Welcome to the March edition of Heartbeat.
This month, we're focusing on our people. Pages 14–16 outline our People Plan, launching in April, and we've included a case in which we got it wrong, and how we put in right, on pages 12–13.
We're also celebrating all that our people do and achieve, including Christina Ronayne winning the 2022 Shiela Lorimer award.
You can read about Governance Support Admin Officer Moeen's recent humanitarian trip to Turkey on page five, and learn more about Ramadan from Muslim chaplain Erum on page six. Enjoy J
Communications Team
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Communications Department Ground Floor, Trinity House Sandwell Hospital
Published by Communications Team Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
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Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
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From the first day I set foot in this Trust as your Chairman I was overwhelmed by how welcoming everyone was. The friendliness and willingness to support was second to none.
What continues to baffle me is why our staff survey results do not reflect this feeling of friendliness. Don’t get me wrong: I am very aware of my privilege and understand that this would give me a completely different experience to someone else.
At the Annual General Meeting last year, the majority of questions posed to the Board were about racism within the organisation. Sadly, the reality is that not everyone who works here has a good experience and some of our colleagues feel discriminated against. This feeling comes into sharp focus around our processes: for example, unfairness when it comes to personal development opportunities or the fact that non-white colleagues are more likely to face disciplinary action or even dismissal compared to their white counterparts.
The latest staff survey results lay it out bluntly. Of those who responded, 59.6 per cent said they have experienced discrimination based on their ethnic background and 10 per cent said they experienced discrimination based on religion.
This is not the type of workplace that we want SWB to be. Everyone should come to work and be able to fulfil their full potential, with every opportunity to contribute to making this a great place to work.
We have the privilege of serving a diverse population and this should be celebrated. The most successful organisations always embrace difference: not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it gives them a real competitive edge. Diversity improves decision making and experience, that is a fact. This is exactly what we should be leading the way on at SWB. Each one of us has a different lived experience and only when we are able to share these differences can we be successful at attracting the right talent and ensuring we deliver the high level of care for our patients.
I’m pleased that Chief People Officer Frieza Mahmood has now launched the People Plan, which has a central focus on fairness. Through the lens of a number of high priority equality, diversity and inclusion actions, this will help us tackle these issues head on.
I am further delighted that a few months ago, we introduced the cultural ambassador role into the disciplinary processes as part of our commitment to eradicate discrimination and ensure all colleagues are treated with fairness, dignity and respect.
At the heart of all this are our values.
Ambition – I recently visited the Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Centre and was delighted to meet such a dedicated team who are ambitious for their patients by providing a specialist and ground-breaking service to our population. In February last year we became the first Trust in the region to administer the crizanlizumab drug to sickle cell patients – a new treatment that reduces chronic pain and dramatically improves the quality of life for patients.
Respect – The period of Ramadan has started and will see many Muslim colleagues participate in a daily period of fasting. It is also a time of great personal reflection, intensity in worship, charity and kindness to others. We must show respect by accommodating religious beliefs and practices during Ramadan.
Compassion – This is a key value underpinning the creation of the Trust’s new Leadership Framework which has been successfully trialled over the last few months on a pilot basis and will be launched in April. All leaders and managers in the organisation will go through this programme which will eventually be rolled out to all colleagues. This is a part of our commitment to showing how we can all put our empathy into action on a regular and ongoing basis.
From page 14 there is further information about the new People Plan, what this means for you, how we can learn from mistakes and support for you on raising a concern at work. Please let us know when things are not going well for you.
White colleagues, I ask for your support in being an ally, helping us to tackle racism by speaking up and challenging it when you see it. It's very important to our Trust to be proactively anti-racist. This also means taking time out of your day to listen, find out the lived experiences of our non-white colleagues and ask what you can do to support them.
The Board are absolutely committed to ensure everyone in our organisation feels listened to. We regularly receive stories from staff and patients which show us this is an important area we need to continue to develop in achieving our ambitions, in partnership with you all.
list generator developed in Visual Basic on Excel using length of Stay to assign patients to respective lists. Data showed the introduction of the automated list generator significantly reduced the time taken to generate lists and improved the attitudes of doctors.
Awarding the grand prize, judges commented, “This poster highlights a well conducted audit and is overall a very good project that is well explained with supporting evidence on improvement.”
We are thrilled to announce the winners of the annual welearn Quality Improvement Poster Contest. This year's contest marked the 5th anniversary of the event and judges were impressed by the incredible entries we received from colleagues across the organisation.
Despite the post-pandemic challenges and ongoing service pressures, colleagues continued to shine, showcasing their unwavering commitment to improving patient care and outcomes. The quality improvement projects that were presented were innovative, creative, and impactful, demonstrating the incredible potential for change that can be achieved through teamwork and dedication.
We received 77 entries across a wide range of categories, covering topics such as patient safety, patient experience, and clinical outcome improvements. The entries were evaluated by a panel of judges, who had the challenging task of selecting the winners from among such a fantastic selection of projects.
After much deliberation, the winner of the staff voted for category – The People’s Choice Award - was Matron Jo Thomas for her poster entitled "Nursing is like a game of CHESS … changing with every move". The poster highlighted a programme of improvement on the elderly care wards which enabled colleagues to highlight vulnerable and acutely unwell patients and move staff to support with the aim of being able to call ‘Checkmate’ when all patients were well looked after and there were no safety concerns.
The judges were impressed by the department’s ability to evidence real change, commenting “This is an excellent programme with transferability; great implementation of an improvement programme that evidences a real change in practice”. Jo won £500.
Highly commended entries were also announced with each winning a £500 prize.
With the first highly commended poster being awarded to Maria Charalambides, Jonathan Dale, Mike Blaber and Anna Lock for their poster entitled “QIP: Improving the identification and management of patients reaching the end of life in General Surgery (NACEL Audit)”. This poster highlighted a programme of quality improvement focussed on embedding the use of the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicator Tool (SPICT), Supportive Care Plans (SCP), documenting preferred place of death and DNACPR and treatment escalation plans.
The second highly commended award was presented to the Learning from Deaths Committee for their poster entitled, “‘SHMI’ing On Up! - Improving Our Summary Hospitallevel Mortality Indicator Score”. This poster highlighted a number of workstreams focussed on improving and decreasing our Trust mortality indices including digital fellows working with clinical coding teams to review mortality coding, introduction of admission proforma at Leasowes and a mortality documentation education programme for junior doctors.
Finally, the overall winner as voted for by the judges and the recipient of the £5000 prize fund was announced as ‘QIP: AMU Patient List Generation. From Junior Scribe to Junior Doctor’ by Zahra Ravat, Amil Sinha, Alistair Jellinek and Nigel Page from the department of acute internal medicine. This poster highlighted the introduction of an automated patient
Chief Governance Officer, Kam Dhami said, “The success of this year's competition is not just limited to the winners. We were delighted to see so many colleagues taking part, submitting their quality improvement projects and sharing their experiences and insights. This competition is an essential platform for engaging both clinical and non-clinical staff in quality improvement efforts, and we believe it is a vital part of our organisation's commitment to innovation and continuous improvement.
“Well done to all of the teams who participated in the competition. Your dedication and commitment to improving patient care is truly inspiring, and we're proud to work alongside such incredible colleagues.
“The welearn Quality Improvement Poster Competition is an opportunity to celebrate the fantastic work that is being done across our organisation, but it's also an opportunity to learn from one another and share best practices. By coming together and sharing our experiences, we can create a culture of innovation and continuous improvement that benefits our patients, our people, and the wider population.”
All entries remain on display at the Education Centres at Sandwell Hospital and the Post Graduate Centre at City Hospital, and on Connect.
including Claire Chambers, Socorro Rosaupan, Keeley Hopcraft, Tracy Ranford, Odeena Gregory, Cheryl Shepherd and Kerry Winter.
Christina Ronayne, Lead Professional Development Nurse in acute medicine, has been recognised for her nursing clinical excellence by winning the 2022 Shiela Lorimer award.
The awards ceremony was hosted our ambulatory medical assessment area at City Hospital a little later than usual this year due to pressures across the NHS, however this didn’t take away from the significance of winning such an accolade.
The prestigious award itself was launched to commemorate Shiela Lorimer, who was an acute medicine nurse practitioner and worked for the Trust for over two decades. Shiela was a pioneer in her field as she was the first nurse to successfully implement nurse led discharge which has led to advanced nurses discharging patients our of hours on all medical wards which resulted in a vastly improved patient journey and experience.
Congratulating Christina on her award, Claire Obiakor, Senior Sister in Acute Medicine said, “Christina joins an illustrious group of winners back dating to 2015
“She is truly deserving of this special award and I’m certain everybody across the Trust will agree with me on this.”
Dr Sarbjit Clare, Deputy Medical Director and Consultant Physician in acute medicine echoes these thoughts and said: “The Shiela Lorimer award is awarded every year in memory of Shiela who was passionate about teaching and education and was one of the first people to set up nurse led discharge in the UK.
“Christina was unanimously voted by both medical and nursing teams as her passion to teaching is truly humbling. She is thoughtful, kind and understands everyone learns and acquires knowledge in different ways. Her work on AMU has not only improved the care we provide but created a culture of safety, openness and proactive learning. She inspires all to be the best they can be. We are very lucky to have her.”
Christina joined SWB in 2020 as a band 6 but has recently progressed on to a band 7.
When asked about how she felt about winning the award she said: “I must say I felt stunned but honoured at the same time. I always try to do my best and I firmly believe that education can help patient care.”
The children of a couple who met at the City Hospital maternity ward in the 1950s have donated to SWB to mark the 75th birthday of the NHS..
An array of fascinating artefacts including photos, nursing exercise books and Victorian medical instruments were recently discovered and donated to SWB by siblings James and Liz. These items tell the story of their parents' romance, which began in 1955 when the pair began working together on the maternity ward at City Hospital (then called Dudley Road Hospital). Nearly 70 years on, their children James and Liz came to visit the very same ward.
The artefacts date back to the 1950s and were discovered by James as he sorted through his parents’ effects. His father, Chris Garrett, a brummie, studied medicine at Birmingham Uni in the early 1950s. While carrying out paediatric training at Dudley Road Hospital he met Gwen Goodson, a midwife one year
his senior, whilst observing her deliver a baby. Gwen had left school at 14, training as a nurse at 17 before entering midwifery.
