Heartbeat October 2021

October 2021

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

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

Issue 146

The Star Awards return – celebrating our 2021 winners!

Pages 16–17

Your winners in the categories voted for by you are: Non-Clinical Team of the Year – Bereavement Care Team; Clinical Team of the Year (Adults) – COVID Intensive Care Team; Employee of the Year – Julie Booth and Clinical Team of the Year (Children) – Children’s Speech and Language Therapy Team.

Doctors quick to get boosted

Changes in Information Governance

Do your bit to stop antibiotics resistance

SurgiNet roll out success

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FROM THE CHAIR HELLO Welcome to your October edition of Heartbeat.

This month we put our hands together for the winners of our 2021 Star Awards ceremony as we look back on the past 12 months and celebrate the fantastic achievements, support and patient care provided by our colleagues.

But these aren't the only awards we celebrate this month, we also cover the Make a Difference awards and Breaking Breast Feeding Barriers awards. Not only this, we also share the success of the SurgiNet launch, workforce wellbeing and the importance of vaccination amongst young people.

Enjoy 

Contact us Communications Team

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

Sir David talks about… star quality It was a pleasure to attend the Star Awards event earlier this month to hear so many incredible stories of patient care, compassion and innovation from among our workforce. It was a night to be truly proud of everything our Trust stands for and provides for our population.

Thank you for nominating your teams or colleagues in this year’s awards scheme.

The awards event is a valuable opportunity to reflect on everything we have achieved and to recognise and value each other’s contributions.

This was my first opportunity to present an individual with the Chair’s award for notable contribution to health and social care. I was delighted to select Paula Arlington as a very deserving winner. Paula is the lead nurse for quality in care homes, a post that was secured through the Better Care Fund in 2018 as a partnership between our Trust and Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.

Paula has built up strong relationships with care home managers and is the “go to” person for advice and support which was vital as we entered the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paula worked alongside care homes, providing expert advice and support on PPE and infection control to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. She helped respond to outbreaks and even delivered essential supplies to care homes. It is no accident that the care home deaths of people with COVID-19 in Sandwell are among the lowest in the country.

Paula is a true embodiment of commitment and compassion. She continues to use her skills, knowledge and experience where they are most needed and she can confidently say that she has saved lives.

I know that many colleagues here and in partner organisations will join me in congratulating Paula on her award, but also in thanking her for her contribution.

When we talk about integrated care at our Trust, Paula’s work is a fantastic example, cutting across boundaries between health and social care to do what is right for our population.

Congratulations to Paula and all those finalists and winners of our 2021 Star Awards.

Published by Communications Team Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

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

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

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

Don't forget you can follow us on: Sir David Nicholson presents Paula Arlington with the Chairman's Award at the Star Awards 2021

Doctors quick to get boosted With winter approaching and the potential for a severe flu season, colleagues are ensuring they get as much protection as possible by getting their COVID booster and flu jabs.

Dr David Carruthers, Medical Director explained: “I’ve had my COVID booster jab and my flu vaccination. I am sure you will all want to join me in doing all you can to help protect yourselves, colleagues and patients over the coming months. Please remember to allow six months from your second COVID vaccination before you have your booster.”

Dr Chetan Varma, Group Director, Medicine and Emergency Care and Consultant Interventional Cardiologist added: “COVID has been very difficult for us all and it still

prevalent among us, so I’d urge everybody to get their COVID booster injection as soon as possible to help prevent the spread.”

Dr Shaun Thein, Respiratory Specialist Registrar said: “I’ve seen COVID first hand so I’ve had my COVID booster and my flu jab. As a new father I want to protect my family as well as my patients.”

The Trust is operating walk-in clinics for the COVID booster jab and flu vaccination at various sites. You can also book an appointment at the clinics, which are listed below with opening times. Both vaccinations are perfectly safe to have together. Should you not wish to do this, you can split your jabs by booking two separate appointments or just make it clear when you attend a walk-in clinic.

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS COVID-19 boosters will be Pfizer and those eligible include those who have had their second dose (including Pfizer or Astra Zeneca) and have no contraindications to the Pfizer vaccination. There must be at least six months (180 days) between your second dose of your COVID-19 jab and your booster.

The Sandwell vaccination hub closed on October 31, but pop up clinics will be held throughout November on site. The City vaccination hub will remain open seven days a week where colleagues will be able to receive their flu jab and COVID booster. A pop-up clinic will operate on Monday at Rowley Regis Hospital, where no appointment is needed.

If you receive your COVID booster and/or flu vaccination elsewhere please ensure that your place of work is recorded as Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust on the system. This will help to keep your occupational health records updated so that you do not receive further correspondence about the vaccinations.

Dr Chetan Varma receiving his COVID booster

If you have any questions regarding the vaccine please contact occupational health on 0121 507 3306. Colleagues should also be aware that we are now offering walk-in and booked appointments for 12-17 year-olds at the City hub

Boost your immunity this winter Get your flu jab and COVID-19 booster

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Introducing new antibody treatment for patients with COVID-19 COVID-19 The road to normality is a long one.

Yet thanks to the work being done by ourselves in the NHS, public and private healthcare organisations around the world and research and development institutions, more and more avenues of exploration are uncovered. Every step forward is taking us that much closer to an end where we can finally close the book on all things COVID-19.

One new drug born out of this advancement and an option to inpatients is Ronapreve.

Following on from a thorough review of the evidence carried out by the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and recommendation by the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), the government’s independent expert scientific advisory body, the MHRA has approved Ronapreve as the first monoclonal antibody combination product indicated for use in the prevention and treatment of acute COVID-19 infection for the UK. Ronapreve, which is developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. in partnership with Roche Registration GmbH, is intended for the treatment of

Laboratory work continues to create new treatment pathways – and refine existing ones COVID-19 in adults and adolescents from 12 years of age who do not require supplemental oxygen therapy and who are at increased risk of progressing to severe COVID 19. As well as for the prevention of COVID-19 in adults and adolescents aged 12 years and older.

Monoclonal antibodies are like the antibodies your body makes to fight viruses and other bugs, but are made in the labs of pharmaceutical companies. They are designed to target the coronavirus spike protein.

A webinar took place at the end of September which explained more about the treatment

rationale, pathways and prescribing information. Panel members on the webinar included colleagues from the pharmacy, medical director's office, and also the clinical advisory group.

For more information and a link to the webinar as well as supplementary materials, please see recent COVID-19 bulletins which are sent out by the communications team every Friday.

Alternatively the webinar can be found at https://youtu.be/WzQyqc1-lX

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

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Under 18? Why young people should consider getting vaccinated COVID-19 But how does getting vaccinated come into this?

With the number of COVID cases rising in teenagers, it is important that more young people get vaccinated.

Government guidelines now state that if someone has been vaccinated and has a negative lateral flow test, they are not required to isolate even if they have a ‘close contact’. Furthermore, the Pfizer vaccine is roughly 52 per cent effective after the first dose, significantly lowering a students’ chance of getting ill. This means that more time off school can be prevented. With the levels of mental health cases on the rise and CAMHS services overwhelmed, it is important that students are able to return to a regular routine that encourages both social and learning time.

Jayni Makwana, daughter of Consultant Paediatrician, Nick Makwana shares her views on vaccination of young people

By Jayni Makwana With the government opening doses of the Pfizer vaccine to those aged 12-15, getting the COVID vaccine has become more accessible to teenagers - but why is it so important for you to get vaccinated?

COVID-19 has made me really worried about how I am going to cope with my exams. I don’t feel prepared, and I am so stressed all the time. This is part of a real conversation I have had with my friend and, unfortunately, she is not alone.

The pandemic has taken a huge toll on students’ lives- both academically and

socially. It was reported that, in March 2021, 46 per cent of 977 parents of teenagers said that their child has shown signs of a new or worsening mental health condition since the start of the pandemic.

With so much isolation and loss of normality, it is understandable that young people have found themselves feeling lonelier and more troubled. Research shows that students have missed over a third of their education over the last year. In addition to this, individuals who have had to isolate will have missed out on even more. This is concerning because school life provides students with not only the chance to learn, but also to communicate with others, something vital to their mental wellbeing and character development.

As a young person, I would recommend getting the vaccine as a method of regaining the regularity that we have all missed since the start of the pandemic.

Not only does it protect students at school, but it also protects their families too. Pupils are less likely to have to isolate because they are, overall, less likely to catch the disease and so less likely to pass it onto their relatives keeping everyone safe. Furthermore, with more people vaccinated, events such as concerts and festivals are safer and more accessible to everyone, especially those with health conditions who have been isolating for so long.

This can significantly improve people’s lives and help them regain the sense of freedom and normality they have lacked, whilst combatting feelings of separation they might have had with the outside world.

If you are at all anxious or have any concerns about getting the vaccine, I would advise you to speak to a health professional to help you make an informed decision. As a 16 year old with a heart condition, I have had both of my jabs and the health professionals who looked after me made me feel very safe and comfortable, as well as providing me with all the necessary information that settled any anxieties I had. I would encourage any young person who is able to be vaccinated to take the opportunity to protect not only themselves, but also their peers and families from both COVID-19 and the negative mental health effects that exist alongside this pandemic-altered world.

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View from the frontline COVID-19 Working as RCP Chief Registrar at the Trust throughout the first two waves of COVID-19, Dr Vaishnavi Kumar – who has since rotated to work at UHB – recalls the challenges of the pandemic alongside the team spirit that kept her going.

She explained: “When the pandemic took hold and familiar routines changed beyond recognition, we had to adapt quickly to create new working practices that would keep us safe whilst we got on with treating and caring for our patients.

“My parents live in Leicester and having no other family of my own meant that I was able to form a bubble with them as they both work for the NHS (my father as an anaesthetist). Not having children myself to return to at home helped in a way to not feel worried about transmission after a shift looking after COVID patients. However, my grandparents - who I am very close to and used to visit most summers since my childhood - live in South India. Due to the pandemic, I was unable to travel to India to visit them. I unfortunately lost my grandfather earlier this year and again couldn’t attend his funeral as it was during the peak of the second wave of the pandemic. It has been quite challenging emotionally not being able to see him before he died and spend time with my remaining grandparents as they get older. Some of my family members became very unwell with COVID-19 during the peak in India and the struggles they had to receive timely healthcare reminded me of how incredibly fortunate we are to have the NHS.”

