Author: Trust Director

Giving up the Staffordshire Oatcake!

Well yes I must if I’m ever going to finish the great North Run in September, and it’s on my birthday!   Is she a runner I hear your mind ask?  No definitely not, not even shaped like one.  But I do tend to sign up for different adventures now and then.  Last year was a parachute jump – 15000 feet, year before the three peaks !!! so watch this space for next year. And in preparation I will be joining in the fun on Sunday for the Neon Dash in aid of the neonatal unit – get your trainers on and come and join us walk, jog or run around Himley Park a beautiful venue for a great cause.

I can hardly believe we are six months into the year already!!!! (But month 3 in terms of our financial year) Where is time flying?  Anyway I would like to update you on a few things this week.

Volunteers week – a fantastic time to support our volunteers throughout the trust .  I’m so proud of our red brigade.  They even won the step challenge not so long ago.  Some of our executives and lots of others have also taken part in supporting the volunteers by donning a red shirt and being a volunteer for a few hours .  We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to each and every volunteer that gives their time to support our staff and patients have the best experience possible – thank you.

We have gone Smoke Free – our shelters have gone and we are really committed to supporting our patients and staff to have a healthy environment.  Thank you for all your hard work so far in supporting this.  I know how difficult this must be for those who smoke but please don’t shout at staff who question why you are smoking on our premises.   We are merely supporting our policy.

Can I take the opportunity to remind staff to adhere to the uniform policy at all times.  If you haven’t read it for while might be a good time to read the policy.

Sunrise is in! Whoop, whoop and well done everyone – new technology here to stay and more to come.  You have all been amazing in embracing the new system.  Keep up the good work – we will all become techno wizz’s soon! It has been wonderful to see the team work in installing and implementing new ways of working.

Diane our chief executive visited the Renal Unit and was super impressed – well done to all.

Good news is we have recruited into our divisional chief posts – Dr Michael Healey, chief of medicine and Dr Elizabeth Rees as chief of clinical support.  Of course we mustn’t forget our chief of surgery Dr Mushtaq Ahmed. I’m sure you will all join me in welcoming and supporting them in their new roles and share our thanks with Matt Banks, Matt Weller and Alec Wolinski for their time in post.

So all of you couch potatoes, TV addicts, Keep fit enthusiasts, get your running pumps on and come and join us at our – NEON DASH on Sunday at 11am at Himley Hall.  You don’t need to run, you can walk or even crawl if you wish.  Seriously it will be a fantastic day please come along.  I’m going to give it a go and will try my best to run with walking in between .  It’s for a great cause – Please, please come along, bring the kids, dogs, grandparents and family.

Thanks to everyone who attended Birmingham Pride 2019! I hear it was an amazing day.

Performance

Performance across the Trust
continues to be challenging in terms of reaching our diagnostic (DM01) and our Emergency Access Standard.  There is much work to do to ensure we achieve these standards.  Your help in ensuring patients are discharged earlier and getting to a bed on a ward in a timely manner is part of achieving success.

There are some great changes in services which are all improving flow, such as our rapid assessment bays in AMU, the frailty assessment unit, (FAU) and cardiac assessment unit (CAU).

Cancer metrics and Referral to Treatment continues to reach its trajectories. Thank you to everyone who assists with moving our patients through their treatment pathways.

Stroke service – one of the region’s best

Stroke services are still third best in the region and back up to level A. This

represents a massive achievement given the notorious capacity challenges quarter four always poses. The Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) is a major national healthcare quality improvement. SSNAP measures the quality and organisation of stroke care in the NHS and is the single source of stroke data in the UK.

SSNAP measures both the processes of care (clinical audit) provided to stroke patients, as well as the structure of stroke services (organisational audit) against evidence based standards, including the 2016 National Clinical Guideline for Stroke. The overall aim of SSNAP is to provide timely information to clinicians, commissioners, patients, and the public on how well stroke care is being delivered so it can be used as a tool to improve the quality of care that is provided to patients.

