Heatbeat February 2020

Sandwell and West Birmingham 

NHS Trust 

The pulse of primary and community health, Leasowes, Rowley Regis, City Hospital, Sandwell General and the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital 

Our University Hospital 

Changing the name of our site to recognise research ambition 

and commitment to learning: Midland Metropolitan University 

Hospital. 

Partnerships with Aston University, University of Birmingham, 

Birmingham City University and University of Wolverhampton 

celebrated and expanded with the new Aston University 

Medical School’s clinical placements with us. 

Builders back on site on Grove Lane as we countdown to 

opening spring 2022.

ALL OUR SITES WORKING 

TOGETHER, INTEGRATING CARE 

ACROSS OUR COMMUNITIES 

Primary care and 

community estate 

We open our latest GP practice at Sandwell in 2021. In April 

we take on responsibility for both more of local primary 

care services and some community property, like the Victoria 

Health Centre. 

Leasowes, Rowley Regis, and intermediate care beds at City 

and Sandwell continue. The Trust works alongside nursing 

and residential care homes locally to support people’s long 

term care needs. 

Our treatment centres 

The current Birmingham Treatment Centre is changing. 

Fracture clinic has moved in. Audiology and oral surgery 

do too. 

The General Hospital at Sandwell becomes our Sandwell 

Treatment Centre, housing outpatients and 23 hour surgery 

(short stay surgery). 

Sandwell will also have a 7-day urgent care centre, our 

Clinical Research Facility, and our education centre, alongside 

HQ and most non-clinical functions. 

Acute and emergency care 

Midland Met will offer us more than 720 beds for adults 

and children. Her work will support our hub education centre 

and Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at Sandwell. For complex 

care it will be our specialist base, both for medicine and 

surgery. Critical care for adults and children will be based 

there, supporting our expanded emergency and ambulatory 

assessment departments. Most children’s hospital care will be in 

Midland Met. 

Typically, medical colleagues looking after patients at the 

hospital will not have commitments off site during their “hot” 

week. Job plans will not be cross site. This is current practice 

in some but not all specialties. So we have work to do to be 

ready to work in this manner. Lots of other professions will 

rotate onto the site, often over a four, six or twelve month 

period. That is because it’s really important that ‘off-site’ acute 

areas like our urgent care centre have colleagues experienced 

in emergency assessment, and because these rotations help 

recruitment and retention. 

Facilities teams will see changed roles, changed ways of 

working, and changed sites. We are working to make sure that 

wherever we can individual employees have some choice over 

some of their shifts, because we recognise the disruption to 

work/life balance. 

Getting ready for the new hospital is exciting. But it means 

some uncertainty while we work together to get organised to 

improve quality of care. 

Most specialist centres – like our 

Sickle Cell Centre, or complex 

gynae cancer beds - are inside the 

University Hospital. Some specialist 

care is delivered on an outpatient 

basis, like our Allergy, Lupus and 

Behcet’s services. 

But the Birmingham and Midland 

Eye Centre stays on our Dudley 

Road site when City closes in 2022. 

Refurbishment and expansion 

plans are being developed to help 

secure BMEC’s role as the principal 

eye health provider to the Black 

Country and West Birmingham 

Integrated Care System and to the 

wider West Midlands. Keep an eye 

on this space! 

Midland Metropolitan University Hospital

THE COUNTDOWN 

STARTS NOW! 

2020 

Construction is happening at pace! This is our year to make sure everyone who 

is going to be working in the new hospital knows that and knows how working 

there will be the same and different to what we do now. Robots doing deliveries, 

patient-led kitchens, most bed spaces being in private rooms – all mean change 

for us. 

2021 

Our year of training and simulation: Being a nurse, an associate, a ward clerk or an 

HCA will be different to one of our current wards. What does that mean for how 

you communicate? The largest emergency department in Europe means using 

headset technology to talk to one another. Some of the equipment we use in the 

Midland Met will be different to current, let’s be ready. 

2022 

This is when we move in. That also means moving out, and for some colleagues 

moving from City to Sandwell. Commissioning and equipping the new hospital, 

testing it and our IT in it too. During 2022 everyone needs to know their part in 

our success. We have promised that the University Hospital will change quality 

outcomes, so we need to be ready to deliver! 

2023 

Demolition starts on the old City site to make way for hundreds of new houses. 

And we will finish the refurbishment of Sandwell to permit everyone to move 

into their final location. We will be working across our sites; with most surgery, 

diagnostic work, and outpatient care in our two treatment centres. Midland Met is 

our paediatric, maternity, complex care and emergency care hub. 

WHY A UNIVERSITY 

HOSPITAL? AND WHY 

NOW? Toby Lewis, our Chief 

Executive explains… 

Names matter. That is why so much 

effort went into choosing the Midland 

Metropolitan name. We have adapted 

that with the change announced on 

Valentine’s Day 2020. The Trust works 

across over 150 locations and sees 

around two million people every year. 

Most of our beds are in someone’s 

home. We’re changing; providing care 

in residential homes, by video, or with 

advice to a GP, working in schools. 

But complex, multi professional care 

in one place, with time to observe a 

patient or intervene (an acute hospital) 

is absolutely crucial to what we do. It 

is where many people work and where 

most NHS money is spent. Midland 

Met matters to the whole healthcare 

system in Birmingham and the Black 

Country. 

We wanted to reinforce that vital role 

and recognise the specialist nature of 

what teams do. But also to recognise 

the research and educational work 

that we do which improves 

outcomes and attracts many 

people to work for us. New medical 

students from the second city’s 

second medical school start with us 

this autumn. As a huge provider of 

university medicine and academic 

leadership we wanted to celebrate our 

current and future role – the Midland 

Metropolitan University Hospital is 

a beacon of learning for the whole 

region. 

#morethanahospital

WHAT MIDLAND MET MEANS TO ME – RACHEL BARLOW, 

DIRECTOR OF SYSTEM TRANSFORMATION 

I joined the Trust in 2012, knowing that Grove Lane was our site and had 

been planned from well before 2010. It was exciting to look forward to 2018 

and the planned opening, and heart-breaking to have our plans so delayed 

by Carillion’s collapse. Since then we have moved respiratory medicine to 

improve care and are due to open our 24/7 children’s unit at City this spring. 

Now a contract is signed. 

With the new opening date in 2022, I have been asked to lead the preparation for 

our new ways of working. A seven day each week acute model has always been 

the promise of the new hospital. By having all our specialists on a single site for 

emergency care we want to be able to provide outstanding inter-disciplinary care 

every single night and all day. Along with Sarb Clare and others we are going to be 

planning those ideas this year, so that we can start training and simulating the system 

next year ready for the year after. Two years will go quickly! 

But I am equally excited about some of the important details of the hospital’s design. 

We have community planting, equipment for physical exercise, a huge arts space, and 

children’s play facilities. We want to work with local nurseries and gyms to make sure 

we are a neighbour who truly lives within our community. And soon we start planning 

the shops and cafes we want within Midland Met. This is our chance to create 

something just a little bit special. 

DOING YOUR BIT FOR YOUR TRUST CHARITY APPEAL 

In March we kick off our fundraising appeal for the 

new hospital’s research, arts and special projects. We 

have already raised almost £750,000 in promised 

donations and with your help we want to raise £2.5m 

over the next two years. We are working with investors 

across the city to make that happen, but we also 

need lots of smaller donations; commitments from 

individuals and teams wanting to play a part in the 

effort. 

To play your part, contact ext 5916. 

GREENING MIDLAND MET – DON’T 

WORRY SHE’S STILL ORANGE… 

The Trust is at the forefront of improving environmental health, 

making our air of better quality, and working collaboratively 

with neighbours and suppliers. As a Trust we need to move 

toward a net carbon zero position. Midland Met poses 

challenges to that because it needs heating and cooling like any 

complex piece of healthcare architecture. So we are planning 

now for how all of the Trust’s estate, all of our work including 

our energy consumption and travel arrangements can be 

changed to help tackle climate change. That is consistent with 

our local focus in employment and procurement. Consistent 

with the CAZ and with Sandwell’s climate change policy. 

Engie join the Trust from 2021 as our estates partner and we 

are working with them to finalise our detailed plan to deliver 

a sustainable local NHS model. Off-setting will be part of that 

through local planting. But our focus is on reducing energy 

consumption and making sure we take that energy from 

sustainable sources. 

A VIEW FROM THE PRO VICE 

CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY 

OF BIRMINGHAM 

Professor David Adams, Pro Vice 

Chancellor of the University 

of Birmingham and Head of 

College of Medical and Dental 

Science, said: “I was delighted 

to see the word ‘University’ in 

the new hospital name….We 

are looking forward to working 

closely with Aston Medical 

School to deliver the healthcare 

professionals of the future for 

our city. 

“We want to build on a relationship that goes back 100 years 

between the hospital and the University of Birmingham to allow 

us jointly to address local health needs and challenges and we 

will only do this if we collectively harness the huge potential of 

medical research and innovation. To make the most of these 

research advances we need to rethink how we train our healthcare 

professionals to work in teams that can deliver these innovations 

into the clinic. We appreciate the close working relationship with 

the Trust and the training academy here that consistently delivers 

some of the best clinical teaching across the region. 

“We are entering an exciting time locally and nationally for 

healthcare and we at the University of Birmingham are looking 

forward to working closely with you in this fantastic new hospital 

to improve the health and well being of our local population.”

February 2020 


NHS Trust 

The pulse of community health, Leasowes, Rowley Regis, City Hospital, Sandwell General and the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital Issue 125 

Our learning culture gathers pace 

with new hospital rename page 3 

(Clockwise from top left) Demonstrating our partnership with education, the new name for Midland Met is 

unveiled; learning opportunities with our apprenticeship programme; quality improvement posters highlight 

learning right across the Trust; and learning gems will be launched later this year. 

Coronavirus – 

all you need 

to know 

page 4 

Backbone leaders – 

meet the governance 

deputies 

page 10 

What is your 

digital ambition? 

page 11 

Year of the Nurse 

and Midwife – 

Paula’s story 

page 15

Welcome to February’s edition of 

Heartbeat. 

This month we have a jam packed 

magazine with lots of exciting news 

from around our Trust. 

We reveal the new name for Midland 

Met as we become a university 

hospital. We also take a closer 

look at the relaunch of our LGBT 

Staff Network, mental capacity and 

Challenge Amber. Enjoy! 

Contact us 

Communications Team 

Ext 5303 

swbh.comms@nhs.net 

Communications Department 

Ground Floor, Trinity House 

Sandwell Hospital 

Published by 

Communications Team 


Hospitals NHS Trust 

Designed by 

Medical Illustration, 

Graphics Team 


Hospitals NHS Trust 

Submit an idea 

If you’d like to submit an idea 

for an article, contact the 

communications team 

Ext 5303 

swbh.comms@nhs.net 

HELLO 

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: 

FROM THE CHAIR 

Preparing for 

#morethanahospital 

This month we have celebrated in 

public the work restarting on the 

Midland Met site. You all know how 

hard various individuals have worked 

to get us to the point before Christmas 

where we could sign the contract with 

Balfour Beatty, in confidence that we 

have a strong team, partnering with 

us to complete the building. With 

confirmation of the business case from 

central government, and the funding 

required, we are in a good place to 

progress this vital healthcare facility, 

targeted for opening in 2022 during the 

Commonwealth Games year. 

Of course, what you have heard said time 

and again within this Trust is that we are 

more than a Trust that is building a new 

hospital. The theme of the event on 14 

February was exactly that – Midland Met 

(now proudly to be known as the Midland 

Metropolitan University Hospital) offers us 

much more than new facilities to serve our 

patients. The benefits were well articulated 

from the clinical case for change, with our 

“hot” site for acute care and continued 

routine care at Sandwell and City sites, to 

the regeneration opportunities that we are 

seeking to engage partners in, that sees us 

using our services and influence supporting 

a combined approach to transforming the 

currently derelict areas between City Hospital 

and Midland Met. 

Our Trust will be successful if we realise the 

full benefits of the new hospital, and we 

can only do that through partnership 

and collaboration with others. Our 

education credentials as a teaching Trust 

are long-established. We have some great 

examples of joined up work with universities 

on ground-breaking research – in some 

fields such as cardiology, diabetes and 

rheumatology we are world leaders - and we 

are continually expanding our reach in other 

clinical specialities. 

Being more than a hospital also means 

considering how well we engage with 

and support our communities. This is the 

softer, but no less important, side of our 

regeneration ambitions with key partners. I 

am proud of the strong links we have with 

local faith and voluntary groups – and a 

shout-out to The Real Junk Food Project, 

Birmingham, and the Smethwick Gurdwara 

for providing excellent food on the day 

of our event. We will build on these links 

over the coming months and years so that 

Midland Met and the Trust as a whole is 

able to be seen as a good neighbour, as an 

important anchor institution, integrated into 

our communities and responsive to the 

needs of individuals and families who 

access our sites and our services. 