Chris graduated in 1956 and James was born the year after. Gwen gave up midwifery to look after James and younger sister Liz, while Chris was conscripted and posted to Scotland to do his national service in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). He served until his retirement in the early 1990s with the rank of Brigadier. He was also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
James is now looking for a use to which we could put his mother’s nursing exercise books. As part of her midwifery training, she kept notes on all her patients. His dad also had some very old Victorian doctor’s instruments, given to him by his grandfather who had been working in Sydney, Australia. He is also donating these. The donations will be part of an exhibition marking 75 years of the NHS.
She added: “If I have managed to contribute to a culture of safety, to improve, safer patient care then I am delighted. That is what I have strived for every day over my varied career, so to be recognised for that is totally fantastic. I feel at home here at SWB and give my full support to the work of the Trust, for the benefit of the patients.”
supplies they had brought. As well as distributing goods, the group also “Fed thousands, and built tents for families who had nowhere to stay, in the beaming sun.” Moeen’s journey was only possible through the support of his colleagues. Prior to the trip, he spoke with his manager Nayna Patel to ascertain the possibility of him obtaining the necessary leave.
Nayna stated, “It was a really busy time as it was half-term, where I had already approved leave for the team, and we already had staff on days off as we run a seven-day service, 9am-9pm.
"Moeen sent me a text message over the weekend, but didn't assume he could have the days off."
“Having given it some thought, Moeen’s admiration to not only take part in this mission, but also take a risk himself, was just so remarkable. The leave was honoured on this basis.”
Nayna informed the team of this decision, and the response from the rest of the team was integral in maintaining an effective service, working together to make sure the service was able to run efficiently.
“Without the team support, it might not have been possible.”
Moeen returned to work the day after arriving back in the UK. His trip has had a resounding impact on him: “It was a reality check really – I don’t take things for granted any more.”
The recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria affected many of us across the country, as stories and images of the devastation were reported in the media. Whilst some of us donated and raised awareness, one colleague in our Trust chose to step forward and travel to Turkey to assist on the front line of the disaster.
Moeen Khan works as a governance support unit administrator; his role involves customer service, talking to complainants and logging their issues of concern, dealing with calls from solicitors and third party personnel in relation to access to medical records. Around a week after the earthquake hit, he was speaking with family involved with volunteering for Unite 4 Humanity, an international aid and development UK Muslim Charity working to end poverty, illiteracy and disease. His family were due to catch a flight to Turkey to help, and Moeen wanted to join them.
Moeen stated, “Instead of flying, we were told it was more impactful for us to drive over with supplies. We got a convoy together and began fundraising to bring both money and supplies over to Turkey, travelling by land.”
The decision was taken as it was more beneficial for the group to bring essentials, such as hygiene packs, food and tools. All in, they filled six vans and a seven and a half tonne truck, raising about £60,000 through fundraising with friends and family.
Their journey was difficult: Moeen noted that “During the drive across Germany, we found out there had been two more earthquakes, but we kept going – we were on a mission to get there. It was my first time doing something like this and it took three days to drive there.”
Upon arrival in Turkey, the group began working with the charity IHH, a humanitarian relief organisation, to distribute the money and
Ramadan is a month in which Muslims fast and pray. The month begins and ends with the sighting of a new crescent moon. During this month as Muslims we refrain from eating or drinking (fast) from dawn to sunset. We have a pre-dawn meal known as Suhoor which is our final meal each day before the sun rises, and we do not eat or drink again until after sunset, when we have a meal after sunset known as Iftar. Traditionally, we open our fasts by eating dates and drinking water.
Ramadan lasts for approximately 30 days; in this month we believe the gates of hell are closed and the gates to heaven are open. Observing the fast gives us an insight to the life of the poor and less fortunate. Therefore, by fasting, we feel the struggles of the poor and become more merciful. We are also obliged to give 2.5% of what we own every year to charity, known as zakat. Most people like to give their zakat/charity in the month of Ramadan to the most in need.
Ramadan teaches us self-control and self-discipline. It's a time for self-reflection and a time to become closer to Allah (God). During the fasting period we must abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and immoral acts. We increase our worship by carrying out as many good deeds possible and by increasing our prays and reciting our holy book known as the Quran. The end of Ramadan is marked by
celebrating the festival of Eid ul Fitr. The celebration is commenced by dressing up, offering prayer in congregation, exchanging gifts and sharing special meals family, friends and loved ones.
In our prayer rooms, on each site, you will find dates and water to break your fast. For our colleagues who are not fasting, please be aware
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do for a living, we are all potentially at risk of getting ill or having an accident. Whilst as an acute NHS organisation we are well versed in caring for and treating our patients, sometimes we need to be aware that our patients may bring with them additional considerations to protect confidentiality, which is why we need to have a VIP policy for celebrity patients.
Colleagues should be aware of this policy –
hosted on Connect (alternatively, search Connect policies): https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/ wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Policy-for-theManagement-of-VIP-and-Celebrity-Visits. pdf which gives clear advice on what to do if you have to care for a celebrity or VIP.
One of the important principles to note is that VIP patients should be treated the same as any other patient with a similar presentation, and care should be taken to follow standard clinical procedures. This means that they do not take precedence over other patients with more urgent clinical need.
it can be a tiring yet rewarding month. Please talk to chaplaincy or our Muslim Liaison Group if you require any more help.
Chaplaincy at City can be reached on ext.4055 and at Sandwell can be contacted on ext. 3552.
Erum Razaq – Muslim Chaplain
Furthermore, unless treating the patient, colleagues must not approach celebrities on wards, corridors or other areas of the hospital unless advised to do so by the communications team. This includes asking for photographs and autographs. Photographs (even from a distance) must not be taken and posts with mention of the visit must not be shared on social media unless directly approved by the communications team.
If you have any questions about this policy please contact the Head of External Communications, Vanya Rogers, on vanya.rogers@nhs.net.
Patient Led Assessment for Care Environment, otherwise known as PLACE, is an initiative aimed at improving our patients' experience by focusing on their perception of cleaning, food, maintenance, privacy, dignity, equal opportunity for dementia and disability, and more.
But what exactly is PLACE, you might ask? The PLACE initiative is a national requirement of NHS England, and it provides an opportunity for patients to become assessors to help us identify areas for improvement.
We believe that involving patients in the audit process is crucial to improving the overall quality of care we provide. As such, we encourage both clinicians and non-clinicians to participate in the audits, as well as external patient representatives.
Earlier this month Heartbeat spoke to Head of Facilities Aner Marcelo. He said, “Our ultimate goal is to continuously improve our facilities, practices, and lessons learned from the observations made during the audit. We hope that this will lead to a more positive experience
for our patients, and better outcomes for all.
“Recently we held a presentation event to highlight the work of our PLACE audit teams, our aim is to raise the profile of patients as assessors, and to encourage their participation in the audit. We want to hear what they hear, see what they see, and feel what they feel. By doing so, we can respond more effectively to their needs and improve the quality of care we provide.
“But the benefits of hosting this event are not limited to patients alone. Our staff will also benefit from the audit process. By ensuring compliance with the strategy of the 3 PsPatients, People, and Population - we can improve our overall standards and provide better care to our patients. Additionally, our trust will benefit from NHS standard compliance on health and safety and governance.
“However, the most significant benefit of the PLACE programme is for our patients. By listening to their feedback, we can improve the facilities, practices, and overall experience of our patients. This includes enhancing food and cleaning experiences, improving equality, privacy, and
dignity, and ensuring that the fundamental aspects of care are met.”
“Our 2023 strategic plan following our PLACE audits has identified a range of areas we can improve upon including provisions around food and nutrition, accessibility and availability of menu choice and food for children alongside improvements to our built environment such as ensuring our signage is up to date and that all reception areas have hearing loop systems in operation.”
Patient Led Assessment for Care Environment (PLACE) is an essential initiative that ensures we meet the needs of our patients while providing highquality care. We encourage all our staff and external patient representatives to participate in the audit, as your input is invaluable to our success.
Midland Met is the talk of the town and our infection prevention and control (IPC) team is leading the charge, making sure our brand-new hospital gets a clean bill of health meeting all of the latest regulations ensuring it provides the best possible care for our patients. Recently, we had some very important guests from the NHS England IPC team and the NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board visit us. Our Deputy Director of Infection Prevention and Control, David Shakespeare, showed them around and explained how we're making IPC measures a top priority at Midland Met.
David explained: “The visiting team were very impressed with the scale and scope of the works ongoing at Midland Met and were able to see the benefits of improved IPC provision for future patients. The site will have 50 per cent single occupancy rooms for patients, helping prevent the spread of infections.
“The visiting team also saw that some rooms will have specialist ventilation systems known as positive pressure ventilation lobby (PPVL) rooms. These rooms have a small area in which a positive pressure air cushion creates a barrier between the patient in the room and the corridor outside which are used for patients with infectious diseases and prevent the spread to others. These rooms also support immunosuppressed patients providing an added layer of protection preventing airborne diseases from getting into the room.”
David added: “The visiting team also saw another example of our good infection prevention and control provision when visiting the neonatal unit where there is a dedicated decontamination room where incubators can be disassembled and thoroughly cleaned before going back into use again.”
As the director of commissioning and equipping I have been involved in the Midland Met project since its inception in 2006. It’s been a challenging journey but one where we are now able to see the hard work, dedication, and passion for creating a healthcare facility now becoming a reality right before our eyes.
Our vision for Midland Met has always been
to create a state-of-the-art acute hospital on one site, with streamlined local access to elective care and increased opportunities for care delivered at home by our community and primary care teams. The road to achieving this vision has involved much service model and pathway development across primary and secondary care, working with expert clinicians to develop service model business cases, piloting new ways of working, and planning our acute service reconfiguration while taking lessons from other projects.
Now, as we prepare for the opening of Midland Met in 2024, my team and I are working hard to ensure that everything is in place for a smooth transition. We have worked closely with clinical and operational leads to complete the detailed design of spaces and continue to do so in selecting new equipment where required, working closely with our infection prevention and control team on specific construction detail and planning our staff inductions.