After graduating from medical school and completing foundation and core medical training, Vaishnavi is currently undertaking her five-year higher specialty training to specialise as a doctor in diabetes and endocrinology and General Internal Medicine (GIM). During her placement as chief registrar at SWB, she worked across general medicine (as the medical registrar) and her own specialty during clinical time whilst she trained in leadership and management during her nonclinical time as the chief registrar.

Her medical registrar role meant she had the responsibility of coordinating a team to provide emergency medical care for patients, managing unwell patients out of hours, working closely with the on-call medical consultants to highlight any issues and decide what to do next for each patient.

so unwell and having to go into intensive care. I once saw a 21-year-old, with no other health problems, who didn’t make it.”

When talking about the mental health impact on staff, Vaishnavi says: “Talking about it helps, and my colleagues and I talk a lot. It’s brought us closer together and we’ve had the chance to work with people we wouldn’t usually work with. But equally, some days you get home, and you just need to have a good cry after holding it together at work.

“We were really fortunate at SWB; as we were given lots of support both from NHS Charities Together and generally to help look after us. We had access to counselling and talking therapy, even anonymously.

The wellbeing team is well signposted internally.”

During the pandemic, Vaishnavi saw huge numbers of patients suffering from COVID-19, as the clinics around her speciality were put on pause to cope with the vast number of admissions.

“We have all gone through different emotions with each wave. The first time around, it was a huge shock, and we were dealing with a lot of uncertainty. At the same time, we felt enthusiastic about tackling it – we felt like we were doing something heroic, and the public sentiment echoed that.

“All specialty training for junior doctors like myself was on hold, and I could no longer practice in my specialty. I had to focus on the pandemic alone, alongside my colleagues.

The impact of the pandemic could mean that we won’t have doctors progressing through training at the expected rate and becoming consultants, if we continue to see training paused during each wave.

“It was concerning as I was seeing colleagues and doctors becoming unwell with COVID too. We’re a caring profession – and this is our calling – but it’s really challenging seeing people my age or younger than me becoming

Dr Vaishnavi Kumar, RCP Chief Registrar

Want to relax and unwind in a safe place? Visit the Wellbeing Sanctuary and enjoy a range of free treatments including a massage, meditation and relaxation hypnotherapy.

Call 0121 507 5886 to book your free session today.

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Wellbeing

From hearts on boards to referrals on wards Cardiology have been reaping the CORPORATE AND GENERAL rewards of moving to a fully integrated referral system that ensuresNEWS that they have a fully up to date list of patients, with all of their referral notes, test results and correspondence at the touch of a button in our Unity patient record.

COVID-19

When multi-practitioner task lists (MPTL) were enabled in Unity in July, cardiology were the first to fully integrate their referral pathways in to the new system moving themselves away from the innovative but haphazard referral systems they had in the past, to the new fully digitised system.

Sharing his thoughts on the progress made since the move, Interventional Cardiologist and Patient Safety Lead Leong Lee said: “Before we put the new MPTL system to use, we were reliant on referring clinicians marking hearts on boards in their wards to indicate that a patient needed a specialist referral to cardiology, whilst this worked reasonably well, it always left us feeling

a little uneasy about the possibility of mistakes being made, marks being lost and the inevitable delays involved in people having to keep an eye out for new referrals.

“Whilst referring clinicians could use the system, there was no way for us to ensure that referrals were appropriate, that supporting documentation was available and to keep everything evidenced, auditable, safe and secure.

“However, the new system is completely different, whilst we’ve done away with the artistic drawing of hearts, we can at a moment’s notice see our complete referral list, including full details of medical notes, history, test results and referral information.

We’re finally able to react to referrals quickly and effectively and ensure that patients are able to be seen in a timely manner.

“In the first month of operation using the new MPTL system we had 169 referrals to cardiology using the system. That’s 169 patients who we can confidently say

we were able to see much more quickly, confident in the knowledge that we have all of the information we need and most importantly all of their information was securely stored on Unity, allowing us to see live information about their condition, not old data that may have been shared at the time of the referral.”

The new multi-practitioner task list (MPTL) functionality in Unity means there is no need for paper referrals, no need for secondary referral systems for inpatient referrals. Inpatient referrals for specialist services can be made from Unity.

Details of how you can refer to cardiology using MPTL are available on Connect. For more information, please contact Pam Towers on 0121 507 4153 or email: pamela.towers@nhs.net

CORPORATE AND GENERAL Office 365: The move to cloud NEWS CORPORATE AND GENERAL computing NEWS In the coming months we move to Office 365.

As part of the move, there are some key points to understand, these are: 1. We will be moving to a completely cloud based system with your departmental files being stored on SharePoint.

2. We will be rolling out online versions of the Microsoft Office Applications that you have grown to rely on to do your job. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook – each will be available by logging in using your NHS mail account.

3. Everyone will get access to a secure online area known as OneDrive where they can keep their personal documents such as PDRs and payslips.

A move of this scale obviously does not come without its challenges – and it’s important that we are able to migrate smoothly from our traditional network shares to SharePoint with no loss of service.

To support this move, migration leads will lead on migrating files for their respective departments, coordinating with their teams on schedules to ensure that colleagues know when they need to switch from accessing files on the network shares, to using SharePoint.

You can find a list of all of the Trust network shares and who will be leading on organising their move from share drives to SharePoint on Connect.

Departments should ensure that they have planned for their data to be migrated and for colleagues to be using the new Office 365 system by 10 December.

To ensure you are able to migrate smoothly, please ensure you have done the following: •

Review the list of migration leads, if you find that there is an issue with a listing, please contact penina. chiweshe@nhs.net, with details of the department and the network share that needs amending.

•

Colleagues who would like some support with the new system can access online training, or book one to one support through the IT service desk on ext 4050.

•

Colleagues should begin organising and transferring their personal documents out of their network H drives and in to their new OneDrive share areas. H drive migrations to OneDrive should be carried out by colleagues themselves. Migration leads will not be responsible for this move.

If you would like further support on migrating files, please contact the IT service desk on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050

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Embracing our future with Midland Met CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS We recently shared our plans to announce an opening date for Midland Met in 2023. As Chief Executive, Richard Beeken outlined, it is becoming more likely we’ll open in 2023. We are continuing to work closely with Balfour Beatty to review their work programme so that we can announce an opening date with confidence before the end of this year.

Rachel Barlow, Director of System Transformation, explained: “Our focus is ensuring we receive and hand over a high-quality building. Once we have agreed on an opening date, we can risk assess the impact of delay and ensure we can continue to provide safe and effective care.

concerns at this stage.

“Between now and February, we will work with clinical services and corporate directorates to conclude the acute care model design and finish workforce planning.”

Rachel added: “In the meantime, we’ll start to test as part of this year’s winter plan future models of care, for example, in frailty bringing innovation in health care to our population long before the doors of Midland Met open.

“We must continue to work collaboratively; together, we can work towards achieving and implementing milestones. Several activities require our focus before we announce an opening date and, everyone is working hard to get us to where we need to be.”

We have lots to achieve before we open our doors. This is a look back at progress updates shared in 2021: •

April - Announced clinical services/wards at Midland Met

“As an executive team, we’re open to hearing your feedback, answering your questions and understanding any of your

•

June - Shared plans for the Trust’s retained estate, including community beds and treatment centres

Putting patients first with SCaT engagement session

multidisciplinary team.” Another remarked: “I found it very useful - it was great to meet some of the other patients and speak to members of staff so that they could hear our voices about what we need from the new

This month we hosted our first sickle cell and Thalassaemia (SCaT) engagement session. On National Thalassaemia Day, (19 October) the Trust welcomed patients, carers, and voluntary sector representatives, to discuss our model of care as we move into our new hospital and actively seek input on the things that matter the most to our patients.

Chief Executive, Richard Beeken opened the event, stating: “We provide the regional services for SCaT services, and we’re proud to do so. Today’s session is about our short, medium, and long term plans to improve the service.

“Our new hospital is the big strategic lever for changing clinical best practices and delivering better for our patients and carers. Today is an opportunity for you to explore with us what it’s all about – what it will look like, feel like, and how the services will change to fit within it.”

The event included the opportunity for Q&As and interactive group sessions.

Groups split out, and there was lots of lively chatter about how to best shape the services we will provide at Midland Met. Sadeh, a patient, told us: “I attended to hear the proposals and to share my opinions so we can work as one

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Sadeh – a patient that uses our SCaT service

•

July - Updated on admin and agile working spaces

• August and September - Focused on progress within the clinical model, workforce and affordability work streams •

October - Mains power went on at Midland Met

There is a still a lot to come: • November - Mobile coverage business case to be agreed. Start testing clinical models in frailty and community care to support 2021 winter planning • December - Announce a revised opening date. Have some benchmark rooms ready which demonstrate the final finished standard for areas like single side rooms • February 2022 - Trust Board will consider the care model, workforce and affordability proposals •

2022 - Residents engagement sessions to begin.

hospital.”

This was the first of many patient engagement sessions that will be taking place as we gear up to open our doors. Stay tuned to find out more.

Celebrating our stars of the week

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS

Star of the Week

Star of the Week

Nina Faraon, TIA Clinic Nurse

Dr Catherine McGrath Consultant Rheumatologist

Dr McGrath was nominated for the weekly accolade for the unwavering support she offers patients and colleagues alike, always going the extra mile.

Submitting the nomination, Shenaz Mohammed MIS & OPAT Manager wrote: “The amount of hard work that Dr McGrath puts in is incredible; she follows up patient care, progresses where needed and also checks on the medical infusion suite team to make sure we are managing, offering her support whenever it is needed. She goes the extra mile for her patients and colleagues and works above and beyond. She is true definition of a caring physician.”

Star of the Week Syria Munhuweyi, Staff Nurse

The TIA clinic sees patients with suspected mini strokes very quickly after their referral to us usually within 24 hours. It runs seven days a week, even over the weekends.

This way we prevent major strokes from happening. Patients are reviewed clinically, have scans and are started immediately on appropriate medication. All through one very long appointment with us.

The clinic is one of the very few services that continued during the pandemic and Nina has played a pivotal role ensuring the service has been able to continue as it is. She balances the admin work to coordinate the appointments and find the rooms at the outpatients.

