Dudley Group Directors' Blog

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.

This is my first blog for a couple of months but I felt the need to write this today following the exceptional work demonstrated by the nursing professional development team with support from the recruitment team, communications team and the lead nurses and matrons.

I am talking about the first of the new nurse recruitment events that took place today. It was an overwhelming success for what was considered a trial event. The teams I have mentioned have been planning how to make these events successful for the last few weeks. Everyone was committed to working well together and it was really good to see their plans come together this morning.

I understand that we successfully offered nursing roles to 10 candidates. This included providing them an opportunity to visit their area of interest, have an interview and receive a conditional offer of employment.

This has been a great start to the campaign and I am really proud of everyone that contributed to making this successful. The next thing is to make the next event even more successful.

Well done everyone.

All in the day of a Chief Exec of an integrated acute and community trust! I’m continuing to get out and about across the Trust as much as possible meeting new faces and finding out more about our fantastic services.

I recently had a fantastic morning visiting the rehab team based down at Corbett Outpatient Centre and they have some wonderful ideas about how to improve the services across the community, particularly focusing on admission avoidance. Service manager Frances Pons took the time to show me the fantastic balcony garden which opened last year, providing a really serene, calm place for people to sit and take in the great outdoors.

I went on a home visit with Chloe a Neuro Occupational Therapist and I observed her in action undertaking a comprehensive assessment with a new patient. She was so caring and compassionate and it was good to see holistic person-centred care in action.

So with so much good work being done by all our staff, it is disappointing to see our National Inpatient Survey results for 2016. We are nowhere near where we want to be, so this will be a key priority for us this year. Listening to patients’ experiences is an essential factor in improving the quality of patient care and developing the health and wellbeing of patients and the local community. The Trust has identified improving the patient experience of its services as a key strategic objective and has also included it as one of six quality priorities to be achieved in 2017/18.

The Trust’s patient experience strategy has been developed to demonstrate our commitment to continually improving patients’ experiences, with the aim of being amongst the top performers in the National Health Service.

Over the past three years, there has been a significant increase in patient feedback that the Trust has collected. Most of the feedback received has been positive; however, actions have been implemented to improve areas where patients have identified that their experience could have been better.

So the areas we really need to make improvements to make sure our patients’ have the best possible experience include making sure they have enough information and understand and feel involved in their own care. Hospital food could be better and staff helping people to eat could be improved. We have protected mealtimes so please make sure you adhere to those in your areas which allows nursing staff to help those that need it at mealtime. You need to make time for patients, explain things in a way they understand and make yourselves visible on the wards for families and carers to ask questions too.

The number one thing patients say we can improve is communication. Whether that is explaining the risks and benefits of a procedure, or simply introducing yourself every time you speak to a patient and tell them what you are going to do. Remember, a kind word or a smile can go a long way to reassuring someone who is fearful or upset.

We have lots of exciting things planned to help us improve patient experience and let you, our staff, shine. We will soon be launching some new interactive reminiscence software, a kind of distraction technology that should really help keep patients who inclined to get upset about their surroundings calm. It also allows families to engage with the person’s care, allowing people to record messages that can be played back to their loved one when they are unable to visit.

There is so much good work going on we just need to show people how much we care about their health and wellbeing so that they can feel it. A fantastic example of staff going the extra mile to make Dudley a great place to work are the doctors who have been fundamental in the Nervecentre project. Both Adnan Agha and Hammad Bajwa have shared their passion for patient care through dedication to the Nervecentre project which allows staff to task medics electronically during the night rather than relying on bleep holders. The system allocates tasks and allows for a much better tracking system throughout the hospital at night for our doctors and means nursing staff do not need to bleep doctors to see how their task is progressing – they can check that it has been accepted at the touch of a button.

First of all I would like to open the blog by acknowledging the great work done by the AMU team to support their fundraising effort in conjunction with National Acute Medicine Day. Particular thanks should go to Bethany Smith and Laura Gallear for their sterling efforts selling cakes in the baking heat for a great cause.

On another proud staffing story, Tracey Bayliss, Senior Project Manager in our Service Improvement Team has had a blog published by NHS England after she completed the Improvement FUNdamentals course in March this year. Her blog highlights some of the benefits of the course and explains why other people should consider enrolling on it. Well done Tracey for helping to get Dudley on the map! Anyone interested in the course should visit www.qihikers.co.uk or email england.si-mooc@nhs.net.

We held our latest Breakfast with the Boss meeting on 5th June 2017. The meeting again was well attended and provided an opportunity for staff to have their say on any issue with me and Diane Wake, Chief Executive. The main topics raised were around the age of computers, training & development for health care assistants in the community and SIM cards for community staff. I am pleased to confirm that outstanding issue regarding sim cards for community staff has been resolved and staff requiring a SIM for their mobile device will be provided with one, with the roll-out starting on Monday 26th June. Community staff should have received an email with details of where and when they can have their SIM cards installed.