Do get behind our #morethanahospital 

campaign as we all work towards our 

opening in 2022. With a fundraising 

campaign to support enhancements to 

the hospital such as an arts and education 

programme, you can play a part in helping us 

get ready for the new hospital. Your service is 

likely to need to change in some way (large 

or small) to prepare for this move. Just as 

our red army were in force when we banned 

tobacco smoke from our sites, you now 

have an opportunity to demonstrate 

your support for the Midland 

Metropolitan University Hospital through 

joining our fundraising effort and by donning 

an orange T-shirt. Look out for collection 

points across our sites and I hope to see you 

taking part in our preparation activities and 

wearing your T-shirt with pride. 

Richard Samuda – Trust Chairman, 

Chairman, Richard Samuda

welearn – making sure a learning 

culture is nurtured Trust wide 

This month sees education and learning 

take centre stage at our Trust with two 

celebrations and new hire to lead our 

welearn programme. 

At the start of February we celebrated 

National Apprenticeship Week and 

our widening participation team took 

advantage of the week to raise awareness 

of the range of opportunities presented by 

apprenticeships (read more below). Then, 

on 14 February, as part of celebrating 

work restarting on the Midland Met site, 

we took the opportunity to announce a 

new name that demonstrates our strong 

partnership with education and research 

– the Midland Metropolitan University 

Hospital. This name was unveiled by 

Chairman, Richard Samuda; Pro Chancellor 

of Aston University, Dame Yve Buckland 

and Pro Vice Chancellor, David Adams from 

the University of Birmingham. Our links 

with the research and medical education 

programmes of these universities as well 

as the education provided to our trainees 

at Wolverhampton and Birmingham City 

mean that we can with credibility and pride 

use the university term within the hospital’s 

name. 

The learning works team from the Trust joined 

in the Midland Met celebration event 

Running alongside our education 

commitments to our current and future 

workforce, is our own learning programme 

– welearn – that began with our quality 

improvement half day poster competition 

that is now an annual event that has seen 

over 100 teams or individuals enter over 

the past two years. QIHDs are part of 

our culture and a number of teams are 

now gaining gold or silver accreditation. 

Pictured on this edition’s front cover 

are key elements of our learning 

programme. 

The welearn programme however, is 

much more, and at the end of the month 

we saw Claire Hubbard return to SWB to 

CORPORATE AND GENERAL 

NEWS 

head up that programme within the 

Governance team. Claire is excited 

about her new role and said: “We 

clearly have an appetite for learning 

and quality improvement here and I’m 

looking forward to harnessing people’s 

enthusiasm and helping to expand what 

we already do. Through welearn we 

will be able to help all colleagues think 

about new ways of doing things, pick 

up learning from our areas of excellence 

and celebrate when that learning has 

been achieved. 

“The facilities we have here for learning 

are fantastic such as the simulation 

suites and the education centres. 

Learning is for everyone, not just medics 

or clinical colleagues. The learning gems 

that will be launched in March will 

enable everyone to contribute to quality 

improvement. I am looking forward 

to seeing how colleagues will benefit 

from this and, really importantly, the 

outcomes we are able to improve for our 

patients.” 

Think differently about an 

apprenticeship 

This year’s National Apprenticeship 

Week (NAW) 3-9 February gave our 

widening participation team the 

perfect opportunity to challenge our 

thinking about apprenticeships. The 

team used the week to celebrate the 

sheer range of opportunities provided 

by an apprenticeship programme and 

urged colleagues to look beyond their 

own potentially outdated stereotypes 

of who apprenticeships are for. Put 

simply, apprenticeships can unlock 

fantastic long-term career options 

across a diverse range of roles, for 

anyone. 

As part of NAW, the widening 

participation team hosted an information 

session at Sandwell Hospital. There's a 

range of courses available that offer real 

opportunities to develop yourself and your 

career within our workplace. 

The widening participation team are now 

recruiting for the next cohorts of the 

following courses that begin in spring 

2020: 

Jayne Evans, Trust Transfusion Officer is 

currently completing her level 3 team leading 

apprenticeship 

• Team leading level 3 

• Business administration level 3 

• Customer service level 2 

• Healthcare support worker levels 2 

and 3 

Libby Marshall, Apprenticeship Coordinator 

remarked: “We’re proud to support 

National Apprenticeship Week. We're 

keen to promote all the work we do 

around apprenticeships and want to 

let all colleagues know that we have 

apprenticeships available.” 

Jayne Evans, Trust Transfusion Officer, is 

currently enrolled on the team leading 

level 3 apprenticeship. Speaking to 

Heartbeat, she commented: “I thought 

apprenticeships were aimed at younger 

people. I didn’t look at what was 

available. I’m completing team leading 

level 3 and, whilst I’ve acted in a team 

leader capacity as part of my role, I’ve 

never thought about developing on that 

experience with an apprenticeship.” 

She added: “I think it’s incredibly positive 

that our organisation is investing in 

people of my age. The course is helping 

me to understand my behaviours and 

having a study day is beneficial. I use it 

to focus on my coursework and other 

aspects of my apprenticeship.” 

If you’d like to find out about 

apprenticeships you can email the 

team via swbh.apprenticeship@ 

nhs.net. Alternatively, you can visit 

the apprenticeships home page on 

Connect. 

3

4 

Coronavirus – 

Do you know what to do? 


NEWS 

We realise there is currently lots of 

media speculation about coronavirus 

(COVID-19) and want to let you 

know that at the moment we are not 

treating any patients with it. 

Please be assured that there are plans 

in place for how we handle the testing 

of possible cases. They are there to 

keep you and other patients safe. 

Anyone being tested is kept in isolation 

and away from public areas. Public 

Health England has advised us on the 

appropriate safety measures including 

when and how to decontaminate testing 

areas. 

If you work at either City or Sandwell site 

you may have noticed we have had two 

‘pods’ installed. They are in place near 

our emergency departments to ensure 

that anyone worried they may have the 

virus can be directed to the pod and 

be contained away from other people. 

Once in the pod they will follow clear 

instructions to ring NHS111 to discuss 

their concerns and if NHS 111 deem it 

necessary, they will be assessed by our 

emergency department colleagues in full 

personal protective equipment (PPE). The 

pods are decontaminated after each use. 

If we were to identify a positive case, 

we also have plans in place, including 

how we would care for them here or 

safely transfer them somewhere more 

appropriate. 

We know that some simple public health 

advice can help stop the spread of the 

virus. Please help the public follow Public 

Health England advice to: 

• Wash your hands often with soap 

and water, especially after using 

Public Health England promote a simple 

solution to limiting the spread of Coronavirus 

public transport. Use a sanitiser gel if 

soap and water are not available. 

• Always carry tissues with you and use 

them to catch your cough or sneeze. 

Then bin the tissue, and wash your 

hands, or use a sanitiser gel. 

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and 

mouth with unwashed hands. 

• Avoid close contact with people who 

are unwell. 

We would appreciate it if you, as 

representatives of the Trust, can reassure 

patients there is no risk to them. 

We are working closely with NHS England, 

Public Health England, the Department 

of Health and Social Care and the World 

Health Organisation who are monitoring the 

situation closely and providing us with up to 

date advice. So far we know that COVID-19 

is generally a mild disease with a mortality 

rate of 2%. To put it into context looking at 

influenza – the respiratory illness we can all 

get vaccinated against at the start of each 

flu season - so far during the 2019-2020 

flu season 6,600 people have died and 

120,000 people have been hospitalised. 

Hence, during this time of COVID-19, 

Director General of the World Health 

Organisation Mr Tedros advises that this 

is a time for facts not fear. We must push 

back against the ‘infodemic’, as fake news 

Julie Booth, Lead Nurse for infection control inspects the ‘pod’ at Sandwell alongside ED Practice 

Development Nurse, Louise Wilkins 

spreads faster and more easily than this 

virus, and is equally as dangerous. 

A number of our colleagues across many 

areas including microbiology, emergency 

planning and infection prevention and 

control have been working on ensuring 

our response is appropriate to the risk of 

COVID-19 since it first came to light in 

December last year. 

To find out more Heartbeat caught up with 

Julie Booth, Infection Control Lead Nurse, 

who explained: “We already have tried 

and tested procedures in place to prevent 

the spread of infection and COVID-19 is 

no different, as the main thing colleagues 

need to do to protect themselves and their 

patients is to ensure they are following 

hygiene and infection control processes 

closely. You must wash your hands when 

entering and exiting a clinical area, as well 

as between seeing patients and ensure 

you are well versed in your management 

plans when caring for patients with 

communicable diseases. 

“Ensure that you wear the correct PPE, such 

as gloves, aprons and correct facemask. 

If you have not been fit tested for your 

facemask or you’re not sure what to do in 

the event of needing one, act now, speak 

to your manager or get in touch with the 

infection control team. 

“Follow the bare below the elbows rule 

and make sure you are following the World 

Health Organisations ‘5 moments of hand 

hygiene’ protocol to ensure that you’re 

doing everything you can to prevent the 

spread of infection.” 

Remember to wash your hands: 

1. before touching a patient, 

2. before clean/aseptic procedures, 

3. after body fluid exposure/risk, 

4. after touching a patient, and 

5. after touching patient surroundings. 

Likewise, if you have travelled to mainland 

China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, 

Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, 

Taiwan or Thailand recently then you 

should notify your line manager and the 

occupational health team immediately. 

Guidance on the management of 

Coronavirus is changing daily, so keep 

up to date by visiting the coronavirus 

page on Connect as well as on the Public 

Health England website, https://www.gov. 

uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirusinformation-for-the-public 

For occupational health advice contact 

the occupational health team on ext. 

3306 and for infection control advice, 

contact the infection prevention and 

control team on ext. 5900.

National staff survey shows strong 

results for line manager support 

Over 2700 colleagues completed and returned the national staff survey in 2019 and 

our results highlight improvements in some key areas. Every NHS Trust in England 

takes part in this national survey which is an opportunity to see how we compare to 

other organisations as a place to work. 

Highlights: What you said 

• The Trust acts fairly with regard to career progression 81% 

• My manager encourages me at work 70% 

• My manager takes a positive interest in my health and wellbeing 68% 

• My role makes a difference to patients 90% 

• I am enthusiastic about my job 73% 

• Time passes quickly when I am working 78% 

• When errors, near misses or incidents are reported, SWB takes action to 

ensure that they do not happen again 

70% 

• Care of patients is our Trust’s top priority 71% 

• I would feel secure raising concerns about unsafe clinical practice 72% 

• The Trust acts on concerns raised by patients 70% 

Improvements were seen on last year’s results 

in the quality of appraisals, where more of 

you reported that your PDR definitely helped 

you to improve how you did your job and 

helped you agree clear objectives for your 

Birmingham gasps for cleaner 

air - #brumbreathes 

This summer breathing in Birmingham 

will start to get just a little easier as 

the second city’s first Clean Air Zone is 

introduced. 

A Clean Air Zone (CAZ) is an area where 

targeted action is taken to improve air 

quality, in particular by discouraging the 

most polluting vehicles from entering the 

zone. No vehicle is banned in the zone, 

but those which do not have clean enough 

engines will have to pay a daily charge if 

they travel within the area. 

Our sustainability manager, Fran Silcocks, 

explains “Birmingham has been told by the 

Government that is must clean up its act 

and take action to reduce harmful pollution 

levels within the city centre. In response to 

this, the local authority are introducing a 

Clean Air Zone. The aim is to improve air 

quality, reducing NO2 levels to below 40μg/ 

m3 and then making progress to continually 

reduce this. 

“Colleagues need to start planning now 

and find out how they will be affected – 

the council has provided easy to follow 

information about how the scheme will 

work. Responses to questions about team 

working were positive although we scored 

less well than other organisations on teams 

having a set of shared objectives. 

Birmingham city centre 

work and you can find links to that on 

Connect” 

The Trust’s Board confirmed this month 

that all of our organisation’s vehicles will 

be transferred this year onto a sustainable 

footing, and our Car Park applications 

contain commitments to expand our 

Electric Vehicle Charging points. Chief 

Executive, Toby Lewis explains: "The whole 

NHS is waking up to both the air quality 

and climate emergency we face. The 

Trust will be taking a lead on tackling our 

carbon footprint, and I am delighted that 

discussions with National Express who 

operate most local bus services about how 

to work together are at an advanced stage. 

There are lots of alternatives to car journeys, 


NEWS 

The NHS Staff Survey is just one of the 

methods we have to gather feedback 

from colleagues to support improvements 

within our workplace. Our quarterly 

weConnect survey has just launched to 

a quarter of the organisation. If you have 

been approached to complete the survey 

please ensure you do so. Your feedback 

really is making a difference. Our wave 2 

pioneer teams as part of the weConnect 

programme have just begun looking 

at their engagement activities and will 

be sharing how they get on in future 

Heartbeats. 

Changes made as a result of your 

feedback will be shared over coming 

months including your suggestions for 

how to improve our organisation as a 

place to work. Thank you to everyone who 

took the time to complete this survey. 

To read the full NHS Staff Survey 

report, visit the communications team 

section on Connect. 

and our part time payment model for car 

parking gives employees choice. Every 

day does not have to be a car day.” 

Where is the Clean Air Zone? 

The Clean Air Zone will cover all roads 

within the A4540 Middleway Ring Road 

(but not the Middleway itself). 

When will the Clean Air Zone take 

effect? 

It is expected that Birmingham’s Clean 

Air Zone will come into operation over 

the summer. It will operate 24 hours a 

day, 365 days a year. 

