HEARTBEAT February 2019

February 2019 

Sandwell and West Birmingham 

NHS Trust 

The pulse of community health, Leasowes, Rowley Regis, City and Sandwell Hospitals Issue 113 

Schools rule in Trust planspage 3 

Dr Derek Connolly talks to pupils at St Michael's High School about the importance of healthy diets as part of Fizz 

Free February. Our existing community children’s nurses work within mainstream and special schools will be added 

to with new school nursing service following our long-term contract win. 

Unity put through 

It’s PDR 

WeConnnect 

Simple click to 

its paces in dress 

season – book 

– survey drives 

rate your foot 

rehearsal 

yours now 

improvement 

health day 

page 4 – 7 

page 9 

page 14 and 15 

page 22

FROM THE CHAIR 

Contact us 

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swbh.comms@nhs.net 

Communications Department 

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Published by 

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Medical Illustration, 

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If you’d like to submit an idea 

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HELLO 

Welcome to the February edition 

of Heartbeat – the month when we 

have been championing Fizz Free 

(page 3). 

Also in this issue, you will have seen all 

the communication and activity around 

the Unity full dress rehearsal. You 

can find out more about what your 

colleagues thought on pages 4 to 7. 

Elsewhere, say hello to Snap, Crackle 

and Pop (page 12). 

Ext 5303 


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: 

Sealing our commitment 

to distressed patients 

This month’s Trust Board meeting had 

a visit from our new virtual pets – the 

robotic seals named Snap, Crackle 

and Pop. Ron joins the team in April. 

We also viewed a short film where 

we could see a seal interacting with 

one of our patients and heard from 

her granddaughter about the impact 

the seal had. What struck me most 

was the heartfelt gratitude from the 

relative who said that it was the first 

time her dearly loved grandmother 

had smiled in three weeks. 

But the seals are not just a “nice to have” 

innovation. As well as improving patients’ 

happiness, an additional impact is their 

ability to calm those who feel distressed 

and confused, that could be due to a 

temporary health condition or one that is 

more long-term. 

Hospital wards can be strange and 

frightening places for many and it is easy 

for us to forget that when we are so used 

to working here. Patients with dementia 

and related conditions can have their 

symptoms exacerbated through being in 

a strange environment away from their 

home comforts. The seals are just one 

intervention that aims to help and I know 

our teams who support these patients 

are welcoming the seals as way to bring 

more smiles as much as to reduce anxiety. 

Other schemes that are in place are 

regularly featured in Heartbeat such as 

the beauty treatments and entertainment 

brought to us by Kissing it Better in 

collaboration with local schools and 

colleges and the therapy pets. Both are 

great examples of the difference that 

we can make to being a patient here or 

having a patient here. 

I’m also delighted that a fund in Your 

Trust Charity is supporting a new choir 

for people with breathing difficulties. 

The community respiratory service will 

bring staff and patients together with a 

British Lung Foundation trained tutor to 

have fun by joining the choir, as well as 

helping with reducing the symptoms of 

long-term lung conditions. I’m looking 

forward to hearing how they get on 

and perhaps being treated to a concert 

in the near future! 

Whilst we continue to strive for 

improving our clinical care, it is 

important not to under-estimate the 

importance of these aspects of wider 

patient experience as a key contribution 

to the recovery and rehabilitation of 

patients. There is plenty of evidence 

that making this part of our core 

business is a major contribution to 

getting out patients better sooner and 

becoming an outstanding healthcare 

provider. 

The innovation that this Trust delivers 

is exemplary and no-one I meet is 

ever short of ideas for more things 

we could do. Across all parts of our 

Trust I see committed people who are 

continually improving services - trying 

out new ideas, seeing how they work, 

and adapting and adopting them. It is 

this drive to improve and change that 

makes me proud of what we can and 

do achieve. 

Richard Samuda – Trust Chairman 

Chairman, Richard Samuda

School links expand thanks to 

forthcoming new nursing service 

From April this year, we will be the 

provider of the school nursing services 

in Sandwell, following a break of five 

years. This new service arrangement 

brings with it experienced staff who 

work across all schools in the borough 

and will be a welcome addition to the 

work that our community children’s 

nurses and therapists already provide 

to special and mainstream schools. 

Toby Lewis, Chief Executive, said: “Five 

years ago we lost this contract, and it is a 

tribute to the improvements in our health 

visiting services and our maternity services, 

that we have been able to compete to win 

back the role, having built trust among 

council leaders and decision makers. 

“We are determined to help use the school 

nursing platform to offer continuity of care 

to children born in our care, and families 

supported through early years through 

our teams. But we also want to end the 

divide between physical health and mental 

wellbeing, and to meet the demand from 

teachers and parents to offer fantastic 

psycho-social and psychological support 

into schools in the borough. That is why 

we will take this contract on, working 

collaboratively with others, including the 

local mental health Trust, and colleagues at 

the Sandwell Children’s Trust.” 

A further example of our links with schools 

is the focus this month of cutting out sugar 

through the Fizz Free February campaign. 

We supported Fizz Free February by urging 

patients, colleagues and visitors to ditch 

sugary drinks for 28 days. 

The campaign was a great way to reduce 

intake of the substance and is the brainchild 

of Southwark Council. It is also being 

Catering colleagues at Sandwell fully supported 

the Fizz Free February campaign 

supported by the Labour Party’s Deputy 

Leader, and West Bromwich East MP Tom 

Watson, who recently revealed his battle 

with diabetes. 

Sandwell Council also asked residents to 

sign a pledge committing to go fizz free for 

the month of February. 

Dr Nick Makwana, Consultant Paediatrician, 

spoke about the link between obesity and 

sugar consumption. He said: “Through my 

work I know that one in five children are 

obese when they hit primary school, whilst 

one in three are when they reach secondary 

school. 

“We also know by 2020, 50 per cent of our 

children will be obese. I know that obese 

children are stigmatised and bullied more 

and are also absent from school, which 

affects their education. 

“As they get older they have pre-diabetes 

issues and bone and joint problems. As they 

move into adulthood they are more likely to 

CORPORATE AND GENERAL 

NEWS 

suffer heart attacks, high blood pressure 

and strokes. 

“Anything we can do to reduce this 

problem is a positive move in tackling 

these issues. That’s why I am fully on 

board in supporting Fizz Free February.” 

Dr Derek Connolly, Interventional 

Cardiologist, explained: “This initiative 

is a great idea, because we know that 

sugar is a risk factor for heart disease 

and stroke. 

“It does that through a number of 

mechanisms, including obesity and 

diabetes. People should look at the 

labels and go for no added sugar drinks 

and cut it out of their diet.” 

Latest Public Health England data on 

the nation’s diet shows that sugar now 

makes up 13.5 per cent of four to ten 

year-olds and 14.1 per cent of teenagers’ 

daily calorie intake respectively, while the 

official recommendation is to limit sugar 

to no more than five per cent. 

The hard truth about soft 

drinks: 

• You can save £438 a year if you 

stopped drinking one bottle of 

soft drink, per day for a year 

• Drinking just one 330ml can of 

fizzy drink a day could add up 

to over a stone weight gain per 

year 

• 79 per cent of fizzy drinks 

contain six or more teaspoons of 

sugar per can (330ml) 

• Tooth decay is the leading cause 

for hospitalisation among five 

to nine year olds in the UK, 

with 26,000 children being 

hospitalised each year due to 

tooth decay – in other words, 

500 each week 

For more details on Fizz Free 

February, go to sugarsmartuk.org/ 

news/fizz_free_february_2019/. 

Forget fizzy 

drinks this 

February 

Community Children’s Team led by Petrina Marsh celebrate being awarded the long term contract 

to provide school nursing services 

Make your pledge 

to #gofizzfree 

3

Full dress rehearsal increases 

confidence in 


NEWS 

Our sites were turned into shades 

of green as we took on the full 

dress rehearsal (FDR) of Unity from 

Monday 11 February. 

A survey of colleagues who participated 

in FDR revealed: 

• 72 per cent of colleagues agreed 

with the statement, “Having 

participated in FDR, I feel more 

confident in using Unity 

• 72 per cent said there was enough 

communication in preparation for 

FDR 

• 69 per cent felt they were prepared 

and able to deliver what was 

expected of them 

• 89 per cent reported they had 

enough support with issues raised. 

There were some issues flagged up such 

as printing, with 50 per cent of users 

saying they were unable to do so when 

needed, whilst others reported that 

barcode machines weren’t working as 

they should. We should note, though, 

that most issues were resolved quickly. 

Katie Gray, Deputy Chief Operating 

Officer and Head of Unity 

Implementation said: “We’ve 

had some marvellous feedback 

from FDR. We have gained a 

tremendous amount of knowledge 

and learned so much, even from 

smaller clinics, such as the clinical 

nurse specialist clinic in respiratory 

medicine. 

“There were issues with printing 

some labels and documents and 

there were some problems with 

barcode scanners that will require 

further investigation.” 

Katie added: “A number of debrief 

sessions to gather feedback on 

how FDR went have been taking 

place. The aim is to create a good 

foundation on which to build 

the go-live support. If colleagues 

have not been able to take part 

in the feedback sessions I would 

encourage them to contact the 

team and give their views directly.“ 

The Unity hub at BMEC was buzzing with activity. 

Volunteers provided a helping hand during 

FDR 

Anne Rutland, Skin Cancer CNS and Millicent 

Seville, Senior Healthcare Assistant 

Deputy Chief Operating Officer Liam Kennedy met with the clinical team in ED during FDR 

4

How was it for you? Dress rehearsal participants share their 

views 

“It’s our first FDR and we have been 

admitting patients, allocating them 

beds or chairs and it’s gone really 

well. It’s been quite straight forward. 

There’s been a couple of little issues 

but those will get sorted out. This has 

been a great experience before going 

live. It gives you the chance to ask 

questions if you’re not certain about 

something.” 

Dorothy Lord, Ward Clerk, 

Medical Infusion Suite 

“I just wanted to say how proud I was 

to be part of the BMEC ED FDR today 

– I work with the best team ever! It 

was wonderful to work with people 

who were so intent on making the 

FDR work today – your enthusiasm, 

drive to find solutions, passion for 

sharing your knowledge with others 

was awe inspiring. There was a 

complete ‘we can do this’ mentality 

which was fantastic. Thank you to 

everyone, without the staff running 

the ED as normal we would not 

have been able to test the systems 

as thoroughly as we did – literally 

everyone has played a vital part of 

today’s success.” 

Laura Young, Directorate Lead 

Nurse, Ophthalmology 

Jez Jones, Avnash Nanra, Linda Eyre, Diane 

Moran and Oneka Berry 

Joycelyn Stewart, Kinder Soomal and Diana 

Thomas 

“Initially, it has been challenging. 

The first time I looked at the Unity 

system on screen, it was quite scary. 

However, after working my way 

through it, I saw my second or third 

patient and I found it was getting 

easier. I think the system will make a 

real difference to everybody.” 

Anne Rutland, Skin Cancer 

Clinical Nurse Specialist 

??? 

??? 

Medical Infusion Suite Jacqueline Slater 

Senior Sister Alison Deeming lead clinical 

nurse specialist Marcia Thompson HCA 

and Francisca Nkeh Mbatangie Staff nurse 

“Things have gone smoothly today. 

We have been transcribing and it 

has made us feel more confident in 

the system before it is launched.” 

Mark Zimmerman, Alex Hollis 

and Dan Worthington FY2 

Doctors 

“I feel like it’s (the dress rehearsal) 

worked quite well today. I initially 

felt worried because I hadn’t done 

the training for a while. But it all 

came back. We raised a few issues, 

but these were resolved with 

support from colleagues”. 

