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 14th 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 3rd 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.