Nina liaises with all our patients who invariably praise her manner and her nursing skills as she explains and reassures them. In addition to this, Nina does some of the data analysis for our performance to allow me to distribute the workload to the consultants in a fair and efficient manner.

Nina embodies truly the role of the modern nurse in our era and is a true asset for our team.

During the pandemic, Syria has been caring for our elderly patients who need sophisticated care. She has been doing her

job with utmost priority whilst ensuring all patient care and safety needs are consistently being met whilst supporting patient family members in a sensitive way.

Syria’s work has been recognised for her due diligence and excellence by Umme Hafsa, Consultant who said: “Unfortunately, one of my patients recently died. She (Syria) was looking after him. When I spoke to a family member of the deceased patient, they informed me that Syria did a wonderful job when looking after the patient. She was considerate and kept the family upto-date. She tried her best to make the patient comfortable. The relative also informed me that she deserved a medal for what she did for her father.”

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Take part for a chance to win £200 worth of shopping vouchers Complete the survey to be automatically put into a prize draw. If you are one of the first 100 people to respond you could win £200 worth of shopping vouchers. There will also be further opportunities to win; with £50 worth of shopping vouchers being available to six lucky winners!

Responses are strictly confidential - no one from the Trust will see your completed survey or be able to identify individual responses.

By just giving 15 minutes of your time you can help make SWB the workplace we all want it to be.

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

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

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

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS To – Sakina Nazarali

To – Jennifer Law

To – Sam Gordon

Sakina stepped up to support an MSc Speech and Language Therapy student for their first day in a school when I was working from home due to COVID. This meant the student's placement with me could start on time and the student gained valuable experience from the extra day in school. Thank you Sakina.

Jennie is a lovely, bubbly member of the team. She always has a smile on her face.

She is so supportive to the rest of the team and it is a pleasure to work with her!

A fantastic team member to work with.

He communicated well with relatives and documented thoroughly when working on N5. Also provided leadership and advice to other members of the team. Thanks Sam!

From – Sofie Ashton

From – Hannah Mottershead

From – Karen Hoar To – Dr Subash Sivasubramaniam

To – Dawn Hall and the PLACE team A massive thank you to Dawn and the team for going the extra mile to support a fire visit in the BTC!

I’ve recently been working with Subash on the SurgiNet programme and wanted to say a huge thank you for going above and beyond to support all the project work.

Thanks Subash and everyone involved.

From – Lee Walker

From – Suzie Gray

To – Rosie Auld A young child was recently flown in an evacuation flight from Afghanistan. He required an urgent review for a serious eye problem. Rosie pulled out all the stops and navigated the logistical hurdles so that the child, who is still in quarantine could be seen in a timely manner.

From – Abdul-Jabbar Ghauri

To – Andy Farrington and Gary Shilvock To – Eric Thomas Thank you for your support today. Your kindness and patience was recognised.

Really appreciate your support. Well done keep up the same level of professionalism.

From – Sophia Panton

Both Andy and Gary went above and beyond when we had external HMI inspectors on site for three intense days.

The Inspectors needed to connect to the internet through secure networks. Both Andy and Gary came across to our building at short notice and got everything sorted which meant our inspection visit could happen and it went very smoothly.

From – Maxine Griffiths

To – Jay Akbar Jay saved the day today. Super quick, arranged pickup and delivery of vital special gases from City to Sandwell lung function department. Without our amazing transport team we would have had to cancel patients. Big thank you from the respiratory physiology team.

From – Amina Mohamed

To – Freya Smith Freya worked with a family on a complex autism diagnosis where she went above and beyond to achieve the right result for the young person. The mum rang Freya to tell her she was the only professional that listened to her and that she'd always hold a special place in her heart for how much she'd changed their lives for the better.

From – Claire Westwood

To – Nyarai Zimhunga and Rachael Blick Congratulations to you both on successfully completing your health assessment course.

This was harder than expected due to the learning being online. Also complicated due to the teaching faculty and assessors changing as the course was in full swing.

Well done, this puts you in a good position for the next step, NMP. From – Kelly Barnickle

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To – Sandwell A&E I just want to shout out the nurses and doctors at Sandwell Hospital who took care of Xave the last couple of days! He was blue lighted into A&E with an awful asthma attack and spent six hours in resus then to the children's ward. Honestly the care he received was faultless! I've never seen him so poorly before and everyone just acted so quickly to get my boy better!

He's home now safe and sound and I just am so thankful! Thank God for our NHS.

To – Sewing Room, Sandwell I visited the sewing room with the intention of just dropping off my uniform request, as the department was closed.

However the staff present promptly issued my complete request. I was very grateful because I work cross site. Thanks again!

From – Jean Graham

From – Charlotte Powell

To – Connected Palliative Care Hub Admin Team

To – Sandra Lowe Sandra guided me through the pension process such a lovely lady inside and out .

Thank you for all your hard work and extra hours you have been doing while we have been significantly impacted with staffing issues. You are a wonderful caring and helpful team helping relatives of patients who are End of Life and supporting their colleagues however they can.

From – Carol Bate

From – Sylvia Haywood-Exton

Restart a heart day – Rolling out life saving skills In the UK, there are approximately 66,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests each year.

Around 1 in 10 of these patients survive and about three quarters of these cardiac arrests happen at home. If someone you are with has a cardiac arrest, would you know what to do?

Every October, hundreds of thousands of people across the UK, and many more worldwide, learn CPR as part of the national ‘Restart a Heart’ campaign spearheaded by the Resuscitation Council and this year is no different.

Across our Trust, resuscitation forms part of the basic life support training that all clinical colleagues undertake and are assessed on. This includes a mix of theory as well as much needed hands on experience that forms part of the assessment.

Sharing her thoughts on the ‘Restart a heart day’ Senior Sister in the deteriorating patients and resuscitation team Dawn Martin said: “It’s incredibly important for colleagues in both clinical and non clinical roles to understand the basic life support and resuscitation techniques. We have a

really robust means to roll out training to our clinical teams through our ‘Basic Life Support Assessors’ who support us to roll out training to every corner of our Trust, but the statistics are clear – most cardiac arrests will occur in the most unexpected circumstances, so it’s important for colleagues to ensure they are fully trained.

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS

“We have over 200 BLS assessors who support colleagues across our Trust to brush up on their BLS training, complete their assessment and to provide support in understanding changes to the clinical guidelines.

“COVID-19 proved to be quite challenging when it came to resuscitation, with contradicting advice flowing from unreliable sources making it difficult for people to understand what their roles in resuscitation is. It’s important that colleagues take the time to complete their training, understand what is being asked of them, what their role is and most importantly discuss any question, queries or concerns they have.

when dealing with additional aerosol generating procedures when managing airways.”

“But to be clear, even with COVID, chest compression only CPR and early defibrillation can still be carried out, and in hospital level 3 PPE is required,

For more information on completing basic life support training please contact swbh.resuscitationtraining@nhs.net

Restart a Heart day raises awareness of the importance of learning CPR

Difference makers honoured at Sandwell The Star Awards weren't the only accolades being dispensed at our organisation in October as two members of the Trust were honoured for their work around trying to make the NHS a better place.

Tying in with Black History Month, 'Make A Difference' awards are presented by both the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and NHS organisations - a unique opportunity to recognise and reward nursing staff who support others and have made a real difference to patients and/or colleagues.

Sol Jeewa, Pastoral Lead, and Shakila Rasool, Practice Development Senior Sister were both recipients of the trophies in a small ceremony at Sandwell Hospital's Education Centre on 20 October.

"Peers and colleagues nominated those who had really done some outstanding work in forwarding our push for equality, diversity and inclusion," explained Director of Midwifery Helen Hurst, who hosted the award presentation.

Handing over to Cathy Brown, she presented the first award to Sol Jeewa.

"Sol, as our Pastoral Lead for our internationally recruited nurses has certainly had to hit the ground running given all that has occurred - and certainly wasn't aware of all he would end up having to do. It's been an extremely tricky balancing act, but a challenge Sol has risen too. He truly has made a difference and we couldn't have done it without him."

supported them through the whole process right up to a hearing and she really champions or EDI agenda in critical care. She has been phenomenal."

Group Director of Nursing Amber Markham presented the second award to Shakila Rasool and spoke of her role in helping the critical care team move forward from an incident "I was the one who nominated Shakila for this particular award. Why? Because she did something really brave: she helped stand up for what is right. She helped call out an incident of racism within critical care and supported all the junior nurses within the team, some of whom were worried about raising such a concern. As you know, speaking up is important to our Trust, Shakila

Sol Jeewa, Pastoral Lead, accepted his Make a Difference award

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Research internships creating valuable experiences and opportunities CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS Research is a massive part of the future of our NHS and is vital in eradicating disease and improving health in our communities. Whether we are clinical or non-clinical, we are encouraged to participate in research in one way or another; this could be through research trials, studies or internships. Trupti Lakha, Specialist Podiatrist in Diabetes was the first podiatrist at our Trust to be successful in participating actively in research – a great achievement for the department and the Trust itself.

She explains how studying as part of the NIHR Clinical Academic Internship Programme (CAIP) has helped her develop skills and experience to expand research ideas, improve patient outcomes and make service improvements.

Trupti explained: “Seeing the impact of research around COVID-19 and how research could benefit people in a positive way sparked my interest in applying for the NIHR Clinical Academic Internship Programme (CAIP) at the University of Birmingham.

“Research advances have impacted our lives locally, nationally and globally. So, I was honoured to be accepted onto such a highly sought after course.

“Meeting the other successful interns highlighted that podiatrists involved in research are rare. The internship programme enables allied health professionals (AHPs) to Trupti Lakha, Specialist Podiatrist in Diabetes promote, develop and expand their research ideas to further improve patient outcomes, “Not only did I gain valuable experience and make service improvements and medical opportunity, but also Masters level credits. health advances within their own speciality Completing the internship, has given me and further afield. the confidence to take the next step in a journey toward fulfilling a career path in “The course begins at the same point clinical academic research. Changes within in the academic calendar like any other the field have opened doors for AHPs to degree (September- October) and runs become clinical research practitioners when for 12 months with protected study time. previously; the title was job specific towards The course covers salary costs for study nurses and midwives only.” undertaken away from clinical practice and is open to both full time and part time staff Recently, the importance of research has members. never been highlighted more so now, than ever with UK Research and Innovation “Collaboration and support from my manager helped me to complete the course (UKRI) investing millions of pounds to expand and upgrade existing research to my full potential by giving me the space infrastructure across the country. Evidence to progress and fulfil course objectives. suggests that research active departments Supervisors are allocated to each intern provide improved, positive patient outcomes and course leads were at hand to support as evidence based practice improves health. throughout the programme. Due to the COVID pandemic, the course was delivered Trupti continued: “Sharing ideas with virtually with an individual in-person likeminded people and knowing that presentation at the end. my work will be a step towards making

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someone’s life better makes pursuing my interest in research all the more important.”