Oneka Berry, Nurse Associate, 

Lyndon Ground 

“It’s been a great day of FDR we’ve 

done fabulous episodes of meeting 

with different colleagues and 

dealing with their problems one by 

one. Eventually we will have better 

ways of identifying problems 

which will be resolved and become 

part of our implementation.” 

Alan Scott, EPR trainer 

Medical Director David Carruthers meets with Natalie Binfield and Sam Wright on AMU during FDR 

If you would like to give 

your feedback on FDR 

please contact the 

project team at 

Unity.cutover@nhs.net. 

5

Colleagues united in Unity 

Our recent Unity engagement events 

gave colleagues much reassurance 

about our new electronic patient 

record. 

We’ve received encouraging feedback with 

71 per cent of attendees agreeing learning 

points were well made, 93 per cent of 

attendees found the content relevant and 

97 per cent of attendees would recommend 

the event to fellow colleagues. 

The two engagement events took place 

at Sandwell’s Education Centre in January 

with the aim of giving colleagues more 

information about the ‘pain and gain’ of 

implementing an electronic patient record. 

The engagement sessions were kicked 

off by Roger Stedman, Consultant 

Anaesthetics and Critical Care Medicine 

who is certain that Unity will aid drug 

prescription. He said: “When Unity goes 

live our prescribing of drugs will be done 

in an entirely electronic fashion. We know 

that incomplete prescriptions will fall from 

approximately 62 per cent to 0 per cent, 

inappropriate doses will fall to almost 0 per 

cent, legibility and signing prescriptions will 

rise to 100 per cent and the recording of 

allergies will rise to 100 per cent.” 

Leong Lee, Clinical Safety Officer 

and Consultant Cardiologist echoes 

these thoughts and said: “Unity will 

make things more consistent, it will 

improve communication between 

different members of staff and 

it will improve clarity. No longer 

will you have to look at a bit of 

writing in the medical notes and 

wonder what the words say because 

of illegibility. You won’t have to 

look at drug charts and wonder 

about prescriptions because of the 

handwriting or wonder who has 

actually prescribed it.” 

Attendees heard from Dr Alistair Morris 

(Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS 

Foundation Trust and Calderdale and 

Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust) and 

Helen Beck, Executive Chief Operating 

Officer (West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust), 

who talked about how the implementation 

of their own electronic patient records has 

benefitted their organisations. 

Colleagues were encouraged by the speakers at the pain and gain event 

Both covered initial teething problems and 

how it took a short period of time for staff 

to learn how to use the system. However, 

once they became comfortable with it, 

the majority of them went on to become 

efficient users. In fact the majority of staff 

in both organisations have said they would 

not go back to using a paper based system. 

Colleagues also had the opportunity to 

see Unity in action as they took a patient 

on their Unity journey through their care 

pathway. There was also a chance to quiz 

senior clinical and operational leaders on 

how Unity will change the way we perform 

our daily duties. 

Presenters from our Unity Pain and Gain event 

Here’s what colleagues 

had to say about 

the event 

“At first I thought ‘oh no 

another IT system’ but I now 

understand the ways and 

wherefores. I envisage problems 

with some colleagues coming 

to terms with this but if we 

adopt the listening and helping 

strategy they will come round. 

Bring on go-live.” 

“Much more reassuring to hear 

from other Trusts who have 

gone live. My concern is that 

some things they raise, we don’t 

seem to have learned from e.g. 

need for training that is not 

in silos, need for more devices 

etc.” 

“Very informative, glad I came! 

Really useful to hear from those 

that have lived and breathed 

the journey, I don’t feel as 

scared for go-live now.” 

“Good to see how other 

trusts kept the staff engaged. 

Relieved some anxiety how the 

system takes a long period of 

time to settle in. Ward staff 

would benefit from attending.” 

6

Unity roadshows creating a buzz 

across our sites 

By the time you pick up your 

copy of Heartbeat, the Unity 

roadshows will have been 

going for 12 weeks. 

They have been a great 

success with high numbers of 

engagement each week with 

colleagues across all professions 

learning about how Unity will 

support: 

• Sepsis management 

• Reduction in falls 

• The safety plan 

Sharon Reynolds, Informatics 

Matron said: “It is incredible 

the large numbers of colleagues 

we have reached so far. It’s so 

encouraging to see colleagues really 

engaging with Unity and learning 

about how it will improve clinical 

processes. 

“The roadshows will continue 

throughout March and we look 

forward to meeting with many more 

colleagues. Come along and ask us 

about how Unity will benefit you 

and your patients.” 

• Medicine management 

Amanda Howell, Rehab Support Worker and Ann Reynolds, 

Healthcare Assistant visited the roadshows at Leasowes 

Unity 28 day challenge – bring it on! 

As you make your way around 

our sites it’s very evident that 

Unity really is coming. Our 

roadshows continue to be 

a roaring success and many 

of you are taking part in the 

five minute targeted coaching 

sessions with the clinical 

informatics team. 

After a successful dress rehearsal 

we are now entering a period to 

embed everything we have learned 

about Unity through the end user 

training. 

Cue the Unity 28 day challenge 

– an organisation wide exercise 

designed to encourage quick 

learning about our new electronic 

patient record. 

Heartbeat caught up with Bethan 

Downing, Deputy Director 

of People and Organisation 

Development, who explained more. 

She said: “The 28 day challenge 

is about supporting colleagues to 

increase their knowledge about 

Unity and practise scenarios using 

the play system. 

“The idea behind the challenge 

is that the learning is quick and 

not onerous. It can be as simple 

as a conversation, a quick test of 

a patient through the play system 

or a quick MDT run-through of a 

patient scenario whilst waiting for 

the board round to start. These 

activities are designed to get teams 

positively talking about Unity and 

working through any worries or 

lack of familiarity with the EPR 

before go-live.” 

The Unity 28 day challenge will 

be launched at a future QIHD and 

every team will receive a Unity 28 

day challenge advent calendar. 

“This is learning, but in a very light 

hearted manner,” said Bethan. 

Teams will use the 28 day challenge 

calendar like any advent calendar. 

They can peel off a sleeve for 

the relevant day and act on the 

challenge for that day. We hope 

everyone really embraces this and 

has fun learning about Unity along 

the way.” 

Competitions and prizes await all 

those teams who can show good 

outcomes from using the tools. 

For further information email 

bethan.downing1@nhs.net 

Bethan Downing, Deputy Director of People and Organisation 

Development is leading the Unity 28 Day Challenge 

7

Success in grant to extend volunteer 

services 


NEWS 

Our volunteer service is celebrating 

after securing a £75,000 windfall 

to share its’ best volunteering 

initiatives with other NHS 

organisations across the country. 

The funding will go towards developing 

volunteering roles which support 

patients in staying mobile - maintaining 

their independence whilst they are cared 

for at our hospitals. 

The activity support and mobility scheme 

is one of 10 projects singled out by 

Helpforce, the organisation working 

with hospitals to enhance the benefits of 

volunteering across the NHS. 

We were selected following a 

competitive process which received 115 

applications from 90 trusts. 

It will be part of the new Volunteering 

Innovators Programme devised by 

Helpforce, which will refine and share 

projects to help other trusts in the UK 

adopt effective services. 

Jonathan Maddison, Volunteer Project 

Manager said: “We are delighted to 

be chosen and be part of this new 

programme. 

(Left to right) Nurse, Marleny Rodriguez 

Cari, with volunteer Ryan Lee, HCA Gaynor 

Langston, and volunteer Leah Taroni 

“The activity support and mobility 

volunteer role will be in conjunction with 

our physiotherapists, helping to improve 

outcomes for our patients. 

“They will encourage patients to get out of 

bed, wash themselves, get dressed into their 

day clothes, and walk and exercise, so they 

maintain as much of their normal routine as 

possible whilst in hospital. This will help to 

improve their recovery and enable patients 

to keep the same level of independence as 

when they arrived in hospital. 

“Volunteers in these roles will receive 

additional training. This particular role 

is part of a wider volunteer service that 

operates here.” 

Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett, Founder and 

Chair of Helpforce, said: “We are excited 

about working with SWB as part of our 

new Volunteering Innovators Programme, 

which will give us the opportunity to scale 

and share the most inspiring and effective 

volunteering initiatives.” 

Paddy Hanrahan, Managing Director of 

Helpforce, added: “We received a huge 

number of applications from trusts wanting 

to become part of our new programme, 

which is testament to the enthusiasm for 

the development of effective volunteer 

roles. Working closely with leading trusts, 

voluntary sector partners and NHS England, 

we can create a future where safe and 

reliable volunteering in the NHS is part of 

our everyday lives, helping patients and our 

brilliant frontline staff to get the very best 

from the health service.” 

The Volunteering Innovators Programme 

launches alongside the publication of new 

Helpforce findings showing the positive 

impact that volunteers can make for 

patients and staff, following an evaluation 

of the organisation’s work with five trusts 

that have been testing volunteer roles since 

2017. The findings include showing how 

volunteers can free up time for NHS staff to 

focus on their core roles, support vulnerable 

patients at mealtimes, and how they can 

assist with the patient discharge process. 

Initiative unearths talent within the 

refugee community 

Hearing about an innovative 

project to attract qualified 

medical personnel into local NHS 

organisations, John Spellar MP for 

Warley was keen to find out more, 

so paid a visit to The Learning Works 

in Smethwick. 

Brainchild of Lawrence Kelly, Learning 

Works Co-ordinator, the scheme taps 

into a wealth of clinical expertise in 

the refugee community, which had 

previously been ignored or inaccessible 

due primarily to language barriers. But 

the Health Overseas Professionals (HOP) 

programme provides training in the 

English language for medically qualified 

refugees to find a way to resume their 

medical careers, whilst putting much 

needed resource back into the local NHS. 

Lawrence explained: “By working with 

our local communities we’ve found 180 

(Left to right) Horani Othman, a HOP client 

who is a volunteer within pharmacy, Nav 

Sharma, Widening Participation Project Officer, 

John Spellar MP, Lawrence Kelly, Learning 

Works Co-ordinator, Bethan Downing, Deputy 

Director, Organisation Development & Learning 

and Raffaela Goodby, Director of People & 

Organisation Development. 

people who fit the scheme criteria. This far 

exceeds our initial target of 60 when we set 

up the programme. 

Examples include GPs, nurses, pharmacists 

and even highly trained medical and surgical 

consultants. 

“The feedback from those we are helping 

has been amazing. The fact is that people 

who chose medicine as a career did so 

because they want to help people, and it can 

be frustrating not to be able to practice, due 

to being displaced from your home country. 

As they rebuild their lives here, it is good to 

be able to offer them the tools to improve 

their English language skills and get back to 

work, caring for those who need it.” 

John Spellar MP agrees. He said: “This is a 

great initiative allowing people to provide for 

their families, rebuild their skills and careers 

and to give something back to this country. 

Full marks to the Trust for their initiative and 

I also want to ensure full cooperation from 

the medical colleges to ensure this works to 

the best degree possible.” 

8

Aspiring to Excellence: Have you 

booked your PDR? 

It’s that time of the year again when 

colleagues have the opportunity look 

back at their achievements and plan 

for the year ahead. And following in 

the footsteps of the first year of the 

Aspiring to Excellence PDRs colleagues 

are being encouraged to plan ahead 

and get their personal development 

reviews booked in. 

The Aspiring to Excellence PDRs are due 

to take place between 1 April and 30 

June but most notably all colleagues must 

have their PDR booked and logged to take 

place by the 31 March. Once your PDR is 

arranged, ensure that it has been logged by 

submitting the date to the PDR booking log 

on Connect. 