One of the most significant milestones
we recently achieved was appointing an expert move partner who will help us relocate smoothly from two hospitals into one acute healthcare facility at Midland Met – no mean feat when you are looking at safely moving large numbers of patients who are acutely unwell. We will be inviting clinical and operational colleagues to work with our move partner over the next six months to plan these service moves. The biggest benefit that Midland Met will bring, in my opinion, is the opportunity for regeneration of the local area. Combined with the first-class healthcare facilities we have developed, it will make our new hospital a true asset to our Trust and the local communities it serves – Midland Met is more than just a hospital.
As we approach the opening of Midland Met, I cannot help but feel excited about the impact it will have on patients' lives and the community. I am proud to have been involved in the project from its initiation through to bringing it to life. It is an example of how teamwork and the power of collaboration can achieve something truly remarkable.
On a sunny Friday morning, religious leaders from our communities came together to pay homage to our brand new spiritual care centre being built within Midland Met.
Led by Rev Mary Causer the leaders embarked on a whistlestop tour, visiting wards and departments and taking a moment in the awe-inspiring winter garden before stopping off at their main attraction: the brand-new spiritual care centre.
Despite being under construction, the leaders were pleased to see the spiritual care centre taking shape. With spaces to meet, pray or simply contemplate all clearly defined, it is starting to feel like it will be a special place for all patients, staff and visitors.
Rev Mary Causer enthused: “We’re here with a group of inter-faith leaders from across our boroughs to see our spiritual care centre, and they are wowed by it. I am wowed by it, the space and the possibilities
of what we can do for our communities and what we can do for them. Using it for our communities, bringing them in and using it creatively.”
Ragih Muflihi, CEO of the Yemeni Community Association, remarked: “I’m visiting the new hospital today, and it’s a wonderful place. My wife is a midwife here at the Trust, my son is training to be a doctor and members of my family work in the healthcare profession. It’s a wonderful place for them to come into.”
Standing on the balcony of the new winter garden, Rev Mike Sermon said: “It’s a fabulous facility, and the views are magnificent from here. I’m privileged to be here and excited that this new facility will serve the communities in this area.”
After a successful visit the religious leaders will continue to work together to ensure our new spiritual care centre is a space for everyone of all faiths and none to enjoy.
“I’m visiting the new hospital today, and it’s a wonderful place. My wife is a midwife here at the Trust, my son is training to be a doctor and members of my family work in the healthcare profession."Inter faith representatives get a sneak peek at our new spiritual care centre Rev Mary Causer accompanied guests as they saw first hand the progress being made in the spiritual care centre
Are you ready to recognise the incredible achievements and commitment of our colleagues at Midland Met? We're thrilled to announce the launch of our brand new More Than awards!
We're on the lookout for exceptional individuals who are going above and beyond to make Midland Met more than a hospital.
Do you know someone who deserves to be recognised for their outstanding contribution to our organisation? Nominate them for a More Than Award! It's the perfect way to recognise their efforts and achievements.
So don’t hesitate – make your nomination today by https://bit.ly/MMUHMoreThan, scan the QR code or visit the Midland Met pages on Connect. Let's celebrate the incredible individuals who are making Midland Met #morethanahospital!
From now until we move into Midland Met, we will be sharing updates with you about the many people involved in the project and the role they each play.
The successful opening of Midland Metropolitan University Hospital relies on many people, teams and stakeholders. Once open, it will have a far-reaching impact – not only on those we care for but also on colleagues and our community in terms of regeneration, jobs, housing, charitable endeavours and so much more.
Getting us to Midland Met is a team effort. We all have a part to play in making it #morethanahospital!
How long have you been at SWB and what is your current role?
I’m Holly Burns, and I joined SWB in March 2023 as Midland Met project support for the staff induction and familiarisation programme.
What part does your role contribute to the Midland Met project?
My role supports and coordinates our staff induction programme for all colleagues moving to Midland Met.
The staff induction and familiarisation programme will help colleagues familiarise themselves with the hospital, learn about where their new department will be and all the new equipment, plus health and safety and role-based requirements on site.
How are you preparing for the opening of Midland Met in your team?
We are supporting all impacted departments to create an online role-based induction as well as a general induction. It will help colleagues to become familiar with all requirements ahead of moving, and it will also include site tours.
The biggest benefit that Midland Met will bring in your opinion is...
The biggest benefit for me will be the way healthcare is currently delivered. Single rooms will significantly reduce infection control, and providing care using a modern hospital will enhance the overall patient experience.
Have you been on a site tour? If so, can you share any photos and your feedback with us?
I’ve had the chance to enjoy my first site tour; I got out on site on the day it snowed, and it looked fantastic.
I was impressed with the building, from all the wards I saw to the underground car parks.
The design allows so much natural light in, and navigation around the hospital will be simple for patients to follow. The Winter Garden will provide places to eat, meet, enjoy our art gallery and use the spiritual care centre, to name but a few things. Level 5 is by far the most visually impressive floor for me.
The opening of the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in 2024 presents a unique opportunity to transform stroke care services. Thanks to a ground-breaking new project led by Clair Finnemore, Therapy Lead for Stroke Services, stroke patients are set to receive faster, more efficient care through the creation of an integrated community stroke service (ICSS).
Launching in May 2023, the integrated community stroke service (ICSS) project will establish new domiciliary stroke rehabilitation services in line with national and regional stroke strategies, creating integrated community stroke specialist teams who will provide intensive, specialist therapy services in the comfort of patients' homes. This home-first model of care will reduce hospital stays, freeing up beds and streamlining the patient journey.
A physiotherapist by trade, Clair is helping to transform stroke services by decoupling acute stroke and rehabilitation services.
She explained: “The work we are doing cuts across all disciplines, including therapies, nursing, medicine, estates, social care, psychology, imaging, GPs and operational leads across PCCT and medicine.
“We decided to review the full stroke pathway to ensure those with acute needs can be assessed quickly and those requiring further rehabilitation can be supported in either inpatient rehabilitation beds or in their own homes.
“Launching the ICSS means we can provide a home-first model of care for all stroke patients who can return home safely with appropriate support and rehabilitation through intensive, specialist therapy services in a home setting. This approach will reduce the average length of stay in hospital, facilitating bed flow in Midland Met. Plus, it provides a seamless transition of care from acute to non-acute inpatient or domiciliary services with the same level
of stroke multi-disciplinary team (MDT) expertise.”
Speaking of the benefits of these service changes, Clair remarked: “Patients admitted to Midland Met will have access to diagnostics which will ensure they are diagnosed and treated swiftly in line with the latest national guidelines. Having this opportunity to make the stroke service operate in line with best practice will ultimately benefit patients and help us improve the patient experience from admission to rehabilitation.
“We’ve also had additional funding provisionally approved to recruit additional staff to ensure a diverse and skilled workforce working collaboratively between inpatient acute and rehabilitation services, plus community rehabilitation. Overall, we’re making positive steps to change our services ahead of our move in 2024, and the team is taking advantage of every opportunity to seek feedback and patient input to help shape our services.”
Team
“The work we are doing cuts across all disciplines, including therapies, nursing, medicine, estates, social care, psychology, imaging, GPs and operational leads across PCCT and medicine."
Recently, SWB has made a number of changes aimed at ensuring all colleagues are treated compassionately and fairly during their employment with the Trust. These include a new leadership framework, new values, and the implementation of a just and learning culture approach.
Part of this is the Dying to Work charter, adopted by the Trust in 2022. Created by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the charter sets out a voluntary agreement providing additional employment protection for terminally ill colleagues.
The Dying to Work Charter helps alleviate some of the stresses of a terminal diagnosis by setting out an agreed approach to how an organisation can actively support a colleague in the event of a terminal diagnosis.
This recent commitment to supporting colleagues who are suffering with ill health has been made in response to certain instances where, prior to the adoption of the charter, we have missed the mark.
One such case is Julie Harris, who worked at the Trust for 23 years as a domestic. Not only this – her husband, Malcolm, and daughters are also Trust employees. We spoke with Malcolm to hear more about Julie’s story.
“Julie’s first diagnosis was in 2005, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After treatment, she had a period of remission. However, in 2010, following pain in her legs, it was discovered that the cancer had spread and she was diagnosed with pelvic and lung metastasis. Julie continued treatment, working when she could, and was lauded by colleagues for her attitude.”
Unfortunately, her condition deteriorated, and she required blood transfusions due to high calcium levels. During one such transfusion, in May 2018, she received a call from human resources.
“In the call, she was told that she had to attend an upcoming meeting – and that if she was not there, a decision would be made about her employment without her present.”
She was worried about this, but attended the meeting alone, having
been denied the opportunity to bring her husband for support. At this time, Julie had been off for 12 months due to her illness, but had been planning a return to work: her manager had stated that despite changes in ability, she may be able to find appropriate work for Julie.
“The meeting itself was held on a floor accessible by stairs, which was extremely difficult for Julie due to her low energy levels and ongoing cancer treatment. She persevered and attended the meeting, at which she was dismissed,” said Malcolm. Julie was dismissed by a manager who had not been directly involved in her role or illness prior to this point, but was the decision maker.
Julie passed away a few months later.
Frustrated with Julie’s treatment, Malcolm began to pursue routes to identify support she should have received. Having exhausted several options, a colleague told him Richard Beeken, the chief executive, would likely listen to and talk with him. He sent Richard a message, who in turn talked with Malcolm and escalated the issue to HR.
Upon escalation, HR acknowledged shortcomings and mistakes in how the case was dealt with. It was taken on by the Chief People Officer Frieza Mahmood; Malcolm and
Frieza have since had several meetings and are in direct contact. We met with Frieza to find out more about the Trust’s response.
“I was devastated to hear that anybody had lived this awful experience in our organisation: we are committed to creating an environment in which our people receive the best possible support from us. Upon investigating Malcolm’s concerns further, I discovered significant issues with the lack of compassion shown to Julie in circumstances where much more empathy and discretion was required to support her. Given the obvious sensitivities of the situation and how vulnerable she was feeling at this time, more flexibility and support should have been provided. As well as righting the wrongs in this specific situation, I wanted to ensure that moving forward, nobody has to go through something like this again at SWB.