Gina Dutton, Head of Research and Development said: “The Trust is keen to encourage non-medical clinical colleagues who are interested in undertaking research to look at the funded academic opportunities available. A team of nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, pharmacists and healthcare scientists are working together to develop a Trust non-medical research strategy, which will include signposting colleagues to these opportunities.”

If you are interested in completing a research internship, please contact Gina.Dutton1@nhs.net More information about the scheme can be found at https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/ clinical-academic-careers/researchinternships

Updates to information governance support CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS

In the last issue of Heartbeat we explained that some of the information governance (IG) expertise will now be outsourced. Here, we introduce Keith James and Curtiss Green who have joined the information governance team.

DO: • Ensure that computer monitors cannot be seen by people, especially in public receptions.

•

Lock away portable equipment containing PCD or other confidential information when not in use.

• Ensure cabinets containing PCD are locked when unattended.

•

Ensure any confidential information, whether PCD or business information, written / printed on paper that is no longer required is placed in a confidential waste bin.

• Ensure you keep yourself up to date on policies and procedures and how you use Trust systems.

• Contact the IG Team if you need help or support • Lock your computer when you are not using it.

Keith James is an Information governance (IG) and data protection (DP) resource for kNg+. He is a 30 year NHS veteran who commenced in the NHS as a student nurse and was seconded over to IG when he was a deputy ward manager and never went back to nursing. He enjoys using his skills to contribute to the exciting advances that happen every day within IG / DP and try to educate individuals throughout the journey. Keith has provided services for all kinds of organisations (Acute, Mental Health, CCG, CSU, GP’s, pharmacies as well as private companies) and looks forward to assisting the Trust.

Curtiss and Keith are supported by Ashok Dass who has worked in information governance at the Trust since 2015. Ashok provides information governance support service to internal and external requesters.

He handles a wide range of information governance related queries on a daily basis and is involved in monitoring compliance with information governance requirements.

Curtiss Green is a highly experienced IG Manager/Data Protection Officer and has worked in acute, mental health, CCG and special health authorities. He has worked at local, regional and national level and was part of the original team that helped develop and implement IG into the NHS. Working with Keith James, the intention is to provide a responsive, effective and pragmatic IG/data protection function within the Trust, removing barriers to data sharing and providing support to both staff and service users. Curtiss is the nominated Data Protection Officer (DPO) for the Trust.

The team can be contacted on: » Curtiss Green and Keith James E-mail: swbh.infogov@nhs.net »

Ashok Dass Information Governance Assistant Telephone: 0121 507 4681 E-mail: swbh.infogov@nhs.net

» The Trust’s Data Protection Officer 07773 101075 swbh.swbdpo@nhs.net

DON'T: •

Discuss confidential matters outside of work, during breaks in public areas, or with anyone at work who does not need to know it; be aware that other people may overhear, particularly in wards, corridors and open plan offices.

•

Disclose who you see in any of the hospitals to anyone else, even if they are only met casually in public areas.

• Leave working papers lying around the ward or office, including in in-trays.

•

Allow anyone else, including your line manager or IT, to use your log-on to any Trust computer or computer system.

To do so breaches the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

•

Look at, or seek, any information relating to yourself, your family, friends, acquaintances or colleagues unless you are directly involved in their care or processing the information as part of your responsibility as an employee.

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Why it’s important to remember military within the Trust, the opportunity to talk about why it matters to them.”

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS

Her thoughts are echoed by ex-RAF service man, turned Head of Infrastructure, Craig Bromage.

As Remembrance Day nears, it is vitally important that we continue to mark this special event in our calendar.

Rev Mary Causer, Lead Chaplain, holds a ceremony every year to commemorate those who lost their lives serving their country, and this year there will be something taking place on each of our hospital sites.

Mary said: “In a five minute ceremony at Sandwell, City and Rowley gardens, we will lay some flowers and observe a two minute silence – look out for more details in the daily bulletin. We will remember those across the world who also fought in the earlier wars, Indian, African and Pilipino soldiers who also gave their lives in the effort of war.

Craig Bromage is ex-military “I want us to remember the men and women who were doctors and nurses, who in service, died helping others in wars and war torn countries and still do.”

Aside from this, for those of you who are ex-military, Mary would like you to tell us why remembering is still important.

“By doing this, we hear about the importance of this day from a different perspective,” she explained. “I want to give those who are ex-

He said; “Remembrance Day is very important to most serving and ex-serving forces personnel. Besides the obvious opportunity to reflect and give thanks to all who passed in service it’s also perhaps poignant for those to remember lost colleagues and friends and be grateful that they themselves are still here and have so far made it through.

“We’d all want to be remembered if we fell in service and the act of remembering is a mark of respect and loyalty.

“For me I am thankful that both myself and my family who served made it through. I recall the thoughts and feelings I had and often think about how others and their families would have felt who were less lucky.”

It’s a Good rating for our apprenticeship team Apprentices enjoy their learning because of the support and encouragement they receive. That was the verdict of officials from OFSTED after inspecting our apprenticeship provision over two days in August.

Our workplace currently provides training for approximately 90 apprentices who are completing qualification and levels 2 and 3.

The inspectors met with a range of apprentices, managers and trainers from the team and were full of praise when describing the apprenticeship programmes we provide. Comments included: “Apprentices value the interaction with trainers and the positive environments in which they work, both face to face and online. Consequently, apprentices feel acknowledged, listened to and respected irrespective of their backgrounds, experience or age.”

“Leaders and governors expect and support apprentices to excel so they develop the skills necessary to contribute towards the long-term sustainability of the Trust (the employer). Also, the Trust recognises the importance of apprentices in strengthening their activities and improving the quality of service that they offer.”

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We caught up with Widening Participation Manager/Apprenticeship Lead, Maxine Griffiths who told us she couldn’t be more proud of this fantastic achievement.

“To be rated good is testament to the dedication of not only the team, but the employing managers and the apprentices themselves.”

She said: “The inspection was a culmination of hard work over a long period of time. The team have worked tremendously for a number of years to ensure that our apprentices are supported to have the best experience and outcome from their training.

Congratulations to the team!

“We have appropriate governance in place and maintain good practice. We are all delighted with the rating; it is a real recognition of the quality of our teaching and learning provision. It is a clear demonstration of SWB’s investment in our local community and population.

The apprenticeship team were rated good for: • The quality of education • Behaviour and attitudes • Personal development • Leadership and management • Apprenticeships

Our apprenticeship team is rated good

A follow up inspection will take place in five years’ time. You can read the full report here reports.ofsted. gov.uk/provider/33/54263

Workforce wellbeing – find out more Wellbeing after ourselves and one another and share the benefits of wellbeing.

Lavinia Hines has been sharing advice on physical, mental and emotional wellbeing After a pretty challenging time within the NHS it’s important to remember as we look after others, we also look after ourselves.

In order to deliver effective, quality care for patients, we need to be aware of the resources and support available to us to make choices that support positive wellbeing. Lavinia Hines, Health and Wellbeing Lead Coach from The Wellbeing Sanctuary has been helping to do just that. Lavinia has been sharing advice on physical, mental and emotional wellbeing at QIHD sessions, events and away days. Her talks encompass exploring strategies and services both inside and outside of the Trust, and she is keen to engage with more teams.

Lavinia tells us more, she said: “I have a personal interest in wellbeing outside of work, it has never been more important that we look

“I have been spending time with teams to share ways to improve personal wellbeing and boost the wellness of colleagues. This has included ways to de-stress, maintain wellness and raise awareness of other services available both inside and outside of the Trust. It’s great to see how many teams have integrated the importance of wellbeing as part of these events but I am keen to reach out to more colleagues to raise awareness of what is available to benefit their wellbeing.

“There is so much on offer to boost your wellbeing and I am here to share strategies, services and advice on what works for you.

“Sessions run for 30 minutes for a wellbeing talk, or 45 minutes if you’d like to benefit from meditation which many colleagues have participated in and have enjoyed.

Feedback from the sessions has been really positive and there has been an increase in engagement from colleagues. Teams have felt supported by the wellbeing services that are available to them within the Trust and beyond.

CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS Cheryl Newton, Group Director of Nursing said: “Staff health and wellbeing is important and we wanted to utilise every opportunity to promote the importance of this. We recently held away days and in conjunction with Lavinia used this as an opportunity to raise awareness of what’s on offer. Lavinia supported some mindfulness during the sessions which led to some colleagues booking sessions with the team at the Sanctuary. We appreciate that teams are incredibly busy and we continue to talk within the group to establish what else can be done to support this important issue.”

Get in touch If you are organising a QIHD session or away day for your team, we have availability throughout November, December and January. Sessions can be delivered remotely or face-to-face for larger groups. Please get in touch with Lavinia at l.hines1@nhs.net to arrange a date. Sessions can also be arranged on an individual and confidential basis.

swbh.nhs.uk/charity

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Join our crane

Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 March 2022

ZIP WIRE CHALLENGE

on the site of the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital and raise money for Your Trust Charity.

Email trustcharity@nhs.net stating ZIP21 to register. fundraising target – £250

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winners

O

ur annual Star Awards ceremony took place on Friday 15 October at Aston Villa Football Club as we came together to celebrate another year of outstanding service provided by colleagues right here at the Trust. Star Awards 2021 was our first face to face awards ceremony since 2019 and we were pleased to come together to celebrate the fantastic work of our colleagues.

Albeit in a slightly different fashion with COVID safe measures in place, colleagues put their hands together and raised a glass to those teams, departments and individuals who have gone above and beyond during a particularly trying year.

We must say a special thank you to our sponsors whose support helped us to put together the event and gave attendees a special night to remember and for this, we share our sincere thanks. We must also share a special thanks to Des Coleman, ITV weatherman who did a superb job at hosting the evening once again.