To find out more about the upcoming PDR 

cycle, Heartbeat caught up with Bethan 

Downing, Deputy Director of People 

and Organisation Development. She 

said: “Having a really good performance 

conversation at your PDR is fundamentally 

important in our workplace now that 

we have a structured PDR processes in 

place. It gives colleagues a much needed 

opportunity to talk about their successes 

and aspirations as well an opportunity to 

reflect on the challenges they have faced in 

their roles. 

We’re absolutely committed to ensuring 

that every single colleague has a PDR and 

the first step in this cycle is ensuring that 

the PDR is booked in and logged to take 

place. 

This isn’t simply an ask of managers, we’re 

asking all colleagues to ensure that their 

PDR is booked in, they know when it is and 

to ensure that it takes place as and when 

planned. “ 

Top tips for preparing for your PDR: 

• Ensure your PDR is booked in and 

logged to take place between 1 April 

and 31 June. 

• Prepare by reflecting on your 

performance over the previous 12 

months. What went well, what were 

the challenges? How did you 

overcome these? 

• Provide evidence and examples 

of how you have actively displayed 

the Trust promises. 


NEWS 

• Begin completing the PDR 

paperwork as part of your 

preparation. 

• Draft one or two objectives for the 

coming period. 

• Consider what your performance 

score should be. 

• Consider your career aspirations 

over the next three years and be 

ready to discuss these. 

• Think about what your 

development needs are? How will 

they assist your current role or 

career aspirations? 

• Participate fully in the meeting 

and come to an agreement with 

your manager on the outcomes. 

• Prepare to come with an open 

mind – you have both the power 

and responsibility to manage 

your own performance and ensure 

your ongoing development and 

success. 

Bring your ambition to life with new 

transfer scheme 

This year sees exciting new changes to 

the popular staff nurse transfer scheme, 

as it provides more flexibility for 

colleagues to broaden their experience. 

The scheme, which launched two years 

ago, has so far helped 37 nurses to move 

to their preferred specialities. To ensure its 

continued success, the programme will now 

allow nurses to move to the new speciality 

after being in their current post for six 

months, instead of having to wait for one 

year. 

Speaking about this new change, Stephanie 

Cowin, HR Business Partner said: “We are 

glad that this scheme has been welcomed 

by nurses. It has also been an effective tool 

to help us retain our workforce. 

“After receiving feedback from final year 

students and newly qualified nurses, we 

have made this formal change where nurses 

can move to a different team after being in 

post for a minimum period of six months. 

“We hope that this new change will make it 

easier for our nurses to be in the right team 

that can support their ambition.” 

Staff Nurse, Sumaira Asghar is part of the 

nurse transfer scheme 

How to transfer to a new team: 

• Work as a staff nurse in current 

role for a minimum of six months 

• Identify the vacancy on NHS 

Jobs website 

• Complete the ‘Staff Nurse transfer 

expression of interest’ form on 

the recruitment page on Connect 

and return it to the recruitment 

office 

• Meet the recruiting manager to 

discuss the role, speciality, 

opportunities for development and 

working pattern 

• Recruiting manager to get a verbal 

reference from the line manger 

• Recruiting manager to agree a 

transfer date with the current 

manager. 

To find out more, contact the recruitment 

department on ext. 5070. 

9

Did you Did you know know that that you you can can download 

treatment-specific patient patient information 

leaflets leaflets from from the EIDO the EIDO Healthcare 

website website for FREE? for FREE? 

EIDO has EIDO hundreds has hundreds of patient of patient leaflets leaflets for different for different procedures procedures 

that are that being are carried being carried out across out across the Trust. the Trust. 

They are They available are available in an easy-to-read in an easy-to-read format format and and 

in different in different languages. languages. 

Visit Connect Visit Connect Clinical Clinical Systems Systems EIDO EIDO PT Leaflets. PT Leaflets. 

For more For information, more information, please please contact contact the the Communications Team Team 

on ext. on 5303 ext. or 5303 email: or email: swbh.comms@nhs.net 

SWBH 

Sandwell and 

West Birmingham 

NHS Trust 

intranet at your fingertips 

Do you find it difficult to stay 

up to date with everything 

that’s happening in our 

organisation? 

We have just launched a brand new app which aims to give you 

the ability to access information that would normally be found on 

the intranet from the comfort of your mobile phone. 

Download the app from Apple App Store or Google Play 

Store on to your Trust mobile phone or your personal mobile 

phone by searching for ‘SWBH myConnect’. 

For more information contact the 

Communications team on 0121 

507 5303 or email 


10

Colleagues come together to tackle 

pressure ulcers and falls 

Tissue viability team showcase their pressure ulcer grading models 

Earlier this month colleagues from 

across our organisation gathered at the 

Education Centre at Sandwell Hospital 

to learn how best to prevent pressure 

ulcers and patient falls. 

Launching the event Chief Nurse, Paula 

Gardner, introduced the aims and objectives 

of the exhibition highlighting the impact 

that patient falls and pressure ulcers can 

have on the recovery and experience of 

patients in our care. 

“The first of our falls and pressure ulcer 

summits has had an amazing turnout by 

colleagues eager to learn and hopefully 

through our interactive workshops and 

engaging presentations, we have shared 

some invaluable knowledge that they can 

take back and put in to practice. 

“Invariably patients will fall in hospital, but 

what we have to do is put all of the risk 

assessments in place to mitigate any falls 

to keep our patients safe. If our patients 


NEWS 

fall, we don’t want them to come to 

any harm. Today we’re doing this by 

enlightening colleagues on the different 

aspects of falls risk assessments, post 

fall huddles and ensuring we work in a 

multidisciplinary approach.” 

Falls facts: 

• An 800 bed hospital will have on 

average 1,500 patient falls a year 

• SWB averages 1,000 patient falls 

a year 

• Average cost to the NHS per 

patient fall is £2,600 

• Approximately 1,400 deaths a 

year across England are due to falls 

in hospital 

• 1 in 4 patients who suffer a broken 

hip following a fall die within six 

months. 

Alongside presentations from both 

colleagues in the tissue viability team 

and the falls prevention team, attendees 

had the opportunity to test a brand 

new bed that has the ability to highlight 

exactly where a patient is likely to suffer 

pressure related injuries through its 

cutting edge sensors. 

To find out more about the summits 

or to get some information on 

patient falls and pressure ulcers you 

can contact the tissue viability team 

on ext 3278. 

Don’t be spaced out of our car parks! 

Exciting developments to improve our 

estate and help us realise our vision 

to be truly integrated are going to 

commence in the spring. However we 

are going to have to adapt our travel 

habits to accommodate the changes. 

When building work starts on multi storey 

car parks at Sandwell and City and the GP 

surgery at Sandwell, we expect to lose over 

200 car parking spaces on both sites for 

the duration of the build (approximately 

18 months.) Once complete the new car 

parks will provide a significant number of 

additional spaces for both colleagues and 

visitors. 

We recognise that this temporary loss of 

capacity will be of concern, hence the need 

to change our travel habits for this period. 

If you are a car park user you may have 

already seen a flyer posted on your 

windscreen advertising our travel survey 

which invites you to give us your views on 

a number of options that will enable us to 

manage the limited spaces available. 

To fill in our short survey, including 

information about your usual travel 

arrangements please go to 

www.swbh.nhs.uk 

Alternatively 

scan this 

QR code on 

your mobile 

phone. 

Toby Lewis has been out reviewing our current 

car parking arrangements 

11

Virtual seals named at start of 

programme to calm anxious patients 


NEWS 

For those of you who haven’t heard 

our Paroseals have officially been 

named. 

Introducing Snap, Crackle and Pop! 

Sarah Gammidge-Jefferson, I-Proc & 

Procurement Systems Supervisor, picked 

the winning names, after Paula Gardner, 

Chief Nurse, ran a competition. 

And it has also been revealed that a 

fourth – named Ron - will be joining our 

organisation very soon. 

The seals are being used as a therapeutic 

intervention for people with dementia 

and learning disabilities on our wards. 

The fluffy robot uses artificial intelligence 

(AI) technology to learn from its 

surroundings and responds to its name. 

It likes to be petted and even wags its 

tail afterwards to show appreciation. 

Since Heartbeat introduced the seals 

last month, they have been used to help 

calm our patients. 

One of those included Gurbachan 

Kaur, who had been admitted to City 

Hospital’s D16 ward with a urinary tract 

infection. She had experienced episodes of 

confusion, leading to mood swings. 

Her granddaughter, Harjit Bains, said: “My 

nan’s mental state has been up and down. 

Sometimes she has been very overactive 

and aggressive, wondering around at night 

and swearing. Her symptoms came on very 

suddenly and it has been very unlike her. 

“However after seeing her with the 

Paroseal, I could see a huge difference in 

her. I haven’t seen her smile in three weeks 

and this was the first time I saw her do just 

that – it really made my day. 

“This initiative with the seal is fantastic and I 

100 per cent back it.” 

Stephen Keates, Dementia Clinical Nurse 

Specialist, said: “I work with the dementia, 

delirium and distress (DDD) team. The 

Paroseals are a relatively new development 

coming out of Japan and it is an exciting 

opportunity to reduce the distress that 

patients may suffer whilst in our care. 

“This was evident when we saw Mrs Kaur 

interact with one of the seals. She had been 

very hyperactive, but we introduced the 

Paroseal and we saw a noticeable difference 

in her. Her face lit up and she was smiling 

and drawn to the seal. She was able to 

derive comfort from that interaction. 

“We have three seals currently. One will be 

based with the DDD team, the other with 

Donna Hawkins, an activity co-ordinator 

and the third will be based at Rowley Regis 

Hospital.” 

To find out more about Snap, Crackle 

and Pop and how they can be used on 

your ward, contact Stephen.keates@ 

nhs.net. 

Paula Gardner, Chief Nurse, presents Sarah 

Gammidge-Jefferson with her bottle of 

champagne, after she picked the winning 

names for the Paroseals 

Stroke survivor Shena sings the 

praises of research at local conference 

A former colleague is helping spread 

the word about the value of research 

following her recovery from a stroke. 

Shena Davidson suffered a stroke in 2016 

whilst working as a healthcare assistant. Her 

stroke left her at first unable to walk, talk or 

carry out simple daily tasks. 

Despite initially feeling isolated and alone, 

Shena was approached by the Clinical 

Research Network (CRN) West Midlands 

about taking part in their activities and 

enjoyed it so much she decided to throw 

herself into becoming a fully-fledged Patient 

Research Ambassador, working closely with 

CRN. 

Recently Shena, who has made a full 

recovery, helped organise the ‘I Am 

Research’ conference held at Pannel Croft 

Village in Birmingham, where she is a 

resident and leads the village’s community 

choir, which consists of and supports stroke 

Shena Davidson addresses a research 

conference about her patient experience. 

survivors. They hold regular fundraising 

concerts. 

The conference featured presentations from 

experts and case studies from beneficiaries 

of research, as well as a performance from 

Shena’s choir. 

She encourages others to not only see 

the value of research but to take part in it 

themselves. Shena said: “Research is very 

important. A lot of people do not know 

about how important it is and I want them 

to know how much it has done for me. 

And I endeavour to do it by making people 

happy and making them smile.” 

Rachel Evans, Senior Research Facilitator 

at CRN, said: “Shena was upset and had 

lost her support network very quickly. But 

she decided to help and rely on herself and 

took part in our research – and on the ward 

would not only be doing her own rehab 

but helping with others as well. She’s very 

inspirational.” 

Shena has since gone on to take part in 

stroke research projects with the University 

of Oxford and University College London, 

including one on post-stroke cognitive 

problems. 

12

Going smoke free – what does it 

mean for you? 

The Trust’s sites will become smoke 

free on the NHS’s next birthday – 5 

July 2019. Over the past two months 

colleagues, patients, visitors and people 

living within our communities have had 

the opportunity to share their views on 

how we can best manage this change. 

