. The going to the toilet late at night, what she wanted when at home but was double flushing of the toilet, showers or later to learn that giving someone with an ED taps on full blast to drown out the noise choices, also comes with danger as they will of wretching. The baggy clothes she was dictate the food that they can and can’t eat. wearing wasn’t because of Billie Eilish as At this stage her ‘fear foods’ were basically a role model, it was because she had an most staple carbohydrates. eating disorder and wasn’t comfortable with She had her 17th birthday in hospital, the her body and was covering it with baggy nurses were great and decorated her room clothes - or maybe she wanted to hide the and gave her presents. I saw a spark of my old weight loss from me? daughter coming back.

The referral One night in hospital, she confided in me I called the GP who agreed to a referral to tell me she had felt a ‘fat lump’ on her to the eating disorder team as he thought stomach. What I saw was a tiny blister. she had anorexia nervosa. I also called a She was struggling from stomach pain and private professional who specialises in eating bloating so I had given her a hot water bottle

By Emma Barton, SWB Convenor and Unite the Union Senior Workplace Representative

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS to ease her discomfort, this had caused a tiny blister. She was panicked and said she was fat and had ‘fat nodules’ on her neck. These were in fact her vertebrae in her neck. I think the reality of her distortions were really hitting home.

The nurses and Drs tried hard to care for her but if I’m honest they were not equipped to support someone with an eating disorder. All food should have been supervised but this was often done from afar which meant there was opportunity to dispose of food.

She was discharged due to her losing weight I felt she could be better monitored at home - after all, being a nurse, I understand the pressures and demands of working on a ward. I took her to her appointment at CAMHS and I had an inkling something wasn’t right. I asked my mother to check her room. We went to CAMHS, she had gained weight, but as we were leaving my mum called me with worrying news. In little over half a week there was half a bin liner of half-eaten food in her wardrobe. I was mortified. On one hand she had gained weight which was great news, but on the other hand she was not following the plan. I couldn’t get my head around how she was hiding this food, it must have been in her pockets, hood, up her sleeves. That night and the following day she point blank refused to eat or drink anything, probably because her method of hiding food was no longer going to be an option.

She developed some strange ideas after being discharged, her mental health was declining. She thought the medical professionals were talking in code and believed that we thought she was overweight. I was getting increasingly concerned and as she was not eating and drinking so I was requested to take her back into hospital.

Her drawers were crammed with half eaten food, in plant pots, under her bed, in pockets hung in her wardrobe. I think one of the saddest moments was when she asked me to take into hospital a small pot of moisturiser on her bookcase, it was crammed full of tortilla chips. It goes to show how the illness can take over an individual to the point you start to hardly recognise them. It was then that I started to separate the ED from my daughter, which really helped.

Check the next edition of Heartbeat for Part 2 of Emma’s story.

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Kickstarting careers in the NHS CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS Seven young recruits keen to get their foot on the first step of the NHS career ladder joined the team at Lyndon Primary Care Centre earlier this month thanks to the Kickstart employment scheme.

The Kickstart employment scheme aims to offer young people aged 16 – 24 years old a work placement which will give them the experience they need to succeed. The fully funded government scheme supports organisations to offer new six-month placements to young people in receipt of universal credit who are at risk of long-term unemployment.

At our Trust, the widening participation project team have worked collaboratively with the Lyndon primary care team (YHP) in supporting the kickstart scheme and giving a group of new recruits a springboard in to employment.

Widening Participation Team join Kickstart candidates at Lyndon Primary Care Centre Launching the programme, Widening Participation Support Officer Nicky Smith said: “This is an incredible opportunity for young people to be introduced and supported in to new roles, with a light touch opportunity – but one that is set to give them an incredible set of skills regardless of how they decide to proceed with their careers.”

The first cohort of seven recruits joined us at the end of January and took on the roles of ‘meet and greet receptionists’ fulfilling frontline duties at six different GP sites across Sandwell and West Birmingham.

Thanking colleagues for their support in launching the programme, Nicky continued: “None of this could have happened without the support of Rajeev Pathak who is the operations manager (telephony) and Louise Ross Frontline (operations manager). They have been instrumental in supporting each of the seven individuals ensuring that they are given all of the help and support they need to help them learn new skills and grow in confidence.”

Mid way through the trainees programme they will receive support from the widening participation team in helping them complete job applications and start to apply for jobs in the NHS. Talking though what they have learnt and ensuring that this is included in their applications.

Trainees will also be offered the chance to sign up to Trust Bank and we will also discuss the pathway into apprenticeships with support from the apprenticeship team.

Building the future – apprenticeship roles grow at the Trust The Trust marked National Apprenticeship Week by celebrating the thousands of apprentices who have worked for the organisation and still do.

Karen Whitehouse, Apprenticeship Coordinator, said: “It’s very important that we recognise apprentices and the hard work they do. They have become an integral part of SWB, combining our apprenticeship first strategy and growing our own staff, underpinned by the NHS People Plan.

The apprenticeship team kicked off the campaign week by sharing Jenny Smith’s story. Jenny completed her team leader apprenticeship for cancer services, gaining a distinction. She has now stepped into a more senior role within her department.

She said of her role: “I am now much more self-aware, I can recognise my strengths, weaknesses and unconscious bias which will help me to become a more effective leader.

“When I began the apprenticeship my role was cancer patient tracker in cancer services. I was responsible for tracking patients on cancer pathways, minimising gaps, maintaining flow throughout and following the escalation process when required.

“I have learned so much during my time as an apprentice and I have really incorporated this into my role, such as the benefits of coaching, motivation techniques,

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“They are the future of our organisation and we are proud that they play such an important part at SWB.” The three key themes this year around the awareness week were: Jenny Smith, an apprentice who has praised her experience and different learning styles and how to communicate more effectively.

“I feel the apprenticeship doesn’t just improve my skills, knowledge and behaviours, it also benefits my colleagues and teams.”

Jenny is currently on a 12 month secondment covering maternity leave. Her new role is cancer waiting times facilitator, and she is assisting the manager monitoring waiting times and pathways to facilitate improvements for the patient journey and cancer outcomes.

Train – recognise and promote benefits apprenticeships bring to employers and individuals.

Retain – commend resilience of apprentices, providers, and employers to support completions.

Achieve – celebrate achievements of apprentices and recognise success at all levels.

Both Sir David Nicholson, Chairman and Richard Beeken CEO, supported the campaign by delivering video messages about the importance of apprentices.

Apprenticeship carved the career path for Rob Johnson For Rob Johnson, Recruitment Officer, an apprenticeship in business administration was the doorway to his successful career path.

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS So what advice would Rob give to those thinking of completing an apprenticeship? “My advice would be to stick to it, it might seem a long time, but it is definitely worth it in the long run, the experience is invaluable.”