Each year the awards attract hundreds of nominations that showcase the hard work, talent and dedication of our fantastic colleagues here at the Trust.

We saw stories of kindness, innovation, leadership, teamwork, excellent patient care and much more. Each and every single nomination highlights one important thing – we have some truly remarkable people working here.

Helping to decide the most deserving winners, we opened the vote to colleagues where four awards were voted for by you. These awards were Clinical Team of the Year, Non-Clinical Team of the Year (Children), Non-Clinical Team of the Year (Adults) and Employee of the year.

Congratulations to everybody that was shortlisted and to all of our winners.

You are the people who truly make our organisation a fantastic place to work.

Voted foR

by you Employee of the Year Julie Booth

Non Clinical Team of the Year Bereavement Care Team

Clinical Team of the Year (adults) COVID Intensive Care Team

Clinical Team of the Year (children) Speech and Language Therapy Team

winners Excellence in Education Prize

Award for Equality and Diversity Champion

Mohammed Mian

Medical Infusion Suite

Learner of the Year

Distinguished Service Award

Patient Safety Award

Excellence in Research Prize

Mayur Patel

William Thomson

Breast Screening Team

Farooq Wandroo

Primary Care Award for the most Valued Service in the Trust

Quality of Care Award

Fundraiser of the Year Cancer Services

Prize for Integrated Care Pioneer of the Year School Nursing Team

Primary Care COVID Hot Site Team

Digital Leader of the Year

New Leader of the Year

Kay Baker

Andrew Torrance

Breast Surgery Team

Prize for Innovation Children’s Therapy And Nursing Team

The Green Award Alcohol Care Team

Volunteer of the Year Volunteer Bereavement Befriending Service

Chairman’s Award Paula Arlington

Thank You to our Sponsors

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Value Partnerships Creating more value for you

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

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

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Do your bit to stop antibiotics resistance CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS Antimicrobial resistance is one of the leading risks to human health and the practice of modern medicine. It is estimated that antimicrobial resistance could cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050. Increasing antibiotic resistance potentially threatens the safety and efficacy of surgical procedures and immunosuppressing chemotherapy leading to negative impact on patient outcomes such as prolonged morbidity, hospital stay, and increased risk of death.

Antimicrobial stewardship is a key component in the reduction of healthcare associated infections and contributes to slowing the development of antimicrobial resistance. A start smart, then focus approach is recommended for all antimicrobial prescriptions.

Start smart

Antibiotics and COVID-19 The pandemic appears to have accelerated the threat of antimicrobial resistance as many patients admitted to hospitals displaying COVID-19 symptoms are treated with antibiotics to reduce their chances of contracting secondary bacterial infections.

Antibiotics will be ineffective for treating COVID-19 infection, unless there is bacterial co-infection. Evidence suggests that bacterial co-infection occurs in less than about five per cent of patients admitted with COVID-19; the incidence of bacterial infection increases during prolonged hospitalisation. However, even patients admitted to critical care are estimated to have relatively low rates of bacterial co-infection – up to 17 per cent.

To avoid inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in the context of COVID-19, Public Health England recommends that healthcare professionals: • Follow Trust guidelines to infer if pneumonia has a COVID-19, viral or bacterial cause.

Then focus

• Do not start antibiotics in the At 48-72 hours review clinical absence of clinical evidence of diagnosis and continuing bacterial infection need for antimicrobials, and document clear plan of action in • Take cultures before antibiotic Unity. Please check culture and administration sensitivity results before starting antibiotics.

• Check allergy history • STOP antibiotics if no evidence • Prescribe in line with SWB of infection policies and guidelines.

• SWITCH from IV to oral • Give first dose of antibiotic therapy within 1 hour for severe/lifethreatening infections • CHANGE antibiotics: de-escalate/substitute/add • Document indication for agents as per culture results antibiotic in Unity • CONTINUE and review again • Record duration of therapy after a further 24 hours (stop/review date) on the drug chart in Unity • CONSIDER potential for Outpatient Parenteral • Consult the duty Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT). microbiologist when appropriate.

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• Treat coughs, fever and breathlessness related to COVID-19 in line with new clinical guidance, not with antibiotics.

Please consider the COVID-19 and flu pathway for diagnosis, testing and clinical management.

• Explain to patients that antibiotics do not prevent or treat viral infections including COVID-19. If antibiotics are prescribed to patients who don’t have an infection, 1 in 3 will develop a complication, and that can be anything from a stomach upset, rashes or even clostridium difficile.

Play your part This year’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (18-24 November) theme is: Spread awareness, stop resistance.

The small changes that we can make in our daily lives, can add up to large scale change and help to avert this ‘silent pandemic’ – we too have a role, and we can make a difference.

Become an antibiotic champion We are currently seeking clinical colleagues to become antibiotic champions. This could be nurses, junior doctors, ward managers, registrars, pharmacists, consultants, matrons and pharmacy technicians – anyone who is interested in helping to improve the use of antibiotics at the Trust to improve patient care and limit the spread of antibiotic resistance.

Please see the antibiotics awareness pages on Connect for further info.

Become a community champion Spread awareness about antimicrobial awareness to your loved ones, your friends and community.

Further information Keep up to date with our activities throughout November in the daily communications bulletins. Antimicrobial resistance is scheduled to be the learning topic for November’s QIHD. For further information contact Dr Taran Saluja, Consultant Microbiologist and Antimicrobial Stewardship Lead at tsaluja@nhs.net

Celebrating our Black heroes CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS BME and NHS Facts via NHS Employers • The NHS is the fifth largest employer in the world, with one in five workers of BME heritage.

Colleagues celebrated Black History Month

“I am not ashamed to confess that I love to be of service to those who need a woman's help. And wherever the need arises - on whatever distant shore - I ask no greater or higher privilege than to minister to it.” – Mary Seacole.

We once again celebrated Black History Month which honours the achievements, culture and history of black people.

As with last year the continued restrictions placed by the impact of COVID-19 within NHS trusts has meant many organisations are not having face-to-face events, but instead are finding ways to mark the month with virtual meet-ups and online events.

Our theme for the month is ‘collaborate to elevate’, building unity and solidarity to amplify our voices and use our collective strength to rise up individually and collectively. For our area, the six Black Country and West Birmingham NHS Trusts combined for a special celebration event. A recognition of both effort and achievement of our Black Caribbean/ Black African colleagues throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic, along with the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, highlighted stark racial inequalities with a disproportionate impact on our colleagues from a Black Asian and Ethnic Minority background. Something both our Trust and the NHS in general continues to help battle.

The event took place on Friday 29 Octoeber at Edgbaston Park Hotel and was hosted

by Yvonne Coghill, former Director of the Workforce Race Equality Standard at NHS England and NHS Improvement. Awards

included Black African / Black Caribbean frontline hero, International Nurse of the year award and BAME Network of the year.

Joan Saddler, Director of Partnerships and Equality, NHS Confederation and CoFacilitator of the BME Leadership Network said: “This Black History Month we choose to celebrate and elevate the achievements and resilience of our colleagues and our communities. As the NHS People Promise says, we all have a voice that counts - let’s be proud of uniting our voices, in pursuit of our shared goal of making our NHS a vehicle for delivering equality for all.”

Unison also hosted celebrations at City Hospital to mark Black History Month in conjunction with our equality, diversity and inclusion team and the BME Staff Network on Thursday 28 October. The theme of the event was Windrush and WW2 economic migration and food and drink were supplied

by Caribbean and Asian caterers. Khalil Miller, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager praised the event organised by Florence Burgundy-Benders, A&E Receptionist and Nicola Walker-Rhoden, Health Care Assistant.

He told us: “The event went well and although some colleagues were unable to attend, myself, Nicola, Florence and others went round to wards at City and Sandwell to distribute food to those who were unable to leave the wards.”

• Black people make up 6.5 per cent of NHS staff. The proportion has increased but currently, only 10 per cent of NHS board members are from BME backgrounds.

• White staff are still 1.5 times more likely to be appointed for a job than BME staff.

• 5.2 per cent of the medical workforce and 6.6 per cent of the non medical workforce in the NHS are from a black background • 1.3 per cent of very senior managers working in the NHS are black • 2.5 per cent of Band 9 managers identify as black • 3.6 per cent of senior doctors, 7.1 per cent of junior doctors and 3 per cent of other doctors are from black backgrounds

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AMU celebrates 21st birthday MEDICINE AND EMERGENCY CARE

which was disastrous as large numbers of acutely unwell patients were all around the hospital with no ownership which led to high levels of mortality and morbidity.”

On Thursday 23 September, our Acute Medical Unit (AMU) at SWB celebrated its 21st birthday!

As a result, AMUs were born which enabled all acutely unwell medical patients to be admitted in one area and to be looked after by a dedicated team which lead to safer patient care.

Did you know, acute medicine is the youngest medical specialty across the country? But despite this, it’s still one of the fastest growing specialties with many junior doctors aspiring to become consultants within acute internal medicine.

The inception of acute medicine originally came about as traditionally, patients were admitted all around a hospital site meaning ward rounds could take up to eight hours.

Nationally acute medicine is responsible for the first 72 hours of care of our acutely ill patients. At SWB on AMU A at Sandwell and AMU 1 and 2 at City we look after a range of patients from the very sick, to those who need diagnostics and discharge to ambulatory care and admission avoidance. The Trust house level 1 beds and have large ambulatory areas as well as short stay units.

Dr Sarb Clare, Consultant Physician in Acute Medicine and Deputy Medical Director is just one of our many consultants who play a vital role in ensuring our AMU are providing the best possible care for our patients.

Since the introduction of acute medicine, national data shows that the specialty of acute medicine has reduced mortality and morbidity and reduced length of stay without an increase in readmissions all which have improved the patient journey.

Sarb recalls when she was a junior doctor prior to the introduction of AMU.

Sarb continued: “We have been leading the way nationally in many initiatives including recognition from SAM (Society Acute Medicine) for setting up the AMU virtual clinic, setting up the first AMU clinical skills laboratory and being awarded the prestigious RCP Harveian Award for the AIM/GIM medical junior rota.