Is my vehicle affected? 

You can find out with the Government's 

Vehicle Checker tool. https://www.gov. 

uk/check-clean-airzone-charge 

I want to know more 

www.brumbreathes.co.uk has all the 

information you need. 

To find out how the Trust can support 

you to travel to work in a sustainable 

way visit Connect https://connect2. 

swbh.nhs.uk/estates/sustainability/ 

5

Be Weight Aware: Campaign launches 

to support health and wellbeing 


NEWS 

Key Facts 

As part of the Trust’s public health 

ambitions, we are aiming to take 

action on one of the primary causes 

of ill health – obesity. Not an easy 

problem to tackle, nor a comfortable 

one to discuss, however with one in 

three children being overweight or 

obese by the time they leave primary 

school and obesity being now the 

biggest causes of cancer in the UK 

after smoking, it is vital that we do 

what we can to make a difference. 

Before we begin an integrated approach 

to promoting healthy weight within our 

communities, we wanted to begin with 

our own workforce and ensure that the 

organisation is providing the right support, 

incentives and environment to help you 

get or stay healthy. So, this month we 

begin our staff campaign to highlight the 

risks of not being a healthy weight. 

Posters, digital displays and messages 

will appear across the Trust in staff-facing 

areas that may cause you to stop and 

think. 

• OBESITY REDUCES LIFE EXPECTANCY BY UP TO 

NINE YEARS 

• OBESITY CAUSES AROUND 22800 CASES OF CANCER IN 

THE UK EVERY YEAR 

• OBESITY INCREASES THE RISK OF HEART DISEASE 

• OBESITY CAN IMPACT ON EMOTIONAL WELLBEING 

AND SELF-ESTEEM 

Don’t despair – be weight aware 

There are lots of opportunities for you to 

begin your health journey and we will be 

launching our menu of support later this 

year. Look on Connect for all of the health 

and wellbeing initiatives that you can try. 

From free gyms at City and Sandwell, 

to Slimming World classes, exercise 

programmes and our new Weigh2Go 

partnership with Sandwell Council, there is 

lots on offer to help you make that change. 

If you would like support with 

managing your health and wellbeing 

you can get in touch with our 

occupational health and wellbeing 

team on ext 3306. There are a range 

of services, groups and workshops 

that are completely free you can get 

involved in and support from. 

Why weight? Get started now…. 

Is 2020 going to be your year? If 

you’ve resolved to focus on your 

health and wellbeing and want to 

lose a few extra pounds as part of 

that, we have just the thing for you. 

The NHS weight loss guide is available 

online and provides a 12-week diet and 

exercise plan. It's delivered through 

weekly information packs full of diet, 

healthy eating and physical activity tips, 

including weekly challenges. 

The first step is to figure out how much 

weight you have to lose. Using a BMI 

calculator you can input your stats and 

it will tell you if you're in the healthy 

weight range and, if necessary, how 

much you need to lose to achieve a 

healthy weight. 

The plan is designed to help you lose 

weight at a safe rate of 0.5kg to 1kg 

(1lb to 2lb) each week by sticking to a 

daily calorie allowance. If you go over 

your limit one day, there’s no need to 

worry; it simply means you'll have to 

reduce your calorie intake over the 

course of the week. To lose weight, the 

Set yourself healthy and realistic goals with the NHS weight loss guide 

average person should reduce their daily 

calorie intake by 600kcal. 

The guide is packed with lots of helpful 

features to keep you on track. If you follow 

it over 12 weeks you can expect to learn 

how to make healthier food choices, you'll 

receive a weekly progress chart and discover 

exercise plans to help you lose weight. 

Importantly, it will also equip you with 

the skills you need to stop you regaining 

weight. 

To find out more, visit https://www. 

nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/ 

start-the-nhs-weight-loss-plan/. 

Alternatively, you can contact Jenny 

Wright, Health and Wellbeing Manager 

via jenny.wright9@nhs.net to obtain a 

copy of the plan. 

6

Estates achieve accreditation for quality 

and environmental management 

The estates team at our Trust have 

recently been awarded two ISO 

standard certifications that show a 

commitment to continued monitoring 

and improvement of quality standards 

in service delivery as well as most 

importantly a commitment to manage 

the environmental impact of work. 

Amongst the teams of tradespeople who 

move from building to building solving 

problems and delivering development 

projects to meet our needs, the team 

has also demonstrated a commitment to 

quality improvement and environmental 

monitoring. 

To find out more, Heartbeat caught up with 

Head of Estates, Steve Lawley, he said: “It’s 

often assumed that the job of the estates 

team is simply limited to ensuring that the 

buildings and infrastructure we all rely on 

are kept in good working order, but as well 

as this, there is a lot of work that goes on 

to ensure that the service we deliver is of a 

high standard and the services we deliver 

from it are kind to the environment. 

Estates team celebrate their new ISO certification 

“Our pledge to provide a quality service 

works in tandem with our commitment to 

monitoring the environmental impact. We are 

one of the only in-house estates teams in the 

region to hold both ISO 9001 and ISO 140001 

certifications.” 

Sharing his thoughts on the achievement, 

Project Support Manager, Randeep Degun 

said: “The certifications couldn’t have been 

done without the team working together. 

As part of the ISO 9001 re-certification 


NEWS 

in approximately 12 months, we’ve 

identified additional areas of process 

improvements such as improving the 

contractor induction process and 

creating a catalogue of standard 

operating procedures to ensure 

consistency. ISO 14001 has enabled 

us to set objectives for working more 

sustainably including more efficient 

use of fuel across the estate for both 

the buildings and vehicles, as well as 

upgrading the lighting to be more 

efficient and effective.” 

The team who worked on the 

accreditation included Fran Silcocks 

- Sustainability Officer, Rachael 

Gallagher and Hayley Bagley - Estates 

Administrators, Anas Bhayat - Team 

Leader, Steve Lawley – Deputy Director 

of Estates and Randeep Dugan, Project 

Support Manager. 

‘Outstanding’ achievement for 

Broadway Health Centre 

Collaboration, co-operation and coordination, 

three key ingredients 

that thanks to the support of 

clinicians from our Trust have recently 

helped Broadway Health Centre in 

Birmingham achieve a glowing CQC 

report that highlights their care as 

‘Outstanding’. 

Broadway Health Centre was inspected by 

the Care Quality Commission in October 

alongside Five Ways Health Centre and the 

findings of the joint inspection published 

recently have rated care as ‘Outstanding’. 

Highlighted within the report is a new 

patient pathway for diabetes which was 

created in collaboration with Consultant 

Endocrinologist, Dr Ansu Basu together 

with GP, Dr Manir Aslam. 

Sharing the finding of the report with 

Heartbeat, Broadway Health Centre 

Practice Manager, Noorin Akhtar said, 

“Dr Basu in collaboration with Dr Aslam 

created The Broadway Chronic Disease 

Population Management Pathway for 

Diabetes which was trailed out at Five 

GPs Dr Manir Aslam and Dr Imran Zaman 

celebrate their ‘Outstanding’ rating by CQC 

Ways Health Centre whilst being care 

taken by Broadway Health Centre. This 

is an efficient, effective and innovative 

population management approach to 

chronic condition management. This has 

many benefits such as patient education; 

Real time clinical data based decision 

making, risk stratification and specialist 

consultant input and management of all the 

diabetic population group leading to better 

monitoring, control, earlier intervention, 

prevention of escalation and even 

remission. 

The CQC inspection team were very 

interested in our programme and 

discussed it with Dr Basu. His discussion 

supported Broadway in achieving an 

‘Outstanding’ rating.” 

Highlighting the positive impact of the 

new pathway on patient care, the CQC 

wrote, “Data provided by the practice 

showed there were 230 patients on 

the diabetic register at Broadway and 

209 had been through the eight care 

processes approach. The practice 

had adopted a pioneering responsive 

approach to delivering diabetes care 

through the Diabetes Chronic Disease 

Population Management Model Pathway. 

Following the pathway approach, 

the practice had seen an increase in 

improved management of patient’s 

diabetes from 18% to 83% in the first 

year.” 

Well done, Broadway Health Centre 

and Dr Basu. 

7

LGBT History Month sees relaunch 

of staff network 

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY 

NEWS 

At the start of February, we held a 

relaunch of our LGBT Staff Network 

at our Sandwell Education Centre. 

The relaunch aimed to increase awareness 

of the network within our workplace and 

also better promote equality, diversity 

and inclusion for both our colleagues and 

patients. 

“At the Trust, we want to be able to 

improve the working lives of LGBT 

colleagues by empowering them to feel safe 

and be proud of who they are at work,” 

said Thomas Devaney, Clinical Immunology 

Nurse and Chair of the SWBH LGBT Staff 

Network. 

“We want everyone to be able to bring 

their whole selves to work. It would not 

only be beneficial for them but their 

colleagues and the patients they encounter 

daily.” 

Estelle Hickman, Equality and Diversity 

Advisor believes the event was a great way 

to let people know about the existence of 

the network. She said: “The LGBT Staff 

Andy Churm, Donna Mighty, Tom Devaney and Estelle Hickman at the LGBT re-launch celebration 

Network relaunch reinforced the message 

about what we do as a support network 

and, more importantly, the support we offer 

colleagues.” 

She added: “If by us relaunching the network 

encourages just one person to engage with us 

and results in them having a more comfortable 

and happier time at work it will have been 

worthwhile.” 

The LGBT Staff Network and Trust are currently 

members of Stonewall Diversity Champions 

and recently took part in the annual Workplace 

Equality Index with the aim of being in the top 

100 employers. The network also has a regular 

presence at Birmingham Pride. If you wish to 

contact the LGBT Staff network or for more 

information, please contact swb-tr.swbh-gmequalitydiversity@nhs.net. 

It’s time to shine with the Stepping 

Up programme 

January 2020 got off to a flying start 

with aspiring NHS leaders joining our 

Stepping Up programme. The course 

led by the NHS Leadership Academy 

is aimed at black, Asian and minority 

ethnic (BAME) colleagues and our 

future leaders. 

The programme is set over four dedicated 

learning days. It equips those interested in 

developing their leadership abilities with 

the skills and knowledge to succeed in the 

healthcare sector. 

To secure a place on the course individuals 

had to submit a formal application and 

a written statement explaining why they 

should be considered. With competition 

from across NHS Trusts in the local area, 

securing a spot on the course is a real 

achievement. This is the first step towards 

learning the expertise required to progress 

into more senior roles. 

With nearly 20 per cent of the 1.3 million 

people that work in the NHS being from 

Donna Mighty, Assistant Primary Care Liaison 

Manager pictured with Mark Haynes, Senior IT 

Support Officer 

BAME backgrounds, the diverse talent 

we have in our Trust must be nurtured 

and developed. Speaking to Heartbeat, 

Donna Mighty, Chair of the BME Staff 

Network commented: “As Chair of our BME 

group we have one clear focus and that’s 

empowering colleagues from black and 

ethnic minorities to succeed. In January, I 

was pleased that our Trust demonstrated its 

commitment to that with the latest cohort 

of colleagues enrolling onto the Stepping 

Up programme.” 

Speaking to Heartbeat, Mark Haynes, 

Senior IT Support Officer, and Vice 

Chair of our BME group, explained how 

joining the course has made a positive 

difference to his work life. He said: 

“Last year I received an email about 

the Stepping Up programme. It wasn’t 

something I’d heard about before but 

I wasted no time in applying. After 

completing the programme, I returned 

to my role with a new mindset. I now 

understand that my progression is in my 

hands.” 

Feeling confident about his future 

progression, Mark added: “It has been 

one of the most beneficial training 

courses I've attended. It’s equipped me 

with the right behaviours that I believe 

will help me secure a management role 

in the future. I feel grateful to the NHS 

Leadership Academy, the organisers and 

the facilitators for providing this rare 

opportunity, and for the skills, it has 

equipped me with.” 

8

I will stand up, I will speak up, 

I am FEARLESS!! 

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY 

NEWS 

Fearless colleagues take to the frontline at Women’s Clinicians Network Conference 

A ground-breaking conference organised 

by the SWBH Women’s Clinicians 

Network saw female clinicians across the 

region come together to learn strategies 

for response, courage and reflection 

when faced with the sexism and 

inappropriate behaviour. 

Launching the “Fearless” conference, Lead of 

the Women’s Clinicians Network, Consultant 

in Acute Medicine and Deputy Medical 

Director Dr Sarb Clare said, “55 per cent of 

medical students are women; 45 per cent 

end up becoming doctors with only 36 per 

cent working as medical consultants and 12 

per cent as surgeons. Data shows there is 

a dropout rate of 20 per cent from higher 

level training to consultancy. Where are our 

women doctors going and why are they 

leaving?” 

“Women bring unique qualities with clear 

evidence that having gender balance and 

diversity at the top not only improves quality 

of care but such organisations are effective, 

efficient and ahead of the game. 

“All of you are unique and you all bring 

your great qualities to the work that you do 

and that is the key to success. We need to feel 

empowered and confident to be ourselves and 

do our job to our best ability and care for our 

patients. If I can see just one person leave here 

and say ‘I am fearless’ then today has been a 

success.” 