It was back in 2016 Rob began his apprenticeship with the Trust. Finishing 12 months later he worked in recruitment, and on the Trust Bank which led to a fulltime post in the department. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rob volunteered to be a Bank porter as he wasn’t keen on working from home. He enjoyed his time as a porter so much so, that he now does this on the weekends to earn some extra money.

Rob shared his apprenticeship story with Heartbeat, he said: “I finished college where Robert Johnson shares his apprenticeship I studied media and decided I wanted to get journey a qualification in business administration support and the apprenticeship route “The apprenticeship has been very valuable seemed like the best option for me.

– it has given me a lot more confidence in “I had great support throughout the a workplace environment and it has even whole apprenticeship, and it presented given me the experience of working in both opportunities to attend job fairs at the NEC recruitment and the portering department using the knowledge I now know, to help which I have thoroughly enjoyed.” people apply for a job within our Trust.

When asked to tell us more about his role “I have expanded my knowledge within within the recruitment team, he said: “I have the NHS and received support from my been responsible for ID checks, conditional manager, my assessor and everyone within offers, publishing job adverts, answering the recruitment department. phone queries and much more.”

Rob left the Trust this month but is hugely grateful for the opportunities his apprenticeship has presented him and the path in which has led to his new role within the recruitment industry.

Experience of working within the NHS in a busy recruitment department, the opportunities to learn new skills and gain knowledge and the support throughout his journey has well equipped him for his future career.

“I would like to say goodbye to the Trust, the recruitment department who are like my family and also the portering department who are a great bunch of people.”

We wish Rob the best of luck with his career in recruitment.

Supporting Sandwell’s Asian community Inspired by her past experiences, ex nurse Bally Barquer joined our Trust volunteering service in 2017 as she wanted to give back and make a difference within the community. After working as a nurse in London and more recently volunteering at the Trust, it’s fair to say Bally has a passion for helping others. In her past she unfortunately experienced workplace bullying and as a result, her mental wellbeing suffered. It was then that she decided to speak out and seek help.

Five years ago, Bally set up the Sandwell Asian Mental Health Group (SAMHG) - a place for men and women within the Asian community to come together to talk about mental health and wellbeing. She noticed a gap in support services for the Asian community so decided to take the lead in setting up the service. We caught up with Bally and she told us more: “I was inspired to set up the group to break down the stigma surrounding labelling and mental health within the Asian community.

It’s something so many of us are reluctant

to talk about but we need to come forward, get together and talk about mental health. I wanted to support others who have had similar experiences to myself with an aim to connect, support and signpost to relevant services. I want to stress the importance of communication, a problem shared is a problem halved.”

Patricia Hunt, Volunteer Service Manager said: “Bally is a kind and helpful volunteer who has a passion for caring for others. I had the privilege of being invited by Bally to attend the Sandwell Council House in 2020 for the International Women’s day celebrations, where they recognised women that had been involved in the community and shared their stories. Bally was honoured with a portrait and her name listed in the council house for her work with the Asian community mental health group. It was an honour to be there and even more so to have her as part of the SWB volunteers service.”

The group meets once a week the central library in West Bromwich on Wednesdays between 1-3pm. Five years on, it has grown and evolved into a group for mental health, wellbeing and

Bally Barquer runs the Sandwell Asian Mental Health Group social interactions. If you need someone to talk to, feel free to drop-in.

As the group has grown, Bally is looking to expand the team and is seeking a treasurer and a secretary. She is looking for people who could support projects and activities, administrative tasks including maintaining financial records, but most importantly she would like to meet people who are committed and passionate about helping others within the community.

If this sounds like you, and you’d like to get involved, email samhg171@gmail.com.

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Alcohol team introduces 7-day service CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS The SWB alcohol care team are now operating a 7-day service to further improve patient care. The service, which has been providing treatment and support for individuals with complex alcohol related issues since its launch in January 2018, made the decision following a rise in demand since its inception.

“We were seeing more our patients who needed support from the alcohol care team which is the fundamental reason for operating a 7-day service,” said Samantha Morgan, Alcohol Specialist Nurse.

“Operating on a 7-day week will allow us to see more patients and support more of the wards who have patients who need help with their alcohol addiction.”

Scaling up a service can be easier said than done. However, to navigate this challenging situation, the team have also increased their workforce.

“Due to the increase in demand in the service and to ensure we are able to still offer the quality of care we were offering before moving to a 7-day service, we have successfully recruited two additional alcohol

The alcohol team specialist nurses as well as an additional alcohol practitioner to work within our team,” said Arlene Copland, Nurse Consultant.

“We have also increased the length of the service as we operate from 8am to 6pm which I believe will only benefit our patients and the wider community of Sandwell and West Birmingham long term.”

As part of the expansion of service, the alcohol care team have also implemented an innovative new tool within our electronic patient record, Unity. The tool, known as the alcohol powerchart will make the prescribing of alcohol withdrawal medication, clearer which will benefit both

clinical colleagues and patients who are alcohol dependent.

Arlene believes this tool will be of great value to those who use Unity. She said: “By using the alcohol powerchart you will be able to easily refer patients to the alcohol care team, request hourly CIWA scoring, have quick access to the SWB alcohol withdrawal guidelines and prescribe alcohol withdrawal medication (Diazepam/Ethanol Vodka) and Pabrinex.”

She added: “It’s very easy to access as within Unity you simply type ‘alcohol’ in the search bar on request/care plans and click on the alcohol powerchart.”

Charity shortlisted for prestigious award Your Trust Charity has been nominated for a coveted Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce award. The charity has been shortlisted for the Excellence in Third Sector gong in the organisation’s annual business award. The winner will be announced at a glittering ceremony on 4 March which will take place at the ICC in Birmingham.

As part of the award’s submission, Johnny Shah, Head of Your Trust Charity, listed a number of worthy projects, including the Domestic Abuse Service and the Bearwood Community Hub that the charity had supported.

Johnny said: “The charity has made an incredible difference with our population of 530,000 and 7,000 staff - in one of the most diverse areas of the West Midlands - especially during COVID-19.

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awarded a grant totalling £646,725 from NHS Charities Together, to deliver a range of community partnership projects between January 2021 and January 2023. Your Trust Charity led the bid for the grant, which will be shared amongst those hit the hardest during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Katrina Cooke, the Chamber's Chief Commercial Officer who also chaired the judging panel, said: "The judges faced a mammoth task this year and we're so grateful for the time they took to assess all entries in detail.

“We were able to support our partner Bearwood Community Hub with a £9,910 grant to improve lives and the local urban environment by providing a creative and collaborative space for people to meet and make social engagement magic happen.

“Whilst we have also made a major regional impact with the third sector when we were

"The standard of entries was again high with a number of previous winners and entrants joining the competition to be honoured. We also thank the huge number of the companies who took the time to complete entries."