She said: “As a junior I remember seeing approximately 80 patients a day all around the hospital. Many patients were not being seen by consultants as they were working within their specialty

Colleagues from the Acute Medical Unit celebrated its 21st birthday

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“In addition, AMU 1 City is a national exemplar for point of care ultrasound (POCUS) which has been key in saving lives and decreasing length of stay and more recently the team have led nationally in providing acute medicine in the community via the EPICENTRE project which delivers acute care traditionally given in hospital in patients own homes.”

When asked about the future of AMU, Sarb said: “We are celebrating 21 years of our specialty and I am proud to see it grow and flourish. When our new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital it will have one of the biggest acute medical departments in the UK meaning the future is certainly looking bright and I hope all of this will aid us in attracting the best doctors and nurses to work for SWB.” She added: "In my opinion acute medicine is without a doubt one of the best specialties as we get to make an impact on patients every day from saving lives to ensuring they get the possible end of life care, to practical procedures to innovation and improvement. A personal highlight for me is watching the junior doctors be inspired and fall in love with acute medicine and then progress through the ranks to become consultants."

SWB would like to wish AMU a happy birthday and say a huge thank to all our colleagues who continually care for our acutely ill patients.

Maternity turns pink and blue to mark baby loss The maternity building at City Hospital was lit up blue and pink during Baby Loss Awareness Week (BLAW).

WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH

Funded by facilities company ENGIE, the lights paid tribute to babies who have been lost to miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death. Baby Loss Awareness Week took place between 11 and 15 October.

Ann Minto, Bereavement Midwife said: “BLAW aims to give anyone touched by baby loss a safe and supportive space to share their experiences and feel that they are not alone.

“A loss of a baby is a very sad and life changing event for women and their families and by raising awareness we can continue to break the silence and remove the stigma that is attached.”

BLAW finished with the Global Wave of light on 15 October at 7pm. The event saw grieving families pay homage to the memories of their loved ones by lighting a candle in their honour.

everyone who contributed prizes to the raffle and those who bought tickets from us.

The maternity department marks Baby Loss Awareness Week

“I’d also like to thank Sue Mottram, Scentsy Consultant who donated three of our top prizes, and also Emily Thomas from Lindt based in Cannock who also gave us prizes.

Ann added: “BLAW was well supported by staff at the Trust and the Wave of Light was a lovely event.

“I would also like to thank Larraine Foy, ward services officer and ASDA at Merry Hill for their generosity.

“Eddie the Chaplain was present and said some lovely words and Vicky a bereavement support midwife, read a poem called Snowdrops, which is very special to her on a personal level.

“I’d also like to give a special mention to Gail and the specialist midwives based in the portacabin, Lauren Wood, mortuary manager, as well as Lloyd Williams from Estates , and ENGIE for the arrangements of the lights.”

“We held a raffle to raise funds for our Bereavement service and it was also a success.

“I would like to say a big thank you to

For more information on BLAW go to https://babyloss-awareness.org/.

Maternity lead the way in delivering safe care to hard-to-reach community access to maternity services.

“Third Sector Pregnancy Referral Centres will be provided with training, resources and ongoing support from the lead midwives to help expectant women they may come across, to directly refer to the local community midwifery team and impart simple health messages to ensure a healthy start to the pregnancy.”

Afrah Muflihi, Midwife, with members of the European Welfare Association The maternity department has facilitated one of the country’s first third sector pregnancy referral centres which will improve the way care is accessed by women.

In a move which is aimed at hard-to-reach Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups, it will mean earlier referrals ensuring a healthier start to pregnancy.

The European Welfare Association (EWA), a community interest organisation focused on supporting migrants, became the first to join the scheme, which is being led

by Afrah Muflihi, the recently-appointed equality, diversity and inclusion lead midwife.

Other referral centres to join will be the

Yemeni Community Association in Sandwell, Brushstrokes Refugee Centre, Murry Hall Trust, Sandwell and Walsall Citizens Advice Bureau, and Sandwell Consortium.

Representatives from the centres are given training by our midwives so they are able to offer health and wellbeing advice to pregnant women. The patients will also complete a referral form which is given to Trust midwives.

Afrah explained: “We have identified that women from Black and Asian backgrounds, those with limited English speaking abilities and mothers who are not born in the UK are more likely to access maternity care late.

“It is for this reason that we are reaching out to our community partners to help support these women in particular to have equitable

Afrah added: “Good Health in pregnancy significantly influences a baby’s development in the womb which, in turn, influences long-term health and educational outcomes.

“By giving every child the best start in life, we will help them fulfil their health, wellbeing and socioeconomic potential.

“Having early access to midwifery care and pregnancy related health information are one of the key drivers to improving the health of local mothers and their babies.

“Nice Guidelines (August 2021) recommend that antenatal care should be started in a variety of straightforward ways depending on women’s needs and circumstances and at the point of antenatal care referral.”

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Corrine and Adena scoop Breaking Breastfeeding Barriers Award WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH Corrine Dacosta, Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner and Adena Brown, HCA in Paediatrics have both been awarded certificates of recognition for their personal and professional dedication to breastfeeding.

Breaking Breastfeeding Barriers held their digital awards ceremony on Wednesday 28 August as part of Black Breastfeeding Week.

Corrine, who has worked at the Trust since 2010 was given the prestigious award for her dedication to breastfeeding her 2nd child for four years (who is still feeding) and for being an advocate to mothers on neonatal unit, encouraging and helping them to express and breastfeed their babies, and have lots of skin to skin contact to promote close and loving relationships which benefits both them and their baby.

When asked about winning the award Corrine said: “I feel honoured and very surprised. It’s nice to know I’m doing a good thing for my child and that the infant feeding team support my decision with breastfeeding my child and also appreciate the advice I give to mothers.”

She added: “Though I did leave SWB for a very brief period in 2015, I soon returned as my heart lives on the neonatal unit as my baby was cared for there 13 years ago after being born at 27 weeks which is why I always feel I want to give back.”

Adena, who has worked at SWB for over six years was also delighted when she had heard she had won the award.

She said: “It was a nice surprise receiving this award, I was so shocked. I could not have won this award without the support that I have received professionally and personally from our infant feeding team. I must thank the team for nominating me and for giving me the skills and confidence to be able to support moms and new-borns with lactating and also for my very own personal experience of being able to breastfeed my daughter for two and a half years.”

term and allowing the child to self-wean especially within the black population.

Corrine said: “I myself have had negative comments however Louise Thompson and Carmen Nuttall (both infant feeding team leads) have supported me in my feeding journey and actually if it wasn’t for them I probably would have formula fed my baby from birth.

“The World Health Organisation recommends breastfeeding for a minimum of two years but also advocates selfweaning which usually happens between the ages of 5-7. The motto I have learnt from breaking breastfeeding barriers is, ‘do not offer, do not refuse’, with this the child is able to decide when they need a feed whether it be for thirst, hunger or comfort.”

Black Breastfeeding Week was created because for over 40 years there has been a gaping racial disparity in breastfeeding rates with recent data show that 75 per cent of white women have ever breastfed versus 58.9 per cent of black women. The She said: “Both Corrine and Adena have fact that racial disparity in initiation and always shown a commitment and enthusiasm even bigger one for duration has lingered to breastfeeding which they both show with for so long was thought of a good enough their patients on the neonatal unit. As a result, reason dedicate one week to focus on this ultimately allows our patients to make a the issue. For more information about more informed decision about breastfeeding the awareness week, please visit https:// and in what capacity it’s right for them.” blackbreastfeedingweek.org/.

Unfortunately, there is still stigma around breastfeeding and feeding for extended Louise Thompson, Infant Feeding Coordinator nominated both Corrine and Adena for the awards and feels they’re fully deserving of them.

Corrine Dacosta, Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (left) and Adena Brown, HCA in Paediatrics (right) have been awarded a Breaking Breastfeeding Barriers Award

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Wayne doing well after suffering cardiac arrest at GP surgery for Health recognised what was happening and called an ambulance. Wayne had a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated before being brought into City Hospital.

Dr Chetan Varma, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist explained: “Wayne is really very lucky that he was at his GP practice when this event happened to him. Our colleagues in primary care acted quickly to get emergency help to him so we could open up his two blocked blood vessels.

Once that was done his blood pressure improved, and he was pain free and able to chat normally.

PRIMARY CARE, COMMUNITIES AND THERAPIES “It is a great example of how primary and secondary care can work together for the benefit of patients. I rang my colleagues at the practice to tell them what a great job they had done to identify and get him shocked as he went into VF.” (Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is a condition in which your heart beats in an abnormal rhythm. It is an emergency condition that may be brought on by a heart attack.)

Wayne Taylor had a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated before being brought into City Hospital It seemed like just another day for Wayne Taylor, who was attending his GP practice for an appointment to discuss a painful hip ailment. As he was waiting to be seen he started to feel unwell with a pain across his chest and back, and feeling hot he stepped outside to get some fresh air.

Whilst there, his symptoms escalated and he rapidly felt very unwell.

However luckily for him, sharp eyed general practice staff from Great Bridge Partnership

Dr Chetan Varma, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist praised GP surgery staff for quick thinking

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SurgiNet: A month on SURGICAL SERVICES Across the Trust throughout September and October, SurgiNet was officially launched and colleagues are already reaping the benefits of the new system.

“This includes anyone who is involved in the pathway from scheduling, ward staff, ED, theatres and operational leads. Everyone has worked so hard and it has shown through the success of the launch.”

SurgiNet replaced the previous system IT system ORMIS on Monday 27 September and though there were a couple of initial delays, overall the implementation of the software was a huge success.

Don’t just take our word for it – we caught up with Ash Sharma, Chief Clinical Information Officer who has been using SurgiNet since the launch and believes the software will be massively advantageous for SWB.

“To minimise and prevent any critical problems, we launched SurgiNet in a staged approach over the course of a fortnight,” said Vicky Clifton, Improvement Project Manager.

He said: “SurgiNet has been a key addition to our current Unity EPR to integrate the clinical records with live theatre records, anaesthetic medication and perioperative documentation.

It’s been a steep learning curve to learn to use it and a major benefit is that live observations are uploaded directly into the clinical record as well as keeping all checks on the patients in a single location.

“The first day we went live with some of our theatres at Sandwell and then as we established stability in those areas, we were able to roll out go live in the remaining theatres at our other sites.