The majority of people responding 

to the survey are overwhelming in 

support of the ban – both smokers and 

non-smokers. 

As part of our preparations for going smoke 

free we wanted to share some common 

questions and debunk some myths about 

the ban: 

1. Will I be allowed to vape on our sites? 

Yes! We are in support of vaping in line 

with the latest guidance from Public Health 

England and on the advice of our respiratory 

clinicians who have also reviewed the clinical 

evidence. Vaping is now recommended as a 

route to quit or cut down smoking – far less 

harmful than inhaling tobacco. 

We will be converting a small number of our 

smoking shelters to vaping shelters but you 

will also be allowed to vape outside (keeping 

a sensible distance from doorways). 

Over the next few months we will have 

roadshows on our sites with vaping products 

and information so you can find out more. 

2. The ban won’t affect me, as I will nip 

to my car for a fag… 

Sorry, but you won’t be able to do that if you 

park on Trust car parks. Our sites are smoke 

free and that includes all of our car parks. 

Ollie Collins from Ecigwizard demonstrates 

vaping products. Look out for the team from 

Ecigwizard across the Trust in coming weeks. 

3. I’ve heard that people will be fined – 

is that true? 

Yes, patients, visitors and colleagues who are 

found to be smoking on site will be issued 

a fine. This will be linked in value to our car 

parking fines. We will have enforcement 

officers who will be patrolling our sites to 

make sure that our environment is smoke 

free. 

4. I will need to take a longer break to 

go further for a cigarette… 

Cigarette breaks are not an entitlement. Your 

break arrangements should be discussed 

with your manager to ensure that the 

needs of the service are met. If you feel 

that this will cause you problems please 


NEWS 

think seriously about cutting down or 

quitting and have a conversation with 

your manager. There is lots of support 

available to you. 

5. It will look terrible if people are 

lining the sites, smoking. 

It is inevitable that part of this change 

will have consequences that are not 

ideal. We want people to stop smoking 

but we will have no ability to ban people 

from smoking outside our boundaries. 

We would ask people to consider nearby 

residents and ensure that noise, litter 

and second hand smoke is kept to a 

minimum. 

Quit Smoking and realise the 

benefits! 

> You will save money - the average smoker 

has 13 cigarettes a day, which works out as 

364 cigarettes a month. That's £141 a month 

and £1,696 a year that you could be saving by 

not smoking. 

> Your sense of taste will return and you will 

enjoy the taste of food more. 

> Your breathing and general fitness will improve. 

> The appearance of your skin and teeth will 

improve. 

> You'll be more confident in social situations 

because you won't smell of stale smoke any 

more. 

> Your fertility levels will improve, along with 

your chances of having a healthy pregnancy 

and baby. 

5 months until we go 

smokefree 

2019 

5 

JULY 

For information on stopping smoking please 

contact occupational health on extension 3306. 

#SWBHSmokeFree 

13

connec 

to feeling trusted in our roles 

Our first weConnect quarterly pulse 

survey has revealed a high number 

of colleagues who were polled feel 

trusted to do their jobs. 

Colleagues said they felt they have the 

freedom to act and make decisions in 

the areas where they work. Many also 

stated they have a good relationship 

with their manager and feel supported 

to do their work effectively. 

Heartbeat spoke to Toby Lewis, Chief 

Executive, who told us more. He said: 

“It is encouraging to see that trust 

continues to be a positive factor across 

all our surveys including the NHS 

Staff Survey which has been recently 

published. 

“This was the first survey from our 

weConnect programme which we 

launched last November. The response 

rate was just under 30 per cent which 

was an improvement on previous 

surveys. It is also great to see our 

engagement score is 3.86 out of 5 – this 

means we are very close of hitting our 

target of 4 across all our surveys.” 

The survey results did reveal there is 

more still to do to enable us to achieve 

our target engagement score. 

The perception of feeling valued 

and recognised by our managers is 

lower than it could be in some areas, 

particularly higher in colleagues working 

in roles up to band 5. Colleagues are 

also less satisfied with the fairness of 

certain decisions. 

Toby said: “The survey has given us 

plenty to act on and each directorate 

that took part has developed a plan in 

response. 

“As part of the weConnect programme 

our first 12 pioneer teams will begin 

their dedicated programme of activities 

to improve engagement. These teams 

are supported by our fully trained 

colleagues called ‘connectors’ who are 

helping them to achieve their goals. 

“We are confident that this will be 

the start of an ongoing process of 

continuous improvement of engagement 

within our teams.” 

So what?... 

Below you can see the top actions our directorates have planned in 

response to the survey responses 

Imaging: The group will use a series of LiAs during the year to develop a shared 

vision and identify solutions to improving the service. Recognising the collaboration 

between different departments to providing a good service for clinicians and patients 

they want to work more closely with the portering team inviting porters to spend a 

day in imaging to review how the process between receiving patients and scanning 

patients could work better. 

Estates: The Estates directorate will develop local team charters through their 

QIHDs to address fairness within the directorate. Their next LiA event will have a 

focus on health and wellbeing and positive promotion of different teams’ successes. 

They will hold monthly speak up sessions to give everyone a voice in making 

suggestions and raising concerns. 

Nursing services: The corporate nursing services directorate will develop local 

charters to address fairness. They will also hold LiAs to recognise people’s valuable 

contributions and celebrate success. They will hold drop in sessions for informal chats 

within each team. 

Paediatrics: The directorate will relaunch their Recognition Tree to celebrate 

success within their teams. They want to understand more how we can ensure 

people have the right resources to do their jobs so will do local surveys and act on 

the results. They will also ensure a clear escalation process so that missing essential 

resources can be identified and resolved quickly. 

Community medicine: Use the April QIHD to develop vision and objectives, 

and focus during March on PDRs so that people are clear on the personal 

development opportunities available. Ensure that people have clear job plans and can 

understand the workforce requirements for the future including when we move to 

Midland Met. 

Admitted care: The directorate will establish IT champions to help unblock 

issues and report back to colleagues. They will publish ward level staffing against 

optimum levels to enable clear understanding of vacancies and recruitment. In April 

their fortnightly newsletter launches that will focus on improvements made as a 

result of staff feedback. 

Ophthalmology: A series of LiA events will take place to ensure that feedback 

from staff is acted up and that there is clear understanding of the issues relating to 

resourcing. New opportunities will be made available for job shadowing within the 

directorate. 

To read the full report visit the communications team section on Connect – click on the surveys tab. The next quarterly pulse 

survey launches at the end of February. 

14

Our top three areas to prioritise 

At our last Speak Up Day we asked you to vote on the top three things you most wanted to see 

improved across the Trust. Here we share what has been done as a response: 

Improved communication in my area 

Each Group has committed to making sure that everyone has the opportunity for a face to face meeting with their 

manager or team at least once a month, paying particular attention to people who work at night. 

IT that works every day 

Our IT infrastructure is steadily improving and there have been fewer outages in recent weeks. Teams are out in 

wards and services checking that the right numbers of devices are available and that these devices work. New cyber 

cafes will be set up in 2019 to give more people access to the internet and other digital channels. 

More opportunities for flexible working 

We have listened to colleague’s views on flexible working and are sharing clear principles with managers to 

supplement our flexible working policy. These principles include: 

• All roles to be available as part-time unless essential justification 

• Fair allocation among teams of flexible working practices including reviewing long-term practices to enable 

others to benefit 

• Teams to be invited to consider seven day working, working from home and annualised hours contracts 

• Trust to explore childcare provision including holiday clubs 

100% 

• Central collection of provision for reasonable adjustments 

Colleagues gave most 

positive responses to 

questions that asked about 

the extent to which they are 

trusted with responsibility 

and have freedom to act. 

75% 

50% 

25% 

0% 

Clarity Influence Mindset P/Fairness P/ 

Development 

Recognition Resources Trust Work 

Relationships 

Total Average 

Clarity Influence Mindset P/Fairness 

P/ 

Development 

Recognition Resources Trust 

Work 

Relationships 

Total Average 

Nov 2018 69.43% 55.09% 63.19% 53.43% 63.97% 54.19% 64.37% 81.5% 78.24% 65.67% 

15

Clinical training transformed through 

simulation 

MEDICINE AND EMERGENCY 

CARE 

Our medical student undergraduate 

simulation programme provides 

high quality training according to 

colleagues in pharmacy. 

The programme, which runs regularly 

throughout the academic year is said 

to be better than the OSPEs [Objective 

Structured Pharmacist Examination] that 

students had to take previously. 

Heartbeat caught up with Amardeep 

Singh, Lead Pharmacist for HIV/ 

GUM, to find out more about these 

collaborate workshops. He said: “From 

the perspective of the pharmacy training 

programme, the inter-professional 

scenarios provide better quality training. 

They are more cost-effective and less 

labour intensive than OSPEs - only 

one pre-registration tutor is needed to 

supervise and assist each time and the 

scenarios are easier to write. 

“From the perspective of pre-registration 

trainees from last year, they provided 

a good insight into the roles and problem 

solving approach of doctors and helped the 

trainees better understand how they can 

provide collaborative support to improve 

patient care.” 

“In addition to this, we believe that this is 

an excellent example of collaboration to 

deliver innovative and cost effect training 

on site.” 

Inter-professional simulation workshops 

aim to increase the awareness of different 

healthcare professionals, their roles and 

ways of working, and give students an 

opportunity to reflect how they can work 

within a multidisciplinary team to improve 

patient outcomes. This is done within the 

framework of a programme of simulations 

that are provided for fifth year medical 

students by the clinical teaching fellows. 

The main simulation programme is for final 

year medical students and is run by the 

clinical teaching fellows. The simulation 

scenarios are then adjusted to allow preregistration 

pharmacists to participate. The 

simulations for pharmacists were developed 

by Amardeep and his colleague Alkash 

Hilal, Deputy Group Pharmacist for surgical 

services. 

The training was first piloted in 2018 with 

very positive feedback from nursing and 

medical students and pre-registration 

pharmacists. There will be two more interprofessional 

simulation workshops in April 

at both our Sandwell and City sites. Further 

work is also taking place with the nursing 

education team with a view to develop 

multidisciplinary simulation scenarios with 

nursing students in the future. 

Have you got a story for Heartbeat? 

We want you to share your stories with us. 

• Have you got an event or special 

occasion in your department? 

• Do you have an inspirational colleague? 

• Does your department do something that 

makes a real difference to our patients? 

• Do you know anyone who goes 

the extra mile to support the 

delivery of quality care? 

The above are just examples of the 

types of stories we would like you to 

share. If you have anything else you 

feel would be great to include in 

Heartbeat, please do get in touch. 

Amardeep Singh 

Contact the editor, Chilufya Dawo 

on extension 3409 or e-mail 

chilufya.dawo@nhs.net 

16

Nurse tells of moment she realised 

she was treating a superstar 

Accident and emergency Sister, Stacey 

McCormick has revealed the moment 

she realised she was treating superstar 

musician Mike Skinner City Hospital. 

The nurse had been working a busy 

Friday night shift, checking the X-ray of a 

patient who had come in with a dislocated 

shoulder. But it was only when she looked 

at his name and ushered him into a 

treatment room, that she clicked it was the 

Brummie rapper, who had been performing 

at a gig that night at the O2 Academy. He 

had been crowd surfing when he suffered 

the injury. 

“I asked him are you the Mike Skinner,” 

she recalled. “He answered yes. I was a bit 

shocked to see him there – it’s not every day 

that you treat a famous musician. He was 

very down-to-earth and waited with the 

other patients in the seating area. 