Charity initiatives pave the way for healthcare workers of the future Your Trust Charity has been awarded more than £90,000 for a scheme which will give work placement opportunities to youths across the community.

The Youth Volunteering Champions (YVC) project has been given the cash injection from NHS Charities Together and will benefit 16-18 year-olds looking for experience in the healthcare sector.

clinical settings. School obviously prepares you academically but what this initiative does is give you the opportunity to work within healthcare settings and see first-hand what it is like.

“I think it’s a really important programme and opens up so much to those who are on it.”

Johnny Shah, Head of Your Trust Charity, welcomed the funding. He said: “This project will really help to give young people in our community an opportunity to experience working within the healthcare sector. It gives them short-term experience, but it also ties in nicely with our SCORE initiative.

It will run alongside SCORE (Supporting Career Opportunities, Recruitment and Employment), a similar initiative which offers 16 to 30 year-olds work placements, giving them confidence and experience in a healthcare setting as well as help in building up other skills ensuring they are “job ready” “Both will offer a variety of roles within when they finish the programme. customer services, our hospitality services, and portering. They will also provide Wari Gharib, aged 19, has just joined opportunities in charity funded projects, such SCORE and has ambitions to become a sports leadership and our ‘art in hospital’ neurosurgeon. He has applied to study programme. They will either be offered as medicine at university and hopes that the internships or as work experience over a experience he gains in clinical settings at period of time.”

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, will lead to better opportunities in the SCORE was officially launched mid-February future. and has a number of candidates already volunteering. It is funded by The Prince’s Trust He said: “My passion is in neurosurgery and aims to boost the confidence of those and when I found out about SCORE I was who have been left out of work due to the keen to build on my experience within COVID-19 pandemic and for them to find

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS skilled meaningful jobs, particularly roles at our Trust but also with associated teams and other NHS partners across the region.

Dr Nick Makwana, Consultant Paediatrician and Group Director of Women and Children’s Health is leading the project. It offers mandatory training in English and Maths, accredited modules built around health and social care, wellbeing and sports leadership, as well as work placements and CV writing.

Those involved will have opportunities to take part in team building activities and in using sports as therapy.

Although the scheme doesn’t guarantee a permanent job, when the project comes to an end, it is aiming to provide 150 entry level opportunities, including apprenticeships. Could you offer a young person a role for 16 hours a week within your department?

Contact Liza Gill, Volunteer Services Manager and Chloe Hames, Administrator at swbh.volunteer@nhs.net

Wari Gharib, who is currently on the SCORE programme

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Pulse

If you have a story you would like to appear on the Pulse page, please email a photo and a short explanation to swbh.comms@nhs.net

News in brief from around our organisation

Enter the Dragon - to welcome the Tiger!

In celebration of the Chinese New Year at the beginning of the month, the Chinese Festival Committee Birmingham brought a colourful ceremony to City site, consisting of a full size dancing dragon to perform a lion dance routine to the sounds of drums and cymbals.

Watched by onlookers, the ‘lion’ went on to bless the entrance and everyone present by performing a ‘throwing the orange’ ceremony. Oranges and other citrus fruits such as tangerines are believed to bring good luck and happiness. The Chinese words for orange and tangerine closely resemble the words for luck and wealth, whilst the vibrant golden colours of the fruit symbolize prosperity. Of the four fruits given to colleagues during the ceremony, Chief Nurse Mel Roberts

The Chinese Festival Committee and Mel Roberts, Chief Nurse

was delighted to be presented an orange, in recognition of the dedication of her nursing colleagues across the Trust during the last two challenging years.

The ceremony was part of a festival to share

Chinese culture and celebrations across Birmingham as the year of the Tiger is welcomed in. The Chinese community particularly wish to thank NHS colleagues for their efforts throughout the pandemic.

Our own NHS Heroes up for coveted portering awards Two colleagues have been shortlisted in the prestigious MyPorter Awards. Zaheer Iqbal has been nominated for Leadership of the Year, whilst Tracy Banford, has been named as a finalist for Newcomer of the Year.

They were nominated by Directorate General Manager Mark Stankovich from the Trust, which runs Sandwell, City and Rowley Regis Hospitals.

He said: “Zaheer was instrumental with the setting up of a dedicated volunteer brigade to support the portering department during the first wave of the pandemic.

“He is worthy of this award as he continually goes above and beyond his call of duty, and is passionate and caring towards patients, staff and visitors who come into our Trust.”

And he praised Tracy for her dedication to the role, despite only starting recently.

He said: “Tracy supported the portering department during a very difficult and testing time. She has been a vital team player with ensuring the smooth running of the department and maintaining service level and making sure policy and procedures were being followed.

Tracy has recently been successful in

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Zaheer Iqbal and Tracy Banford

obtaining a Team Leader position as part of the recruitment process where she is excelling at making service improvements.”

The awards ceremony will be taking place in London later this year.

Maternity welcome new midwives WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH

Last year, women’s and child health welcomed a new cohort of midwives to join their ranks as part of the team delivering care to pregnant women in Sandwell and West Birmingham. We caught up with Maryam Begum, a newly qualified midwife, to discover how she’s settled into her new role.

Maryam told us: “I joined the Trust in September 2021. Starting as a newly qualified midwife, I was anxious. My biggest concerns were fitting in and asking for support without feeling worried. My first rotation started on the labour ward. Colleagues have been amazing, super supportive and they have made my time on the labour ward pleasant.”

Speaking of her decision to pursue midwifery at SWB, Maryam explained: “I always aspired to work in healthcare since I was 11 years old, and midwifery stood out to me. Knowing that I would be responsible for helping to bring lives

into the world, changing the lives of couples, and being the one to support them bring in their bundle of joy into the world - it’s beautiful. It’s why I chose to become a midwife.

“I completed my three years of training at SWB, and the Trust and colleagues have been amazing throughout my training. My mentors have been supportive, and I chose to stay as I was familiar with my colleagues, the wards, policies and guidelines. Once I received my NMC pin, the team welcomed me with open arms.”

Maryam spoke to us passionately about her experiences so far and reflected: “When I initially started my role as a newly qualified midwife, I was apprehensive and that caused challenges.

The transition from being a student and knowing I had a mentor, to being a qualified midwife, with the responsibility that comes with that, was nerve-racking.

“Once I started to settle down, I felt a lot more

confident, not just in overcoming the initial nerves, but also being a lot more confident in looking after the women in my care.

The support from my colleagues has also allowed me to build my self-reliance during this transition.”

Maryam added: “If I could give any advice to new midwives, it would be to take each day at a time and reflect on what you achieve daily. It is your chosen career and confidence comes with time; we are all learning and will continue to learn. Keep up the hard work because it is worth it.”

Jade Hellier, Inpatient Matron, remarked: “Maryam is one of our newly qualified midwives, and she has made a great start to her career in midwifery.