“I was inspired by Malcolm. I learnt that he had retrained to a role in palliative care at SWB, and like him I wanted to make changes following Julie’s passing whilst recognising the overarching sadness of the loss.”
Frieza organised a meeting in which those involved in the management of the case met with Malcolm to hear more about the human impact of the decisions which had been made.
“I wanted to ensure they were able to understand the emotion involved in this. I think these things can become impassive as people get used to the processes: they can be at risk of forgetting that the decisions made will have an impact on a person”.
“Malcolm spoke with us all and the room was moved to tears. It was sobering and emotional, but it was something we needed to hear at that time.”
Frieza stated she feels a personal responsibility to ensure that nobody has to go through something like this again: “I believe if we make mistakes, we need to be transparent and then work to correct them. I want to ensure that the feelings of Malcolm and his children about the way in which Julie was treated are validated and used as an opportunity to learn: to show how the new Trust values should be lived and breathed every day in the way we respond when things go wrong.”
“I want Julie’s experience to be something that drives real and lasting change in the Trust.”
In Julie’s specific case, Frieza and the HR team have worked to ensure the family receive Julie’s retirement award posthumously, access to counselling support
and a plaque with memorial service for Julie in remembrance to recognise her contribution. They have also written to the pensions agency to ask them to reconsider their decision along with exploring other avenues for support.
In a wider sense, Frieza arranged for training of the HR team to ensure they understand the impact of their involvement, along with reflecting on lost opportunities for more effective support which could have been provided by the team and the managers involved. Training also aimed to ensure any future approach is in line with the commitments in the Trust’s new People Plan. These are specifically implementing the principles of a ‘just and learning culture’, with restorative people management practices at the heart of our renewed approach. The dying to work charter is just one component of this.
The changes align with our new ‘ARC’ values of “Ambition, Respect and
Following a terminal diagnosis, some colleagues will understandably prioritise time with friends and family, but others may wish to continue to work, for reasons of financial stability or to provide a welcome distraction from a frightening reality. A significant illness can impact on someone’s ability to work to a standard expected by themselves and their employer, and through no fault of their own.
• A terminal illness is a disease that cannot be cured or treated. They are usually progressive diseases such as cancer or advanced heart disease.
• UK Social Security legislation defines a terminal illness as: “a progressive disease where death as a consequence of that disease can reasonably be expected within six months”. However, many people live longer than this expected period.
• Staff who lose their job due to terminal illness lose their source of income and lose any possible death in service payments through no fault of their own. These payments are earned through over years of working at an organisation.
Compassion” which have been co-produced with Trust staff. These are supported by a new leadership framework to be launched next month. It has been successfully trialled over the last few months with a selection of managers. A key focus of this is compassionate leadership with the emphasis on adapting approaches to reflect the sensitivities of the situation and taking action to address this.
Malcolm has now remarried and moved to a role in palliative care. He hopes that, moving forward, anyone working at the Trust with a serious illness is treated with compassion.
“You can’t get compassion from a book, or from paperwork. I go out and see my patients, who know they are going to die, and they get compassion from me. That’s what was lacking for Julie: compassion, empathy and understanding.”
Frieza states; “In the event of a member of staff being in the unfortunate position
of experiencing similar health related difficulties, our approach would be different in the Trust. This is on the basis that it is now intrinsically underpinned by our commitment to our values. However, this doesn’t make what has happened to Julie disappear. I recognise that I will never have a chance to meet Julie to apologise in person for what happened to her in 2018 but she does continue to have the right to have her experience acknowledged and addressed.”
“To make this right for Julie and her family, I would like to apologise unreservedly on behalf of myself, the People and OD Directorate and the Trust’s management team. I will continue to work with colleagues to ensure this never happens again. Malcolm has also kindly offered to share his story with the Board and I know they will be as committed as I am to ensuring we learn from it.
• We recognise that terminal illness requires support and understanding and not additional and avoidable stress and worry.
• Terminally ill workers will be secure in the knowledge that we will support them following their diagnosis and we recognise that, safe and reasonable work can help maintain dignity, offer a valuable distraction and can be therapeutic in itself.
• We will provide our employees with the security of work, peace of mind and the right to choose the best course of action for themselves and their families which helps them through this challenging period with dignity and without undue financial loss.
• We support the TUC’s Dying to Work campaign so that all employees battling terminal illness have adequate employment protection and have their death in service benefits protected for the loved ones they leave behind.
In this issue of Heartbeat, we speak to our Chief People Officer, Frieza Mahmood about the launch of the People Plan and how it will address the issues you have raised in our staff surveys.
The People Plan was approved by our Board in January and sets out how we will deliver on our People objective - to cultivate and sustain happy, productive and engaged staff.
Our new People Plan supports that strategic objective by focussing on improving staff satisfaction and experience in order to support a positive organisational culture to thrive.
Frieza told us more: “The People Plan is really about the things that matter to everyone who works in our organisation. Every time you give us feedback via the national staff surveys or the quarterly Pulse surveys,
The NHS Staff survey results were released earlier in March – thank you to everyone who took the time to give their feedback.
The response rate for our organisation was broadly comparable to previous years with over 2,800 responses. We would love to increase the number of responses substantially to ensure we are hearing the representative voice of all of our colleagues.
While the results continued to show we need to take significant action to improve staff satisfaction, we did see an improvement in how colleagues view their line managers. For the first time, we saw an improvement in all the line manager questions.
My
we genuinely listen and take the time to understand what your views really mean.
“This plan is a very detailed commitment about what we will do to give you a great experience as a member of our team here at SWB.
“For instance, there are a number of elements linked to development as a direct effort to support our staff in having the tools they need to do their job well and accelerate their career in the Trust. There is also an important focus on key areas such as fairness which can result in poor staff experience if not consistently managed well. We want to make SWB a great place to work – we want you to develop and grow your career with us. We also want members of our communities to choose us an employer and establish a long-term career in our organisation.
“Essentially we want you to be able to be proud to work for us and recommend SWB as a great place to work and receive care.”
"This is a very positive development and shows that we are making progress toward the achievement of our objectives. The line manager’s role is a significant one and the new People Plan has an important focus on development for line managers. This is on the basis that they have a substantial impact on how staff feel about work on a day-today basis. So, it is essential that we continue our focus in this area,” added Frieza.
“I’d like to thank line managers for everything they are doing to support their teams particularly in the challenging times we continue to face and encourage them to ask for help where needed, so that we can continue to listen to and be responsive to what our staff need.”
“This year we are launching our leadership framework which focusses on our values (Ambition – Respect – Compassion) which you helped coproduce. The framework will encompass compassionate leadership and leading in a safe environment (both physically and psychologically).”
Personal development is also a focus this year. In the staff survey, 87 per cent of respondents said they had a personal development review (PDR) in the past year but disappointingly, very few found it to be of use.
Frieza told us: “The PDR process over the last few years during the pandemic has been shortened to focus predominantly on staff wellbeing and we believe managers have struggled to complete this process despite streamlining it. We are also aware of concerns about the extent to which the PDR timescales impact how meaningful the process is, in reality. As a result of the survey feedback we are reviewing our whole PDR process and cycle to address this and better align it to the values and strategic objectives for the Trust.
“It is important that PDRs are meaningful for staff and managers. I would also urge staff to think about what they want from the process before having a conversation with their manager.
• What are your aspirations?
• Do you have training needs?
• What would you like to achieve in your role?
“I have said this many times, but our annual training budget is not very well utilised. That funding has been set aside for you and your personal development so please make use of it.”
Frieza also stressed that the People Plan will aim to tackle issues around equality, diversity and inclusion.
“The most successful organisations are those that embrace the opportunity that difference can bring,” she said. We all have different experiences and it is those experiences that can really make SWB a great place to work.
This is an example of what colleagues said when asked about the quality of their PDR.
“Unfortunately, not everyone has a great experience in our organisation. The People Plan will look at our internal processes as we introduce a just and learning culture, along with other factors relating to practices that are fundamental to tackling the issues people are going through.
"We see line managers as being essential in the delivery of this, but colleagues also have an important supporting role. I would urge anyone who observes unfair practice to please call it out.”
Helped me to improve how I do my job
Helped me agree clear objectives for my work
It left me feeling that my work is valued by my organisation.
“In the year ahead, we need to get to grips with the Trust values and really start to live those values and behaviours consistently every day,” said Frieza.
“Treating each other with kindness is of paramount importance. Please look out for those colleagues who are living our values as we have an opportunity to give them the recognition they deserve. On Connect you can see how you can recognise colleagues by giving them a Shout Out or nominating them for a Star of the Week. Our annual Star Awards nominations will also open in the next few months. And I am aware that many teams have local recognition programmes – so please get involved in those too.
“Our Chief Executive, Richard Beeken and I would also personally love to hear about those who deserve recognition in this area so don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to share your thoughts.
“We also want to learn from organisations (public or private) who do this well. Tell us about those examples you have seen, think about how we could adapt those processes at SWB.
“Indeed, there are also many departments within our own organisation where best practice in this area is taking place every day. We want to learn from those too.”
You can read the People Plan and all our staff survey results on Connect.
Please remember to use your voice and influence to positive effect. Help us to make our Trust a great place to work.
Freedom to Speak Up Guardians have been specially trained to support staff to raise concerns. We also have a guardian for safe working to help junior doctors and a Chief Registrar.
Speak to your manager who may well be able to resolve your concern or speak to someone who can.
Our whistleblowing policy is on Connect if you want to formally raise a serious safety issue or concern. You can also call Safecall, the independent 24 hour phone line on 0800 915 1571
Feel free to contact our visible and supportive multi faith chaplaincy team for a confidential chat. Please feel free to contact Mary Causer on mary.causer@nhs.net to talk to one of the chaplaincy team.
Help is available from our risk management, health and safety, safeguarding and counter-fraud experts.
We have a number of staff networks that can support colleagues to speak up. Please feel free to contact the teams using the details on Connect.
Your Right to be Heard is where we publish letters we receive from colleagues who want to hear a response to their comments. You can send this directly to swbh.comms @ nhs.net or by post to Communications, Trinity House, Sandwell General Hospital
Trade unions are organised groups of workers who protect and support the interests of their members. Employees have a legal right to be accompanied by a union representative during formal individual employment meetings. The trade union rep for SWBH is Simon Morley: simon.morley1@nhs.net
Use Safeguard, the incident reporting system linked on Connect, to submit an incident. You will be informed of what has happened with the incident once it has been resolved.