As such, Dudley has shown itself to be one of the best in the region for stroke patients and is a credit to the hard work of the team with patient care always remaining paramount. I know imaging have been integral to achieving this target.
Here are some reasons we should be proud of our stroke services:

• We have twice daily consultant-led ward rounds where important clinical decisions are made.
• Our stroke unit takes an MDT approach
• We have specialist stroke nurse-led bleep cover for all stroke referrals actioned from the pre-notification from ambulance crew.
• Our specialist stroke-led therapy team work together ensuring the best outcome for all patients after a stroke.
• Our stroke co-ordinator ensures the service is delivered for patients from admission to discharge and, where there is room for improvement, the stroke co-ordinator gets the team together to put actions in place.
• Secretaries bring all referrals to the consultant’s attention and with the assistance of the specialist stroke nurse team, referrals are triaged immediately.

This is a service constantly striving to improve. Being at level A shows they are providing a gold standard service.

Mandatory Training

A plea from executives: if you haven’t carried out your mandatory training please do ASAP. Compliance for Data Security Awareness Level 1 training (IG) is now at 84.9 per cent. To be compliant, we need to be at 95 per cent so we still have a bit of a way to go and we’ve only got until tomorrow. So please, if you haven’t done your training, spare some time and do your training.

 

• 269 employees completed their Data Security Awareness Level 1 training in May via either eLearning or a face-to-face session.
• There are just under 700 employees who are required to complete the training now and a further 150 employees where there present training will expire in June.

Workforce matters

Staff appraisal: Following the theme of staff engagement, we are within the staff appraisal window that occurs every year between 1st April and 30th June. It is important that all staff have the opportunity to have an annual appraisal to ensure they are supported and have the opportunity for constructive feedback from their line managers. Therefore, please book your appraisal while the window is open and support your staff.

Developing Leaders Programme: Cohort 6 of the Developing Leaders Programme has now started and we are asking for expressions of interest from those who aspire to develop into a leadership role in the future. The interest in the programme and enthusiasm from staff shows how this has been an overwhelming success. If you are interested in developing your skills as a leader, please express your interest by contacting Rachel Andrew or Bernie O’Neil in the Learning & Development Team.

Birmingham Pride: The Trust was very well presented as part of the Birmingham Pride event on Saturday 25th May 2019. Our ‘Team Dudley’ was part of the NHS contingent supporting the Pride festivities and counted among the more 70,000 people attending. Plans are already in place to make next year even bigger and more exciting.

Non-executive director x 2 – recruitment: The date has been set to recruit two new non-executive directors. The interviews and stakeholder panel will take place on 4^th June 2019.

Healthcare Heroes May 2019: Congratulations to May’s healthcare heroes! The Community Ears, Nose and Throat department received this month’s team award due to the team pulling together and supporting each other through a very tragic time for one of the team members. During this time the ENT doctors also played a key role in keeping the clinics operating despite the change in the support they received. This meant that patients continued to be treated.

Fiona Freeman, a Lead Nurse in the Acute Pain team, received the individual award after attending to a collapsed gentleman on the side of the road, who at this time had no pulse and had stopped breathing. Due to Fiona’s quick thinking and resuscitation skills, this meant that CPR was administered in a timely manner which ultimately saved the patient’s life.

Coming up…

Volunteers’ Week 1-7^th June: The executives would like to say a big thank you to all our hard working volunteers. I would encourage you to spare some time to volunteer next week (from Monday 3^rd) and help us mark Volunteers’ Week. Contact Jane Fleetwood on ext. 1887 or jane.fleetwood@nhs.net or Jill Faulkner on ext. 3200 or jill.faulkner1@nhs.net if you are interested in showing your support.

Staff Awards – Committed to Excellence 2019: Our annual staff awards has attracted almost 600 nominations from staff, visitors and patients. In honour of Steve Ford, we have renamed the award for volunteers, the Steve Ford Volunteer Award. Shortlisting begins soon and the winners will be announced at The Copthorne Hotel, Brierley Hill on 5th July. The event is, for the second year, hosted by BBC Midlands Today presenter Nick Owen. We wish all individual and teams who have received a nomination the very best of luck. The awards are our way of saying a big thank you for their dedication and commitment to providing the best possible care to our patients. They also shine the light on non-clinical staff who provide invaluable back office functions.