“Our cohort of midwives who joined us last year are all making a positive difference, and we’re pleased to have them as part of our team. Helping them grow into their new roles is a privilege, and it’s a pleasure to see them all grow in confidence. We will have more recruits join us later this year too, which is something we’re looking forward to.”

Have you got a story?

MEDICINE AND EMERGENCY CARE

We’d love to hear from you if you have…

• An event or special occasion in your department • If you work with an inspirational colleague • Does your department do something that makes a real difference to our patients?

Please get in touch if you’d like to be featured in an upcoming edition of Heartbeat!

Email swbh.comms@nhs.net to submit your story idea.

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Enhanced Care Unit – Continuing care for gynae-oncology patients SURGICAL SERVICES COVID-19 has impacted almost every aspect of healthcare with the NHS feeling the strain of unprecedented surges in demand, staff shortages and the complexities of caring for patients in a pandemic. Whilst delays and cancellations are often unavoidable, they have a considerable impact on patients, especially those who have received a potential cancer diagnosis and are waiting for subsequent surgery. But thanks to the opening of a new Enhanced Care Unit at City, gynaeoncology patients can rest assured that their surgery will go ahead.

Whilst rapid assessment and treatment pathways for gynae-oncology patients are available, these often rely on patients being cohorted and treated in areas such as Critical Care – areas which have been hardest hit during COVID-19.

This has meant that throughout the pandemic, patients have unfortunately had their procedures cancelled and rescheduled at the last minute.

“The theatre team have worked extremely hard to ensure the area is ready for our first patients, including completing a training package, preparation of the area alongside the estates team and are looking forward to caring for this patient group and enhancing their patient journey. We have also had a lot of support from our clinical director Subash Sivasubramaniam and Anaesthetics clinical Sharing the news and celebrating the opening of director – Jay Susarla as well as the wider the new Enhanced Care Unit in Windmill Theatres MDT to ensure that all aspects of training and at City Hospital, Theatres Matron Pauline Mohan preparation for this new Unit is in place.” said, “The new two bedded Enhanced Care Unit Around the world, 1 in 7 patients have missed out on potentially life saving operations during the pandemic and research has shown that this inevitably led to significant delays to cancer care surgery and potentially more cancer deaths something that could have been prevented if operations had gone ahead on time.

Theatre team celebrate the first day of the Enhanced Care Unit being in operation

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is being introduced on the back of the COVID pandemic and the pressure on critical care beds during this time. Historically these patients were cared for in critical care, but the pressure on their bed base has meant that on occasions patients were faced with being cancelled on the day of surgery.

Teamwork makes the dream work Around 30,000 people receive resuscitation for an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) each year in the UK. Unfortunately, the survival rate is quite low, only one in every 10 of these people survive and return home from hospital. There are a few key steps that can help to improve the chance of survival from cardiac arrest, and these have long been expressed on resuscitation courses as the ‘chain of survival’.

Earlier this month two young patients were admitted at our hospital after suffering out hospital cardiac arrest. They received prompt treatment from crews of West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) and a rapid admission to undergo successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) to open their blocked coronary arteries.

Kevin Jennison, Lead Resuscitation Officer tells us more: “The first link is ‘early recognition and call for help – to prevent cardiac arrest’.

In this situation a 999-emergency ambulance was dispatched to her house, where she was given immediate treatment and attention by the emergency crew. They immediately saw she was ill and began treatment straight away. When she went unconscious in the back of the ambulance, the team quickly realised she was in cardiac arrest, identifying the shockable rhythm ventricular fibrillation and administering immediate defibrillation to restart her heart. A prompt response from the emergency department and cardiac specialists ensured that she was soon in the cardiac catheter laboratory receiving specialist attention to unblock her coronary arteries which had produced this emergency.”

Chetan Varma, Group Director Medicine

For one of these patients, a 48-year-old who was experiencing chest pain at home, she had no idea how critical the strength of each link in the chain would be in her instance. Seamless teamwork meant she was able to receive the treatment she needed quickly and efficiently, which ultimately saved her life.

MEDICINE AND EMERGENCY CARE and Emergency Care, who undertook her angioplasty procedure, said: “We know that patients with cardiac arrest can do well if each part of the chain of survival occurs quickly. It is clinically incredibly satisfying knowing a patient has been managed well after a cardiac arrest before definitive therapy of angioplasty. These dramatic cases are extreme examples of teamwork across the community to hospital care. We also need to think about how integrated care applies not only to such severe clinical cases but to chronic disease management as well.”

Both patients have made a full recovery and have now been discharged. From the ambulance service to the ward care, this demonstrates how important each part plays in the patients’ journey and how the synergy has resulted in the successful resuscitation of two young patients from the community we serve.

Supporting our stroke patients Suffering a stroke can be lifechanging and frightening experience for many people. It can also cause to long-term effects on memory, concentration, decision making or mood. With over 75 per cent of stroke survivors living with a disability, these challenges require support from colleagues equipped with knowledge and skills on acute management and rehabilitation.

Our new and innovative team of stroke outreach nurses do exactly this; work together with patients and their families to provide support, alleviate anxieties and help manage these conditions upon discharge from our hospitals. They bridge the gap which naturally comes from discharge from a high-intensity, specialist environment to the community.

The team formed at the end of 2021 and are based on the stroke unit (Priory 4 ward) at Sandwell Hospital. There are currently three stroke outreach nurses in post, Diana Comahig, Rachel Hashim and Nisha Johnson, supported

by Lorena Chua, Stroke Coordinator.

The main goal is to identify ways to

in the community. The benefits for the presence of stroke specialists in the community will translate to improvement in education and primary prevention for friends and family of existing patients.”

The stroke outreach team improve and manage circumstances for those stroke patients needing support after hospital discharge, particularly as the pandemic has brought significant changes in post-acute and primary care.

Armed with experience in acute stroke and rehabilitation, the team aim to provide a consistent, flexible and needs-led approach to their work. Speaking to Lorena Chua, Stroke Coordinator, she told Heartbeat: “A big part of our role is to reassure stroke patients that they are not alone following discharge and to provide support and assistance tailored to their individual needs.

“As we are seeing increasing number of strokes, we are hoping that the team will expand to accommodate the clinical need for a robust, specialist service that outreaches

Part of this work will see integration between inpatient and community rehabilitation teams as well as other NHS social care providers, active signposting and referral to appropriate services for ongoing stroke support and regular follow-ups for patients who have been discharged.

Lorena continued: “We hope to make a positive difference to those who have suffered a stroke and we seek to promote and aid recovery. We are there help manage the condition and reduce risk factors. The service acts as a hugely beneficial resource to stroke sufferers and their families with access to specialist advice and support. We aim to reach out to these individuals within 72 hours of discharge, and again in six weeks and six months.”