“When it was his turn he came along 

quietly, and that’s when I realised it was 

ED Sister Stacey McCormick who treated Mike 

Skinner. 

him. We gave him gas and air while my 

colleague Dr Sam Bourke popped his 

shoulder back into place. Throughout his 

time in our care he was really grateful and 

thought the service was amazing. He didn’t 


CARE 

receive any extra special treatment 

though - and certainly didn’t expect it. 

“He was with his management team 

who filmed his experience. After he was 

treated, he invited both myself and Dr 

Bourke to his gig on Saturday night, but 

we couldn’t go along because we were 

both working, which is a shame.” 

Later that night the singer posted a 

video to his Instagram account in which 

he thanked the staff at the hospital. 

Skinner was also filmed telling the 

camera: "I could cry, I could literally cry." 

He later went on: "Thank you so much 

to everyone at Birmingham City Hospital 

for putting my arm back in." 

Radio star reveals how Sandwell 

Hospital “saved her life” 

Colleagues at Sandwell Hospital 

have been praised by BBC WM 

presenter Samantha Meah for her 

care after she went into septic shock. 

The host spent three weeks in our 

hospital’s critical care unit. She revealed 

details of the terrifying details live on her 

new morning show Sam & Daz, which 

she presents with Daz Hale, earlier this 

month. 

Sam said: "I didn't realise that it was 

sepsis at the time, but I was suddenly 

frozen cold. 

"I was shaking, my teeth were 

chattering. I could not open the 

computer that was in front of me. I 

knew something was seriously wrong. 

"We were about to interview Faye Tozer 

from Strictly and I was all excited about 

that, but was so incapable of doing 

anything. 

"So an ambulance was called and they 

took 45 minutes to stabilise me. I was 

taken to Sandwell Hospital where I was 

seen and treated extremely quickly." 

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that 

comes when the body's response to 

infection causes injury to its own tissues 

and organs. 

UK Sepsis Trust said it kills 52,000 per 

year - five people per hour. 

Antibiotic treatment should start within 

an hour of diagnosis to reduce the risk of 

serious complications or death. 

Sam added: "I had a CT scan and 

discovered that I had been walking around 

for some time with a perforated bowel, 

because I have diverticular disease as a lot 

of people do. 

"In my case I had an episode I was unaware 

of; I had a perforation in the bowel, that 

had caused an infection. The infection had 

spread to my liver, so I had abscesses on my 

liver and then the infection in turn spread 

to my lungs. So I was full of nasty and 

unpleasant infection." 

Diverticular disease is a condition that 

affects the large bowel. It happens when 

small pouches develop in the lining of the 

bowel and push out through the bowel wall 

- which in some people can cause stomach 

pain. 

Her co-presenter Daz Hale has called Sam 

'a pro' and asked her what would have 

happened if she had gone into septic shock 

at home. 

She replied: "I would have died. They saved 

my life at Sandwell. I was in intensive care 

for a few days, had two blood transfusions 

and I was in there for three weeks. They 

literally saved my life." 

Know Your 

Sepsis Six 

By doing these six simple things 

in the first hour, you can double 

your patients chance of survival 

• Give high flow oxygen 

• Take blood cultures 

• Give IV antibiotics 

• Give a fluid challenge 

• Measure lactate 

• Measure urine output 

Screening 

for Sepsis 

Know Your Sepsis Six 

NEWS score of 5 or more 

1. Set flag on EBMS when screened 

2. Set flag on EBMS if positive 

• Use Sepsis action tool 

• Start Sepsis Six 

3. If negative for sepsis, place sepsis 

sticker in notes 

4. Escalate as appropriate 

17

Laura brings pets to patients 


CARE 

When nurse Laura Wheeler read 

about the benefits of pet therapy, 

she knew it would be a hit with her 

patients. 

So the sister, who works on Newton 

4 at Sandwell, decided to put the 

wheels in motion – and now the stroke 

rehabilitation patients she cares for enjoy 

a visit from therapy dogs every Thursday. 

“I saw something on social media 

about pet therapy,” she explained. “So 

I pursued it as I thought it would work 

really well on this ward. 

“The dogs come from the Pets as 

Therapy organisation and the patients 

really look forward to it and want to 

spend time with them. 

“Some of them have animals at home 

who they really miss. Obviously they 

are unable to see them whilst they are 

in hospital, so this really picks up their 

mood. 

Sister Laura Wheeler introduced pet therapy 

to Newton 4 

“It also has physical benefits too, as they 

want to move their arms or hands to 

stroke the dogs. This definitely aids them 

in their recovery and it also lowers their 

blood pressure. We have also had miniature 

Shetland ponies visit the hospital, and we 

had fantastic feedback from the patients 

about this. 

“Introducing pet therapy on the ward 

definitely has to be one of my career 

highlights.” 

Laura, aged 26, lives with her partner in 

Lichfield, and has always wanted to be 

a nurse. She explained: “I like caring for 

people and over the years have helped to 

look after my nan. 

“I go round to see her and try and cheer 

her up. After I finished college I came to 

Sandwell Hospital as a trainee nurse and 

have stayed here ever since. 

“I work 12 hour shifts and I ensure the 

patients are well looked after. I work on 

trying to get them back to their baseline 

so that they are able to go home well. For 

me giving them the best care possible is my 

main aim. Everyone has different needs so 

we tailor the care to what they require.” 

For the past four years, Laura has also 

volunteered to work on Christmas Day. 

She added: “Some patients are not 

fortunate enough to go home, so it’s nice to 

spend time with those who have to stay in 

over Christmas. We buy them presents and 

sit with them whilst they open them.” 

So who is Laura’s hero? “It has to be Natalie 

Heath, my ward manager. She always puts 

the patients care first which is what the job 

is all about.” 

Listening to mums helps improve 

our maternity care 

WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH 

Every year, the Care Quality 

Commission (CQC) carry out a 

maternity survey as part of a national 

programme to capture and collect 

feedback on the experiences of 

women using NHS maternity services 

across the country. 

Here at SWBH we are keen to ensure that 

we make the most of the valuable insight 

and opinions of our patients to ensure 

that we are able to meet their needs and 

deliver a safe an effective care. 

To find out more about the national 

maternity survey, Heartbeat caught up 

with, Lorraine Cardill, Deputy Director 

of Midwifery to discuss the results and 

find out what was being done to act on 

suggestions. Lorraine said: “Following 

feedback from the 2018 survey, we put 

in place processes for women who are 

undergoing induction of labour to have 

a birth partner accompany them. We 

had concerns about how other women 

in a shared room may feel about this so, 

with their involvement, we produced some 

guidance whereby the birth partner is female 

unless the woman is in a single bedroom. 

Lorraine continued: “This year we will 

implement our continuity of carer work 

which will see women cared for by the same 

midwife for the majority of her antenatal and 

postnatal care, as well as being cared for in 

labour by a midwife who is known to her. 

The maternity team are continuously seeking 

to improve care so that all women have the 

best possible pregnancy, birth and postnatal 

experience. 

“There are a variety ways in which we can 

improve, for example, ensuring that our 

communication is always clear and that 

women and their partners are truly involved 

with all elements of their care, and in making 

choices,” said Lorraine. 

The national maternity survey was 

commissioned by the CQC and sent to all 

new mothers aged 16 or over who were due 

to give birth in our units in February last year. 

Lorraine Cardill, Deputy Director of 

Midwifery 

Of those who were sent a survey, just 21 per 

cent responded. 

“It can be challenging to encourage people 

to complete any kind of survey, especially 

when they also have a young baby.” said 

Lorraine. 

“However, after analysing the results, we 

can see that the service is moving in the right 

direction with progress being made in labour 

and birth.” 

18

It’s double delight for maternity 

support worker Lynne 

It’s not often you help to deliver your 

own granddaughter at your workplace. 

But Lynne Hewitt she did just that – and 

a month later she coached her other 

daughter through labour, who also went on 

to give birth at City Hospital where she is a 

maternity support worker. 

“It was all very surreal,” recalled Lynne, 53, 

who has worked at the hospital for eight 

years. 

“I guessed both of my daughters were 

pregnant when we were out for a family 

party. I noticed they were drinking 

lemonade with orange juice so I asked 

them. 

“They obviously couldn’t keep it a secret. 

I was very excited about it and of course I 

knew I would be part of the births because 

of the job I do.” 

Daughter Becki, aged 33, was the first to 

give birth in November to Niamh at the 

Serenity Birthing Unit. 

“I was there throughout the labour and 

helped to deliver little Niamh. It was such 

a magical moment and a huge privilege,” 

explained Lynne. 

Maternity Support Worker, Lynne Hewitt 

helped deliver her two grandchildren at City 

Hospital 

“Laura gave birth to George a month later 

in the labour ward. I was there throughout 

the labour until she was taken into theatre. 

“It was so lovely to be there for my 

daughters during such an important time of 


NEWS 

their lives. And of course I was able to 

give them my guidance too.” 

Lynne first began working in the 

maternity department eight years ago 

and joined Serenity two years later. Her 

job involves supporting midwives as they 

assist women in giving birth and making 

sure the environment is safe and clean 

for patients. 

“It’s such an unpredictable job,” she 

said. “I could be helping to look after 

women who are postnatal, but then on 

other occasions I could be assisting with 

the birth. I work varied shifts too. 

“I do love my job and knowing that I can 

give women the best care and support 

possible really drives me. I remember 

how different it was for me when I 

gave birth all those years ago and I 

want to make sure women have a good 

experience when they are in our care.” 

Patients ‘paws’ to spend time with 

therapy dog Otis 

It’s not just our clinical colleagues 

who make patients feel better. 

Occasionally four-legged furry 

friends can make a difference too. 

The charity Pets as Therapy specialises 

in enhancing health and wellbeing in 

the community through animals and 

their owners visiting hospitals, hospices, 

nursing and care homes, special needs 

schools and a variety of other venues all 

across the UK. 

Otis, a six year old English Setter owned 

by Sharon Siddall comes into Sandwell 

Hospital once a week where he spends 

time on the children’s and stroke wards, 

allowing patients to pet and tickle him 

and even do high-fives. 

She said: “Otis is exceptionally laid back 

which is why I thought he would make 

a good therapy dog. He is very good 

with children and people and a calming 

presence for them.” 

To find out more about Pets as 

Therapy visit petsastherapy.org 

WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH 

Otis pictured with Volunteer, Sharon, Alex Britton, Staff Nurse, and Paediatric Doctor, Almas Janjua 

19

Newborn hearing screening team 

goes back to basics 

SURGICAL SERVICES 

The team looking after our Newborn 

Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP) 

is committed to constant improvement. 

And their challenge to keep raising 

standards and reduce referrals recently 

saw them come up with a simple 

solution – to go ‘back to basics’. 

Within the Birmingham area, our 

organisation runs the NHSP for all babies 

born at City Hospital, Birmingham Women’s 

Hospital, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital 

and Good Hope Hospital, making it one 

of the largest programmes in England 

– known as ‘Birmingham, Sandwell and 

Solihull NHSP’. 

Antenatal and newborn screening 

programmes are approved by Public 

Health England, who produce annual 

service specifications, standards and 

key performance indicators (KPIs) which 

services must strive to meet. There are five 

standards, each with a lower ‘acceptable’ 

target but also a higher ‘achievable’ target. 

Having already reviewed screening 

literature, our journey of improvement 

started with a good practice review in April 

2016, where screeners were asked to reflect 

on their skills against the recommended 

good practice guidelines. This was repeated 

in 2017 and 2018. Data for 2017/18 

showed a reduction in referral rates to 

audiology but more improvement was 

needed. 

In January 2018, we invited a manager from 

another NHSP service which successfully 

improved its own referral rates. Many of 

their experiences were found to be like our 

own, and going back to basics had been 

key for them. 