Taking to the stage, Core Medical Trainee, 

Dr Sarah Faloon had one simple question to 

present, ‘What is the issue we need to resolve?’. 

She said, “At our first conference ‘Women 

Empowering Women’ we had over 100 women 

join us as well as three who were so keen to be 

there, they brought their newborn babies along 

with them. 

“The feedback from the first conference was 

disempowerment, 25 per cent of the delegates 

felt discouraged to apply for an opportunity due 

to their gender, and appallingly 47 per cent had 

experienced sexual comments and inappropriate 

behaviour from colleagues. A large proportion 

did not want to raise a concern out of fear and 

stress.” 

Taking on the task of empowerment and 

assertiveness, colleagues also had the 

opportunity to learn from Organisation 

Development Specialist Trainer, Richard 

Burnell as he presented his masterclass 

entitled ‘Kind Heart, fierce mind, brave 

spirit’. 

Sharing his thoughts, Richard said, “Banter 

is often used as a veil and a means 

to passively aggressively spread hate, 

disempowering and disarming people. It’s 

used to take accountability away from the 

perpetrator under a cloak of humour.” 

“Don’t fall in to the trap, don’t respond 

emotionally, respond rationally and 

assertively, remind them that harmful 

statements aren’t about you being 

offended, it’s their statements that are 

harmful.” 

Dr Mark Anderson, our Responsible Officer 

presented his role as an investigator of 

such incidents and the data nationally. 

Delegates were eye opened as many were 

not aware of his role and felt supported 

that their concerns would be listened to by 

a clinician. He emphasised “ we will listen 

and support you!”. 

Raffaela Goodby our director of 

people and organisation development 

closed the conference re-iterating the 

importance of wellbeing and described 

the many initiatives that are in place for all 

colleagues across the Trust. 

Enjoying the conference, a consultant 

dermatologist from Walsall Manor said: 

“The session was very empowering. 

Richard’s talk was inspirational and it’s nice 

to hear a man talk so well and passionately 

about issues women face on a daily basis.” 

Dr Rosie Elsegood from Walsall Manor 

said: “This session has highlighted some 

of the prejudices we face in everyday life 

which I have become numb to. I’m a junior 

doctor and often patients will say I am too 

young and pretty to be a doctor which 

is very annoying. This session has taught 

me how to deal with that. Thank you so 

much.” 

If you would like to join the network 

or simply raise a concern you have, 

you can contact them on email swbh. 

WomensClinicianNetwork@nhs.net where 

one of the team will be able to help, guide 

and support you with any issue’s raised. 

The next event is due to take place 

on the 8 July at City Hospital and 

is entitled ‘Survival Of The Fittest – 

Menopause Like Madonna’. 

9

Backbone leaders – making sure 

corporate functions work for patients 

10 


NEWS 

Last month Heartbeat featured the 

senior management team supporting 

the Chief Informatics Officer to help us 

to deliver our digital ambitions. This 

month we focus on the governance 

team, who work to make sure that risk 

is mitigated and safety issues tackled. 

This is absolutely central to how the 

Trust is led, and includes our corporate 

governance function. Kam Dhami, 

Director of Governance, leads for the 

Board on these ambitions. 

Safety and risk 

Allison Binns 

Allison Binns - Deputy 

Director of Governance, 

Safety and Risk 

Allison is pivotal to making sure we capture 

information about error and excellence in 

our Trust. Her teams then produce ideas 

for learning which can inform the work we 

do across the organisation. The first job 

of the Trust is to make sure that what we 

do is safe, and our risk management and 

mitigation are key to that. Hearing from 

colleagues through incident reporting and 

patients through Purple Point and through 

complaints help us too. 

Allison manages a series of teams who 

work alongside you on a daily basis: 

• Complaints team - who manage 

all of the formal complaints received 

by the Trust and some of the local 

resolution concerns (formally PALS) 

ensuring complaints are investigated 

thoroughly and responses are open 

and honest. 

• Health and safety - who create 

and maintain internal systems and 

arrangements to ensure colleagues, 

visitors and contractors have safe 

systems of work. 

• Patient safety -manage incidents 

which relate to patients, supporting 

incident investigations with training 

and tools and advising on grading of 

incidents and the application of Duty 

of Candour. 

• Legal services - support colleagues 

at inquests and represent the Trust at 

Coroners hearings, when necessary 

as well as provide general legal advice 

about such subjects as contracts, 

Court of Protection and discrimination. 

• Overseas visitor team - manage the 

process for identifying and charging 

patients who are not eligible for free 

NHS treatment. They provide training 

to staff and support colleagues with queries 

and in understanding the regulations. 

• Governance support unit - deals with 

requests for access to healthcare records, 

receive and respond to local resolution 

concerns, deal with all Purple Point calls 12 

hours a day, 7 days a week, upload incidents 

to the ‘live’ part of Safeguard and to the 

National Reporting & Learning System and 

review healthcare records to input trauma 

data onto the national database - Trauma 

Audit & Research Network (TARN). 

Knowledge and learning 

Claire Hubbard 

Deputy Director of 

Governance, Knowledge 

and Learning 

Claire Hubbard leads on knowledge and learning 

across SWB. The welearn programme is a Trust 

wide approach that will move us to being an 

organisation that is curious and wants to learn; 

one that shares knowledge, and strives for 

continuous learning and quality benefits and 

improvements for our colleagues and service 

users. Following on from our established QIHDs 

and the annual QI poster contest, welearn will 

be taken forward with the following exciting 

initiatives: 

• Positive reporting through learning from 

excellence; ensuring that we celebrate 

what we do well, and learn how we can do 

more of it everywhere 

• Capturing learning GEMS, where all teams 

can be innovative around improvement or 

service ideas and be able to demonstrate 

valuable outcomes that can be shared 

• Creation of a learning pack, which 

will provide colleagues with a one-stop 

information resource on subjects such as 

audit data, complaints, incidents, friends 

and family feedback, NICE and other local 

and national information. The welearn 

approach will also see the development of a 

protected learning area that will support and 

encourage individual and team learning. 

Claire is supported in her work by two vital and 

popular teams. 

• Clinical effectiveness – supports teams 

with clinical audits and guidelines. They are 

responsible for reviewing national reports and 

NICE guidance that is applicable to the Trust 

and will facilitate an analysis of any gaps 

in our services and support implementing 

quality improvements as a result. 

• Our library – the team help with evidence 

to support clinical, management and 

evidence based decision-making, and also 

contribute to organisational knowledge 

management initiatives in a welcoming 

environment that encourages learning 

and using evidence to improve knowledge 

and services. The team strengthen 

partnerships by working across the 

Sandwell community to reinforce health 

literacy, innovation, enhance patient 

experience and support public and patient 

information activities. 

Quality assurance 

Ruth Spencer 

Associate Director of 

Quality Assurance 

Ruth Spencer joins us from UHB in May 2020 

and will lead our internal regulatory assurance 

framework. Her first job will be to help 

prepare SWB to achieve an overall Good 

CQC rating in 2020/21 and strive towards 

attaining Outstanding status for all of our 

core services. Supporting achievement of the 

highest outcomes for other forms of external 

accreditation visits is also within her role. 

Ruth will assess each area’s readiness for 

inspection and assessment, checking that any 

previous findings have been addressed. She will 

identify opportunities for quality improvement 

and commission development plans, as well as 

highlighting and sharing some of the excellent 

practices already in place. In 2020 most of her 

work will be alongside A&E, paediatrics and 

medicine, as we strive to make sure every core 

service that we run is rated at last Good: 70 

per cent are! 

Corporate governance 

Rajinder Biran 

Associate Director of 

Corporate Governance 

Rajinder Biran is responsible for ensuring the 

Trust’s corporate affairs are undertaken to the 

highest standards of probity and according 

to statutory and legislative requirements. 

Rajinder ensures that the meetings of the 

Trust Board and its committees run efficiently 

and effectively. As the Trust’s nominated 

Data Protection Officer (DPO) she oversees 

arrangements to ensure the Trust is compliant 

with the General Data Protection Regulation 

(GDPR). She also looks after all Freedom of 

Information requests, which average around 65 

a month. 

Rajinder’s current projects include leading on 

the important 4Documents project. This will 

transform how everyone in the Trust works, 

because it creates a personal policy portfolio. 

That will help us to keep track of which policies 

we need to know about, when they are 

updated, and how you can demonstrate you 

comply with them. 

For further information visit the governance 

section on Connect https://connect2.swbh. 

nhs.uk/governance/

Gathering your digital ambitions: 

How can tech transform your service? 

Our digital journey does not end with 

the introduction of Unity. Across the 

Trust we are looking at how we can 

continue to embrace the benefits of 

new technology to transform the 

services we provide – whether that is a 

corporate service, a clinical service, or a 

way of making us more efficient in how 

carry out our day to day work. 

Supporting us in our new digital 

programme is our informatics team who 

are visiting teams across the Trust to talk to 

you about your service and how you think 

technology could help. 

Toby Lewis, Chief Executive, said: “We 

have made great strides within the Trust 

on developing confidence in our digital 

systems. Unity implementation was a big 

focus for us on 2019 and, as we continue 

to optimise our use of that system, we 

are also looking ahead to build a five year 

digital plan for the Trust. Technology in 

healthcare is changing all the time and 

we have all sorts of opportunities to look 

to other parts of the country, and even 

globally, to see how we can make changes 

to bring benefits to patients, carers and 

colleagues. I would encourage you all to raise 

your ideas and share them with your group 

digital boards or send them to your IT business 

partner. Your ideas are what will make our 

new digital journey a success.” 

Louise Brown, Digital Transformation 

Manager, said: “Digital ambitions are 

the technological solutions we plan to 

implement over the next few years to enable 

improvements in how we communicate and 

work, with the aim that we are able to deliver 

better co-ordinated care more quickly to our 

patients, using technology to help with better 

diagnosis and treatment. 

“It’s a very exciting time for our organisation 

– the implementation of Unity has really 

shown how a digital solution can improve 

patient care. We are also seeing how artificial 

intelligence is making a huge difference to 

the way colleagues work within our imaging 

group. 

“I’m sure many colleagues have great ideas 

about improving services through digital 

solutions and through this process we hope to 

help you achieve the ambitions you have for 


NEWS 

your colleagues and patients.” 

Ideas are already flowing, including 

virtual patient consultations, new 

technology to help speed up how 

we transfer patients from one part of 

our Trust to another. Increased use of 

artificial intelligence is also of great 

interest and colleagues have suggested 

virtual chat assistance and robotics. 

A team of senior clinical, operational and 

IT colleagues will assess all ideas, looking 

at benefit, safety, viability and cost as 

well as whether the initiative could be 

implemented at a wider scale. The Trust’s 

digital boards in each group will review 

ideas and feed into the Trust’s Digital 

Committee for investment decisions. 

Talk to your informatics business 

partner, your line manager or feed 

into your group’s digital boards. You 

can also share your ideas through 

Connect. 

Colleagues in the Medical Infusion Suite show how Unity has transformed the way we deliver patient care 

11

Mental Capacity: 

Making the right decision 

THINGS 

YOU NEED 

TO KNOW 


NEWS 

Working as healthcare professionals 

presents many different scenarios 

when it comes to making patientfocused 

decisions. No two situations 

are ever the same and, at times 

these decisions can be challenging 

and complex to work through. 

Recognising that we all have a duty 

of care to those we look after, this 

month we shine a spotlight on the 

Mental Capacity Act (MCA). The MCA 

is designed to protect people who may 

lack the mental capacity to make their 

own decisions about their care and 

treatment. 

Examples of people who may lack 

capacity include those with: 

• Dementia 

• A severe learning disability 

• A brain injury 

• A mental health illness 

• A stroke 

• Unconsciousness caused by an 

anaesthetic or sudden accident. 

Just because a person has one of these 

health conditions doesn't necessarily 

mean they cannot make a specific 

decision. If a situation arises whereby 

you believe a patient lacks capacity to 

make a personal care decision, you must 

complete a mental capacity assessment. 

The MCA has five principles that need 

be taken into consideration before, 

during and after a capacity assessment is 

completed. The MCA says: 

1. Assume a person can make a 

decision themselves unless it's 

proved otherwise 

2. Wherever possible, help people 

to make their own decisions 

3. Don't treat a person as lacking 

the capacity to make a decision 

just because they make an 

unwise decision. Unwise is not 

the same as unable. 

4. If you make a decision for 

someone who doesn't have the 

capacity, it must be in their best 

interests 

5. Treatment and care provided to 

someone who lacks capacity 

should be the least restrictive of 

their basic rights and freedoms. 

Patient label: 

When assessing mental capacity we must 

remember these two prompts: 

• Is there an impairment of the mind 

or brain that is affecting decision 

making e.g. dementia, delirium, 

learning disabilities or a brain 

injury? 

• The capacity assessment must be 

time and decision specific i.e. what 

is the actual decision to be made 

and can the patient make the 

decision at this time? 

When completing a mental capacity 

assessment it is essential that we document 

the conversation and discussion. Our notes 

need to clearly indicate whether the person 

can understand the decision, weigh up 

the pros and cons, recall what has been 

discussed and communicate their decision. 