If you would like to contact the team, email: swbh.stroke-outreach-nurse@ nhs.net

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Heath Street Health Centre gets Good CQC rating PRIMARY CARE, COMMUNITIES AND THERAPIES The primary care team at Heath Street Health Centre were pleased this month to receive a ‘Good’ rating over all measures based on their recent CQC inspection. The practice serves a population of over 6000 patients and is located within the 10 per cent of most deprived neighbourhoods within the country.

The health centre is led by GP Dr Imran Zaman.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth, Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care said that the practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm, and there were clearly defined and embedded systems, processes and practices in place to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.

Also, that staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care, support and treatment, and there was clinical oversight and effective systems for quality improvement. Heath Street colleagues were especially pleased that inspectors recognised that patients were dealt with kindness and respect and were involved in decisions about their care.

Whilst the practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, GP and clinical lead for the practice, Dr Imran Zaman was pivotal in setting up a ‘hot site’ for patients with suspected COVID-19. He explained: “The Primary

Dr Imran Zaman, GP Care Assessment Centre, was developed and mobilised rapidly to provide gold standard clinical care to manage patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 in a safe, effective, innovative and responsive primary care setting. This enabled us to protect and ensure sustainability of our local primary care practices.”

The assessment centre took only nine days to mobilise and had four main objectives to provide excellent patient care, improve resilience, increase capacity, and maximise resources. An IT platform was established to integrate differing clinical systems across more than 40 practices, facilitating direct booking, contemporaneous record entry and communication with the home practice in real time. Also incorporated were video and

messaging technology to provide enhanced patient experience and minimise face-toface contact time on site.

Dr Zaman was also recently approached by a local primary school to give pupils advice on how to make healthier choices and improve their wellbeing, whilst inspiring them to consider careers in health and become the clinicians of the future. Emma Walker Deputy Principal of Oasis Academy Foundry said: “We are trying to introduce the children to a wider range of careers, and of particular interest is health, so we’re delighted Dr Zaman and his colleague Dottie Tipton (Primary Care Liaison Manager) joined us today for a walk and talk. We’re hoping this is the first in a series of similar events.”

14 new roles up for grabs A virtual event showcasing our nutrition and dietetics service was held to entice new recruits into 14 new roles within the team. The recruitment event, held in January, shared information with candidates about how the service is expanding.

They were told of an £800,000 investment into the service which will lead to more specialised treatment for our patients and support an increased focus around nutrition-based care pathways in the hospital and community environment.

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Ben Biffin, Professional Lead Nutrition and Dietetics, said: “Feedback for the event has been positive. People found the event well constructed and colleagues said they felt very proud of the service and the new opportunities. I was pleased with how it went and potential candidates have contacted us afterwards to say how they’d enjoyed it. Some of the job roles are still being advertised.”

The jobs range from Band 4 to Band 7 and included Specialist Critical Care Rehabilitation and Surgical Dietitian, Catering and Medicines Management Dietitian, and Nutrition and Hydration Support Worker.

Videos of various members of the team were produced to demonstrate how the team worked and the benefits of joining the service, whilst those joining also heard from Ben, Tammy Davies, Group Director of Primary Care, Community and Therapies and Sarah Oley, iBeds Directorate Lead.

Ben added: “The investment we are seeing within the service shows fantastic recognition by the Trust of the value of good nutrition and hydration in promoting dignity, independence and quality of life for our patients.”

District nurses adapt safety huddles for the community setting While safety huddles are primarily implemented in inpatient areas at many healthcare providers, at SWB we are in the process of rolling out safety huddles throughout the whole patient journey, to provide safety at an enhanced level to all our patients.

The seven district nurse teams started implementing daily safety huddles in the summer of 2021. The concept of multidisciplinary team meetings held at a predictable time was a bit of a challenge for the teams who had to navigate through a safety huddles redesign journey, to ensure the safety huddles are fit for purpose in the community.

Helen Benwell, Team Leader (blue team based at Smethwick), explained: “Logistics was our very first hurdle. We operate from 8am to 8pm, with a team of up to 12 members carrying out home visits across the community.

After trialling different times of the day, we all agreed that it is best to attach the safety huddle to the daily handover at 1pm, via Teams.”

Emily Hobbs, Clinical Lead added: “There is a real momentum for the safety huddles, our teams have adapted to it very well and use the opportunity to discuss general safety issues

effectively which complements the handover very well.”

District nurse yellow team based at Yew Tree host their safety huddles face to face at 2pm also as part of the daily handover. Team Leader, Zeena Tudor told us it has been quite a journey for the teams to finalise the daily general safety focuses.

She said: “It is always our daily routine to highlight any patient safety concerns therefore, we are trying to use safety huddles to streamline and discuss concerns and issues collectively which provides a ‘debrief’ function, helps improve the flow of the day significantly.”

Lone working, family home environment, ongoing safeguarding and senior reviews are also part of the daily safety huddles to ensure staff safety. Trish Collins, Clinical Lead from yellow team further added: “The safety huddle is also a great platform to ‘prompt’ each other, for example, are you regularly doing your LAMP tests?”

Trish, Emily, Zeena and Helen all find safety huddles to be an open and transparent forum to discuss issues that each team member might have and to provide support to each other in a timely manner which, is incredibly important as team members are primarily lone working.

“The pandemic has increased the complexity

PRIMARY CARE, COMMUNITIES AND THERAPIES of some of our home visits,” said Andrew Churm, District Nurse Matron. “Safety huddles have been a great supportive mechanism to provide additional support to all our team members, especially to our new members.

“It has been great to see our team leaders implement the safety huddles into their daily handovers. By doing this they have been able to collect vital data and identify themes that can be taken into their monthly Band 7 forum. This acts as a springboard which accelerates the development and implementation of quality and safety initiatives that will have a direct impact and benefit for the people that we serve.”

The district nurse teams are currently working with the performance and insight team on the development of their safety indicators which will be available on the safety huddles dashboard on Connect shortly. They are already discussing how to utilise the data available on this easy-access dashboard to further improve on the right care, right time, right place to their service users.

District Nursing Clinical Leads Trish Collins and Emily Hobbs

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Reflections of the pandemic from clinical neurophysiology assisted patients with video calling relatives.

IMAGING Throughout the pandemic, we have seen countless ways teams have changed how they work in response to the pressures placed on them by COVID-19. This month, we caught up with the clinical neurophysiology team about their reflections.

Sally Walters, Lead Clinical Scientist, told us: “Neurophysiology is a diagnostic service investigating the central and peripheral nervous systems. We provide our services to SWB, other trusts across the region and have an open access service to CCGs in the area.