We therefore focused on technique, 

reflection and peer evaluation, 

brainstorming different things to try. We 

developed a 2018 action plan to bring 

about improvements, which we review at 

our QIHDs. 

Suzanne Mannington, City Hospital’s 

Senior Newborn Hearing Screener, said: 

“We are being more pro-active and using 

our judgement on whether to continue 

screening or bring babies back to clinic, as 

sometimes this is the best way to reduce 

anxiety for the parents as it may result in 

clearer responses when screening conditions 

are better. 

“We have had to ensure we book within 

the target time frame and do everything 

possible to encourage attendance to 

clinics – providing local clinics at convenient 

times and sending multiple text reminders 

to parents. Supporting each other has 

also been key - working together when 

needed to try and obtain the best results for 

babies.” 

Performance is monitored not just by the 

Trust, but by the regional quality assurance 

team and the screening and immunisations 

team at quarterly screening board meetings, 

along with other antenatal and newborn 

KPIs. 

“We have worked hard to improve against 

the standards, particularly those which 

involved referring babies on to audiology,” 

added Suzanne. “It is important that we are 

offering a high quality, effective screen and 

only referring babies on to audiology for 

diagnostic testing if they genuinely need it. 

“Whilst latest reports show further 

improvement in our referral rates we 

haven’t quite met the target overall for 

referrals to audiology. Each site has met it at 

some point when monthly data is reviewed. 

We now need to work on making this more 

consistent to make achieving the target a 

reality. And because everyone has worked 

so hard the target now seems within our 

reach!” 

The Newborn Hearing Screening Programme run by our team is one of the largest in England 

20

A simple sip saves lives 

Can a picture of a glass of water make 

a difference to patients’ lives? Well the 

answer is yes. 

SURGICAL SERVICES 

When City Hospital’s anaesthesia team 

entered the weLearn competition to 

demonstrate change they had successfully 

implemented, their entry ‘Think Drink’ – a 

campaign to nudge patients away from 

fasting before operations – came out the 

winner. 

Now the team, led by Consultant in 

Anaesthesia and Critical Care, Dr Santhana 

Kannan, is enjoying success which has won 

them £5,000, but more importantly better 

patient experience and satisfaction. 

The poster shows a glass of water with the 

headline ‘Think Drink’ and the message 

‘Patients allowed sips of water until surgery’. 

Dr Kannan explained that the guideline 

stipulating pre-operative fasting safety 

limits (six hours for solids and two hours for 

fluids) has been in place for more than three 

decades. However, repeated audits have 

shown that patients were fasting for much 

longer unnecessarily (up to seven hours on 

average for fluids in our organisation). This 

was due to a combination of perceived risks 

and also practical constraints in terms of 

monitoring patient fluid intake. 

Recent research has shown that allowing 

patients to drink water before surgery is safe. 

It reduces the risk of dehydration, reduces 

post-operative vomiting and improves clinical 

Consultant in Anaesthesia and Critical Care, 

Dr Santhana Kannan worked with a team of 

fellow doctors to modify the pre-operative 

fasting policy leading to good outcomes for 

patients 

stability during the procedure. There is 

enough evidence from inside and outside the 

UK to show this works. 

Dr Kannan – alongside fellow doctors 

Christopher Horner and Ahmed Gilani – 

modified the pre-operative fasting policy that 

allowed patients to have unlimited sips of 

water in the run-up to their surgery, using a 

‘0-2-6’ approach – ‘0’ for the sips of water 

until being called into theatre, ‘2’ for fizzy 

drinks, milk, tea or coffee up to two hours 

before and ‘6’ meaning solids up to six hours 

before. 

Dr Kannan said: “Following the 

implementation of the ‘Think Drink Project’, 

we re-audited and the average fasting time 

for fluids had come down to two hours. 

There was a huge improvement. Ward 

colleagues reported that patients came 

back with fewer headaches – most likely 

due to better hydration. 

“This is a step change in practice. We 

now need to try and ensure that all 

patients are aware of this option and 

we extend this to emergency surgery as 

well.” 

The team aims to do this by modifying 

their letters to patients to make them 

aware of the revised guideline well in 

advance. 

All the results from the campaign were 

put into an infographic poster that was 

submitted for the weLearn competition 

and won the £5,000 – which Dr Kannan 

and the team now have to spend. 

Fortunately, they have some ideas. 

He said: “The prize money will be shared 

between myself, Dr Horner and Dr Gilani. 

I am not sure what their spending plans 

are but a proportion of my share will 

go to charity and quality improvement 

activity within the department. I am 

happy that our initiative won the prize. 

The resultant publicity will aid colleague 

awareness. I am grateful to all my 

department colleagues for their support 

in this venture.” 

New theatre recruits take the stage 

at jobs open day 

Fifteen people will be starting new 

jobs within the Trust as a result of a 

recruitment day last month. 

The event, which took place at Sandwell 

Hospital, saw 24 out of 45 people who 

visited interviewed for band 5 and 6 theatre 

practitioner positions. The 15 successful 

candidates were made conditional job offers 

on the day. In additional seven people were 

signed up to join the Trust Bank. 

Four band 6 senior practitioners and 11 

band 6 practitioners will begin working 

across the organisation in the coming weeks 

and months. Their roles will contribute 

to the effective day-to-day operation 

of theatres through skilled assistance 

to clinicians during the administration, 

maintenance and termination of general 

regional or local anaesthetics, undertaking 

scrubbing and circulating duties and 

providing skilled recovery care. 

The Theatres Recruitment team celebrate 

after a successful day at the jobs fair, held at 

Sandwell Hospital’s Education Centre 

The January event is one of several held 

during the year and for those candidates 

who could not turn up in person Skype 

interviews were also made available. 

Amir Ali, Head of Engagement, Retention 

and Nurse Recruitment said it was 

important to give people opportunities for 

career progression outside the normal 

recruitment channels. 

“We were delighted by the response 

to the event which allowed people to 

come and discuss and apply for roles, 

and be interviewed and made an offer if 

successful, all in one day,” said Amir. 

Amir added: “The day included 

thorough engagement from theatre 

colleagues representing City Hospital, 

Sandwell Hospital and BMEC, who spent 

the day selling their departments and 

the Trust as well as interviewing talented 

candidates who will soon be joining the 

SWB family.” 

Do you know a friend or family 

member who would be interested in 

joining our organisation? They can 

look out for further events on our 

jobs website www.swbhjobs.co.uk/ 

our-events/. 

21

Simple click to rate your foot 

health day 

PRIMARY CARE, COMMUNITIES 

AND THERAPIES 

How was your day? It’s a common 

question we’re all asked when we 

finish a hard day’s work and go 

home. But a brainwave by a savvy 

lead podiatrist has taken this simple 

question and turned it in to a service 

development model to transform the 

department of foot health. 

Rate my day is a concept that was 

developed by Clinical Lead Podiatrist, 

Thomas Calderbank six months ago with 

the aim of improving service delivery and 

ultimately patient care in the department 

of foot health. 

To find out more about the project, 

Heartbeat caught up with Thomas. He 

said: “We developed ‘Rate my day’ six 

months ago because we realised that 

in our podiatry service, we’re good at 

tackling the big problems and issues, 

but we weren’t as good at catching 

those little niggling problems that have a 

tendency to irritate and annoy. 

“We wanted to find a way to gain a 

better understanding of how our teams 

were feeling and to capture this on a 

Colleagues in department of foot health rate their day to highlight issues 

daily basis and then to look at finding out 

what was causing people to have a bad day. 

Through this we had the idea of coming up 

with the ‘Rate my day’ scheme. 

“Every day we ask our clinical colleagues to 

log whether their day has been a green day, 

signifying a day that went well , an amber 

day signifying a bad day and then a red 

day that signifies a bad day that has had an 

impact on patient care.” 

Thomas added: “We managed to build 

this rating system in to SystmOne, our 

community patient record system. It’s a really 

quick and simple process for colleagues but it 

gives the management team some invaluable 

information gathered from a team that is 

distributed across the borough. 

“Each month we use the data that we 

manage to gather from all of our colleagues 

It's a physio first for Trust! 

and build it in to themes which gives us 

an indication of some of the issues that 

affect our teams and the impact it has on 

patient care and most importantly, it means 

we can tackle those problems quickly and 

effectively.” 

Since the launch of the project, the ‘rate my 

day’ scheme has helped highlight a number 

of issues that had for a long while gone 

under the radar and unchecked. The system 

was able to show that although they weren’t 

particularly high priority, they had a huge 

impact on colleague wellbeing, the culture in 

the service and most importantly the delivery 

of good patient care. 

If you are interested in developing 

your own ‘Rate my day’ system and 

would like more information, contact 

Thomas Calderbank on email, Thomas. 

calderbank@nhs.net or call ext. 2664 

Clinicians from across Birmingham 

gathered at Sandwell Hospital for the 

first ever SWB organised Injection 

Therapy Study Day, designed as a 

mandatory CPD training day for 

Advanced Practitioner Physiotherapists 

and Podiatrists. The event focussed on 

injection therapy for musculoskeletal 

conditions. 

Yogita Stokes, Clinical Lead and Advanced 

Practitioner Physiotherapist explained: “It 

was the first pan Birmingham study day 

we have organised and delivered, as our 

previous study days were done in house. 

“It was an exciting opportunity to 

collaborate and share skills, knowledge 

and expertise from across Birmingham 

and develop networking between our 

clinicians and others from Birmingham 

Community Healthcare Trust, The Royal 

Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 

and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS 

Foundation Trust. 

“Over 60 clinicians attended the day at 

the Conference room in the Education 

Centre at Sandwell. Our speakers covered 

a range of topics across injection therapy 

Colleagues attend the first regional injection 

therapy study day 

including injection techniques, case studies, 

service developments and current evidence/ 

research. 

Christopher Anton, Yellow Card Scheme 

Administrator for the West Midlands 

delivered a talk on Yellow Carding for 

adverse drug events, whilst Pharmacist Lynn 

Nyguen Do spoke on drug interactions. 

Mark Maybury Consultant Physiotherapist, 

Sonographer and Researcher (UHB) 

presented an informative talk on ultrasound 

guided hydro distension and barbotage for 

shoulder conditions, followed by Consultant 

Physiotherapist (UHB) Phil Haley on his role 

delivering spinal injections. Anand Nadar 

Consultant Physiotherapist also spoke on 

wrist and hand injections. 

“We had excellent contributions to the 

poster display including posters on a 

current research study into suprascapular 

nerve blocks by Neil Smith Clinical Lead / 

Advanced Practitioner Physiotherapist who 

was successful in obtaining a place on the 

PCAF. We also had posters on injection 

therapy audits with patient reported 

outcome measures. 

“To ensure the study day had achieved 

what we set out to do, we surveyed all 

those attending and received the following 

comments in feedback: 

• "great for CPD" 

• "well presented, well put together 

programme" 

• "great venue" 

• "excellent initiative to improve 

networks and collaboration across 

Birmingham" 

• "informative and interesting 

programme" 

“I think it is safe to say that following 

this event, there will be more to come in 

the future. If you would like any further 

information about the day please contact 

me by email on yogita.stokes@nhs.net 

22

New tech showcased in healthcare 

science event 

Technology was the main feature at 

this year’s annual healthcare science 

innovations event aimed at clinical and 

non-clinical colleagues from across our 

workplace. 

Melvina Barsby, Advanced Cardiac 

Physiologist kicked proceedings off with an 

app which helps to monitor cardiac rhythm 

management . The tool would be installed 

on patients’ smartphone devices allowing 

for constant cardiac management using low 

energy Bluetooth technology. 