If your assessment is that the patient’s 

capacity is borderline, you must be able to 

show that it is more likely than not that 

they lack capacity. 

We caught up with Sabina Price-Hickman, 

Adult Safeguarding Nurse to discuss how to 

best apply the principles of the MCA. 

Assessment of Mental Capacity 

Record of decision to be made: 

Functional Test of Capacity 

DATE: 

1. Is there an impairment of, or disturbance in, the functioning of the person’s mind or brain and is 

this affecting their ability to make a decision? (It does not matter if this is permanent or 

temporary. Please state what this is) 

If Yes what is this diagnosis:- 

………………………………………………………………………………….. 

………………………………………………………………………………….. 

Can the service user understand the information necessary to 

make this decision at this time? 

If no please state reason:- 

…………………………………………………………………………………. 

…………………………………………………………………………………. 

Can the service user retain the information for long enough to 

make this decision? 


………………………………………………………………………………… 

.................................................................................... 

Can the service user weigh up the information in order to 

make this decision? 


..................................................................................... 

..................................................................................... 

Can the service user communicate their decision? 


..................................................................................................................... 

..................................................................................................................... 

Example of a mental capacity assessment form 

NO 

YES 

YES 

YES 

YES 

Q) What are the implications if we don’t 

establish if a patient has the mental 

capacity to decide on their care? 

A) We recently had a patient in our care 

that was detained under the Mental Health 

Act for medical treatment. Over four days 

psychiatric and medical medications were 

declined. If we experience situations similar 

to this it’s important that we first establish 

if the patient has the capacity to decide on 

their care. If after a thorough investigation 

we decide that they cannot do so, we must 

make a decision about what care to provide. 

All decisions must be made in the best 

interest of the patient in question. 

It’s important to stress that we must 

complete mental capacity assessments 

and clearly outline how we’ve reached our 

decision, who was involved and next steps. 

Q) Where is information about mental 

capacity online? 

A) On Connect you will find the mental 

capacity policy as well as key contacts. 

Q) Are there any other ways to 

complete a mental capacity assessment? 

A) You can request a doctor to complete an 

assessment via Unity. 

If you have any queries relating to mental capacity assessments, please email the adult 

safeguarding team via SWBH-Alert-AdultSafeguarding@nhs.net 

12

Do you know how to respond 

to a major incident message? 

THINGS 

YOU NEED 

TO KNOW 


NEWS 

3. Once you've responded to the 

SMS, follow the information in 

your speciality action card in the 

major incident (MI) plan. The 

action cards are currently being 

updated. 

Example of a major incident text message 

We’ve all heard of a major incident 

taking place at one time or another. 

News of earthquakes or wildfires is 

not uncommon. If a tragedy such as a 

rail disaster or flood took place in our 

region we’d need to be prepared for it. 

We recently carried out a test SMS to all 

registered mobiles and registered personal 

mobiles for consultants, for our major 

incident planning. Unfortunately, less than 

10 per cent of registered devices responded. 

Speaking to Heartbeat a colleague said that 

she thought the message was a “hoax”. 

It’s important if you receive a major incident 

(MI) message that you respond. We must 

know who will be on our sites in the event 

of an emergency. It also helps us effectively 

plan for how we’ll deal with any potential 

threats. 

Philip Stirling, Emergency Planning Officer 

emphasised the importance of these 

messages saying: “If we are involved in 

the response to a major incident we need 

to notify our colleagues, in particular, our 

clinical colleagues. The Manchester and 

London attacks were successfully managed 

in part because they were able to mobilise 

large numbers of consultants. We must 

ensure we can do the same.” 

So, how can you prepare? 

Set up a WhatsApp group 

Your clinical group may have a WhatsApp 

group or similar system that allows you 

to contact colleagues rapidly. If you don't 

have one, please consider creating one, 

particularly if you work in a speciality that 

will likely be involved in responding to an 

incident. This includes areas like ED, any 

surgical speciality, obstetrics, paediatrics, 

anaesthesia, haematology, medicine and 

radiology. 

Follow instructions sent via SMS 

messages to mobile phones 

In the event of a major incident, SMS 

messages will be sent to all Trust mobiles 

and individuals who have registered their 

phone for the service. 

This is what you need to do to get SMS 

messages: 

1. Create a contact in your address 

book for the following number: 

07860 017535. Name it as 

'SWB MI', or something similar, 

so you immediately know the 

message is not spam. 

2. If you have a Trust mobile, next 

time you receive a text message 

from this number please follow 

the instructions and reply 

When you receive a test text 

message: 

1. Follow the instructions in the 

text message 

2. Respond to the number with 

the details asked of you. This 

allows us to monitor staffing 

levels. 

There are four types of messages you 

may receive: 

• Major incident test: This is a 

test message to ensure that you 

are receiving messages. Please 

respond with what has been 

asked of you in the message. 

This should occur twice a year. 

• Major incident standby: This 

is when an incident is emerging 

and we may need you to be 

ready to react to a major 

incident. This will usually be a 

fact-finding message to see 

get to City or Sandwell Hospital. 

• Major incident declared: This 

means we are asking colleagues 

to return to active duty. The 

message will ask you to confirm 

your name, job role, what site 

you will be attending and 

how long it will take you to 

arrive. This information is vital 

as there may be road closures. If 

we have a list of colleagues 

making their way to either 

hospital we can allocate staff 

appropriately. 

• Major incident stood down: 

We will inform colleagues that 

the major incident has been 

stood down and normal 

working patterns will resume. 

If you have any queries, please 

email philip.stirling@nhs.net 

13

200 years and countless heroes: 

Healthcare organisations unite for 

International Year of the Nurse and Midwife 

In May last year the World Health 

Assembly - the decision-making 

body of World Health Organisation 

(WHO) - declared that 2020, which 

is also Florence Nightingale’s 

bicentennial year, was to be for the 

first ever recognised International 

Year of the Nurse and Midwife. At 

the time the heath body declared 

that doing so would provide a 

“once in a generation opportunity” 

to showcase these key public 

service professions. 

WHO is joined in the year-long endeavour 

by its global partners which includes the 

International Council of Nurses (ICN) and 

International Confederation of Midwives 

(ICM), Nursing Now and the United Nations 

Population Fund (UNFPA) and will be 

working throughout the year to celebrate 

the work of both nurses and midwives, 

highlight the challenging conditions they 

often face within both a changing world 

and equally evolving healthcare system. 

“Nurses and midwives play a vital role in 

providing health services,” WHO explain on 

their website. “These are the people who 

devote their lives to caring for mothers and 

children; giving lifesaving immunisations 

and health advice; looking after older 

people and generally meeting everyday 

essential health needs. They are often, 

the first and only point of care in their 

communities. The world needs nine million 

more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve 

universal health coverage by 2030.” 

Among the key messages being presented 

is the need to give both nurses and 

midwives the support they need, be it 

financially, to support their development, 

to support their work within a safe and 

developing environment and to make sure 

their value to the local and global workforce 

is recognised. 

“A strong nursing and midwifery workforce 

is key to the achievement of universal 

health coverage. Educating nurses and 

midwives to international standards 

makes economic sense. It saves resources 

by reducing the need for costly and 

unnecessary interventions and increases 

quality of care and health for all.” 

To achieve this, among other activities 

throughout 2020 a five-point key 

investment plan has been announced. 

• Invest in more nurse-led and midwifeled 

services enabling nurses and 

midwives to work to their full 

potential 

• Employ more specialist nurses 

• Make midwives and nurses central to 

primary health care, providing services 

and supervising community health 

workers 

• Support nurses and midwives in 

health promotion and disease 

prevention 

• Invest in nursing and midwifery 

leadership 

Ruth May, the NHS’s Chief Nursing Officer 

for England said of the celebration: “In 

2020, the spotlight is on us: nurses and 

midwives are being celebrated not just in 

England but across the globe. This is the 

chance to highlight our vast and varied skills 

and the work we do, and to ensure our 

professional voice is heard and represented 

at the heart of all health and care decisions 

and policy.”

Each month we 

profile some of our 

wonderful nurses 

as part of our 2020 

year of the nurse and 

midwife celebrations. 

Read on to find out 

about the career 

pathway of our very 

own Chief Nurse, 

Paula Gardner. 

Paula when she first qualified in her staff 

nurse uniform 

Paula Gardner in her current role 

When Chief Nurse, Paula Gardner 

embarked on her nursing career 

37 years ago things were very 

different. It wasn’t just the way 

nurses looked, they wore white 

hats and blue belts - but they also 

lacked the modern technology 

that is seen across hospital wards 

today. 

For Paula, however, one thing that hasn’t 

changed is the way patients are treated 

and cared for within the NHS. She 

explained: “The care and attention we give 

a patient hasn’t shifted. We can still bed 

bath a patient, dress them, comb their hair 

and brush their teeth. There’s a real sense 

of achievement by doing the simplest of 

things to help patients feel better.” 

Paula began her nursing career in 1983 at 

Worcester School of Nursing. She recalled 

the experience as “thoroughly enjoyable”. 

Looking back, she said: “Training has 

certainly . changed over the years. We 

worked within the wards and would study 

in our own time. We would go to a ward 

for a 14-week placement and go into the 

school for two weeks. Now it is 18 months 

in university and then into the clinical 

areas.” 

Paula Gardner 

Over her career, Paula has also witnessed 

some interesting moments. “If you think 

back to 37 years ago we used to have 

mercury thermometers. We still have 

them now, but we use electronic devices 

as mercury is now seen as an issue as 

a component. I remember whilst I was 

training one of the staff nurses dropped 35 

mercury thermometers on the floor and it 

went everywhere. Years ago we just swept 

it up, but of course, we wouldn’t be able 

to do that now.” 

Paula has nothing but admiration for the 

nurses and midwives she works with at 

our organisation and is extremely proud 

of their dedication. “I feel like I’m an 

honorary midwife. The midwives here are 

amazing, they have a lot to deal with and 

the birth of a child is an emotional topic at 

times." 

“Midwives do a great job as equally do our 

nurses. They work incredibly hard, given 

how people are trying to deal with long 

term conditions and other illnesses. I’m 

incredibly proud of them all and proud to 

be chief nurse at the Trust.” Looking to the 

future, Paula remarked: “I’m excited about 

Midland Metropolitan University Hospital 

- that is going to be amazing for our staff 

and the local area.” 

So, what are Paula’s biggest highlights 

within her nursing career? 

“There are too many to mention,” she 

said. “But they include qualifying. I 

remember the day when I received my staff 

nurse uniform with blue with white piping, 

a buckle belt and a hat.” 

Becoming a sister was a real highlight 

for Paula. “I became a sister at the age 

of 24. In those days it took a long time 

to become senior sister but I did it three 

years after qualifying. I did that job for 12 

years and I think that grounded me. When 

people think I don’t know what it’s like to 

be a sister on a ward, I do." 

She added: “I was also a matron, a group 

director of nursing, a deputy chief nurse 

and a chief nurse. So I’ve been through 

every stage of what it’s like to be a nurse at 

different times of my life and that enables 

me to relate to nurses today. Without a 

doubt, the pinnacle of my career is being 

chief nurse. It's what I always wanted to 

be. It is wonderful to be chief nurse at 

Sandwell and West Birmingham.” 

“Nurses and midwives work 

incredibly hard at the Trust 

– it’s vitally important that 

they are recognised”

Celebrating our 

stars of the week 

The Star of the Week recognition programme replaces the Compassion in Care 

award and allows both clinical and non-clinical colleagues to be recognised for 

their amazing work on a weekly basis in their departments, with managers taking 

the lead to appreciate, acknowledge and award at a local level. 

Each week, a worthy winner is chosen who upholds our nine care promises: 

• I will make you feel welcome 

• I will make time to listen to you 

• I will be polite, courteous and respectful 

• I will keep you informed and explain what is happening 

• I will admit to mistakes and do all I/we can to put them right 

• I value your point of view 

• I will be caring and kind 

• I will keep you involved 

• I will go the extra mile 

This month we shine a spotlight on our January winners. 

Star of the Week 

Sheilah Kamupira 

Neonatal Consultant 

Sheilah Kamupira has been described 

by her peers as caring, compassionate 

and empathetic. 

During a recent shift when the neonatal 

team were under considerable pressure, 

Sheilah stepped forward and supported the 

team to continue providing the amazing 

care they are known for. 

Nominating Sheilah for the award, 

Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, Fran 

Wooton wrote, “Sheilah always works very 

hard and is hands on when the babies and 

team need extra help. She is an asset to 

our team and deserves recognition for this. 

It’s a pleasure working with such excellent 

consultants who set a very good example of 

work ethic and leadership within the team.” 

Well done to all of our 

winners. Keep a look out for 

February's winners in the next 

edition of Heartbeat. 


Nikki Smith 

Project Officer 

Nikki joined the learning works 

team in 2019 and has in a very short 

period of time shown her passion 

and commitment in developing and 

supporting staff and members of the 

local community 

Nominating Nikki for the award, Learning 

Works Coordinator, Lawrence Kelly wrote, 

“Nikki is supporting over 200 local students 

experience the workplace through a 

dedicated programme of learning and 

has recently supported an internship 

programme for young students on the 

autistic spectrum. 