“At the start of the pandemic, our services were closed to routine outpatients, but we continued to see inpatients and urgent outpatients often to diagnose or rule out epilepsy in paediatrics. Most of the admin team and some of the clinical team worked in ward areas. They worked as ward clerks or

“Only six weeks from the start of the pandemic, our outpatient appointments resumed after we prioritised referrals for clinical urgency. We were the first outpatient service to reopen initially in the Birmingham Treatment Centre but shortly after the main department reopened as well.”

One of the main changes the team adapted to was working over seven days. Sally explained: “We started by working over seven days to ease the daily demand in the first few weeks. However, neurophysiology at SWB, compared to other services nationally, benefits from having a large open plan reception and multiple clinic rooms. It meant that our capacity was not affected too much as social distancing is not a challenge. Another change we have noticed is the increasing number of referrals for patients with neurological symptoms post-COVID or post-vaccination.”

Focusing on some of the positives, Sally remarked: “Our working environment has helped as its large and open plan; it allowed us to facilitate social distancing and prevent any additional loss of capacity, which was

affected by the time spent cleaning between patients”.

Sally added: “In 2021, we had two clinical physiologists complete their professional exams and another two students completed their degrees, which has strengthened the team and helped reduce the waiting list. The path to recovering our backlog of referrals has not been straightforward and had its ups and downs, but since November 2021, we have been quite consistently meeting the six-week diagnostic target for the majority of patients and test types.

That is a positive step forward for us as a team and something only made possible by everyone’s continued hard work and dedication.

“We have also had a high uptake of colleagues having the vaccine that has protected patients, each other and our families. Despite some people getting COVID-19, no one passed it onto other team members. Everyone pulled together during difficult times, especially during the waves, and with the impact of staff sickness.”

Sally Walters, Lead Clinical Scientist and Professional Clinical Service Manager, Lynn Haynes, Senior Administrator and Rachael Falkner Senior Clinical Scientist

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Something old, something new in lung imaging IMAGING the lungs via the blood. The ‘dye’ emits gamma radiation which is used to produce images of the blood flow to the lungs. The patient is also asked to inhale a gas called krypton, which also emits gamma radiation, and is used to produce images that show the air flow to the lungs. A gamma camera device rotates slowly around the patient, collecting both types of gamma radiation simultaneously to produce these images.

The images are compared by a consultant in nuclear medicine to decide whether there is a PE present. A PE obstructs blood flow in lung segments in the images, but the gas flow is normal.

The krypton gas is provided by a generator, which are actually manufactured here in Birmingham by this Trust in partnership with the University of Birmingham. These krypton gas generators are sold to numerous hospitals in across the UK. The krypton service has been running for over 40 years. It is the only national service for this in the UK!

The MC40 Cyclotron at the University of Birmingham which produces the raw material for Krypton generators that are manufactured and sold by SWB to other hospitals in the UK In this edition of Heartbeat, Dr Bahadar Bhatia, Medical Physicist and Matthew Elms, Krypton Production Manager and Nuclear Medicine Technologist provide an overview of our current use of artificial intelligence (AI) and krypton gas in lung imaging.

AI is a set of computer instructions which makes sense of a variety of information provided to it. It is becoming wide-spread in areas such as autonomous vehicles, managing preferences in online retail, social media, speech recognition in banking, image recognition in security monitoring, and in insurance services.

In healthcare, AI technology supports clinicians who deal with large volumes and high throughput of data. This applies to medical imaging, where AI is ‘trained’ to detect abnormalities from patterns in the images from normal variations.

The use of AI is now being trialled in assisting our radiologists with detecting lung abnormalities in CT scans.

In our radiology department, we have a research trial with IBM in progress which

assesses our findings for CT chest images after they have been reported, and flags any findings for further review. This includes a number of clinical conditions, one of which is pulmonary embolism (PE).

PE occurs when a blood clot develops in the body (typically the leg) and travels to a lung artery where it suddenly blocks blood flow to the lungs. This can cause shortness of breath, reduced oxygen saturation as well as chest pain. The condition is potentially life threatening, and requires prompt treatment.

Our new research work improves the performance of the AI algorithms in detecting these blood clots in the CT scans of the lungs.

Whilst CT imaging of the lungs assists with diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism, nuclear medicine imaging is often indicated in patients who are not suitable for CT imaging The nuclear medicine technique produces high quality 3D functional images of the air flow and blood perfusion of the lungs simultaneously.

The technique involves the patient being injected with a ‘dye’ which travels only to

The university produce the raw material for the krypton generator in a particle accelerator known as a cyclotron.

This is passed to one of our specialist nuclear medicine technicians who are trained to take the highly radioactive raw material and produce the krypton generator. These are collected by the courier and despatched overnight for delivery to hospitals from the South coast of England into Wales and up to Scotland. The Krypton Service has three technologists, who supply to up to 25 different hospitals on a daily basis.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the team produced around 1800 generators, which they estimate helped over 5,000 patients in having their diagnostic VQ scan. It is a source of pride that our team are having an impact on patients across the whole country, with a whole team behind them including radiopharmacy providing quality control, the physics team providing physics support and admin staff keeping the whole operation running smoothly.

Both nuclear medicine imaging of the lungs and AI are invaluable tools, showing how we started with something old and are now combining this with our newest developments within Imaging.

This should lead to a consistently very high standard of detection of PE for all our patients.

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Val Taylor

Mike Hallisey

Associate Non-Executive Director

Associate Non-Executive Director

Having 15 years leadership experience in organisational development, HR, governance and policy development at director level, Val currently is working as a director of corporate services where she is advising on HR response functions. She also leads on and co-ordinates on all activities to do with governance within the organisation. She has been successful in securing an ‘investing in people’ kite mark.

Val is also a governor at a local academy trust school that was placed in special measures. She was appointed to this position to support the leadership team to improve the school levels of attainment. Her experience in leadership and organisational change management was a key requirement to progress the performance of the school. Since being in this post Val has seen a significant rise in the school’s attainment levels across the board.

Val also sits on a board for the Voluntary Sector Health and Social Care Board for an organisation that provides intermediate and respite services to those living in the community requiring support with mental health conditions. The work is in partnership with SWBHT Raid Team and Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust, enabling them to provide much needed services to individuals.

Mike began his career in 1992 where he held the position of a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham. In 1996 he gained his consultants position for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in surgical oncology where he focused on breast and more recently upper gastrointestinal cancers. He helped support the development of a regional service in angiosarcoma as well still supporting the breast services clinically.

He has been a member of several committees and was a member and the president of the British Association of Surgical Oncology and served as the chair of the Cancer Service Committee for the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He has supported the Trial Management Committee and has been involved with two major cancer trials.

Throughout his career, Mike, has been actively involved in medical education and was once a member of the Deanery Committee overseeing the training of house officers now known as foundation trainees. In addition to this he has worked with colleagues to validate a cognitive stimulation which is used as a tool for trainee surgeons.