Melvina believes the cardiac rhythm tool 

would be beneficial for the Trust. She 

said: “This app will be fantastic for us as 

it would mean that we could check our 

patient’s readings at ease. It also gives 

patients back control thus improving 

patient care. In addition, it will allow us to 

be more effective in our jobs as it reduces 

the number of phone calls regarding small 

queries from patients as they would have 

easy access to all the information they need 

through the app.” 

This presentation was then followed by a 

look at an exciting new piece of hardware 

– video head impulse goggles designed 

for testing inner-ear balance function. The 

Andrew Rutter, Senior Clinical Scientist and 

Naomi Joannou, Trainee Healthcare Scientist 

(Audiology) demonstrated video head impulse 

goggle testing at our healthcare science 

innovation event 

goggles use a high speed camera and dual 

axis gyroscopes to track the patient's eye 

movements. 

Claire Lingard, Principal Clinical Scientist in 

audiology, led the demonstration for the 

goggles and said: “The video head impulse 

goggles offer more robust data, greater 

test sensitivity and can ensure a range of 

frequencies are tested." 

“The advantages of the goggles for our 

Trust are that we would have more reliable 

and faster diagnoses, save appointment 

IMAGING 

time in assessment clinics and patients 

could be quickly progressed into 

rehabilitation clinics.” 

To conclude the event Gregory James, 

Senior Clinical Scientist in nuclear 

medicine spoke about the team’s gastric 

emptying studies. They have been 

looking into the normal rates for food to 

empty from the stomach, and are trying 

to set up standard simple meal recipes 

for other departments in the UK to use. 

The rate that food empties from the 

stomach changes depending on the food 

eaten, and this will allow hospitals to 

compare test results more easily. 

Jilly Croasdale, Associate Director, 

Healthcare Science organised the event 

and said: “I think the 2019 healthcare 

science innovations day event was a 

huge success as it allowed an array of 

clinical colleagues show how science, 

technology and innovation is being 

used within our organisation to improve 

patient care.” 

To: Sharon Anderson and Sally Hill 

I would like to thank both of these 

sisters in Sandwell ED for their amazing 

support over the last few weeks. Not 

only are they both fantastic nurse 

colleagues but also amazing friends. 

From: Catherine Witton 

To: Dr Hagan 

Thanks to Dr Hagan for being a 

consistently supportive and helpful 

senior consultant. Always happy to help 

with referrals and kind to junior doctors. 

He even bought us pizza during a very 

busy shift on the AMU! Thank you! 

From: Junior Doctors 

Shout out has been a regular feature 

in Heartbeat for over a year now and it 

is fantastic to see colleagues regularly 

taking the time to give positive 

feedback to each other. 

We regularly receive positive feedback 

from our patients too, and this month 

we wanted to share some of those heartwarming 

messages which have been sent 

via our website and social media platforms. 

To: Nicola Antcliff 

Nicola from L&D was super helpful in 

helping sort out all our mandatory 

training via ESR, she was able to ensure 

we are all going to be in date and we 

were all on the right courses. All admin 

staff in the booking office were very 

impressed as we have had difficulty 

logging onto ESR Learning. 

From: Charlene Bennett 

To: Cardiology nurses 

Thank you for keeping my mother 

Valerie at home, by going out every day 

to administer her IV furosemide. She is 

so much happier out of hospital. 

From: Joy Haywood 

To: Steve Mann and Julie Attwood 

They took an elderly patient home and 

when they got to the property they 

found the patient’s partner on the floor. 

They called 999 and waited for the 999 

crew to arrive. They stayed with the 

couple making them both relaxed and 

as comfortable until the emergency 

services arrived forgoing their dinner 

break and finished work late. 

From: Bridget Greaney 

To: Rob, Dave and Paul from the place 

team 

They helped the research team move 

into the new clinical research facility at 

Sandwell, so helpful and nothing too 

much trouble. Cheers chaps! 

From: Ash Turner 

To: Maureen Bowen 

Many thanks to Maureen Bowen, clerk 

from antenatal clinic at City. She helped 

raise money for improving the patient 

environment for both City and Sandwell 

antenatal clinic by her marathon baking 

of cakes for the cake sale on the 21 

January. Her hard work and effort is 

really appreciated and her cakes were 

delicious. 

From: Bernadette Hickling 

23

Pulse 

News in brief from around our organisation 

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 

Johnny takes to the 

airwaves to raise funds 

for Midland Met 

This month our Head of Your 

Trust Charity, Johnny Shah was 

invited to Raaj FM to talk about 

how the Midland Met will benefit 

local communities. 

Johnny was joined by Gurpreet 

Bhatia a member of our Midland 

Met fundraising campaign 

leadership committee. The two 

took the opportunity to reassure 

listeners of the English and 

Punjabi radio station that when 

the hospital is completed it will 

be a beacon of integrated care 

and provide many development 

opportunities for the local area. 

They both encouraged listeners 

to fully back the hospital 

by getting involved in the 

fundraising campaign to be 

launched later this year. 

Head of Your Trust Charity, Johnny Shah (centre) is joined 

by Mr Gajan Singh, Head of Raaj FM (left) and Gurpreet 

Bhatia (right) a member of our Midland Met fundraising 

campaign leadership committee 

Drum roll please… re-usable 

cups are here 

Look out for our new re-usable cups 

available now at a catering outlet near 

you. 

You can bring your own hot drinks cup 

and get 20p off the price. We will soon 

also be selling re-usable sustainable cups 

made from rice husk. 

Do you have ideas about how we 

can reduce single-use plastics across 

our organisation? Send your ideas, 

comments and concerns to Fran 

Silcocks, Sustainability Officer at 

francesca.silcocks@nhs.net 

Catering team members Josie Smith and 

Kelly Petersen-Pollard showcasing our 

reusable cups 

Professor Liz’s donation of appreciation 

When Professor Liz Hughes, our 

Consultant in Chemical Pathology 

with the Critical Care team, found 

herself a patient at Sandwell Hospital 

herself she decided to say thanks in 

her own way. 

Liz, who has been with the Trust for 

29 years, has donated £400 to the 

unit after undergoing emergency 

surgery in January 2018, which 

involved a two-week stay. 

She said: “I came here because I 

wanted to be looked after by my 

colleagues. They took care of me 

fantastically and I appreciated all the 

support they gave me.” 

Liz hopes the £400 will go towards 

equipment that will make a difference 

to other patients in the unit, such as 

fans or televisions. 

Matron Amber Markham said: 

“Thanks to Liz for her kind donation 

and it will go a long way towards 

making a patient’s stay more 

bearable.” 

Prof Liz Hughes wants her donation to make a 

difference to patients 

Green Impact 2019 – simple 

changes can collectively make 

a big difference! 

Are you signed up to our environmental 

behaviour change programme? 

Green Impact is the perfect opportunity 

to make sustainable changes in the 

workplace. 

You can make a difference straight away 

by opting for paperless payslips – register 

via ESR. 

Many teams are already on board 

and are steadily making their way up 

the leader board including amenities 

management, procurement and estates – 

why not join them now. Find out more 

www.greenimpact.org.uk/swb 

24

Dr Clark Crawford 

Head of Research and Development 

Joining the Trust as Head of Research and 

Development, Dr Clark Crawford feels 

like he has come back to work among 

old friends, as he has history working 

with colleagues in R&D dating back to 

when he was a research facilitator for the 

school of cancer sciences at the University 

of Birmingham. 

With an academic background in oncology, 

(specifically leukaemia) Clark jumped at the 

chance of joining our R&D team, as he said: 

“When the job came up I already knew many 

of the team as I had worked well with them in 

the past, and respected them hugely. 

“I’m really very excited about the role and 

things to come for R&D, as the way that we 

look at research is quite interesting. I believe 

that all clinical areas should be by their very 

nature research opportunity areas. In fact 

some of the best places to do certain types of 

research are in normal clinical settings. 

“I’m also looking forward to the official 

opening of our new clinical research facility, 

looking at the way we grow our portfolio and 

develop our academic links.” 

Clark’s most recent position was head of 

research and integrity at Keele University, 

where he worked for just over two years. 

Prior to that, he was head of R&D at Royal 

Cornwall Hospitals, before he moved back to 

the Midlands to be close to his parents. 

Whilst working as a scientist in Dundee he 

wanted a creative outlet, so took on a part 

time degree in fine arts, majoring in sculpture. 

Working in concrete, rubber and paper, he 

enjoyed the discipline, but it wasn’t until his 

move to the Midlands that he discovered a 

love of clay when he signed up to classes at 

the Midlands Arts Centre. 

Nowadays he is a committed potter, with 

a consuming passion for clay, which has 

taken over his free time, and several rooms 

in his house – as he chose a very large kiln to 

accommodate the sculptures he creates. 

On arrival in Keele, he took a course at 

Newcastle under Lyme college, where his 

teacher was very keen for students to display 

their work, and from that he now sells pieces 

at a gallery in Manchester, that specialises in 

the different and the quirky, which he says 

perfectly describes the stocky little clay figures 

he loves to create. 

Dr Clark Crawford, Head of Research and 

Development 

Mary Parker 

Falls Prevention Specialist Nurse 

This month we welcome Mary Parker 

who joins us as our brand new Falls 

Prevention Specialist Nurse. Mary 

started her journey in healthcare 

as an auxiliary nurse in Walsall 

where she quickly found her love 

for caring for people before going 

on to complete her nurse training at 

Birmingham City University. 

Mary brings with her over 21 years of 

experience in front line healthcare. Before 

qualifying as a Falls Prevention Specialist 

Nurse Mary worked as a community staff 

nurse in Ladywood and completed part 

of her placement with the falls clinic at 

City Hospital in 2004. 

Heartbeat spoke to Mary to find out 

more about her plans to tackle and 

prevent falls. 

Mary said, “Falls prevention can have 

such a significant impact on patients’ 

lives. When a patient falls, not only do 

they have the immediate pain and injury 

of the fall, they have the fear, social 

isolation, loss of ability and extended 

recovery time. Patients who fall and 

don’t suffer any injury still have the 

psychological impact of the fall to deal 

with.” 

Taking on the task of reducing patient 

falls, Mary shared her master plan, ”We 

haven’t had a falls prevention nurse in 

our Trust for seven years so this is no 

mean feat, we’re taking a very planned 

and measured approach to how we 

tackle falls. I’m in the early days of my 

post but I’ve already pulled together the 

data I need to identify high risk areas 

and we will be targeting these to review 

procedures and check equipment and 

training. 

I’m also calling on the support of 

colleagues to join my new ‘Falls 

Champion’ programme where they 

can become local champions and role 

models spreading the knowledge of falls 

prevention in their areas. We already 

have 14 champions recruited but we’re 

always looking to grow the network.” 

If you would like to join Mary in her fight 

against patient falls, you can call ext. 

3278 or email. Mary.parker8@nhs.net 

Mary Parker, Falls Prevention Specialist Nurse 

25

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 

Why can’t we take our annual 

leave when we want? 

Dear Heartbeat, 

I am writing this as the subject of when we 

can take annual leave really annoys me. 

I thought our annual leave was our annual 

leave and we could take this when we 

wanted to as long as the team had agreed 

and there was cover for the service. 

But no…it seems we can take two weeks off 

from April to December without permission 

from managers but we have to get permission 

to take two weeks off January to March why? 

It is the same process, we still have to check 

with the team and ensure there is sufficient 

staff in to cover the service. 

Surely if teams are not doing this then it 

should be up to the individual managers to 

deal with and not treat every team the same. 

If holiday is already booked i.e. one week in 

January then as far as I’m concerned it hasn’t 

been “take over” it’s been booked and signed 

for so the service is covered. We are grownups 

and should be able to work as such so 

please let us take our annual leave when we 

want it. 