 I am absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to write the executive blog this week.  It was impressive to see the contributions made by all staff to support the financial improvement in 2018/19, my first year with the Trust.  I would also like to thank everyone for the warm welcome and support I have received during that time.

In the South Block all staff are working hard; putting the finishing touches to all that is required to close the accounts for 2018/19; getting cash in, writing annual reports etc.  At the same time our attention moves towards the current year 2019/20 and supporting the delivery of this year’s plan (more below).

Many people I come across will often describe finance is an impenetrable ‘dark art’ full of technicalities and jargon.  I was lucky enough to be asked to run a development session with some of our nurse leadership last week and I reminded them of some simple advice I was given as a finance trainee many years ago. “Would you do it with your own money and what would the headline be in the local paper?”

That does not just relate to senior managers – we all play a part in the £1m per day spend here at The Dudley Group, and to back that up we have some great staff led by Chris Walker and Richard Price who are very willing to support you.

If you are interested more about the work that we do please do get in touch and we can talk you through what we do or offer shadowing opportunities.

This financial year we have allocated significant resources in 3 main areas.  Firstly, to fund all budgets appropriately establishing robust financial baselines.  In addition we have made significant investments in front line staffing to support the delivery of safe services, to move towards 7 days service and to support business growth and innovation.  The third main area we continue to invest in is the Digital Trust Programme and the implementation of Sunrise.  The roll out continued last week with golive of the next phase of the Digital Trust programme. Sunrise provides a platform for us to use to drive quality, improve safety and remove waste as we work through the Dudley improvement practice methodology. Sunrise design is led by clinical and operational staff from across the Trust.  The Digital Trust project is now working closely with teams to respond to requests. This is your system!

Moving forward, the clinical information leadership team are there to support the needs of divisions, departments and our teams to refine and develop the system to meet service needs. Please ensure that your improvement requests are logged with the IT service desk; at dgft.terafirmaservicedesk@nhs.net . Dr Max Hodges (CCIO), Mitchell Fernandez (CNIO) and Mr Olu Oluwajobi (Clinical Safety Officer) are your clinical contacts to champion this evolution.

And to prove that finance people do get out, some other news!

I presented my first ever Healthcare Heroes Award to May’s healthcare heroes team winners! Community ENT received this month’s team award due to the team pulling together and supporting each other through a very difficult time for one of the team members. During this time the ENT doctors also played a key role in keeping the clinics operating despite the change in the support they received, this meant that patients continued to be treated. Well done team!

Steve Ford memorial service

This week we celebrated the life of one of our volunteers Steve Ford. Steve dedicated over 30 years to the hospital volunteer service, mainly on the Children’s ward, where he set up a charity to make wishes come true for our poorly young patients. Members of Steve’s family and friends attended the memorial held at Russells Hall Hospital to celebrate his life.

Iftar dinner

Everyone is invited to enjoy a sociable evening with colleagues at an Iftar dinner on Wednesday 28^th May 8.30pm in the main restaurant at RHH, where people will be sharing some wonderful Indian cuisine while catching up with colleagues.

Director of Operations for Surgery, Women and Children
leaving presentation

We were all sad to see Ned Hobbs, Director of Operations for Surgery, Women and Children, leave the Trust on Friday 17th May 2019 to take up the post of Chief Operating Officer at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust. We wish Ned all the best in his new role and we understand he’ll be busy with his new arrival in the meantime. Colleagues gathered at a surprise presentation in the Clinical Education Centre to wish Ned farewell.

Neon Dash

And in support of our Neonatal unit we all have the opportunity to Go Neon for neonatal at the Neon dash. The 5k fun run or walk is held at Himley Hall on Sunday 9^th June, open to all please come along and support our fundraising.

 

Welcome to this week’s Directors blog, from Adam Thomas, Chief Information Officer.