Rachel Hardy

Jo-Anne Wass

Non-Executive Director

Associate Non-Executive Director

Rachel has over 35 years’ experience within the NHS where she has held senior positions within the organisation. She has board level experience leading strategic change, financial and change management in complex health businesses at an organisational, regional, and national level. She worked on a commissioning system for one of four regions in NHS England for six years. Prior to that Rachel worked across the Birmingham and Solihull Health System, developing a financial approach to accelerating clinical strategy with seven health providers, two local authorities and GPs across the city.

In 2019 she was successful in developing a business specialising in developing financial strategy in complex systems, development and coaching for senior directors individually and in teams, teaching and developing academic and research work with the HFMA. The values learnt whilst working for the NHS are now adopted in her business, her passion which has driven her career is improving health for people.

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Mike currently works for University Hospitals Birmingham holding the position of medical director, director of education and consultant in general surgery.

Jo-Anne is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CPID) and holds a post-graduate qualification in HR and public affairs. She has over 26 years within the NHS and worked for NHS England as a national director for human resources and organisational development. Presently she is working for the University of Leeds as director of health partnerships and has held this position for the past seven years.

Jo-Anne has led on projects to join the forces of the University of Leeds and the local NHS in reaching out to deprived communities and raising aspiration. In her role for the Leeds Academic Health Partnership, she has led the training and development of healthcare workers within the city of Leeds. Her focus is to build, maintain and develop relationships with a wide range of health and care partners. She has worked closely with the NHS with whom collaborate on the education of the current and future NHS workforce as well as research and development projects.

Wave goodbye to…

Rasekhuta Phillistus Velempini (Nee Lephalala) known to most as Phil, is retiring following a distinguished career in children’s nursing.

Born and educated in South Africa during the Apartheid era, Phil was among many Black South Africans in 1994 to take part in the first ever general elections in which citizens of all races were allowed to vote.

“I grew up living with my maternal grandparents in rural South Africa as a young carer but from a young age I was always caring and compassionate and this inspired me to follow my passion leading to my training as a general nurse, midwife,psychiatric nurse and later a children’s nurse”, said Phil, Matron – Neonatal Unit.

“My first post qualification job was in Maternity as a midwife for a year. I got great satisfaction working with women and their families during moments of profound transition and change in their life and was able to assist in the process.”

2021 Phil’s paediatric nursing journey started in 1993

in South Africa. In 2002 she moved to the UK. For five years Phil worked in the private sector of nursing helping both adults and children post-surgery. It was in 2007 she joined the NHS and our Trust as a paediatric ward manager on

Rasekhuta Phillistus Velempini

Lyndon ground and then later on Lyndon 1.

In 2012, Phil became acting matron in paediatrics and three years later in 2015 Matron on the Neonatal Unit. When asked about working in the neonatal unit, she said: “Since 2015 the neonatal unit has been my second home and a family to me. We have dealt with some challenging situations, but I am very proud of our achievements. Some of the challenges were staffing levels which we managed to increase in line with national standards to improve the care of our neonates.

“Between 2020 and 2021, the neonatal community outreach (NCOT) service was developed and successfully launched at the start of this year which makes me feel I’m leaving the service with a sense of satisfaction for a job well done.”

During her time in neonates, Phil also worked very closely with maternity colleagues where she was on the on-call rota for maternity and neonatal areas supporting nurses and midwives in decision making out of hours.

She added: “Children’s nursing is an incredibly rewarding career where I have had the opportunity to not only take care of a child but also to provide care and guidance for the entire family which has been a true honour.

Sister Nurse

“I would like to thank everyone in neonatal, paediatrics, maternity and SWB as a whole, who have supported me during my time here. I wish them well and a safe move to the new hospital, MMUH (Midland Metropolitan University Hospital).”

Phil has been an invaluable asset to the Trust since joining and will be missed by many of her colleagues. Sonia Dhesi, Neonatal Sister is just one of those colleagues who has had the pleasure of working with Phil.

Sonia said: “Phil is a very dedicated and supportive matron. She works incredibly hard to ensure only the highest standard of care is being provided to our sick babies and their families.”

Carmen Nuttall, Neonatal Community Outreach Team Leader echoes these thoughts and said: “Phil has always shown great passion about neonates and cares about the families we look after which is fundamental in this type of role.

She has also supported colleagues through implementation of the new service, empowering families to care for their babies at home whilst requiring neonatal care.”

Thank you, Phil, for your service – happy retirement!

Phil Velempini: An illustrious career in nursing

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Letters, of less than 200 words please, can be sent to the Communications Department,

Trust Headquarters, Sandwell Hospital or by email to swb–tr.SWBH–GM–Heartbeat@nhs.net

YOUR RIGHT TO BE HEARD How can the wait for long COVID clinics be so long?

Dear Heartbeat, I wonder if you can shed some light on a service our Trust are providing.

Having contracted COVID-19 back in October 2021 and now struggling with long covid on week 19! I have been seen by occupational health, seen by a consultant, and fought hard with GP to get the referral, which was requested by a hospital consultant, to be told my first appointment is in three months time. How is this going to benefit me, give me support and guidance and allow me to do my job 100%? I am shocked at this wait time for any of our staff or patients to be seen in a long COVID clinic. How can it be acceptable to keep an individual waiting seven months since diagnosis for their first appointment to deal with long-COVID? Staff wellbeing is not only about the massages, meditation, or confidential chats, but some of us also have medical issues linked to the last two years. It is nice to know staff wellbeing is at the heart of the Trust, let’s hope I’m not on my knees by May.

Dear colleague, I’m sorry to hear that you are suffering with long COVID symptoms and that it has been a challenge to get a referral into the community long COVID service and that you now have a long wait. We have received additional funding which is allowing further recruitment to the service of suitably qualified staff. This will allow an increase in capacity to increase the number of days a week the service can run (increase to six days a week) and thus reduce the wait patients may experience for an initial assessment and advice/treatment offered.

Staff wellbeing is very important to the Trust and I hope that you have also been able to access those wellbeing services offered by the Trust as well as specific online resources for long COVID to support yourself in the meantime, please see this link: https://www. yourcovidrecovery.nhs.uk/ Kind regards, David Carruthers Medical Director

Kind regards, Anon

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Richard talks about: A clear strategy for the next five years: Our Patients, People and Population Richard Beeken, Chief Executive

RICHARD'S LAST WORD Our Trust strategy has been approved by the Board this month which is both an end and a beginning. It is the end of the process of development and shaping that hundreds of you have taken part it, and it is the beginning of putting our new strategy into place and delivering on our new objectives.