Kind regards 

Anon 

Dear colleague 

You are absolutely right – your contract 

provides for the right to ask for leave. But 

the agreement of it is when the service 

can manage. That stops everyone being 

off at the same time. So annual leave 

requests must take into account the needs 

of the service and have consideration of 

sufficient staff being at work to provide a 

good quality service to our patients. 

Often, managers have to plan people’s 

leave particularly carefully during the 

last quarter of the year (most people’s 

annual leave runs April to April) which is 

why January to March sometimes needs 

additional scrutiny. 

We do not support carrying leave 

over between years other than in very 

exceptional circumstances. 

If you are having problems with taking 

your leave and need some help feel free 

to contact me directly. 

Kind regards 

Raffaela Goodby, Director of People and 

Organisation Development 

We are under financial strain but 

yet we waste NHS money 

Dear Heartbeat, 

(Letter has been edited) 

I get that the Trust is under strict financial 

constraints but morale is eroded by the way that 

it continually tries to scrimp and save in some 

areas whilst blatantly wasting it in other ways. 

• Did the transport really need to lease 

four 4x4s just in case we had snow, 

and did it really need to be a Jaguar 

e-pace? 

• Why do some departments get to 

order tea and coffee for staff at tax 

the payer’s expense? 

• Do we really need a full colour printed 

Heartbeat sent out every single month 

to every single member of staff? 

• Did we really need a colour printed 

reminder sent to every single member 

of staff to highlight what training was 

over-due? 

• And for the love of God how much 

is the Trust wasting on taxis each and 

every month? 

If the Trust cares about staff motivation you could 

make a good start by pruning the managers that 

blatantly waste our money on wasteful things 

such as motivational speakers. 

Kind regards 

Anon 


A great letter, and thanks for being 

concerned.We make choices about what we 

spend money on. 

There is no apology here for supporting 

managers in having great PDRs with 

everyone who works in their team. PDR is 

a vital tool in ensuring we are as effective 

as we can be in our roles, that in turn 

contributes to high quality care for our 

patients. 

I agree with you that we want to cut down 

on colour printing, including Heartbeat. But 

to do that we need to be digital – and that is 

taking some time. 

I am pleased to report that at this point 

in the year we are on track to deliver our 

planned budget. This means that we have 

been able to invest in many areas such as 

IT, critical care outreach, surgical services 

and ED. It is not the case that this Trust has 

“no money”. Instead, because of our strong 

financial plans we are able to make sensible 

choices about what we invest in. 

Kind regards 

How prepared are we for a no 

deal Brexit? 

Dear Heartbeat 

Besides a few mentions in the Toby’s 

Friday message there has not been much 

communication about Brexit and particularly how 

a no deal will affect the Trust. 

We keep reading all the scary stories in the media 

about medicine potentially being in short supply. 

If these stories are indeed true then it will impact 

heavily on colleagues and patients. Can someone 

please reassure us that life will continue as 

normal after 29 March? 

Kind regards 

Anon 


From the start of March we will publish 

regular bulletins. Most of what we have to 

share is to allay concern. 

Our evidence suggests that national 

stockpiling, for example of medicines, has 

taken place and that the early weeks after 

EU Exit can therefore be safely managed. 

We have a project team working through 

the details of our plan. That will include 

new arrangements for overseas visitors, the 

management of data storage, and some 

changed arrangements for new research 

trials. 

In terms of employees, you will know that 

resettlement fees already paid can be 

claimed back from the Trust. All professional 

registrations submitted to regulatory bodies 

before 11.00am on 29th March will be 

judged valid under extant law. So, we have a 

strong belief that we can reassure, but want 

to begin sharing details next month when 

we have definitive information. 

The biggest message to everyone is perhaps 

to help play our part, whatever your personal 

views, or mine, in reassuring worried 

patients. 

Kind regards 

Toby Lewis, Chief Executive 

26 

Toby Lewis, Chief Executive

Toby writes about… 

getting ready for spring 

TobyLewis_SWBH 

TOBY’S LAST WORD 

With over 2,000 patients admitted to 

hospitals with the severe complications of flu 

it is obvious that we are not yet past winter. 

But in a few short weeks the ‘public sector’ 

year, which ends at the end of March, will be 

upon us. We will end that year with Sepsis 

Care in our Trust improving rapidly. More 

than 80% of indicated screenings are now 

being done 24/7. This is up from 20% before 

winter started. The quality improvement 

momentum that Paula Gardner and David 

Carruthers are leading now turns attention 

to the treatment bundle, because our aim is 

to tackle at least fifty potentially avoidable 

deaths in our care. That same determination 

to improve lies behind our recently 

announced enquiry into a series of maternal 

deaths. Whilst we expect to find learning but 

no error, the approach we need to take seeks 

for room to improve. 

We end the year too, as we started it. So our 

organisation remains financially stable. Huge 

sums are being invested in digital, and we 

are spending many millions on equipment 

replacement too. Our new Clinical Research 

Facility is opening, and the refurbishment of 

Sheldon Block at City is nearing completion. 

The new fracture clinic in the BTC opens 

in spring, sensibly located next to imaging. 

From April our partnerships will mean 

that we can offer a guaranteed request to 

report turnaround time for both emergency 

patients and GP referred requests. We have 

to sweat small stuff to be able to make these 

big changes. So colour printing we can do 

without, and we are moving away from post 

and onto email. Fax machines are retiring 

NHS wide. But in 2019-20 our financial plan 

depends mostly on treating more patients, 

rather than reducing what we spend. That 

will flip-back in 2020-21 as we begin to 

plan for our single site, and the efficiencies 

we have always argued that that £400m 

investment would bring. 

We end the year as we started it on Unity 

too. In other words, with a plan to go live 

that we cannot yet confirm. The pages 

of Heartbeat are filled with detail of how 

much closer we are now. Almost everyone 

has completed basic training. In April the 

‘play domain’ will be relaunched along 

with top up e-training. And situational and 

behavioural preparations will take place, 

like the 28-day challenge that is highlighted 

in these pages. It is very clear from the 

Full Dress Rehearsal that we completed in 

February that Unity will give us real quality 

improvements. Every missed VTE assessment 

is a serious risk to the care of our patient. 

Poorly written drug charts are a hazard 

which Unity will end. And, in terms of your 

time, the pre-populated data fields in Unity 

will reduce duplicate data entry and give you 

a much fuller picture of the clinical history of 

every patient that we are caring for. So go 

live cannot come soon enough, and we are 

working hard to get our IT resilience where it 

needs to be to cope. 

Looking to spring, we will see some changes 

in how we work as well. Our second round 

of PDRs will be taking place between April 

and June. This is a chance to look at the 

objectives you set with your line manager. 

Have they been mostly achieved? What 

can we do differently next year to improve 

care further? With a 40% jump in our 

training budget planned for 2019/20 now 

is definitely the time to discuss your needs 

in the current job, and what your ambitions 

are for the step after that. The recently 

re-launched Nurse Escalator programme, 

now expanded to cover HCA colleagues 

too, illustrates that we are very serious 

about creating career pathways at the 

Trust. Seniority should not demand a shift 

into management. We need a multiprofessional 

clinical expert workforce. 

Of course, I am going to mention 

smoking and car parking as well! Before 

the summer building work starts on the 

new GP surgery in Lower Lyndon. That 

really exciting and symbolic change, along 

with the creation of our October 2020 

car parks at Sandwell and City will mean 

changes to car parking this year. Lots 

of alternatives to single driver car travel 

will be being promoted and subsidized. 

And we will have off site car parking too, 

focused particularly on non-clinical staff, 

including senior managers. On our sites, 

you will not be able to smoke in your car 

though. From July 5th, our organisation 

will be a no smoking Trust. In fact we 

are implementing Public Health England 

guidance, endorsed by our respiratory 

medicine team, to support and promote 

vaping – including retaining some onsite 

vaping shelters. We already have 

the biggest patient and staff Nicotine 

Replacement programme in the NHS. 

And from June it will get even bigger. We 

want to help you to quit. And we want 

to send a clear message to our patients 

and to their loved ones that it is never 

too late to give up smoking; to improve 

your health and your wealth. £50 fines 

will apply to anyone found smoking on 

our sites. £3,000 is the typical saving for 

someone who gives up smoking for a 

year. 

Thank you for your incredible hard work 

and dedication this winter. There is plenty 

to learn about how we provide better 

care this time next year. But there is lots 

to look forward to this spring and I hope 

you can find excitement and reward in 

being part of a Trust that is making a 

huge difference to the quality of life of 

the communities that we serve. 

The Trust is strongly endorsing Public Health 

England advice to support vaping. Our sites 

will be smoke free. Time to switch? 

Architect’s drawing of the new health centre to be built on the Sandwell site 

27

Events Diary March 2019 

EVENT DATE TIME VENUE 

Public Trust Board 7 9.30am–12.30pm Black Country Living Museum 

QIHD 15 AM session Trust wide 

Clinical Leadership Executive 26 2pm – 5pm Education Centre, Sandwell Hospital 

SWB TeamTalk 27 

January 2019 staff lottery results 

1st £196.50 

Debbie Talbot 

11am 

1pm 

1pm 

2nd £117.90 

Bahadur Dehar 

Committee Room, Rowley Regis Hospital 

Education Centre, Sandwell Hospital 

Hayward Lecture, City Hospital 

Introduction to mindfulness 5 10am – 1pm The Berridge Room, Sandwell Hospital 

Experiencing grief and loss 19 10am – 1pm The Berridge Room, Sandwell Hospital 

Mental health training for managers 13 10am – 1pm The Berridge Room, Sandwell Hospital 

Suicide awareness 27 10am – 1pm The Berridge Room, Sandwell Hospital 

*to book any of the health and wellbeing courses, please contact Jatinder Sekhon or Emma Williams on extension 3306 option 4. 

Name: ___________________________________________ 

Name: ___________________________________________ 

3rd £78.60 

Nicola Poulton 

Feb 2019 Hea 

Date: ___________________ 

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 

Feb 2019 Heartbeat 

month. To take part email amanda.winwood@nhs.net. 

1 

3 

1 

4 

____________________________ 

Date: ___________________ 

Feb Take 2019 a Heartbeat break: in this month's Heartbeat 

2 

7 

3 

5 

1 

3 

4 

7 

Test your knowledge of the news in this month's 

Heartbeat by completing the crossword below. 8 You 

5 6 

2 

can e-mail your answers to swbh.comms@nhs.net 

and all correct answers will be put into a draw to 

win vouchers - good luck! 

4 

7 

5 6 

8 

Across 

3. What's the name of the furry friend who has been keeping some of our little 

patients company? 

4. What project led by Dr Santhana Kannan and his colleagues, won the weLearn 

poster competition? 

5. Which MP visited our learning works team? 

7. Which hero introduced pet therapy to her ward? 

8. Which Brummie rapper was recently treated at City Hospital? 

Down 

1. What 

2. Which 

6. Who h 

Across 

8. Which Brummie rapper was recently Down treated at City Hospital? 

ry friend who has been keeping some of our little 1. What is Unity? 

2. Which project has secured funding for our volunteer service? 

thana Kannan and his colleagues, won the weLearn 6. Who helped deliver her two grandchildren? 

ng works team? 

therapy to her ward? 

recently treated at City Hospital? 

8 

3. What's the name of the furry friend who has been keeping some of our little 

patients company? 

4. What project led by Dr Santhana Kannan and his colleagues, won the weLearn 

poster competition? 

5. Which MP visited our learning works team? 

7. Which hero introduced pet therapy to her ward? 

Down 

1. What is Unity? 

2. Which project has secured funding for our volunteer service? 

6. Who helped deliver her two grandchildren?

HEARTBEAT February 2019

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