 

Sunrise – Taking the next step 

This week is a big deal for the Trust as we went live with more Sunrise features. The new Emergency Department module and electronic orders and results management across the Trust was released early on Wednesday morning. This is a significant milestone for the Trust as it brings everything together into one single system improving workflow, supporting patient care and allowing Soarian to slip into retirement.

Sunrise design is led by clinicians and delivers a platform for the Trust to evolve and improve clinical pathways over years to come. By using Sunrise for all or as many clinical records as possible we will maximise its use and drive clinical safety by keeping patient information together in one system.

As with any major change getting to grips with a new system can be challenging. A great deal of planning has been undertaken with operational leads to ensure staff are supported. Departments, wards and teams across the Trust have done a fantastic job of working together to get us safely live. Look out for our floor walkers who are there to advise and help navigate queries.

During this week where we see an immense step forward in our digital strategy, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight some of the individuals that have made outstanding contributions to Sunrise GoLive, working in close collaboration with the Digital Trust team.

Whilst every single member of staff across the Trust has pulled together in a team effort, the first mention must go to our Emergency Department for managing to take a huge system change in their stride. Special thanks to Dr Ash Singal, Rachel Tomkins, Liz Slevin for the huge amount of work in designing, testing and bedding in the system. In addition, over the go-live period numerous members of staff went the extra mile to smooth the transition; Rachel Howells, Kimberley Wills, Corrine O’Callaghan Walker, Dr Simon Malins, Dr Nick Stockdale, Dr Ameer Shah, Belinda Williams and Jean Pegg – thank you.

In recognition of supporting digital transformation, Andrea Grainger and the whole phlebotomy team deserve recognition for the change they have embarked on with Sunrise ePhlebotomy to improve patient safety. The team have done a fantastic job of taking on this task and working to get to grips with this. Well done to the whole team.

The next step in the Digital Trust programme is to launch ePrescribing and eMedicines Administration, which will complete the main functional deployments of the Sunrise system – giving further opportunities to support excellent patient care.

Finances

Thanks to all our staff we have been able to evidence a much-improved financial position during 2018/19. Although we have delivered a deficit of approx. £1m this represents a significant improvement on the previous year and benchmarks positively with our peers.

The national financial situation facing all providers means that we will need to double our efforts to eliminate waste and manage within financial targets if we are to repeat this financial performance during 2019/20.  The first month’s information (April) looks favourable but we know this will be more challenging as we move into summer as we still have some significant efficiencies to find.

Performance 

Teams across the Trust have been working very hard to make sure we improve our Emergency Access Standard performance and that hard work has paid off as we have seen improvements recently in meeting that standard of how many patients we see, treat, admit or discharge within four hours (target 95%).

Elsewhere in the Trust there is a sustained compliance in Cancer Services targets which is a credit to the ongoing work in these teams. This is good news on both of these performance standards which reflects the care we offer. Thank you and well done to all involved. 

Workforce

Becky Cooke has been leading staff engagement, meeting with departments to get their feedback and better understand the outcomes from our recent staff survey results. It is good to hear the positive response from the staff at Health Records when the engagement team visited this week to listen to staff views.

Committed to Excellence

It is that time of year – please get your nominations in for the committed to excellence awards. Our staff awards celebrate exceptional individuals and teams who work directly with patients or in a non-clinical role.Nominate now in the categories of:-

Excellence in improvement practice (formally Business development)

Excellence in patient care

Team Excellence

Unsung Hero – clinical

Unsung Hero – non clinical

Steve Ford volunteer award

Pride

The staff engagement team are attending Birmingham Pride on 25^th May 2019 alongside Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Trust. The annual festival for the LGBT community attracts around 75,000 people each year. The event hosts music and dance acts, a funfair, stalls and a parade which we are excited to be taking part in. It would be great to see you there.

For information on the event follow the link: http://www.birminghampride.com/

Smoke Free

The Trust is working towards being completely smoke free sites on 3^rd June. There have been a number of briefing sessions held in order to listen to views of staff with the most frequently asked questions and answers available on the hub. There are also details of support available to give up smoking.