To
Amreet was a Duty Nurse for the first time. She was great she handled all duty calls very well, It was great working alongside with Amreet. She is smashing the Duty Nurse role :) x
From – Wajid Mahmood
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 heartwarming messages which have been sent via our website and social media platforms.
To
The capacity team would just like to give a BIG shout out to both discharge lounges for their effective pulling and collecting patients that are due to go home or to our MFW. The work you do is great and makes a HUGE difference to patient flow.
From – Capacity Team Operations
To – Les Dixon
Les has been a massive help addressing issues encountered during a proof of concept that were preventing us from progressing. He went above and beyond and we would be stuck without his help!
From – Richard Shinn
To – Aidan Day
I just wanted to take a moment to send over a word of thanks to your team. Over the last 2 days my hosts have found themselves in situations with aggressive parkers and your team has always responded rapidly and dealt with the situation in a very professional way. Veer Bains and Trevond are two names that my hosts have passed on to me as the members of your team that have responded to and de-escalated this recent situation long with Alan in the control room who dispatched members of the team rapidly, turning up to the location in a matter of minutes.
From – Ross Badham
To – Sandeep
Sandeep was very helpful and gave me a warm greeting when I went to collect some adrenalin. She attended to me and dealt with me efficiently and without hurry. On parting Sandeep wished me a good day....it lifted my spirits and made me smile...
From – Beverley Callaghan
Aidan thank you for going above and beyond to help resolve my tricky IT issue. I very much appreciate your time and effort. Nothing was too much trouble and it was all done with a smile. You are a credit to SWB!
From – Aimee Turner
To – Waj Mahmood
Waj is such a positive influence on our team at this very busy and challenging time today despite how bust he is he has gone above and beyond to be support myself in actioning priority tasks, thank you for all of your hard work.
To – Mohinder Dhillon
Dhillon is a brilliant driver who knows exactly what to do in term of collecting the red bags containing the Newborn blood spots samples from City hospital, Aston Pride and Sandwell community offices, dropping them to the Birmingham Children Hospital and bringing back the red bag into every allocated area. Please keep the good work up and share with your colleagues.
From – Ghilaine Ngoyou
To – Camille Downer
Working so hard on the corridor of dermatology outpatients on her own. Maintaining multiple clinics at once and whilst doing that, I saw Camille take the time to listen to a patient who was waiting for late appointment, address their concerns, maintain good communication and prevent anger and complaint from a patient. So much so, that I heard the patient come back to her after the appointment and very genuinely thank her for her time and support.
From – Anne Rutland
For always supporting the labour ward and triage team, always working over her hours, when staffing is poor for administration staying till the job is done. A big thank you!
I would like to say a big thank you to Jo from the ESR Office. Nothing is too much trouble, thank you for constantly going above and beyond to answer my requests. It is very much appreciated.
From – Aimee Turner
To – Suad Abdullahi
Suad, for going above and beyond every shift. She is always offering to help staff where she can. She is an amazing team player and I just want to say thankyou for all your hard work and always giving a helping hand when it comes to making patient beds :)
From – Chelsea Hayden
Excellent teamwork with transferring a high risk patient to delivery suite in an emergency situation. Thank you for your prompt actions
From – Michelle Dalby
To – Sukhdeep Bhamera
Sukhdeep sorted an issue out for me on S1 it was a Friday afternoon and had to be done before the weekend, he persevered and kept trying different things to resolve it until he got the job done, he is so helpful and I am so grateful for his help!
From – Angela Jones
Louise stayed over her allocated shift to support an internationally educated colleague to provide care to a woman in labour. Louise's dedication to supporting the maternity service, and helping to maintain maternity safety for our women & families is admirable.
From – Jade Hellier
Over the next several months, we will celebrate winners of the 2022 Star Awards, recognising them for their hard work and the positive impact this has had on our people, patients and population.
We’ll be speaking directly with the winners to get their views and hear what winning meant to them. For this month’s Our Winners, we spoke with the winners of the Patient Safety Award and the Prize for Research and Transformation.
Justine Irish was the winner of this year’s Patient Safety Award. Justine works as a matron on the community wards within PCCT. She works with a large multi-disciplinary team, including therapists, GPs, advanced clinical practitioners, social workers and many more who are all committed to providing the very best care to our service users.
Justine is dedicated to providing excellent care to all her patients, and prioritises safety within the environment. She thinks this attitude lead to her win: “I think it was a mixture of leading the teams on our safety journey, really majoring on our safety culture and what it means to us and our people, that won me the award.”
Justine has introduced a number of measures, such as “Implementation of our safety huddles, nutrition and hydration quality improvement work (traffic light jug lids, ‘But first a drink’, urinary tract infection/catheter reductions), sepsis introduction of a PGD alongside recognition and treatment in a community setting, falls reduction, nurse led care rounding and many more quality and safety initiatives.”
This work has enabled Justine to improve patient outcomes in the community wards, and her dedication being recognised has meant that a huge amount to her in her role. Justine stated, “The win means so much, not just for me but for the people I work with who engage daily, provide support and are committed to the safety agenda and keeping people as safe as possible.”
Justine attended the awards ceremony on the 6 October 2022 and had a great time, noting “It was lovely to see so many colleagues enjoying time outside of the workplace.”
In the longer term, Justine states the win has improved her confidence in what she does day-to-day. “It is my passion to do what I do around quality and safety. In the future, my ambition is to do this on a bigger scale: the win has given me the confidence to continually do that and to bring more
The winner of the 2022 Prize for Transformation and Research was Shivan Pancham, a Consultant Haematologist. Her role covers both patients and the laboratory setting, caring for patients with a range of conditions as well as liaising with the rest of the hospital to give advice and blood results. The laboratory also works to ensure the quality of samples.
Shivan and the team work across the Black Country Pathology Service, which includes four separate Trusts. She also works closely with the sickle cell and thalassaemia (SCAT) team based within SWB.
A key part of Shivan’s role is research and development, and it was this work that led to her nomination, shortlisting and eventual win; she has worked to open clinical trials for patients with haemoglobin disorders and introduced a pioneering new treatment for those with sickle cell disease.
Shivan said, “We serve the biggest population with SCAT in the West Midlands, and the second largest in the country after London. As an area, SCAT has not had a lot of research and development, and there had been no new treatments for sickle cell disease in over 30 years.
“Sickly cell disease is unpredictable and disruptive for people, and has a significant impact on their quality of life. It’s stigmatised and is an area that has needed research and investment.
“We were the second trust in the country to introduce a new treatment for sickle cell. The medication is used to help reduce the number of crises experienced by people with sickle cell. This means less visits to A&E, less pain and an overall better quality of life.”
The new treatment works by making red blood cells and vessels less sticky, thus preventing haemoglobin from getting stuck in vessels as frequently. This blocks the first step of a crisis and stops it progressing.
Shivan is really glad for the recognition, but is keen to state that she feels the win is for many.
“The win is not for me – it’s for the department. We carried out lots of work with pharmacy and nursing to get the protocols and infrastructure in place to deliver the new treatment.
“I am the face of it, but it’s a group of people working just as hard, or harder, than I do. To see the service getting recognised for the work they do; that’s the big win.”
Moving forward, Shivan and the team continue to trial new therapies and carry out research. They’re current working in partnership with other organisations to explore new therapies not currently offered at the Trust, such as gene therapy and transplants, and consider how these could be introduced at SWB. Since the awards, they have opened another clinical trial - the first in the region for patients with thalassemia.
Shivan’s hopeful that this work will continue; “It’s key to get this recognition for SCAT. I’m delighted to see the organisational acknowledgement for the SCAT service at SWB, as it is truly an exceptional and pioneering service in the region.”
There is so much learning and improvement coming out of locally run projects across SWB team, but do you know where to get support with your project (clinical audit, quality improvement projects, service evaluation, research)?
I want to test a hypothesis (Example “Patients on drug X will have significantly better outcomes than patients on drug Y” or groups understanding and experiences of Z)
Research:
- Designed to derive new knowledge
- Addresses clearly defined questions, aims and objectives, is generalisable
- Normally requires research Ethics
- Committee Review
- Qualitative and quantitative
A key place to start is understanding what methodology you are using so you can get support from the most appropriate corporate team.
The clinical effectiveness team have put
together this diagram to help increase understanding of the different project types and how they are supported at SWB:
I want to know if my service meets a pre-determined standard (e.g. Are we following NICE guidance?)
I want to get a better understanding of what standard my service achieves (e.g. Is our outpatient clinic effective?)
I want to test changes that may improve my service (e.g. How can I improve DNA rates?)
SWB Research and Innovation Team swbh.randd.generic@nhs.net
Register your research
Ethical approval
Clinical Audit:
- Measures current local practice against agreed standards
- Can be for assurance or improvement
- Does not normally require ethics approval
Service evaluation:
- May measure a range of indicators, without reference to standards
- Does not normally require ethics approval
Clinical Effectiveness Team swbh.auditteam-clineffec@nhs.net
Register on Audit module of SafeGuard Resources on Connect to support audit methodology and creating change
Library and Knowledge Services
Literature reviews of existing national guidance and research Workshops for getting your work published swbh.library@nhs.net
There is also a resource available from our research and development team to help clarify if a project is research: Is my study research? (hra-decisiontools.org.uk)
As indicated in the diagram, it is important to register clinical audits, service evaluations and local quality improvement projects on the audit module within safeguard. This enables the clinical effectiveness team to confirm that your project follows information governance and clinical governance best practice. It also means your project is part of a central
repository that informs the whole trust what learning and improvement is happening throughout the trust. (We also provide you with a poster when you’ve told us that you have completed your project, which looks in portfolios!)