We knew that we needed to reset our Trust strategy this year as the Trust’s 2020 vision, the last Trust-wide strategy had reached its end date and our core objectives have been impacted by the experiences of living through and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have three strategic objectives:

For our population, we will focus on seamless care and health and wealth. To 1. Our Patients – To be good or deliver seamless care we will build up our outstanding at everything we do partnerships across Sandwell to provide care I have really enjoyed talking to so many that is more joined up with primary and 2. Our People – To cultivate and sustain of you about our strategy and hearing community services. We will also continue happy, productive and engaged staff your ideas and suggestions. Thank you to collaborate with organisations in the for the part you have played, either 3. Our Population – To work seamlessly Black Country to improve clinical outcomes, through your team discussions as part of with our partners to improve lives ensure that we can meet patients’ needs. our Team Talk briefing system, one of the But healthcare services are just one element For our patients, we want to deliver better Q&A sessions I have held or through the of health and wellbeing. Living and working care and we are commencing a new care leader’s workshops that took place during conditions have a greater impact so we will November. All of your feedback has enabled improvement programme across the Trust commit to using our resources to positively – The Fundamentals of Care – that will us to move forward with a clear direction. impact our community and its economy. bring together clinicians and operational We have retained the Trust’s previous vision colleagues. The programme includes: quality Our green plan will tackle our impact on to be the most integrated health care the environment as part of our progress and safety; shared patient involvement provider. This goal is built around what towards being net zero carbon by 2040. and insight; shared leadership and matters to patients and we aspire to provide governance, a safe and skilled workforce; This strategy will now underpin everything truly joined up, seamless care, with patients education, development and growth; and, a we do. We will use it to prioritise and help at the centre. compassionate community. us to make decisions. Over the next few We have defined our purpose too – to weeks I would like everyone within the Trust We know that great care starts with great improve life chances and health outcomes. to spend some time individually and in your people. Our staff survey results tell us that teams, understanding your contribution we must do better at creating a workplace Our five year strategy is set in the to our strategy and also prioritising your where people can thrive. Over the next context of: work so that we are all pointing in the same five years we will improve staff experience • Needing to complete, open and direction. All of us should be able to explain to be in the to 25 per cent of NHS Trusts successfully run services from the how our role and our work contributes to by addressing: culture; technology; new Midland Metropolitan our new “three Ps”. physical environment; and learning and University Hospital Sandwell and development.

West Birmingham Our strategy will continue to evolve. It will • Living with and beyond the impact NHS Trust March 2022 include our new Trust values that we are of COVID-19 including restoration beginning to seek your views on. These and recovery of our workforce and values will be the key principles to guide our clinical services decisions, our behaviours, our recruitment • The population we serve having and our appraisal programme. It will also be worsening health and inequalities underpinned by our enabling plans such as • Our CQC rating of “requires digital and financial. improvement” and staff / patient I am excited by our strategy and I hope satisfaction being in the bottom 25 you are too. It will enable us to be clear per cent of other NHS Trusts about what we aim to achieve. It will also • The national direction of integration help us to stop doing things that are not with other organisations and a contributing to our objectives which will system rather than organisational free us up to do the things that really approach matter.

• Making the most of the resources we have. where everyone matters swbh.nhs.uk

Welcome to SWB TeamTalk

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Bear hugs on hand YOUR TRUST CHARITY

campaign to Your Trust Charity. The national initiative is funded through the donations of Freemasons, their families and supporters of the programme.

The bears are used to calm children down, reward them for being brave or to demonstrate procedures. Often the bears distract children so nurses and doctors can get their jobs done quickly and efficiently.

Many Freemasons also volunteer hundreds of hours each year to manage the scheme, delivering bears to hospitals and campaigning to raise funds and increase awareness through events and talks.

 @SWBHCharity To donate to the Your Trust Charity text “SWBH16 £5” to 70070 If you go down to the wards today, you could be in for a big fluffy surprise.

A local Masonic lodge is set to make hospital journeys a little better for young children thanks to a donation of extremely cuddly bears.

The Walton Walker and Sandwell Lodge 3847 has donated the colourful toys as part of the Teddies for Loving Care (TLC)

The first batch of individually sealed bears will be finding their way into the small paws of our youngest patients to make their journey a little bit brighter.

Heartbeat readers can also expect further teddy stories, as a ‘Big Ted’ from TLC is due to be joining them for a possible charity draw and other adventures.

Amanda Winwood, Fundraising Manager for Your Trust Charity, received the cuddly

Jim Cairns and Amanda Winwood toys from Jim Cairns from the Sandwell Lodge along with bear pin badges.

She commented: “It’s a lovely gesture and one sure to raise a smile for little ones who have visited our hospitals. Your Trust Charity is about enhancing the experience of our patients and their families and these bears will definitely make a difference. We look forward to delivering these individually-wrapped bears into the paws of their new owners as soon as we’re able.”

Jim added: “It was good to meet with Amanda and hand over the first consignment of bears. We will be working with the charity to find out the most efficient way to organise donations going forward.”

Project Linus - weaving happiness one blanket at a time Being in hospital can be a daunting prospect, especially for our youngest patients. But having some simple home comforts around you can make a difference, as Project Linus UK knows.

Recently they made a kind donation of their lovingly handcrafted blankets to Your Trust Charity.

It was Christmas Eve, 1995, when Project Linus came to life in the USA. Five years later, Project Linus UK was formed. Anne Salisbury-Jones began a sewing group making quilts for the local children’s ward.

Volunteers across the country now donate their time and skills to create beautiful homemade patchwork quilts and knitted blankets. It’s their way of supporting their local communities and helping young children, like those in our care at SWB.

Interestingly, ‘Project Linus’ takes its name from the security blanket toting character ‘Linus’ from the Peanuts comic strip. The late Charles Schultz, the creator, allowed the same name to be used for the quilts.

quilts. A variety of sizes and colours were distributed by the play team for babies, children, and teenagers to provide warmth, comfort, and security during their time in hospital.

Amanda Winwood, Fundraising Manager, told us: “We were incredibly grateful to receive the donation of blankets - they are like a much-needed hug in a quilt for our young patients. These quilts will make a big difference for the young people look after.

It’s a unique way to show that we care, and there’s nothing better than being snuggled up in a quilt.”

Amanda added: “Support like this from our local communities is vital. We are so lucky to have so many talented people in our community who care and want to make a difference for our patients. The quilts are a lovely idea and provide much needed comfort to these children at a difficult time for them.”

The leads for our local Project Linus UK group are Vivienne and Kim. They reached out to SWB in 2021 and supplied some of our younger patients with beautiful new

To find out more about Project Linus UK, visit www.projectlinusuk.org.uk or if you want to be involved with the local group you can contact Vivienne or Kim on wwquilts56@gmail.com.

February 2022 staff lottery results 1st £171.25

2nd £102.75

3rd £68.50

Anon

Emma Morris

Anon

Don’t forget that Your Trust Charity lottery costs just £1 a month and anyone who works for the Trust can join. Payment is deducted from your wages each month. To take part email amanda.winwood@nhs.net.