“We adopted a similar approach at our City site with a staged rollout starting with Windmill and BTC theatres in week one, followed by the remaining theatres at City in week two. This included BMEC, obstetrics, dermatology and pain management.”

She added: “Though there were some teething problems and a few minor elements, on the whole the launch was very successful and I must thank the SurgiNet team and Cerner for this as without their hard work this would not have been possible.”.

The SurgiNet roll out was a huge success

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“All staff have been amazing in embracing the new system and the challenges they are faced with and have supported each other to help troubleshoot.

“Whilst there have been some teething troubles we have asked staff to make some work flow changes to maximise patient safety in the perioperative period. We are actively making changes that depend on cooperation from staff to modify our workflows starting from the outpatient clinic when a decision is made to list for surgery.”

Though SurgiNet has been implemented it is still essential colleagues complete their training so they are able to use the programme efficiently. Lissa McManus, Cutover Manager is still encouraging those who haven’t completed their training to get it done.

She said: “I’m urging all staff who haven’t done so already to get their training completed! This includes ward staff, surgeons and anaesthetists plus staff who prepare patients for surgery using preoperation checklists.

“Training is available as e-learning but for those who may have difficulties accessing e-learning, if they speak with their line manager, the SurgiNet team can make sure they are prioritised with face-to-face training sessions.”

For further details regarding e-learning please email swbh. informaticsbookings@nhs.net. For more information regarding SurgiNet, please visit the SurgiNet Connect pages https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/ trustindigital/surginet

He added: “Once these changes have been received and implemented, SurgiNet should then become part of our regular routine in our journey towards a paperless working environment.”

Colleagues are already reaping the benefits of the new system

Reflections of the pandemic from respiratory physiology IMAGING

The respiratory physiology team reflect on working throughout a pandemic March 2020 marks the start of the pandemic in the UK - the start of a period that has signified immense change.

challenging, but on the whole, the team were supportive and worked well together.”

This month we caught up with respiratory physiology to reflect on their experiences of the pandemic. Amina Mohamed, Deputy Head of Respiratory Physiology, told us: “We are a team of 15 ranging from band four colleagues to highly specialist respiratory physiologists. We run an outpatient service, performing a range of lung function tests, cardio-pulmonary exercise tests, sleep diagnostics; we deliver CPAP and NIV therapy as well as provide the home long-term oxygen assessment service.”

Amina continued: “Respiratory physiology stepped up, in collaboration with the consultant lead for NIV and the ward nurse manager, to establish and deliver, alongside the medical and nursing teams, an acute supported breathing service, initially encompassing continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP) and later developing high flow nasal oxygen (HFNO). As the lead, I also coordinated the specialist training for these therapies. Very quickly, we became recognised as highly specialist team with valued input at ward rounds including end of life care and liaison with Palliative care.

Speaking of her role and how the team adapted, Amina explained: “My role involves helping to run the department from operational tasks to staff management. At the start of the pandemic, our Sandwell department closed as A&E took over the chest clinic. It meant a significant change for colleagues as we moved to work at City Hospital.

“I helped the head of medical engineering with equipment and consumables, advising on everything from masks, filters to blood gas analysers and maintenance.

There were several risks to consider as aerosol generating procedures (AGP) were undertaken. Mask set up was non-vented to reduce the amount of aerosol in the environment.”

“Appointments were cancelled, so I devised a strategy of how to deal with all our patients. Fortunately, we already ran successful virtual clinics and patients continued to have virtual appointments.

We were able to continue delivering consumables to those that needed new masks or replacements. We had to adapt to new ways of working as all face to face appointments were cancelled. It was

Speaking of changes experienced as the pandemic progressed, Amina revealed: “After the first wave, we were able to open the lung function department. As the tests were considered AGP, we had to change how we tested patients - full PPE was worn throughout testing. By June 2020, we were reviewing the majority of CPAP/NIV patients virtually. Plus, we were still covering the respiratory hub and taking an active role

with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations requiring acute NIV. “During the second wave, we were redeployed to the respiratory hub again and, respiratory physiology remained open with reduced capacity. We trained a new cohort of redeployed staff on CPAP/NIV/HFNO. Non-invasive ventilation requirements were assessed, and we made daily plans responding to deteriorating patients and assisting in palliation.”

Reflecting on her experiences, Amina shared: “The second wave proved to be more challenging as we had more patients on both CPAP/HFNO. What I personally found difficult was seeing how sick our patients were. We took on physically and emotionally challenging roles caring for our patients, many of whom were elderly. We covered the respiratory hub seven days a week and there were several other challenges along the way, but we rose to them as a team. I feel that our contribution and support made a positive impact in the respiratory hub.”

Looking at the positives, Amina remarked: “We put so much hard work and devotion into the respiratory hub, supporting with professionalism and compassion. It has been difficult but also rewarding. We have developed our knowledge in non-invasive ventilation in acutely unwell patients and increased our confidence and resilience.”

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

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

YOUR RIGHT TO BE HEARD Is my personal data being shared?

Dear Heartbeat, What viable reason is there for being forced/ blackmailed into having my personal data ‘shared’/sold to however many companies and their unnamed agents it ‘shares’ with in order for me to continue parking on the staff car park now that I have to apply for a parking permit from Q-Park?

There is a Yes/No option on the application regarding ‘sharing’ personal data but it’s not actually an option because if No is opted for, it states I cannot continue with my application.

The only reason I can see for that is Q-Park won’t glean any additional revenue out of me having a parking permit if they can’t ‘share’ my details.

I work until 10pm so I need a safe place to park but I do not want my name, address, bank

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details or any other personal data details ‘shared’ with any other company in order for me to pay to use the staff car park.

For the past 11 years I have had my staff parking payments deducted from my wages (except throughout the COVID pandemic) and as far as I am aware there was never any need to share my personal data with any company throughout that time.

Kind regards Anon

Dear Colleague, Thank you for raising your concerns about the data sharing element of the Q-Park permit application system. Since the management of Trust car parks has been outsourced to Q-Park, the data sharing agreement is required solely

for operational and security reasons.

The data sharing agreement also allows Q-Park and the Trust to share information regarding vehicles and parking permits for the benefit of all car park users, the Trust and Q-Park.

Q-Park have confirmed that the data is not sold to/shared with 3rd party companies or used for any other purpose than to manage the car parking facilities in accordance with the Trust’s car parking policy.

If you have any other concerns or queries, please feel free to contact me directly at james.pollitt@nhs.net Kind regards Jim Pollitt Assistant Director Strategic Development

Pulse

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

News in brief from around our organisation

IMAGING

Roger Smith: Serving our youngest patients for 17 years

however if it helps keep my colleagues and our patients safe, that is all that matters.”

After 17 illustrious years, Roger Smith, our maternity porter will be retiring.

He added: “Working with the friendly crowd who work in every department in maternity and the neonatal unit has bene truly fantastic!”

It was the year 2004, England had been knocked out of the Euros on penalties against Portugal, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was one of the highest grossing movies and Roger has joined the Trust as porter in the maternity department having been made redundant from his stainless steel factory foreman job.

“My initial plan was to only stick around for a month or two however from my first day I was made to feel super welcome by all the maternity staff,” said Roger.

“Being made to feel welcome combined with helping our patients is what made stay for all these years.”

Porters play a fundamental role at our Trust ensuring crucial goods and items are delivered where they are needed most as well as making sure patients are in the right place at the right time to get the necessary treatment they need and this was no different for Roger.

Roger Smith

In his role as a maternity porter, Roger would take on a variety of daily duties including moving pregnant patients who are unable to walk on trolleys or in wheelchairs and well as replacing bed linen all which improved the patient journey for some of our most vulnerable patients, new-born babies and pregnant women.

Over his decade and a half long career at the Trust, Roger has faced numerous challenges on the neonatal unit and in maternity itself but wouldn’t change it for the world.

He said: “Though it was the same job essentially, wearing masks and PPE for long periods due to the pandemic especially during the warmer months can take its toll,

Lakshmi Thirumalaikumar, Consultant Obstetrician, has worked alongside Roger for the much of his time at SWB and believes he will truly missed by all.

She said: “Right from when I started here I could see Roger as integral to maternity and to getting women where they need to be. He is always kind and caring and will be missed hugely.”

Dr Ahmed, Consultant Neonatologist echoes these thoughts and said: “Roger is known to all as a quiet hard working veteran of maternity who is no nonsense and down to earth and had never had a problem with his work.”

As part of his retirement Roger is planning on multiple holidays to Tenerife as well as plenty of decorating and gardening.

Happy retirement Roger and good luck in the future!

Put on your Santa suit and challenge yourself to

Run, walk or cycle

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

to raise money for the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital appeal.

There are three distances to choose from all starting from our hospital sites and ending at the new super hospital building in Smethwick where participants will be able to enjoy some festive treats.

Date: Sunday 12th December 2021

Starting site: City Hospital Distance: 2km Starting site: Sandwell Hospital Distance: 5km Starting site: Rowley Regis Hospital Distance: 8km Suggested fundraising target: Adults £50 | Children £30

Entry is £20 adults | £10 child Includes a Santa suit.

Book now at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/173261859887 or contact Amanda Winwood on 0121 507 4847

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Dan Conway Associate Director of Corporate Governance / Company Secretary This month we welcome Dan Conway to the Trust as he joins us as Associate Director of Corporate Governance / Company Secretary. In a system as large and complex as the NHS, having a strong understanding of what is meant by good governance and clear aims to achieve corporate and clinical objectives is key to both shaping and maintaining a high-performing organisation. Dan previously worked at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust and is looking forward to experiencing a new healthcare sector. He hopes to grow further within his specialty while supporting his new team and helping the Trust improve.

“I spent 10 years at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust of which the last six years were in the company secretariat department. I progressed from a board support officer, to a deputy company secretary finally becoming a company secretary,” said Dan.

organisational performance and provide safe, effective services for patients.”

Dan’s hopes his experience and knowledge he will bring to the role will have a positive impact on SWB. He continued: “I bring a broad experience of providing board level advice on governance, compliance and corporate and strategic risk management. My knowledge will help lead and shape best practice and drive the governance agenda forward.

