Heartbeat March 2020

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Letters, of less than 200 words please, can be sent to the Communications Department, Trust Headquarters, Sandwell Hospital or by email to swb–tr.SWBH–GM–Heartbeat@nhs.net YOUR RIGHT TO BE HEARD Cleaning concerns at Trinity House Dear Heartbeat, Can you tell me why Trinity House has had there cleaning cut down to two days a week, Monday and Friday. It has been months since the offices have been vacuumed or floors cleaned, and now we have to go three days without the toilets or kitchens being cleaned. Trinity House as a lot visitors and would hate to think what they will think if rubbish is piled high. Come the summer we will have a smell from rubbish lying around for days. All I can say is that you would not leave your toilet/kitchen at home without cleaning it every day. I hope the Trust will take action on this as I believe that this low level of cleaning will lead to more people being of sick because of lack of basic cleaning. Regards, Anon Dear colleague, Cleaning arrangements at the Trust have changed. We are moving more of our cleaning time into our patient facing and clinical areas. And we are reducing expenditure in non-clinical areas by just over £100,000 a year. The schedules for cleaning have changed. What does this mean for you? • Just like before we need your help to make sure that communal areas, kitchens and toilets are usable and civilised. In simple terms if you create some “mess” please clean it up. If there are a real mess, maybe because someone has an accident, then that can be reported. • From now on, if your bin only fills up once a week it will be emptied by the WSO team. But if you want it emptied more regularly, please use one of the provided bin bags and drop off your bag into the large bins outside our entrances on your way home. Do not pile up bin bags outside offices or in communal areas. There are separate Trust wide comms on waste and recycling, and making sure we use the right bins for the right things, and fold cardboard into central storage areas. If you have not had chance to read through that, take a look on Connect. Working together we want to make working here a great experience. By moving around the money we have we are trying to invest in the right things, like more support for staff wellbeing, mental health, and exercise, as well as important changes for our environment, improving our gardens and tackling climate change. We hope you can support the changes made by doing your bit. The changes apply Trustwide in non-clinical areas – and that does include HQ and the “executive corridors”! Kind regards Toby Lewis Chief Executive Why am I being redeployed? Dear Heartbeat, I am being redeployed. I was told this in front of a colleague. Why have I been chosen? Surely there are risks for patients in moving people around from clinics to wards. Is it legal to do this and how can I be sure I won’t lose my PIN number? Very worried RGN Dear colleague, Thank you for your letter. I completely understand your concern at a time of both rumour and anxiety. We are going to have to re-deploy lots of colleagues and even those not moved in the first phase in April and May may be needed in the second phase in June. You will get some training but should only practice within your competence. You will get a new line manager and a buddy. And we will work with you once you start. I must apologise you were spoken to in front of someone else. Our standard is really clear - private conversations, an opportunity to raise concerns and to suggest reasonable adjustments. We need to work with you, and remember this is “a marathon not a sprint”. Get in touch if you remain concerned. Kind regards Paula Gardner, Chief Nurse 30
Toby writes about… management by walking about TobyLewis_SWBH TOBY’S LAST WORD I have written eight COVID Updates @SWBHnhs. So far. I suspect there are more to come. Each time I am humbled by responses wishing me well, giving me advice, asking me questions, and reflecting the variety of individual experience we have as we face this pandemic together. The situation is moving fast. But it is also moving predictably. All of us tend to see our own situation as unique, but in truth Iran, Italy, Wuhan and Madrid all give us clues to what is ahead, as do Germany and South Korea. So, this is a chance to use evidence and learn lessons. That is true for governments, hospitals, countries and individuals. Thank you to those contributing their time to research trials and their wisdom to our ethics and advisory group. Now, here’s my point: There are plans, and revised plans, and plans to get plans - all the usual paraphernalia of management and large organisational systems. So what matters? Well obviously as many other articles in Heartbeat point out what matters is our patients, their loved ones, our colleagues and those we care most about. So the leadership task is not in truth measured in command centres, capacity or even PPE. Each of those things is vital. But none of those things will succeed unless we do something else – communicate better than we ever have, or ever have had to, before. I don’t mean send canny emails or film videos. I mean each person who leads, which might be someone who manages someone, or someone who inspires others as a peer, finding time with colleagues to make sense of what is going on. Where do you fit in? You might feel like a bystander, far from ED or ITU. You might feel exhausted, plunged into workforce models across AMU and our red wards that seemed impossible days ago. You might have exhaustion and exhilaration as you rush from one event to another webex. In all circumstances the challenge is to hear other’s confusion gently. To explain why choices have been made, carefully. To place our effort in the regional context, alongside the work of care home workers, police officers, PHL staff at Heartlands, and our peers at New Cross and across the Black Country. At the same time, the profound challenge must not cloak poor management practice. No amount of explaining makes sense of visor shortages. No amount of best intentions gives comfort at the death of someone we were unable to save. This article is about management by walking about. Tough when you can’t go everywhere! And when as a manager there is much you don’t know. Always easier to communicate certainty and talk about stuff you know. But now faced with a worldwide emergency is exactly when those people whose job, and career choice, is to coach other people, need to be forward about sharing what truths you know. Explain how the role of our ward service officers fit in. Explain who can work from home and why we need some people to move to hotels. Above all find a bit of space to hear what has been understood among the very many people we work with who do not access email or log onto the Connect system. An authentic voice who has tried to find PPE at 8.15pm on a Saturday night or has had to cancel a clinic of patients matters very much. You are just as much part of a frontline effort, alongside our bank office, and our porters. So if you are not sure how to contribute, or you are a manager and are free for a while to wander, let me ask you to find teams, explain again what you think everyone already knows, and give people some of your time to hear how folk feel. Our common purpose is all too obvious. We are facing a viral pandemic, where your care and attention for your own health, directly impacts my chance of survival. But we are each individuals and on different days we fear and face this challenge differently. So I need everyone who manages anyone to take just a little more time to work with our colleagues and make sure that we really are fighting this as one team. QUICK COVID-19 QUIZ – CAN YOU GET ALL 7 RIGHT? • How many seconds should you wash your hands for each time you do? • Which GP practices locally are the two local Hot COVID Primary Care Centres? • Which two surgical services have relocated from City to Sandwell to help us cope? • What is a blue ward? • Can you get free taxis with your hotel booking, yes or no? • How far apart should you be when socially distancing? • What’s the one word that we want to sum up our COVID-19 response as Trust? There could be a prize. Email your seven to tobylewis@nhs.net and we’ll let you know. 31
Page 1 and 2: March 2020 Sandwell and West Birmin
Page 3 and 4: Our Trust’s plan to manage the pa
Page 5 and 6: Managing your health and wellbeing
Page 7 and 8: It’s not all about hospitals: Rea
Page 9 and 10: Supporting colleagues - swabbing fo
Page 11 and 12: Celebrating our stars of the week S
Page 13 and 14: GEMS - our valuable pieces of learn
Page 15 and 16: Milestone merger becomes reality as
Page 17 and 18: Mental health act administrator joi
Page 19 and 20: Year of the Nurse and Midwife Each
Page 21 and 22: Conference shares methods to improv
Page 23 and 24: Poo is no longer a taboo thanks to
Page 25 and 26: Inside the mortuary - taking care o
Page 27 and 28: Safer Sleep Week to help prevent un
Page 29: This month we say hello to Liam Ken

Heartbeat March 2020

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