Annual Review 2009 - Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals

Improvements in Diabetes services
DIABETES experts at Sandwell and West
Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust have teamed
up with healthcare professionals from Sandwell
PCT to help supplement their treatment through
education.
In April 2008, hospital and community teams joined
up to form ‘Sandwell Diabetes Care’, a unit of
specialist nurses working together to deliver largescale
structured education for people with diabetes,
while providing more specialist care in the most
appropriate setting.
Rheumatology
Services
RHEUMATOLOGY services at the Trust are
expanding into the community, enabling patients
to benefit from consultant-led clinics closer to
home.
In addition to a City Hospital service, patients
can now take advantage of the clinics offered
at the Ashfurlong Clinic in Sutton Coldfield, the
Apollo Centre in Kingstanding and Aston Health
Centre.
“It is an exciting time in rheumatology because
we are taking services out into the community,
which means a better service for patients.
The Ashfurlong Centre is a prime example
of how a community rheumatology service
works,” explained Sue Butler, Senior Nurse for
Rheumatology.
“Devolving clinics into the community fits in
with the ‘right care, right here’ ethos of the Trust
and we intend to continue this work under the
guidance of our academic fellows,” she added.
In March 2009 the Rheumatology Department
set up a patient support group to help assess
the success of services and feedback has been
overwhelmingly positive.
Dr Pete Davies, Community Consultant in Diabetes
and Endocrinology, explained: “Our specialist team is
there to support Sandwell people living with diabetes
and their primary care teams to achieve better health
outcomes.”
The partnership also produces a newsletter for
patients and a website, www.sandwelldiabetes.nhs.
uk, which went live in November 2008, coinciding
with World Diabetes Day. It offers information about
patient education courses and training events run by
Sandwell Diabetes Care.
For more information about training contact Dr Davies
on 0121 507 3908 or email peter.davies@swbh.nhs.
uk.
Listening into Action
aims to deliver better
care
THIS year saw a big change in the way the Trust
engages with its staff.
There is a large body of evidence to show staff
who feel really engaged with the organisation they
work for deliver a higher quality of care in the NHS.
In April 2008 the Trust introduced Listening into
Action [LiA] as a new way of engaging with staff,
putting the ideas of frontline staff at the centre of
how the Trust improves care for patients.
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