Appraisals

Following the theme of staff engagement we are within the staff appraisal window that occurs every year between 1^st April and 30^th June. It is important that all staff have the opportunity to have an annual appraisal in order that that staff are supported and have the opportunity for constructive feedback from their line manager. Therefore please book your appraisal while the window is open and support your staff.

Thank you and well done to all the staff at Dudley.

 

Hello and welcome to our new style executive director’s blog. This short piece is designed to share a few highlights of the week as seen through our director’s eyes and help spread any news. Please let us know if there are any particular subjects you’d like us to cover here by emailing either d.wake@nhs.net or dgft.communications@nhs.net. This week is from Medical Director, Julian Hobbs.

Workforce

We are committed to ensuring our service grow and develop and that we have the right people with the right skills and experience looking after our patients. In the last year we have invested in all staff groups, with significant investment in nursing and also new consultant posts.

We now have the largest number of whole time staff that we have ever seen, although the total numbers show small changes because over 100 pathology staff TUPE’ds across to Royal Wolverhampton employment as part of the Black Country Pathology programme. It is exciting to see even more new consultants being appointed over the coming weeks.  This is in line with the increasing numbers of patients we are seeing and treating and everyone’s efforts to make our care the very best are very much appreciated.

I was delighted to take part in the Chief of Service interviews for Surgery a fortnight ago when Mr Mushtaq Ahmed was successfully appointed.  I am looking forward to working closely with him and Karen Kelly to implement 7 Day Services.

I would like to thank Matt Weller over the last 18 months for his unstinting support and his very relevant and insightful contributions to the running of the Trust.  I would like to wish him well as he returns to full time clinical practice (if indeed he ever left it) and his ongoing interest in medical education.

MTI Recruitment

I was recently invited to go to Pakistan to interview for MTI doctors.  We interviewed 40 doctors for 16 positions.   I was very impressed with the quality of the candidates we interviewed and I am hoping that we can welcome them into the Trust and successfully enhance their training.  There is an expectation that they will return to Pakistan after 2 years with significant clinical governance and quality improvement experience in addition to completion of their Postgraduate exams and a wealth of clinical experience.

Dying Matters Week 13th – 17th May

It’s Dying Matters Awareness Week this week, and there’s lots going on across the borough. The week aims to encourage active planning for death and dying, and gives an opportunity to talk about death, dying and bereavement.

Our draft CQC report and national feedback recognises the palliative care team and others contribution in this area but we do need to support these efforts to help our patients have a dignified death in the place of their choosing.

Clinical Summit

A Clinical Summit is taking place on Friday, 5th July 2019.  An agenda is currently being set.  Dr Stephen Powis, National Medical Director has kindly agreed to speak at what we hope will be a useful and well attended event.   Invitations have gone out to permanent medical staff and the elective team look forward to seeing you there.

 

And in other news…

Looking back on last week we had several high profile events including having the ‘force’ with us!

The children’s ward organised a fantastic visit from several of the Star Wars characters who also did a tour of some of our other areas. There was a real buzz and someone even mentioned it’s not every day you get to take on the CEO with a light sabre!

We held awareness sessions in main reception to celebrate the start of Ramadan. People need to be mindful that some patients may be fasting, and it is important we respect colleagues who fast.

Ramadan is the month when healthy adult Muslims give up food and drink from before dawn to sunset.  Advice should be given to patients who wish to fast to ensure they are not putting their health at risk. However inpatients who are ill, recovering or on medication should be exempt from fasting.

It is also important that colleagues respect other members of staff who may be fasting. We advise staff who intend to fast to talk to their managers. Don’t assume that all Muslims will be fasting.

We also held a series of celebration events across the week in recognition of all our wonderful nurses and midwives. Great fun was had whilst encouraging future generations to join the professionals and sharing best practice – there’s an outtakes video somewhere! Celebrations coincided with International Nurses Day and International Day of the Midwife.

We also made sure we encouraged people to think about good infection prevention and control practice through Hand Hygiene day.