“Nikki has positive, kind and effective 

people skills and constantly seeks 

opportunities to go the extra mile. I am 

proud to have her within my team; making 

a difference to everyone she works with.” 

Receiving her award Nikki said, “It’s nice 

to be recognised, I’m just like any other 

member of staff, I just put the work in 

and try my best. But to be recognised and 

acknowledged is a lovely feeling.” 


Caroline Ndachangedzwa 

Staff Nurse 

Congratulations go to a Caroline who 

not only embodied our nine care 

promises when caring for an end of 

life patient but also took the time to 

comfort and support a bereaved family. 

Over the Christmas period when many 

of us were at home spending time 

with our families, Staff Nurse, Caroline 

Ndachangedzwa was hard at work filling 

in a bank shift at Leasowes Intermediate 

Care Centre in addition to her usual shift 

at Rowley Regis Hospital. Realising that an 

end of life patient was deteriorating quickly, 

Caroline sprung in to action to ensure the 

patient’s family were able to spend their 

final moments together. 

Nominating Caroline for Star of the Week, 

HCA, Neil Smallman wrote, “I was working 

a shift with Caroline at Leasowes. We 

were upstairs working together where two 

palliative care patients have rooms. She 

identified that there was a decline in one of 

the patient’s health so rang the daughter, 

unfortunately the patient passed away 

but the daughter was able to come in and 

spend time with them in the early hours of 

the morning. Caroline took the daughter 

into the relatives’ room and chatted to her 

for a good hour, about her parents and 

what they did and how they met. It is up 

there with the best bit of nursing I have 

witnessed in 25 years of caring.” 

Accepting her award and beaming with 

pride, Caroline said, “It’s just part of the 

job. I’d do it for any one of my patients, but 

I want to say thank you to my colleagues, 

they’re amazing role models who have 

supported me every step of the way.” 

16

Handling headaches – Clinical 

Nurse Specialist leads the way 

A mild ache, thumping headache to 

debilitating migraine, we have all had 

them and the impact they have on 

your life can be anything from slightly 

irritating to life changing, however the 

work of a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) 

is changing the way we manage this 

common condition. 

It’s not often you hear of a clinical nurse 

specialist who focusses on headaches, 

however the headache service had been 

offering headache clinics for the last 15 

years and remains the only nurse led 

diagnostic service in the UK. 

A significant proportion of neurology 

referrals at our Trust are headache related 

with upwards of 39 per cent of patients 

presenting with the condition. Likewise, it 

is the most common neurological problem 

presented at the emergency department. 

The latest review in 2018 by the Work 

Foundation put the economic cost to the 

UK of migraine at 6.6 to 8.8 billion pounds 

per year, with 75 per cent of sufferers 

unable to work or function during an 

attack. 86 million working days are lost 

every year due to this condition and yet 

remains the most poorly funded of all the 

neurological conditions. 

And if making waves in headache care at 

our Trust wasn’t enough, Julie has also been 

involved in providing expert knowledge 

to the ‘All-Party Parliamentary Group on 

Primary Headache Disorders’ taking her 

influence from a local and regional level 

to the national stage. On 25 March, Julie 

will be attending the launch of the next 

phase of the Work Foundation project in 

The House of Commons to raise awareness 

of good working practises for employers 

to support migraine sufferers. This will 

recommend self-management by patients, 

but also flexibility by employers to enable 

people to reduce the disability their 

migraine causes. Julie says “It is always 

rewarding and a privilege to attend these 

meetings, the building is fantastic to see 

but it also raises awareness of this much 

maligned condition.” NHS Right Care for 

England are also looking at developing 

pathways in which to improve patient care 

and have recently developed a headache 

tool kit to help with managing headaches 

better. 

Currently Julie conducts six clinics and sees 

in the region of 2000 patients per year. In 

the downtime between clinics, Julie has not 

only completed Master’s in Chronic Pain 

Management but also works at UHB in the 

complex headache clinic one day per week. 

This has led to joint treatment protocols 

across the two trusts to ensure continuity of 

care across the region. 

Headache nurses remain a rare commodity, 

when she started this role there were only 

12. The current UK headache nurse group 

has 60 members, and is growing slowly but 

surely. Our second headache nurse here at 

SWBH has just been recruited and should 

be in post in the next few months. This will 

increase our capacity to see patients and 

MEDICINE AND EMERGENCY 

CARE 

Clinical Nurse Specialist, Julie Edwards 

has been making waves in the world 

of neurology with her knowledge of 

supporting patients with headaches 

shorten waiting times for treatments 

such as botulinum toxin injections for 

chronic migraine. Headache is such 

a common problem that staff in any 

area may be required to assist a patient 

with a headache, there is plenty of help 

available to both patients and staff to 

improve knowledge. There are many 

resources to choose from. 

Self-Care tips 

1. Eat regularly, do not skip meals or be late eating. Ensure you drink 2 litres of 

fluid daily. 

2. Regular sleep, try to keep the get up times the same even on days off. 

3. Manage stress; regular exercise can help such as yoga, pilates and tai chi. 

4. Improve your knowledge; look at the support sites available to improve your 

self-care and what treatments are available. 

5. Do not take painkillers more than two days per week. If you are needing 

more than this speak to your GP about migraine prevention treatments. 

6. Take regular breaks from your computer to stretch muscles in your back and 

neck and think about fixed postures. 

7. Keep your managers informed of your headache problems. 

8. If treatments are not working, ask your GP to refer you to the headache clinic. 

17

Ambassador aiming to help transform 

service and inspire fellow midwives 

WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH 

Midwife Becky Fox has been 

selected as an ambassador which is 

part of the NHS Horizons campaign 

to re-ignite the passion that her 

colleagues have for their profession 

by flagging up new ideas and 

innovative ways of working. 

Becky, who is also deputy matron for 

midwifery outpatients, aims to increase 

job satisfaction and improve retention. 

The Horizons campaign has been 

created by the Royal College of Nursing 

and aims to transform perceptions of 

nursing and midwifery. 

Becky told Heartbeat: “I’m really pleased 

that I have been selected to carry out 

this important role within the Trust. I will 

be working with other midwives and 

nurses involved in maternity services 

across the UK in partnership with NHS 

Horizons. Through the project, we are 

aiming to learn about, share and spread 

ideas for innovative ways of working.” 

Having hit the ground running, Becky 

has lots planned. “I will be organising 

a series of events tailored to different 

Becky Fox, Deputy Matron for Midwifery 

Outpatients, who is now an NHS Horizons 

Ambassador 

areas of the service over the next few 

months. Without giving too much away, 

as I want it to be a surprise, the planned 

events include hosting breakfasts for 

colleagues and mobile tea parties, 

providing refreshments in clinical areas 

where staff find it hard to get a welldeserved 

break.” 

Midwives set up sessions for 

young parents 

Becky also revealed other initiatives: “I 

am looking into adopting ‘15 seconds 

and save 30 minutes’. The message of 

this is that by quickly completing a small 

task, you can save a colleague 30 minutes 

further down the line. I will be running a 

workshop for team managers in maternity 

so that they can cascade it to their teams.” 

Becky has also been busy working 

with the Black Country Local Maternity 

System (LMS) and has been working on a 

campaign to help pregnant women and 

their families to stop smoking. “I am in 

the process of setting up clinics at City and 

Sandwell sites. Everyone Health is now 

in the antenatal clinic at Sandwell on a 

monthly basis, offering advice not just on 

smoking cessation, but diabetes, obesity 

and other issues. 

“We are also finalising plans for them 

to hold weekly clinics to support those 

who wish to stop smoking and providing 

nicotine replacement therapy. Once 

this has successfully been rolled out at 

Sandwell, we aim to replicate the model 

at City. I have also arranged for Everyone 

Health to set up community based clinics 

for smoking cessation in two of the 

Children’s Centres in the region and Cape 

Hill in Smethwick.” 

Sessions for young parents to be and 

new mums and dads have been set 

up by a team of midwives. 

Our organisation has partnered 

with Acacia, a charity which offers 

mental health support to families and 

Birmingham City Council to deliver the 

sessions. 

New mum Hayley Gordon aged 17, 

whose baby Alicia is 12 weeks old, 

welcomed the idea. Speaking at the 

launch event, she said: “It’s nice to meet 

other mums and dads and have people 

to talk to about our babies. They are 

all the same age so we have things in 

common and everyone is supportive 

too. It is also a good way to build up our 

confidence.” 

Hayley was invited to the launch by 

her midwife, Angela Arnold who first 

thought of the idea. Angela, who 

specifically cares for young parents, said: 

Community Midwife, Angela Arnold with Hayley 

Gordon who she looked after throughout her 

pregnancy 

“I think there’s a need for young parents to 

have somewhere safe and non-judgemental 

for them to go whilst pregnant and also after 

the birth. After talking to young mums, I 

found that many felt they weren’t confident 

in going along to their local children’s centres 

because of their age. That’s when I thought 

about setting something up that would be 

beneficial for them.” 

The Young Parents Maternity Service 

already has links with Acacia and 

Birmingham City Council and, after 

liaising with them this group for young 

parents was set up. Speaking about the 

partnership Angela remarked: “We will 

cover various subjects like infant feeding, 

labour, birth and sleep safety. Acacia will 

provide support around mental health, 

whilst Birmingham City Council’s young 

parent advisor will provide information 

around education, as well as help with 

benefits. There is also support available 

with regards to sexual health testing and 

contraception.” 

Katie Mcleod-Peterson, Young Parents 

Project Group Facilitator, at Acacia 

added: “We received funding to put into 

running groups for young parents and 

we thought this was the perfect project. 

Having a place to socialise and meet likeminded 

parents is also important and 

takes away the risk of social isolation.” 

18

Eye can see clearly now 

Clinicians at Birmingham and Midland 

Eye Centre (BMEC) are using state-ofthe-art 

monitoring equipment as part 

of a trial which aims to improve the 

quality of life for children with a lifelimiting 

disease. 

We are working with Heartlands Hospital, 

in a trial which assesses whether the 

drug risdiplam eases visual problems in 

youngster suffering from Spinal Muscular 

Atrophy (SMA). 

For each eye test, patients are seen by the 

research nurse, orthoptist, optometrist, 

photographer and ophthalmologist. 

As part of the study, equipment 

worth up to £70,000 is being used by 

ophthalmologists which enables them to 

scan the back of the eyes. 

They are monitoring five patients over a 

period of two years. 

Abdul-Jabbar Ghauri, Consultant 

Paediatric Ophthalmologist and Paediatric 

Ophthalmology Service Lead, explained: 

“We are monitoring our patients who have 

SMA and are part of the trial for potential 

visual problems. 

Abdul-Jabber Ghauri examines a patient with 

the new Bioptigen handheld device 

“The paediatric ophthalmology department 

has received some cutting edge devices 

in the form of an Aurora handheld 

camera and a Bioptigen handheld Optical 

Coherence Tomography. 

“These allow us to take photographs and 

special scans of the back of the eye in 

patients who are not mobile enough to use 

our desk mounted equipment for example, 

those who are wheelchair users. 

SURGICAL SERVICES 

“The equipment is also being used in 

a similar manner for our other patients 

and has been particularly helpful in 

examining premature babies with 

retinopathy of prematurity.” 

SMA is a rare genetic neuromuscular 

condition, affecting approximately one 

in 6,000 babies born worldwide each 

year. 

It is typically diagnosed in children and 

causes muscles to weaken and waste 

away. Depending on its severity, people 

with the disease will have difficulties 

moving, eating, and in some cases 

breathing, making them increasingly 

dependent on parents and caregivers. 

Mr Ghauri added: “The equipment 

is particularly useful in children as it 

is small and not intimidating. Taking 

photographs helps us to document 

any problems and is also useful when 

explaining the condition to parents.” 

Did you know that you can download 

treatment-specific patient information 

leaflets from the EIDO Healthcare 

website for FREE? 

EIDO has hundreds of patient leaflets for different procedures that 

are being carried out across the Trust. 

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

in different languages. 

Patient information for hundreds of procedures carried out across 

the Trust can be downloaded for free and passed on to patients 

to help them better understand the procedure they may be 

undergoing. Many of these are available in different languages and 

formats and help patients to give informed consent. 

Visit Connect Clinical Systems EIDO PT Leaflets. 

For more information, please contact CommunicationsTeam on 

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

19

Tea party unites patients, visitors 

and staff on D47 

PRIMARY CARE, COMMUNITIES 

AND THERAPIES 

Earlier this month an innovative 

idea by a Matron keen to bring 

together her wards had her 

patients, colleagues and visitors 

smiling from ear to ear as they 

spent quality time with each other 

at the first ward tea party. 

D47 is one of our rehabilitation wards 

based within the Sheldon Block at City 

Hospital. Patients are admitted on to the 

ward as they go through rehabilitation, 

recovery and readiness to return home 

and although the ward is a happy place 

with patients leaving positive feedback, 

it has for a long time suffered in one 

aspect, that being isolation. 

To find out more about the tea party 

and the thinking behind the project, 

Heartbeat caught up with Matron, 

Natalie Whitton to find out more. 