Other support offered by the clinical effectiveness team includes:
• Ready made electronic resources on our Connect page (https://connect2. swbh.nhs.uk/governance/clinicaleffectiveness/)
Quality improvement project:
- Designed and conducted to test change ideas
- Continuous data collection to monitor direct and indirect impact of change
- May require ethical consideration if a test of change could negative impact patients
Clinical Effectiveness Team for small scale projects
Register your project on SafeGuard Improvement Team for Trust wide improvement programmes swbh.improvementteampmo@nhs.net
Access QIP tools through Connect
• Training sessions tailored to your team
• Ad-hoc support and guidance over the phone or on Teams
Please get in touch about your project, or any queries about this article:
Email us –
swbh.auditteam-clineffec@nhs.net
Come and see us –
Trinity House, Governance Corridor, Sandwell General Hospital
An exciting new role to reduce patient falls and get patients moving has been given the go ahead in a bid to change the way mobility is treated at the Trust.
Aimed at physiotherapists and advanced occupational therapists looking for a step up, the promoting independence lead therapist role is the first of its kind and will see the successful candidate working across elderly care wards.
Lesley McDonagh, Clinical Lead Nurse for Corporate Nursing, said: “It’s so important that our patients are active and mobile so that they maintain their strength. Traditionally we will be hesitant to have a patient walk around, fearing they may fall.
“But in fact, research has told us that by keeping a patient mobile, it means they will strengthen and improve their balance –therefore reducing falls.
“This where this fantastic new role comes in. The person will be implementing change in the way that we care for our patients on a daily basis, promoting independence. They will have a key role in the multi-disciplinary team meetings advising nursing staff how patients should be encouraged to move and in what way they can do this, for example, a short trip to the sink to wash their hands.
“The person in post has a real opportunity here to develop this role into something that we’ve not seen here at the Trust before and I
would urge anyone who is looking for that step up, and has a real drive to lead change, to apply.”
To find out more about the Band 7 role and apply, go to http://bit.ly/3JMnCVQ.
Do you care passionately about Freedom to Speak Up?
Are you compassionate, a listener, naturally supportive?
Do care passionately about building a just and fair culture in our Trust?
Do you want to help build a culture in our Trust where there is no fear of detriment or reprisal for speaking up, where speaking up is welcomed?
Send through your expression of interest by answering the following questions, in no less than 300 words in total. We would like to know: Which role you currently occupy in the Trust; Why you want to become a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian; What skills and qualities you can bring that are relevant to the role.
Please send your expression of interest to swbh.freedom-to-speak-up-guidance@nhs.net
by Friday 14 April. More information is available on Connect.
Dr David Nicholl, Consultant Neurologist, has taken to social media in collaboration with Sky News to warn about the dangers of using nitrous oxide as a legal high. Bringing new ways of delivering vital health information to younger audiences means using our channels to their full potential.
This proved effective when Dr Nicholl took part in a “live” video with Sky News via the Trust’s Instagram page. Reinforcing his message about the danger of nitrous oxide, he said: “I have seen a huge rise in admissions due to nitrous oxide abuse, with cases increasing exponentially since large canister brands began to flood the market in 2021.
“I now see more patients struggling with side effects of 'nos' than cocaine abuse. Laughing gas is the second most-used drug among those aged 16-24.
“Instagram is a key platform because it helps target the demographic that we need to reach and it’s the new way of receiving health information for Gen Z.
“It’s great the Trust are using their social media channels to deliver key health messages to the younger generation, as we know many don’t watch the news or pick up a newspaper.”
Dr Nicholl has also worked with the communications team on a number of TikTok videos about the dangers of laughing gas –one of which gained 1.2 million views and 69.5 thousand likes. A video that alerts people
about supersize cannisters was also shared by a verified news account with 4.5 million followers on Instagram.
Off the back of the live, the Trust’s Instagram page gained an influx of new followers, which shows there is an interest for educational health information on the app.
Vanya Rogers, Head of External Communications, explained: “Increasingly the importance of social media is a key consideration for us, as we know our communities use different channels to seek health related information, access services and receive news on subjects that matter to them.
“In the past it was an option for Trusts to decide whether or not to be present and active on social media, however now it is an essential part of our press office strategy as we position the organisation as a trusted voice on health matters and our people as experts in their field.”
If you would like to support the creation of our health-related content, please contact the press office by emailing vanya.rogers@nhs.net
The Trust’s Single Point of Access (SPA) service aims to help professionals arrange the correct care for both urgent and non-urgent referrals – freeing up our emergency departments and in turn helping to relieve the pressure.
SPA deals with an impressive 25,000 calls a year and is led by Janice Barrett who is based in Trinity House.
She explained: “The service has grown since it began in 2018. We’ve gone from a small team of four to nine. We deal with around 25,000 calls a year, directing patients to the correct service they need, and this figure is increasing weekly.
“The service means we are reducing the number of patients who come to our emergency departments (EDs) needing treatment that could have been delivered elsewhere. It’s not only beneficial for our patients but also helps to free up our EDs, helping to relieve some of the pressures we are seeing in our hospitals.”
It provides access support and advice across seven days, between 8am and
8pm, and helps to prevent avoidable admissions and support patients in the community with longstanding conditions.
It starts with a phone call with GP colleagues providing as much information as possible helping the team to navigate the patient to the best service for them. Once the call has taken place, the patient will then sit under the care of the SPA team, which means GPs can continue with their working day.
Some facts about the service include:
• It’s for all ages, so you can refer children and adults
• This team covers the Sandwell and West Birmingham area.
• The telephones are manned by a team of nurses so you will get straight through to a healthcare professional
• It can facilitate specialist advice where necessary
• It can navigate the patient to the most appropriate service for them
You can contact the SPA team on 0121 507 3301.
The bowel cancer screening service at the Trust is just one of a few in the country to test people from the age of 56 as part of a roll out by NHS England.
The lifesaving test is sent to the homes of Sandwell and West Birmingham residents who are then asked to follow the instructions which involves taking a sample of their poo and sending it back to the laboratory.
A positive result is then investigated further. Around 1,900 people are written to every week, inviting them to take part in the screening programme, with our current uptake at 55 per cent.
One patient who experienced a positive result is Mr Rai, now aged 57. The dad-ofthree carried out the test when he received it through the post last year.
He explained: “I didn’t hesitate in doing the test. It was a no brainer to me – a free NHS test that potentially could save my life, there was nothing to really stop me.
“When I received the positive result, of course I was worried, but I went for the colonoscopy and they found two polyps which were precancerous. These were removed.”
A colonoscopy is a test to check inside the bowels. A long, thin, flexible tube with a small camera inside it is passed into the bottom and it is able to capture the inside of the bowel where polyps can be found.
These polyps are small growths on the inner lining of the large intestine (colon) or rectum. Most are harmless. But over time, some can develop into colon cancer.
Mr Rai added: “I was relieved that they were caught at an early stage as further down the line it would have been too late and they would
have turned into cancer. The poo testing kit saved my life. I can’t stress the importance of the bowel screening test. If you have received one through the post, then I would urge you to make sure you do the test. I am still under the care of the team and undergo screening every two years.”
Anna Twum-Barima, specialist screening practitioner, said: “The poo testing kit is a life-saver and it’s a very simple procedure to carry out in the comfort of your own home. We’ve been rolling it out to people aged 56 and upwards for a while and we are seeing good uptake.
“We have a team who are continually engaging with the community to spread the word about screening and we even have a giant inflatable bowel that educates people. They find it extremely interesting when they have a look around.
“We have also created a video which demonstrates how simple the whole testing process is.”
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Acting on our commitment to Net Zero by helping our clients to reduce the amount of carbon that is produced across the NHS Estate.
A beauty contestant who suffered four miscarriages has launched a project to help other women who are left devastated by baby loss.
Trinity Jean Harper, aged 21, has been donating self-care bags to City Hospital, Birmingham where she was cared for.
The sales administrator from West Bromwich said: “I am no stranger to the early pregnancy unit (EPU) at City Hospital, after having had four first trimester miscarriages.
“I am happy to now say I finally have my rainbow baby, a little boy called Evan who is nine months old.”
Despite being a new mum, Trinity felt there was something more that she could do to help others in a similar situation.
She added: “I’d often still reflect on my losses and how there are still so many women going through this grief every single day. I wanted to create a resource that was different to what’s already out there.
“So, I created the ‘Halos and Memories’ project bags – they include scrolls of positive quotes and affirmations, words of encouragement, acts of self-care and other tasks to occupy your mind and hopefully think more optimistically.
“The bags contain 28 scrolls, each held by a bead, string, and an angel keyring. The goal is to pick one scroll a week for six months, adding a new bead onto the string to create a bracelet as a reminder of your little angel and the positive things you have done whilst completing the project.
“Hopefully my project takes off well and the bags are helpful to parents, so that I can make regular donations.”
The stage isn’t unfamiliar to the mum-of-one – in 2019 she was crowned Miss Royal UK
Teen. This year, Trinity will be heading to the Middleton Arena in Manchester to compete for the Royal UK Pageants “Miss” division, to hopefully win a spot at the international competition in Florida. Taking a personal route, her platform is raising awareness for baby loss, both miscarriage and stillbirth, and giving support to grieving mothers. Victoria Weaver, Bereavement Lead Midwife, said: “Trinity has very kindly donated the Halos and Memories support bags, these are brilliant because what we have at the minute focusses more on memory making.
“These differ as they are more about selfcare and the importance of taking time to look after yourself when you’ve had such a significant loss.
“We are always so grateful for any donations, these bags will help our families in maternity and gynaecology who have suffered the loss of a baby to feel less alone, which is so important at such a difficult time.”
A schoolboy has become the first patient in the Midlands to receive a pioneering treatment for his peanut allergy.
Hugo Codona, aged 10, was given his first dose of Palforzia at Sandwell Hospital, in West Bromwich. The ground-breaking treatment increases a child’s ability to tolerate a small amount of peanut protein and reduces the risk of severe reactions like anaphylaxis, which is life-threatening.
The youngster, from Lichfield, said: “I had my first few doses mixed with my favourite yoghurt and I couldn’t taste anything, so it went really well.
“I felt nervous at first, but this is going to help me in the future and give me confidence in dealing with my peanut allergy.”
The drug comes in the form of capsules with a measured amount of peanut powder
inside. The powder is designed to be mixed with food such as yoghurt and aims to build up a tolerance to the food.
It was first given the go ahead to use by the NHS early last year following research trials.
Hugo’s mum, Lucy added: “Although he was a bit anxious initially, he took it like a champ. The staff at Sandwell Hospital have been so supportive and reassuring with this being a newer treatment.