On the topic of our community teams, Paul Bytheway and I attended the latest engagement meeting with community staff regarding the MCP process on 14^th June at Stourbridge Health Centre. The meeting was well attended with around 50 staff from the community teams were present. Thank you to those who attended and contributed to the discussion. We are currently arranging for the next engagement event at the end of July to coincide with the next stage of the MCP process. We will confirm the details shortly.

Thank you to all staff who have contributed to the discussions regarding proposals for the Trust to consider going smoke free. I can confirm that at this stage we are seeking views for our staff and members of the public. We have developed additional questions in our Staff Friends and Family questionnaire that allows feedback to be provided.

You may have noticed the message on the hub regarding measures to reduce costs associated to agency staff. We understand the challenges facing us but together if we can reduce our agency costs we can prioritise our investments into improving our services at Dudley. Thank you to all staff for their commitment to making this succeed.

I am also pleased to congratulate all our teams for their continued performance around compliance for appraisals and mandatory training. The last 3 months has seen significant improvements in our rates of compliance which means enhanced safety for our patients and support for our staff.

This is an opportunity to remind staff that the Action Heart Gym will be extending its opening times from 3^rd July. The new opening times will be from 7am – 9:30pm. Contact Action Heart directly to join and make use of the extended opening times.

As you know we provide the facility for free flu vaccinations for staff each year from October. The planning has already commenced for the vaccinations taking place from October 2017. In 2015 we achieved a vaccination rate of 23% of patient facing staff. We improved this last year by achieving 50% vaccination rate for patient facing staff. In 2017 we are required achieve a flu vaccination target of 70%. This is important to all of us as it support the well-being of our staff and patients. In addition, where we achieve this target the Trust will attract funding of over £200,000 as part of our CQUIN.

Finally, thank you to you all for your continued commitment to high standards of care under challenging circumstances. Well done.

Continence Team visit

I had the pleasure of visiting our Continence team based at Brierley Hill Health and Social Care Centre. The team provide support and advice to patients with bladder or bowel incontinence and have a local and national profile for the excellent service they provide.

Why not join the team celebrating Continence Awareness Week from 19^th – 25^th June at the Health Hub in main reception at Russells Hall Hospital on Tuesday 20^th June from 9am until 3pm where they will be giving out information and taking questions from staff, patients and visitors.

Check out the event on Facebook

Well it’s definitely been a dreary start to the week weather wise,  but the same cannot be said of the staff I have met recently. Kick starting the week was a great session with staff over breakfast where people shared concerns over some service specific issues and also more general issues that we should be able to sort such as the phone book not being up to date.

Over the last couple of days I have shared my latest team brief, both at Brierley Hill and Russells Hall and I am encouraged by the amount of questions being asked and the feedback I am getting from you. The only way we can continue to make Dudley Group the very best place to work is if people are prepared to say what it is that concerns them and then more importantly are happy to be part of the solution. We are making head way with the IT niggles that community staff have had for some considerable time now which should see all staff with the Lenovo laptops truly ‘mobile’ within the next two months.

When I say I want to hear what it’s like I really do mean it and a few of you have already contacted me directly about issues and invited me to spend some time with their service, something which I particularly enjoy doing. I’ve spent time with Halesowen GPs and Moss Grove GPs which has been very informative and enlightening about what we can do as a Trust to help support our primary care colleagues.

I’ve also spent some time out on the wards most recently visiting ED, EAU, AEC and A2. The hard work and commitment is evident in bucket loads and I could really see the work that had been put in by staff in AEC following the recent quality and safety review. It is important that we use the process to make sure our services are the very best they can be and it was clear staff had taken on board the actions and delivered.

A huge thank you goes to all of our volunteers. There are over 450 people who willingly give their time for free to the Trust to help make our patients stay that little bit easier. They help patients find their way around the hospital, they provide support at the end of life to patients and their families and help wards and departments with anything they need to go that extra mile for patients. Your support is invaluable and is very much appreciated by all of us – Thank you. For those of you that missed our event there are some lovely pictures on facebook.

I am passionate about essential communication and keeping staff in the loop with news and also ensuring you are consulted and supported to deliver the very best care to our patients. Our patient feedback says we do not always get communication right with patients, their carers and families so we have more work to do to make sure we are all focused on making their experience as comfortable it can be. But first we need to make sure we are all communicating effectively with one another so please take my team brief and share it with your colleagues, it is also on the hub to download for anyone who couldn’t make it.