She said,”D47 is a single occupancy 

side room ward where patients have 

their own private space rather than 

Patient Elizabeth Habberley joins nursing 

colleagues at the tea party on D47 

the traditional nightingale bays that are 

commonly seen at our Trust. The downside of 

this is that patients have a tendency to keep 

themselves to themselves in their room and 

unfortunately isolate themselves from each 

other. 

“We saw this issue and we were keen to 

do something positive, instead of pushing 

patients to come out to the communal 

areas, we thought about what we could do 

to get them to jump out of their own beds 

and want to be there and that’s where the 

idea of a tea party came from. It’s the carrot 

and stick approach, just in this case it was 

carrot cake. 

“To bring it to fruition, we got all of the 

staff on the ward involved, invited carers 

and families in and encouraged patients to 

join us, before we knew it, we were down 

to standing room only with every seat in 

the communal area taken and patients 

from D47 and D43 keen to join in. It’s been 

really well received and colleagues have 

had an opportunity to speak to patients 

and their families in a more relaxed way. 

Not just talking about their healthcare but 

breaking down barriers using slices of cake 

and cups of tea.” 

Patient Elizabeth Habberley was one of the 

first to take her place at the party, after 

having spent two weeks on the ward she 

was keen to meet the people around her, 

she said, “This is wonderful, its such a 

lovely idea and it’s great to be able to meet 

people. I have ulcerated legs so I’m not as 

mobile as I could be so it’s lonely being in a 

side room on your own all the time.” 

Fingers crossed, this won’t be the only tea 

party on D47 as plans are already in place 

to make this a regular event. 

IMAGING 

SWB fly the flag for safety in imaging 

The mention of nuclear medicine is 

enough to frighten most patients 

but the care, attention and 

professionalism in imaging soon 

settles their nerves. This month, 

colleagues in imaging have been 

taking to the stage at conferences 

and gatherings across the country to 

share their knowledge and improve 

services and safety for patients and 

clinicians alike. 

Earlier this month Senior Clinical 

Scientist, Joe O’Brien took to the stage 

to deliver his talk at the annual British 

Institute of Radiology Single-photon 

emission computed tomography 

(SPECT) meeting focussing on ‘Physics 

and new developments in SPECT. 

Taking a broad approach to the topic, 

Joe delivered an engaging session on 

the physics processes behind SPECT\ 

CT with a particular focus on metal 

artefact reduction for CT which could 

be a breakthrough for bone scans and 

Senior Clinical Scientist, Joe O'Brien 

imaging infections. 

Taking to the stage at the annual UK 

Radiology group meeting Consultant 

Radiopharmacist and Head of 

Radiopharmacy, Jilly Croasdale focussed 

on the preparations organisations have to 

go through in readiness for an Office for 

Nuclear Regulation (ONR) inspection. The 

ONR are the regulatory authority overseeing 

the transport of radioactive materials and as 

such compliance is an absolute must 

for all training. Recognising Jilly and the 

radiopharmacy department’s expertise 

on the topic, the ONR recently inspected 

the radiopharmacy department and 

praised its risk assessments. 

Over at the Institute of Physics and 

Engineering in Medicine, Consultant 

Physicist and Head of Nuclear Medicine, 

Bill Thomson took on the challenge of 

presenting the findings of a research 

study into the effects of radioactive 

spillages. Presenting his paper on 

‘Personnel Dosimetry’ Bill detailed his 

findings from research which looked 

into estimating the doses to the skin 

of hands in the event of a radioactive 

incident or spill of Technetium-99m, 

Yttrium-90 and Fluorodeoxyglucose. 

Calculations were made with a program 

obtained through the US Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, which allowed 

the protective values of different 

thicknesses of gloves to be examined. 

20

Restore and Relax 

IMAGING 

MYC YOGA 

with Chris 

Mondays at 12.30-1.15pm 

Mondays at 4.30-5.30pm 

Thursdays at 5.30-6.30pm 


NHS Trust 

MYC YOGA 

XPRESS with Cassie 

Thursdays 12:30-1:15pm 

City Yoga Studios, Millers Restaurant 

No booking required 

Yoga 

The Berridge Room, 

Sandwell Wednesdays 

at 4:45pm-5:45pm 

24/7 Gym at 

Sandwell and City 

Energy pod 

City/Sandwell AMU 

Pilates 

The Berridge Room, Sandwell 

Tuesdays at 4:45pm – 5:45pm 

Yoga with Laura 

St Johns Ambulance 

building Halesowen, 

Manor Way, Halesowen 

B62 8RW 

Thursday at 7:15pm 

Body Tone Class 

City Gym 

Tuesdays at 5-6pm 

Free for all employees 

For more information and booking please contact Occupational 

Health on Ext 3306 opt 4 / swbh.ohreferrals@nhs.net 

Supported by... 

21

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 

News in brief from around our organisation 

IMAGING 

Breaking Grad – Melanie 

and Paul are masters of their 

destiny 

At the end of last year, Melanie Stephens 

and Paul Bennett celebrated achieving 

their Master’s degrees after being 

sponsored by the Trust to do so. They both 

were given the opportunity to study parttime 

over three years to complete their 

MSc Advanced Clinical Practice. 

Speaking to Heartbeat, Melanie and 

Paul explained that they were supported 

throughout their degrees and combined 

their learning with placements outside 

of the workplace. Melanie remarked: 

“We were given a day a week to attend 

university and also completed placements 

at GP surgeries to help develop our clinical 

skills.” 

Paul has worked at our Trust for 34 years 

whilst Melanie has been here for 18 

years. Reflecting on their careers they 

both talked about how they’ve been 

supported to progress and achieve their 

potential. Paul commented: “I began 

my career here in 1986. Over that time, 

Melanie Stephens and Paul Bennett are both now advanced nurse practitioners 

I’ve taken advantage of learning that 

has helped me develop. This course was 

supported by NHS England and since 

completing it we’ve been able to move 

into new roles. We now work as advanced 

nurse practitioners in iCares focusing on 

admission avoidance.” 

Melanie echoed these sentiments saying: 

“Over the time I’ve worked here I’ve felt 

supported, especially as a BME member of 

staff. I'm grateful to the Trust for allowing 

us to complete our Master's degrees.” 

Congratulations Melanie and Paul. 

£1.5k donation for homeless 

patients 

Jeevan’s Legacy has raised £1,500 for 

our homeless patient pathway at the 

back end of 2019. 

The legacy is a group of Jeevan’s closest 

friends and family who raise funds for a 

variety of charities and good causes in 

memory of Jeevan Singh Dhanda who 

sadly passed away in 2014 at just 18 years 

of age. 

“Since 2016, we have raised more than 

£50,000 for an array causes from the 

paediatric wards at our hospital, Midlands 

Air Ambulance to Orchard School for 

Children with Special Needs. More recently, 

we’ve raised funds for the West Midlands 

Rehabilitation Service for children and 

young people requiring prosthetic limbs,” 

said Cathy Dhanda, Programme Manager 

and mother of Jeevan. 

“Jeevan was a young man who had hoped 

to one day set up a charity for children. 

Family and friends continue to honour his 

wish by supporting lots of charities each 

year. Jeevan’s Legacy exists purely to make 

a difference to other lives in memory of an 

exceptional young man.” 

22 

On this occasion, the friends and family of 

Jeevan’s Legacy decided to raise money for 

the homeless patient pathway team. They 

ensure safer discharges for homeless patients 

into accommodation, as opposed to rough 

sleeping, to improve the patient journey, 

maximise service referrals and access to 

health care, along with reducing readmission 

rates. 

Helen Taylor, Lead Nurse for the homeless 

patient pathway team was delighted when 

she heard the fantastic news that Jeevan’s 

Legacy had raised that amount of money for 

the team. 

She said: “I was ecstatic when I heard 

that Jeevan’s Legacy had raised £1,500. 

These vital funds will go towards helping 

the team continue to support our most 

vulnerable patients with clothing, toiletries 

and essential foods in 2020.” 

Sara Zurakowski and Louise Edwards, 

homeless housing navigators, echo these 

views and said: “On behalf of the homeless 

patient pathway team we would like to say 

a huge thank you to Cathy and the friends 

and family of Jeevan’s Legacy who were 

generous enough to donate to our service 

and patients.” 

Jeevan’s Legacy kindly donated £1,500 to our homeless patient pathway team to better support our 

homeless patients

2020 - International Year of the Nurse and Midwife 

March 2020 

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 

1 

St. David's Day 

2 3 

Managing anger 

and frustration 

workshop 

10am – 1pm 

The Berridge 

Room, Sandwell 

Hospital 

4 5 

Trust Board 

9.30 – 1pm 

Durga Bhawan 

Hindu Cultural 

Resource Centre, 

Smethwick. 

6 7 8 

International 

Women's Day 

World Kidney 

Day 

9 

World Glaucoma 

Week 

10 11 

Sleep hygiene 

and relaxation 

workshop 

10am – 1pm 

Surgical Skills 

Room, Postgrad, 

City Hospital 

12 13 

QIHD 

9am – 1pm 

National No 

Smoking Day 

14 

15 

16 17 

St. Patrick’s Day 

18 

Managing low 

mood and 

depression 

workshop 

10am – 1pm 

The Berridge 


Hospital 

19 20 

Spring Equinox 

21 22 

Mother’s Day 

23 24 

CLE 

2 – 5pm 

Conference Room, 

Education Centre, 

Sandwell 

Team Talk 

25 

• 11am – 12pm - 

Committee Room, 

Rowley Regis 

Hospital 

• 1 – 2pm - 

Conference Room, 

Education Centre, 

Sandwell 

• 1 – 2pm - 

Wolfson Lecture 

Theatre, 

City Hospital 

26 

Experiencing 

grief and loss 

workshop 

1.30pm – 4.30pm 

The Berridge 


Hospital 

Pay day 

27 

28 29 

30 31 

23

Shout out has been a regular feature 

in Heartbeat 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 heart-warming 

messages which have been sent via our 

website and social media platforms. 

To – Kay Sandhu 

Huge thanks to Kay for her support 

in helping maternity with our portal 

utilisation. 

From – Becky Fox 

To – Mary Causer 

Life in the Trust isn't always easy and 

every once in a while we sometimes find 

ourselves in a time of need. I found myself 

in a time of need recently and wasn't 

sure where to go. I visited the chapel for 

the first time today and Mary was there 

to help give me advice. She looked after 

me and prayed for me, her kindness and 

guidance has led to resolve that I could 

not see myself. Without Mary I would still 

be struggling and I know many others out 

there who may be struggling find refuge, 

safety and knowledge on how to get the 

best out of life. I would like to say a big 

thank you to Mary and those at the chapel 

today. Your support has enabled me to 

keep going and progress with life in ways 

that I could not envisage. 

From – Jordan Harvey 

To – Louise Allmark 

She is always happy, smiling and tries to 

make sure I get my toastie when I go in. 

From – Tracy Lyndon 

To – Stacey Hessom 

Stacey has been instrumental in keeping 

the OT service running within ESD during 

a very difficult time. I’d like to say a big 

‘thank you' for your hard work, dedication 

and organisational skills. 

From – Clair Finnemore 

To – Yvonne Hickman 

Thank you to Yvonne for her dedicated 

commitment to the pain team. Since I 

started within the pain team she has 

been a constant support, enhancing 

my knowledge and her enthusiasm is 

invigorating. 

From – Maxine Davies 

To – Zaheer Iqbal 

Zaheer has a professional and friendly 

approach. He has been so helpful to me 

when I approached him to support some 

young interns we have on programme with 

us who require additional support and the 

opportunity of work experience. He really 

does care and is always so helpful. 

From – Nikki Smith 

To – Rob Kemp and team 

Thank you so much for coming to help the 

maternity risk & governance team with 

a move at such short notice. Very much 

appreciated. 

From – Nicky Robinson 

To – Wendy Wilson 

Wendy is a fantastic receptionist at Heath 

Street who goes above and beyond for 

all the patients. Nothing seems to be too 

much to ask for with Wendy. Thank you! 

From – Melisa Fenton 

To – Everyone that supported the 

recruitment event 18/01/2020 

Fantastic event. All the teams pulled 

together and showcased the work of the 

trust brilliantly. Fantastic day with lots of 

interest and job offers made. 

From – Helen Cope 

To – Security 

A very big thank you to the two security 

guards that helped me with a flat tyre. 

It was a very cold Sunday morning on 19 

January when I was coming off a night 

shift. I was very tired but they were a great 

support. 

From – Helen Thomas 

To – Janette Scott 

Thank you for stepping up and working 

diligently to ensure that patients had 

equipment in place. This enabled them 

to be return home in a safe and timely 

manner and streamlined patient flow 

through intermediate care. 

From – Maria McMahon 

To – Sakeria Gordon 

Thanks for making life easier and bringing 

medication down on the night shift from 

D15 to D7, helpful as always. 

From – Rani Chambers 

To – Dr Derek Connolly 

I saw Dr Connolly who completely put my 

mind at rest, saw me at very short notice. I 

could not be more grateful. 

From – Marion Butler 

To – Paul Smith 

Paul came to collect furniture today from 

Trinity House. This was not the first time. 

He is always so polite, cheerful and helpful 

and makes no fuss at all. Thank you. 

From – Glynis Fenner 

24

Gina Dutton 

Head of Research and Development 

This month we welcome Gina Dutton 

who has started with our organisation 

as head of research and development. 