“It will be worth it as it means we can go on family holidays, to restaurants and the cinema without the worry and fear that Hugo could potentially suffer from anaphylaxis.
“As he gets older and starts to go out with friends, it makes us as parents feel assured that there is a reduced risk of a dangerous allergic reaction.
“This will definitely improve the quality of life for Hugo or any other patient taking it.
Hugo will have to take the drug daily for two to three years and afterwards a small amount of peanut will need to be eaten every day for the rest of his life.
Aneta Ivanova, Paediatric Allergy Nurse Consultant, said: “It’s an exciting time for our young patient Hugo and for us as we are the first in the Midlands to be offering this immunotherapy.
“It is not a cure for a peanut allergy, however it does reduce the risk of having a severe allergic reaction like anaphylaxis.
“Palforzia is going to improve the quality of life for Hugo, his family and other patients in the community suffering from peanut allergy.”
A gynaecologist is raising awareness of endometriosis during March by climbing the equivalent of Mount Everest - in the gym.
Dr Alvaro Bedoya-Ronga, who is based at City Hospital, is one fifth of the way through his epic 35,000-step journey. He hopes that more people will understand the effect that endometriosis has on women by highlighting his challenge and why he’s doing it.
The condition is where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes, causing pain. It can affect women of any age, including teenagers, and is long-term, sometimes resulting in a significant impact on a person’s life.
He said: “I’m doing this primarily because I want to raise as much awareness of endometriosis as I can. On average it takes eight years for patients to be diagnosed with this condition which can be crippling for a woman.
“I want patients to be aware and feel empowered to seek an answer to why they are in pain. And I want clinicians to also be more aware of the symptoms and repercussions of endometriosis related chronic pain in a woman's life.”
As part of his challenge, Dr BedoyaRonga is also raising money for Your Trust Charity, the official charity for the Trust. Cash will go towards enhancing the endometriosis centre that will be based at the organisation’s new hospital, the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital which is opening next year in Smethwick.
He added: “We treat over 300 women every year with this condition which can have devastating effects on their everyday life. It can start showing from a very early age, the beginning of a woman’s periods. Symptoms include heavy painful periods and pain during sex. But some may also experience pain in the bladder and bowel area as endometriosis spreads.
“If a woman suspects she has endometriosis she should in the first instance visit her GP. He will usually recommend or prescribe painkillers. Contraception can also be an effective way to manage pain. However, if these methods don’t work, then they will be
referred to hospital for further investigations.
“Currently we have clinics running one day a week at City Hospital and this service will transfer over to the Midland Met when it opens in the form of the endometriosis centre. It will give us capacity to see and treat
more patients going forward and therefore helping so many who live with this chronic condition.”
To donate to Alvaro’s fund go to http://bit.ly/3ZS4nzI
Colleagues from maternity will take part in a Black Country-wide recruitment event in May.
The drive will be targeting midwives as well as appealing to those wishing to return to practice and nurses who want to make a switch to the profession.
The Black Country Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) has organised the session at West Bromwich Albion Football Club, on 3 May, where prospective candidates will be able to find out more about working at the Trust and others in the region.
Information about a shortened course into the profession will also be available whilst development opportunities for neonatal nurses who are currently qualified in specialty (QIS) will be highlighted.
The event follows on from last year’s first joint recruitment drive across the LMNS for NHS trusts in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton – the first of its kind across the Black Country Integrated Care System. Lucy Murcott, LMNS Workforce Lead, said 15 midwives had been recruited at the last event.
“Everyone who attended gave us feedback about how helpful it was to them to be able to speak to existing staff, find out more about some of the specific projects and service improvements across the Trusts and be interviewed that day for roles,” she said.
“So we’re doing it all over again in May and broadening our focus to ensure we highlight the shortened midwifery courses available to nurses as well as the range of roles that QIS nurses may be interested in.
“The Black Country is a fantastic place to work and all of our Trusts are looking forward to warmly welcoming potential new recruits this spring.”
Local universities will be on hand to share information about various routes they offer
into the profession, including post graduate training for advanced clinical practitioners, tongue tie practitioners and sexual health courses.
It will take place between 9am and 2pm on Wednesday 3 May at The Hawthorns in West Bromwich.
As we’re all aware, recruitment is a key success measure for the NHS, both at the current time and over the coming years. With this in mind, colleagues in imaging have been working on reviving their recruitment process with the aim of getting more applications and increasing interest in SWB.
We spoke to CJ Browne, Group Director of Healthcare Professions. She said: “I felt that recruitment in imaging needed reinvigorating; we weren’t making the most of our USP, the opening of the Midland Met Hospital with state-of-the-art equipment, and we tended to rely on more traditional methods.
“I wanted to highlight the importance of our approach to staff wellbeing and the
opportunities we offer within the Trust.”
CJ worked with the communications team to utilise social media for recruitment, creating a TikTok video which showed a snapshot inside the radiography department and the friendly team, and encouraged people to come on board and apply. The campaign was highly successful: “As a result of this activity, we had over 310 applicants for radiographer positions. Given that there is a national shortage of radiographers, we were so excited by this.”
The team haven’t stopped at the recruitment drive: to address the shortage of radiographers, they have recently made apprenticeship roles available and are now training six apprentice radiographers in conjunction with Keele University and
Sheffield University. They are also recruiting Internationally.
CJ concluded: “We’ve now gone through four days of interviews and we’re really excited to move through the next stages with the induction process for the new starters.
“We’re really proud, as this enables us to support the local community and bring on board students from the area. It drummed up a lot of interest in the hospital, and it shows that updating your approach can have a huge impact on your results.”
At the back end of February, SWB welcomed its first nursing associate apprentices in theatres.
There will be a total of three nursing associate apprentices – one at Sandwell, one at City and one based in BMEC.
The nursing associate apprenticeship will be an invaluable asset in our theatre departments as it will allow band 3 colleagues to progress in a department they’re passionate about. In addition, the apprenticeship will also open up a new role of band 4 scrub practitioner, a role which has previously never existed at SWB.
Jennifer Brain, Senior Training and Development Practitioner, believes nursing associate apprentices in theatres will allow for progression within the department.
She said: “The roles in theatres will bridge the gap from band 3 to band 5. It
Our nursing education team recently welcomed apprentices in theatres
will also show our existing staff that we offer development without leaving the department and external band 4 colleagues will get the opportunity to learn a new role that can only be learnt with in the theatre department. “The nursing associate apprentices are only just starting so we have worked alongside the nurse education team and the university to ensure we can offer the very best for our patients, existing staff and the new nursing associate apprentices as well as ensuring the very best training is given throughout their journey.”
She added: “In terms of the future for theatres, having the apprentices will be brilliant as it will mean we can support the future progression of our staff and ultimately offer the best care possible to our patients.”
Aaron Bertram-Miller and Stacey Clarke, Nursing Associate Practice Educators, echoed these thoughts and said, “Though we do have student nurses and student ODPs, we have never had this role in theatres before which makes this a first and a very exciting time for SWB.”
Our priory 5 ward team at Sandwell have recently produced an education notice board to support colleagues, patients and their relatives at SWB.
The simple yet innovative idea was the brainchild of Jenny Oldershaw, Staff Nurse who works on priory 5 at Sandwell Hospital.
“I felt the need to create a palliative information board to be used by staff as a quick reference tool as well as a reminder for key information patients need to be aware of which can often be overlooked,” said Jenny.
“Discharging our end of life patients from the ward area can occasionally be a time consuming process. We need to make sure we are referring our patients to the correct services to ensure all the right support is in place at home. This is especially challenging for those patients who are not from the borough or do not know the local area well.”
Part of the makeup of the education board is that it hosts a list of useful phone numbers and email addresses of relevant discharge nurses, equipment stores and out of area palliative care services to use as a quick reference when discharging.
Another key feature on the board is the
inclusion of laminated instructions on the use of our syringe driver infusion sets just as a quick refresh if colleagues feel they need to familiarise themselves with this, as well as details around reduced car parking costs for those visiting end of life patients. The board is versatile and can be easily updated in case information and resources change.
Jenny feels that giving these kinds of details to relatives is hugely beneficial.
“I believe it is vital that we share important and empowering information with the loved ones of those who are at the end of life, as this helps give just that little bit more reassurance at a scary and difficult time and makes their visit a little easier.”
She added: “End of life care should help you to live as well as possible until you die and to die with dignity.
“We have only one chance to get the care of our end of life patients right and I hope the information on this board will help us achieve this goal.”
Do you have any ideas or suggestions for the palliative care education board on priory 5? If so, please email jenny.oldershaw@nhs.net
Services from our Trust are partnering up with an iconic Sandwell temple to raise awareness of healthcare services available to the community.
The Balaji Temple in Oldbury will welcome teams from our organisation at the venue on Saturday 22 April, at an annual health promotion event.
Dr Kanagaratnam, Chairman of the Balaji Trust and a retired GP, said: “It has been a personal dream of mine to bring health and wellbeing services together at Balaji Temple for the benefit of the community.
“Wellbeing and peace to all is a central tenet of the Hindu faith. I welcome all local residents to attend and benefit from the wonderful services provided by Sandwell Council and SWB NHS Trust, whilst taking in the sights of the Temple and sharing a wholesome vegetarian lunch with us.”
The event will be held in the community centre, which was previously used as a COVID vaccination centre.
The Hindu Temple is open to all and is visited by over 150,000 people annually, playing an active role in supporting the community. More than 20,000 school children visit the site each year and it’s been
described as “the delight of Oldbury that crosses community lines to bring people together” by Shaun Bailey, the MP for West Bromwich West.
Initiatives including the Targeted Lung Health Checks (TLHC) for smokers and ex-smokers and the Cancer Hotline service which residents can call if they are worried about symptoms of the disease will be at the event.
As part of NHS England’s THLC programme, residents across Sandwell will receive an invitation to take part in the check. Those invited will have an appointment with a lung health nurse, and depending on their symptoms will then be offered a low-dose CT scan in a mobile truck located within their community.
