children - West London Mental Health NHS Trust

Productive Wards
Report by Charlene Stephenson, communications manager
Last month Mental Health Matters
focused on Star Wards, a programme
which encourages innovative activities
with patients. In this edition of MHM,
we turn our attention to the Productive
Wards framework which aims to release
time to care.
The Productive Wards framework developed and
supported by the NHS Institute for Innovation
and Improvement offers a systematic way of
delivering safe, high quality care to patients
across inpatient services in mental health settings.
The feedback from acute hospital sites which
have implemented Productive Ward states that
the programme has exceeded their expectations
– they saw their staff empowered and enthused
to make changes to the way they worked. The
programme is about working smarter, not harder.
Productive Wards has identified the
following benefits:
• Delivers ward-based care that is as efficient
and effective as possible by empowering staff
to be more productive.
• Gives nurses back 10% of their time to spend
on patient care.
• Creates calmer wards and reduces patients’
complaints.
• Increases safety (shown in observation
reliability scores).
• Increases morale.
• Breaks down barriers between front line staff
and managers and between disciplines.
There will be Productive Wards road shows at
the trust in the coming month to help explain
the initiative to ward staff. Dates and further
information will be publicised through Monday
Matters, Team Brief and the exchange.
Work is also in progress for a dedicated page
for Productive Wards on the Exchange
The Campion ward team
The first phase of the programme will be
implemented in Kestrel ward, Area 1 ward and
Campion ward. These three wards will become
showcase wards and support productive wards
roll out across the trust over the next 12 – 18
months. It is the start of a new approach to service
improvement, rather than a project with a start and
finish. It is anticipated that the cycle of improvement
will continue to provide benefits in direct care
delivery year on year. Performance improvement is
tracked against four objectives:
1. Improve patient safety and reliability of care
2. Improve patient experience
3. Improve staff wellbeing
4. Improve efficiency of care.
The Trust has established a Productive Ward board
which oversees progress and pulls together other
initiatives that together will improve and sustain
improvement in inpatient areas.
To support the implementation
of productive wards, Una Kallis
has recently been appointed
as Productive Wards project
lead. She says, “Productive
Wards is a framework that
is implemented by the ward,
enabling nursing and therapeutic
staff to understand and see the
benefits of spending more time
on patient care. The core focus of Productive Wards
is to increase the time nurses have to deliver safe,
reliable care by improving core ward processes such
as safe and supportive observations, shift handovers
and medication.”
myworkinglife
Elbachir Chaker
Elbachir is the site security manager on
the St Bernard’s site working for the trust
and Ealing Hospital.
How long have you worked at the trust?
Six years
Your team?
There are six security officers on each shift (two shifts
per 24 hours).
What do you do?
I manage the site security services and car parking
management and assist both trusts in implementing
their joint green travel plan policy. I get involved
in trust inductions, informing new staff of the site
operational procedures and contact numbers. We
undertake internal and external foot patrols three times
a day and are responsible for areas such as locking and
securing departments through to checking cars for
permits and property on display while maintaining a
high security presence on the sites. We respond to all
emergency calls including fire alarms, intruder alarms
and panic alarms. Much of our time is taken up with
dealing with a vast array of other calls from staff and
the public, ranging from people losing money in the
car park machines, clamped vehicles, lost property to
helping staff finding car parking spaces and dealing
with incidents such as verbal abuse and aggression.
I work closely with the trusts’ local security management
services and regularly liaise with the police and
participate in crime reduction programmes. I also attend
various meetings including the travel plan meeting and
the estates and facilities health and safety meeting.
Favourite part of the job?
I love the fact that this is a very sociable job in which I
get to meet lots of different people. Last year, I worked
with the communications team in preparing and
assisting with a royal visit on the site. It was great to be
involved in something totally different, escorting royalty!
Least favourite part of the job?
The least favourite part of my job is the abuse received
from the public when enforcing the trust policies and
procedures.
Relationships with staff and the public?
I feel we have a good relationship with staff on the site
but we do suffer verbal abuse at times from others,
particularly in respect of car parking/clamping or when
dealing with difficult members of the public. This is a
part of the job which we are trained and skilled to deal
with procedurally and professionally.
What makes a good security manager?
I believe it is important to be hard working, levelheaded,
patient and calm. Also for me I have worked in
this business for sixteen years so have gained valuable
knowledge, skills and experience through the years in
dealing with various situations.
New year resolution?
To give up smoking.
Contacting the team?
As the team is not office based, the best way to contact
us is via bleep. The security supervisor on each shift
holds bleep 199. If you need to be escorted on the
site, please bleep 199. I am personally contactable on
bleep 127. For urgent response to incidents, we can be
contacted on extension 4000 but the police must be
contacted to attend any police related incidents.
14 MENTALHEALTHMATTERS MENTALHEALTHMATTERS 15