Dan Conway, Associate Director of Corporate Governance / Company Secretary

“Within my new role I should be seen as the conscience of the organisation by being be the interface between different elements of the board, the first point of contact for nonexecutive director’s and a trusted advisor to board members and senior management. I’m here to ensure the Trust and the Board meets all codes of corporate governance that sets out best practice principles and processes to contribute to better

Wave goodbye to…

After a career spanning more than 28 years, Wyn Burbridge, Diabetes Specialist Nurse waves goodbye to the diabetes team and SWB.

Diabetes Specialist Nurse

She said: “Wyn was my first mentor when I joined the Trust and the education she provided to me was incredible! I will always thankful to her for the way she has helped me to progress in my career at SWB.”

Though rewarding, working in diabetes can be challenging but despite this, Wyn has always ensured she has delivered consistent excellent quality care for all patients.

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Wyn Burbridge

Priya John, Diabetes Specialist Nurse was nurtured by Wyn and wouldn’t be where she is today without Wyn’s invaluable support.

Wyn is known to many for her dedication to supporting those with diabetes, from her ward visits to review those in hospital, to delivering education and training to fellow nurses and clinical colleagues across the Trust.

“Delivering education to healthcare professionals within the Trust has to be one of the biggest challenges. Ward nurses and doctors have limited time available

Aside from a breadth of knowledge on all things corporate governance, Dan has a passion for West Bromwich Albion and a love for golf.

Welcome to the Trust Dan!

Wyn has accomplished much during her time at the Trust and when asked about her most formative career experiences she said: “There have been so many! I’ve been very fortunate to work with an amazing diabetes team who have enabled me to develop in all aspects of diabetes care. Becoming a non-medical prescriber (NMP) revolutionised my practise as a diabetes specialist nurse.”

Wyn initially began her career in 1993 in cardiology before taking a role within the diabetes team four years later in 1997 where she would spend a total 24 years giving care to patients who suffer with diabetes.

“My aim has always been to improve the standards of care provided in hospital to people with diabetes,” said Wyn.

“Good corporate governance is never a task complete. As the Trust evolves, so does governance as it strives to meet the demands of an ever-changing healthcare system. Good governance is inclusive. I hope to make the Trust governance arrangements simple and effective, and support the organisation to become the best it can be.”

Wyn Burbridge retires after 28 years at SWB

to update or attend study days. Introducing Think Glucose in 2009 was the key to raising awareness of diabetes management within the Trust and having Think Glucose champions on each ward kept the momentum going all these years.”

As part of her retirement Wyn is planning on taking an extended break however she hasn’t ruled out a return to SWB in some capacity in 2022 to provide education about diabetes to healthcare professionals within the Trust.

Whether or not Wyn decides to return to the Trust in the future, we hope you will join us in wishing Wyn a happy retirement – good luck in the future!

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Richard talks about: MMUH, winter and more…

Richard Beeken, Chief Executive

RICHARD'S LAST WORD You will no doubt be aware of the information we shared earlier this that regrettably, our new, long-awaited Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, is now unlikely to be opening in 2022. I know that this news will be disappointing for many who have been waiting patiently for many years to realise the benefits that this new development will bring to staff and to patients.

It is inevitable that the past 18 months have had an impact on the construction programme, despite the sterling efforts of Balfour Beatty and the support our Trust has put in place to enable construction to continue safely on site. The supply of material and availability of the workforce has been and continues to be challenging.

We have also replaced the external façade on the building in light of new fire regulations.

All that being said, we are getting ever closer to confirming our opening date in 2023 and expect to be able to do that before the end of this year. We know we only have one opportunity to reset our opening date and this must be a date that we are all confident in achieving for our patients.

Our new hospital is the biggest strategic development in the English NHS, south of Liverpool. It is a once in a generation opportunity to redesign our services to meet the needs of our population, for the next 10 years. An opening date in 2023 gives us more time to make sure that our clinical pathways and workforce changes are fully ready. We need to think about how the new hospital will change the ways that we work and there will now be no excuse for not being sufficiently well-prepared.

Each Group is engaged in our MMUH programme in eye watering detail and has regular meetings to plan the changes that are needed. If you think something has been missed then please speak up! Now is your opportunity to raise any concerns so that we have plenty of time to resolve and plan for any issues.

The opening in 2023 does mean that this is no longer the last winter of managing to keep patients safe in buildings and facilities that are far from ideal. I recognise this and the challenges this brings. We know in particular that this winter may be the most

difficult that the NHS has had to deal with in recent times. You will have heard this before, I know. But, genuinely, the risks we face this winter are significant because:

- M any people have regrettably had their treatment paused during the pandemic or have been reluctant to seek medical help for a non-COVID related condition over the past 18 months. This could mean more patients becoming more acutely unwell than they would have been had treatment commenced earlier.

- T here are usual winter viruses that circulate every year. This includes flu and last year we had low levels of flu in circulation because of the COVID restrictions that were in place such as lockdowns, mask wearing at all times indoors and restrictions on indoor hospitality and indoor gatherings plus limits on the number of people who could meet together. We are therefore expecting that flu could be very serious indeed this year. With more people in closer contact than last winter, other respiratory infections and viruses like norovirus will be able to spread rapidly.

- W e still have COVID-19 with us. The vaccination programme means that fewer people are becoming acutely ill, but those who are unvaccinated are at serious risk. But COVID-19 means that we are required to test every patient and stream them into Red (COVID-19 positive) or Amber (COVID-19 negative) areas. This can mean delays whilst waiting for test results and makes flow through our hospitals more difficult as we need to manage different streams of patients so that we reduce any risk of cross infection.

Of course, our estate doesn’t help and MMUH will transform the way we manage infections as half of the beds will be in single en-suite rooms.

It is therefore more important than ever that we plan properly for these winter pressures.

This means investing in additional services and support to patients so that people can stay well at home with the right support, or to help people get home from hospital promptly. Our community and primary care services, together with our social care provider partners, are the true front-line in our plans to manage patients safely this winter.

Our Clinical Leadership Executive this month considers how we will prioritise investment to manage a safe winter and protect our elective recovery as best we can. Next month, the Trust Board will review and approve our plan. This includes:

- E xpanded the opening hours for urgent treatment centres

- A big investment in frailty support in primary care, our community services and for patients in hospital

- A cute Medicine in the patient’s own home

- C are navigation centre response 24/7 in the community

- A dditional support for more care homes across Sandwell and West Birmingham and more care home spot purchased capacity

- W eekend discharge teams and seven day services for cardiology admission avoidance and respiratory care

A key part of our winter plan is to achieve high vaccination rates among our workforce. Having more people protected from flu and COVID-19 will have a significant impact on the number of patients who need hospital care.

Getting vaccinated is unquestionably the right thing to do morally, as health care professionals and people who work in the health and social care sector, but it is also the best way to protect yourself and your families. At present, as I write this column, our flu vaccination rates are pitifully low. I am appealing to all staff’s innate professionalism to ensure they protect themselves, their families and their patients, by getting the vaccines for both COVID and flu.

We all contribute to our winter plan and it is vital that you play your part this winter so that, together, we can continue to provide safe, high quality care for all our patients whatever their needs, which is no less than they deserve.

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Help Your Trust Charity become no 1 in the Tesco Grant Scheme YOUR TRUST CHARITY

“Transition is a gradual process of change, which gives everyone time to ensure that young people and their families are prepared and feel ready to make the move to adult health care.”

She added: “With funds from the grant we can plan to develop group activities to complement the transition preparation completed during routine appointments.

This will provide peer support opportunities as well as promoting more creative and engaging ways of equipping young people with the skills and knowledge necessary to prepare for adulthood.”

 @SWBHCharity To donate to the Your Trust Charity text “SWBH16 £5” to 70070

Amanda Winwood, Fundraising Manager is urging all colleagues who shop locally to support the charity.

Your Trust Charity have been selected for the customer vote in the Tesco Community Grants Scheme for their young people transition project which is facilitated by Kelly Edie-Fisher, Transition Key Worker.

She said: “The charity with the highest number of votes across the region will receive £1,500 with the second placed project getting £1,000, and the third placed project £500.

“We use the term ‘transition’ to describe the process of planning, preparing and moving from children’s health care to adult health care,” said Kelly.

The local Tesco stores taking part in the scheme are: • West Bromwich Tesco Extra, B70 7PR (store number 2335) • Stone Tesco Cross Express, B71 3HS (store number 5270) • Great Barr Tesco Express, B43 5EL (store number 6141) The voting process is straight forward and any customer is eligible to vote.

Amanda added: “You should be given a blue token to cast your vote when at the Tesco checkout by a member of staff to place in a box under the charity name.

If you are not given a token when you purchase your shopping at the checkout, please let the cashier know and they will provide you with one.”

Voting will close on Friday 31 December. You are allowed to vote once per visit Thank you for supporting Your Trust Charity.

“You can simply help us by voting for Your Trust Charity at the Tesco checkout when purchasing your shopping at participating stores.”

The winner bakes it all Who doesn’t love a bake sale, especially one that’s for charity?

Most of us would find it hard to walk by without stopping to try out one or two of the treats. Cream cakes, buns, walnut whips and everyone’s favourite, a good old chocolate cake – who could resist?

Well, the team over at Balfour Beatty couldn’t as they recently organised a cake sale with all proceeds going to our £2 million Midland Met fundraising appeal.

Workers showed up in force to proudly display their cakes to be in with a chance of winning a £50 M&S voucher.

Sarah Fletcher, Community Engagement

Manager at Balfour Beatty, remarked: “We would like to thank everyone that baked and supported our charity cake sale by tasting all of the delights on offer. Richard Molly, Amie Edwards and Warren Grigg all kindly donated their time to be our taste testers on the day. Well done to Rob Yardy’s nan, whose delicious coffee and walnut cake saw her crowned as our winner.”

A massive £388.00 went to our fundraising appeal thanks to the cake sale. Johnny Shah, Head of Your Trust Charity, commented: “This is a flan-tastic achievement. The team are hugely supportive of our ambitions to enhance the experience of all people using our services working alongside our local communities.

Richard Molloy sampling some of the delicious cakes “We are passionate about making a difference in people’s lives and working hard to deliver a fundraising campaign that encapsulates everything our new flagship hospital, the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, has to offer. Thank you to everyone that took part. Your support is invaluable and hugely appreciated.”

October 2021 staff lottery results 1st £175

2nd £105

3rd £70

Anon

Gail Weaver

Selena Brown

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