Steve Nelson, Programme Manager for the TLHC project, said: “Attending the event allows health professionals to reach out to the wider community, raising awareness of this really important initiative. For the majority of those who attend the lung health checks, everything will be fine, while for those where we do find something wrong, catching it early can make all the difference. Lung cancer can be difficult to detect early which is why so many
people are currently diagnosed with an incurable disease. However, these checks are helping us to diagnose many more people earlier when it is far easier to treat.”
Daren Fradgley, Chief Integration Officer added: “Bringing together such a wide programme of health and wellbeing programmes at the Balaji Temple will spread the message and improve engagement of the local communities, helping us deal with the health inequalities that exist within the region. This is a great example of partnership working with our community and other organisations in the Sandwell area.” Other services from the Trust to attend will include bowel cancer screening.
Meanwhile, Healthy Sandwell, part of Sandwell Council’s Public Health team, will also be raising awareness of the support it provides to local people, helping them to make positive lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking or losing weight.
Dear Heartbeat
So I’m fairly new to the Trust and when one of my fellow colleagues told me about some of the staff benefits available at the hospital I was well excited! It was nice to get a £10 festive offer and access to some of the other NHS perks such as the Blue Light Card however when I delved deeper into the depths the whole staff benefit scheme, I was a little surprised to what I was finding. Having done some research, I was a shocked to find we encourage of staff to save money but at the same time encourage debt! Around Christmas time for example we were encouraging staff to get into debt buying electrical goods for them and their families in high interest monthly payment schemes and that is just one example I noticed on the surface. Do these things go through a proper sign off process? Is the Trust paid a nice chunk of money to promote these things or something so we turn a blind eye to staff finances if it lines the pocket of the Trust? Lucky for me I’m quite financially savvy but I can imagine many staff especially those on lower bands of getting tricked and feeling pressured into these schemes and paying out more money long term. Is this how we should be looking after our staff especially when the cost of living is so high at the moment? We call them staff benefits but perhaps we should put an asterisk* next to whole staff benefit offers we offer our hospital staff. That is unless some of these so called ‘benefits’ are reviewed with more due diligence. I understand we are all adults, and not all the benefits are bad here but I also think as an NHS organisation, we should be providing actual benefits and not producing pitfalls of debt for our staff.
Thanks, Anonymous
The Trust offers a wide range of benefits to our colleagues. These include a variety of free to access benefits such as: lifestyle discounts through a range of retail outlets (these are completely free to access via 'SWB Benefits'), health & wellbeing benefits such as massages, meditation, yoga etc through our Sancturary /Wellbeing Hubs, onsite gyms, physiotherapy, counselling, eyecare vouchers, will writing service, pre-retirement seminars, discounted bus travel, to name a few. Full details of what we offer can be found in our Reward & Recognition Guide via our Staff Benefits Connect page or by logging into the SWB Benefits portal.
One of the many benefits we provide includes a small number of salary sacrifice schemes. These schemes allow individuals to purchase/ hire a product (depending on the nature of the scheme) and spread the cost over a longer period (e.g. 12 / 24 months) by exchanging a proportion of their salary for the cost of the benefit. By doing this, colleagues make savings through reductions in national insurance and pension contributions (and in certain schemes, tax). No interest is charged on these items. Schemes such as Cycle to Work (which is a government scheme) and our Lease Car scheme help to promote sustainable travel to work.
The Trust does not receive any payment from our benefits partners for these schemes, nor do we pressurise people into using them.
Checks are made to ensure colleagues do not fall below the national living wage and there are caps on how much can be spent within specific schemes. It is an individual responsibility to determine whether such a scheme is affordable or beneficial to them, as each person's circumstances and preferences are different.
We also offer a variety of methods to help people with the costof-living crisis in addition to all the free benefits mentioned above. This includes information on a range of financial well-being support options, a pop-up shop that sells goods at cost price and a school uniform swap shop. We are continuing to explore other ways in which we can support colleagues during this difficult time.
Kind regards,
Frances Jackson Senior People & OD Partner (Retention Lead)Wasted resources?
Dear Heartbeat,
Can someone explain why there is so much for want of a better term ‘wasted resources’ on interpreters?
I say this because every day I work, I see interpreters arriving and when the patient arrives, saying, they have NOT requested an interpreter and they (the interpreter) are still getting paid at band 4 level I believe.
A lot of these patients come on a regular basis, they know exactly what treatment they are having and what it entails, so why on earth are these interpreters being paid week after week to relay the same messages? Something needs to be done about the needless booking of some of these interpreters.
Please do not reply mentioning the Trust not wanting family members to interpret because I have also seen relatives arrive with patients that have had interpreters booked and the family member has refused the interpreter coming into the consultation and they the relative goes in and interprets what is being said and they (interpreter) are still being paid for work not done.
Thanks, Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for flagging this as an issue. Interpreters are provided on the basis of bookings requested locally by clinical teams and the central team make every effort to accommodate these through the Trust bank interpreters (45 - 50); you are right to say they are renumerated at AfC band 4 .
On the issue of family interpreting, it's true that Trust interpreting policy explains that patients’ family and friends should not be used to interpret, although there are circumstances where this needs to be balanced against a patient’s health need at that time, for example if an undue delay in providing an interpreter may be a risk to the patient’s health.
Our policy is based on national evidence-based guidance (NHS England, 2019), which strongly discourages reliance on family interpreting. However, this guidance explains that if a patient expressly desires a family member to interpret, informed consent should be obtained, sought from them independently of the family member, in their own language and documented by clinical staff. This can be picked up locally when deciding whether an interpreter is required for an appointment.
Use of family though is strongly discouraged in policy to safeguard clinical accuracy and independence of translation in general. Often interpreters are requested by clinicians for this reason.
A region-wide review of our interpreting services was recently completed with a number of actions to be picked up regarding quality. One of these will be implementation of remote video interpreting. This is not intended to replace face-to-face interpreting however, but to enhance service provision in the event there is an unmet need.
Not knowing the detail of the area or clinic, it is difficult to comment more specifically. I am very happy to come over to hear more about the issues pointed out and pick up with service leads as appropriate if you would like to get in touch - jamie.emery2@nhs.net.
Best wishes,
Jamie Emery Patient Insight and Involvement Lead
Last month I wrote about the work we were doing to agree and finalise our plans for the new financial year. Like most NHS organisations we are balancing a bleak financial situation along with national expectations of how to safely staff our services along with recovery and restoration of services.
Since launching our strategy in 2022, we have already made good progress against the priorities we agreed last year. We have:
• Developed and launched the underpinning strategic plans/ frameworks including the Fundamentals of Care, People Plan and Digital Plan
• Developed and launched our new values and behavioural framework
• Made progress in collaborating with our colleagues in the Place Based Partnerships especially in integrated discharge planning and admission avoidance
• Created the Midland Met Programme company, as we continue to prepare for opening.
We are on track, but still have work to do on:
• Finalising our approach for Continuous Quality Improvement, which will launch after opening MMUH
• Improving our financial position in line with our three year financial strategy
• Opening MMUH safely, by reducing our bed occupancy through admission avoidance and patient journey improvements
• Improving staff and patient experience
• Improving quality governance and assurance – for example against new, Care Quality Commission (CQC) standards.
Our strategic initiatives, which will drive our strategic objectives are:
• Fundamentals of Care, to improve standards of quality, safety and experience for patients. This work will also support improving our CQC rating
• Use of Resources, to improve our financial sustainability
• People Plan, to improve staff experience
• Place Based Partnerships, in Sandwell and Ladywood and Perry Barr, to support seamless care in the population we serve
• MMUH opening, supporting the transformation of our services and estates, together with social and economic regeneration.
Within these strategic initiatives we have agreed a series of goals for 2023/24 – 2026/27 which directly map to the national expectations set out in NHS England’s operational planning guidelines, alongside important goals to for us as an organisation in achieving our long term strategic objectives.
Finally, we have identified a series of priorities for 2023/24, which are, in essence, the first stage of each strategic initiative. These priorities reflect what things we think will make the biggest difference in delivering those medium term goals:
• Fundamentals of Care will focus on harm-free care and communication
• Use of resources will focus on reducing bank and agency spend, and increasing elective activity to deliver 104 per cent of activity in 2019/20
• People Plan will focus on developing our leaders, at all levels
• Place Based Partnerships will focus on a high quality patient journey, from community, through hospital and back to the community
• MMUH Opening will focus on reduced bed occupancy to open safely and improve patient safety and experience. Over the next few months, the exec team and I will be planning some ‘town hall’ sessions across the organisation to discuss these plans with you in more detail. Do come along and find out how you can contribute to our plans. More detail will follow in our daily communications bulletins.
Around three years ago the world was struck by an international crisis. As COVID 19 spread throughout the globe, society would never be the same again. Presently communities face continued anguish as they tackle the current welfare crisis in the wake of a the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
Isolation, poverty, stressful lifestyles and poor mental health have been exacerbated due to the stresses of the continued cost of living crisis, and it is important not to underestimate the impact on the local community during this period of austerity and adversity.
Due to these circumstances SWB’s volunteers services team with input from the Trust charity and some co-financing provided by Sandwell Council have all joined forces to support the local population by piloting a community café & hub within the warm surroundings of the Oldbury Library and Council House.
The Oldbury Library Café is the new place to be. A place where members of the public can find some solace, inspiration and contact with volunteers, join various fun programmes from knitting to learning about the roles of art, health and wellbeing, and of course read a book and enjoy a hot drink all within a warm and safe space.
Since opening in February this year, the Oldbury Library Community Café has proven to be a popular place for the public to come together and use the amenities or just enjoy a hot drink and a comforting chat with the team.
The aim is to grow the facilities and include the selling of household goods and to increase the wide variety of community programmes. By doing so, the partnership will continue to support the local area and bring together people who require the added encouragement to improve their mental health and social surroundings. The café area can serve further purposes too by supporting the local community: not only by providing basic hot drinks and warmth, but also hosting a good-sized catch-up space with access to IT facilities that can accommodate up to 16 people. For a small fee an organisation can hire the space to promote topical health issues, wellbeing & welfare campaigns. The venture could also work nicely with the input of local schools and colleges to offer projects for young people looking for a path into future employment. Moreover, the drop-in services at the library café are all run by a small but dedicated group of volunteers.
To find out more about the Oldbury Library Café you can contact christopher. spencer7@nhs.net