Gina joins us from the University of 

Worcester where she was head of the 

association for dementia studies, which 

involved research to improve the care of 

people with dementia, as well as teaching 

health and social care professionals. Prior 

to that Gina was a cancer research network 

manager working across the NHS for 13 

years. As part of that Gina was seconded 

to the national team working on improving 

the delivery and conduct of clinical trials. 

“Before that I worked as a dual qualified 

diagnostic radiographer and sonographer,” 

said Gina. “That was the first role that gave 

me the opportunity to work in research. I 

was one of the local collaborators on the 

study which brought nuchal translucency 

screening into antenatal care. It’s obvious 

that research makes a difference to the 

patient journey and how care is delivered.” 

When Gina recently spent some time in 

the NHS as a relative (after her husband 

fractured three vertebrae), she realised just 

how much she had been missing clinical 

engagement. “The experience reminded me 

of my radiography roots and patient care,” 

she said. “Although I’m not particularly in a 

patient facing role, it’s important for me to 

be in a position that makes a difference. I 

was keen to get back into the NHS and into 

research which is what I know and do well. 

I was delighted to have the opportunity to 

do just that at SWB. 

“I believe all patients and members of 

the public should have the opportunity to 

take part in research should they want to. 

Our workplace needs to have the breadth 

of portfolio so every service can have the 

opportunity to open a trial or some sort of 

research study. 

“Likewise, I am aware there are a lot of 

health professionals who to date have not 

been exposed to research. I know people 

do want to take part in research, so my role 

is about widening participation and giving 

colleagues and patients the opportunity 

to take part. Research active organisations 

provide better care.” 

So what does Gina enjoy in her spare time? 

She told Heartbeat: “I am a member of the 

Women’s Equality Party and I also sing in a 

local choir. From time to time I attend glass 

fusing courses.” 

Gina Dutton, Head of Research and 

Development 

Wave goodbye to… 

Dr Roger Stedman 

Consultant - Anaesthetics and Critical Care Medicine 

We’ll soon be saying farewell to 

Dr Roger Stedman, Consultant in 

Anaesthetics and Critical Care Medicine. 

Having worked at our Trust since 2012, 

Dr Roger Stedman initially joined us as 

medical director. Bringing a wealth of 

experience into that role his main focus 

was on delivering the best level of 

patient care across our organisation. 

looking forward to spending more time 

with his parents and family. He’ll be taking 

lots of positives away with him from his 

time at our Trust. One of the things he will 

miss the most is the people he has worked 

with. “I’m pleased to have chosen and 

worked at a place that is such a caring 

organisation. It’s filled with kind people that 

are a delight to work with.” 

Reflecting on his time as medical director, Dr 

Stedman recalls some of his achievements. 

Speaking to Heartbeat he said: “The Beacon 

Services programme is something I look 

back on proudly. It focused on celebrating 

all that was excellent in clinical services 

across our organisation.” 

Making time for clinical teams to be 

together away from their areas and think 

together, learn and share best practice 

was also something Dr Stedman was 

particularly keen to implement. He recalls 

being involved in the thinking behind 

what is now an ingrained part of our work 

culture, our QIHD sessions. He commented: 

“It was important to set aside time for 

teams to be together and focus on how 

they could improve and share knowledge 

across our organisation. I’m pleased that my 

thinking behind the QIHD sessions became 

Dr Roger Stedman 

something useful for colleagues. One of the 

other things I’m pleased has changed since 

joining the Trust is the huge turnaround in 

research and development. Over the past 

three years we’ve doubled the number of 

patients involved in clinical trials.” 

Perhaps the one thing Dr Stedman will 

look back on most fondly is his work with 

Unity. He remarked: “I was involved with 

the implementation of the Cerner system 

from the start. The EPMA solution has made 

a hugely positive difference to patients in 

critical care.” 

Heading back to Wiltshire, Dr Stedman is 

looking forward to exploring the beautiful 

countryside where he grew up. He’s also 

He added: “I have been supported in 

my time here, especially when I made 

the move to resume my career as a fulltime 

consultant again. I’ve enjoyed being 

a clinician over the past two years and 

will miss everyone I’ve worked with. 

I’m confident the Trust will go on to be 

even greater than it is already with the 

opening of Midland Met. That will radically 

transform the nature of the hospital and it’s 

something that will benefit the communities 

we work in immensely.” 

Keen to keep in touch with colleagues and 

friends, Dr Stedman remarked: “I can still be 

reached via NHS email and colleagues can 

read my blog too at https://rogerstedman. 

com/wp.” 

Thank you for your hard work and 

dedication, Dr Stedman. We wish you 

all the best with the move back to 

Wiltshire. 

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 

R-E-S-P-E-C-T 

Dear Heartbeat, 

Manners and respect cost nothing; we are all 

just a part of the machine that is the NHS. 

We are all here trying to ensure that patients 

get the best possible level of care that they 

need and deserve. 

We are all on the same side!! So in future 

try to remember that when speaking to your 

fellow staff members, condescending and 

snobbish attitudes should have no place in 

today's workplace no matter who you are or 

what role you have. 

After all, try to remember that no matter 

what job you are doing, if you are coming 

to work to earn a wage you are still working 

class, just like me. 

Dear colleague, 

I am sorry that you feel that way. In 

our Trust we have a mutual respect 

and tolerance policy that was put in 

place to ensure that we are all treated 

with respect no matter what our role, 

background, age, race, gender, sexual 

orientation. The guidelines can be found 

on Connect – just search for Mutual 

Respect and Tolerance. We also have a 

manager code of conduct. 

If there are occasions where these 

guidelines have not been followed in 

your experience then I would urge you to 

raise it and there are a number of ways 

you can do this including: 

• Speak to the person who is making 

you feel that way 

• Speak to your line manager, or their 

line manager if you feel you can’t 

raise it with your boss 

• Contact your HR advisor or 

operational HR manager 

• Contact a Freedom to Speak-up 

Guardian who are there to help you 

raise concerns 

• Talk to a Trades Union 

representative 

We are all responsible for speaking up 

and raising concerns so that we can 

create a respectful and safe working 

environment. 

Kind regards, 

Toby Lewis 

Chief Executive 

Car parking at City Hospital 

Dear Heartbeat 

I have read so many letters complaining about 

the way people park in the staff car park and 

every time the response is that people will be 

issued with parking notices or fines. At City 

Hospital especially behind the BTC it has become 

the in thing to deliberately park cars blocking 

two parking spaces and I have never seen anyone 

being issued with a parking fine. At one time I 

actually counted about 12 slots that had been 

blocked by these selfish individuals. If the parking 

fines are not issued more people will follow that 

pattern as there are no consequences to those 

actions. 

Regards, 

Annoyed 


Thank you for your letter. The planning for 

our new multi storey car parks is going well 

and we will soon see building works on site 

for both. This will further reduce spaces 

of course during the construction period. 

That makes it really important we look at 

alternatives to car travel, and that those who 

are parking with us do so helpfully to others. 

I can confirm we are enforcing fines. 

Appeals are considered by a staff-led 

committee, but to date in most cases the 

fines haves been upheld as fair. No available 

spaces does not provide an excuse for poor 

parking, and as you indicate poor parking 

can mean someone else has no space. 

Anyone not paying their fines is then subject 

to further processes which can result in their 

access to our car parks being withdrawn, 

and someone else getting access. I will ask 

our enforcement teams to pay particular 

attention to the BTC spaces you mention. 

Kind regards, 

Jim Pollitt 

Assistant Director Strategic Development 

Our sites are not well lit at night 

Dear Heartbeat, 

Walking around our sites during the night can 

be a very scary experience for staff. Nearly every 

turn brings a lamp post with a light that does not 

work. 

I don’t know why the Trust feels that not 

replacing lamp post bulbs is a good thing for the 

organisation. It may save a few pennies, but it 

certainly makes leaving your office and walking 

to the car or the main street to catch a bus an 

unnerving process. 

Surely the safety of staff, patients and visitors is 

paramount to the Trust. 

Please can someone make sure the lights are on 

outside when it’s dark? We all deserve to work in 

a safe environment. 

Regards, 

Anon 


Thank you for sharing your concerns. We 

appreciate your comments. The estates 

department takes staff, patient and visitor 

safety very seriously and do not wish 

any journey across our car parks to be an 

uncomfortable experience. 

Routine inspections are conducted on 

external lights and we currently have 

contractors at our hospital sites completing 

some repairs who are making good progress. 

We have now, as a direct result of your letter, 

taken another look at any external lighting 

that is out of service to ensure that we have 

safe and well-lit areas. In some cases we will 

replace the lights with LED versions which 

are more reliable and energy efficient. 

The estates department welcomes both 

positive and negative feedback to improve 

its service delivery and would encourage 

colleagues to assist with improving site safety 

by reporting external lighting faults to our 

24 hour estates helpline which is ext 4444. 

If you have any further concerns please do 

not hesitate to contact me. 

Kind regards, 

Ian Hawthorn 

Estates Operational Manager (Electrical 

Services) 

Naming wards at Midland Met 

Dear Heartbeat 

I was pleased to see the coverage of the Midland 

Met celebrations and the new name and it 

caused me to think about how we would be 

using names within the new building. We have 

so much heritage here that it would be a shame 

not to retain some of that history as certain 

departments at City and Sandwell have names of 

people who have done amazing things. Can you 

shed any light? 

Anon 

Dear Anon 

Good question and a good time to raise it. 

Midland Met is big…very big…. and ensuring 

that our patients and visitors get to the right 

place as easily as possible is a priority. For 

that reason the naming convention in the 

Midland Metropolitan University Hospital 

will be letters and numbers only. Of course, 

there will be opportunities to commemorate 

or celebrate achievements or donations 

of organisations or individuals with signs, 

plaques or similar but departments will not 

be named in that way. We do have a naming 

committee within the Trust that makes 

decisions on names for buildings, rooms 

and so on and we will publish the naming 

principles in due course. If you do have 

anything you would like to be considered 

please let me know. 

Kind regards, 

Ruth Wilkin 

Director of Communications 

26

Toby writes about… what ‘System First’ means, 

or might mean 

TobyLewis_SWBH 

TOBY’S LAST WORD 

Every year the NHS produces 

something called the Planning 

Guidance. The nomenclature 

changes but it is an annual event 

either way. It derives from the 

Mandate given by Parliament and 

the Government to NHS England. 

They, and NHS Improvement with 

whom they are now, in effect, 

merged, issue instructions to 

CCGs and NHS organisations. Our 

organisation is supposed to try and 

do what we think is right, but also 

do what is in this guidance. Typically 

the guidance consists of the 

reiteration of a series of standards 

or targets. Often it also announces a 

new project or approach for a given 

topic. 

In an era of Five Year Forward Views 

and of the Long Term Plan, there is 

good consistency over time in this 

guidance each year. It changes by 

nuance not direction. I think it is 

accepted that, as a general rule, our 

Trust is usually at the forefront of 

these directions, typically a year or two 

ahead of national policy. For example 

our work on plastics was before the 

nationwide pledge and our current 

work on sustainability, energy costs, 

and the environment likewise. Our 

2020 Vision set out a direction in 2015 

that moved us towards much more 

integrated care. 

This year the guidance comes with a 

very clear and significant undertone 

which I wanted to explore in this article. 

Against a rhetorical backdrop of 

moving away from competition and 

towards collaboration, blurring lines 

between health and social care, and a 

general desire for prevention and public 

health, the guidance urges that Trusts 

look to collective success of the whole 

NHS. But it translates this aim into 

something called the ‘system’. 

Of course a complex organisation like 

ours is part of several systems. For 

eye care, gynae-cancer and sickle cell 

we are a supra regional provider. For 

breast, GI and new-born screening 

we reach across the city. We deliver 

rheumatology in Walsall. Sandwell 

residents get emergency care at Russell’s 

Hall and we provide community 

services to those patients. So both our 

relationships and our geography are more 

complicated than the guidance often 

suggests. That is in no way unique to us. 

What is possibly more unusual is that 

we span the Black Country and 

Birmingham. Many of our hospital 

services have links with either Heartlands 

or the QE. We are in networks that do 

not always subsist within our STP, which 

only covers the four boroughs of the 

Black Country as well as Ladywood and 

Perry Barr. 

Moreover, the Board believes that 

our long term plan is one which 

sees most value in how we work on 

population health with primary care 

colleagues. You will have sensed 

the excitement last month with our 

front-page announcement about our 

upcoming integration with Your Health 

Partnership (YHP), who will become a 

fully-fledged directorate of the Trust, 

just like paediatrics or anaesthetics. In 

NHS-speak this is labelled Vertical 

Integration. The idea is that we wrap 

services around patients, regardless of 

the clinical discipline, and that we wrap 

service planning around populations. 

Between now and 2025 we believe that 

that work, combined with the work to 

create our University Hospital at Midland 

Met, should be the focus of all our 

efforts. Like most strategy its success will 

lie in how we do it, how we learn from 

mistakes in doing it, and how we work 

together to execute or operationalise 

that plan. That is why we have changed 

the shape of the executive team, to 

make sure we can support day to day 

improvement as well as planning for our 

future. 

That is also why we have agreed within 

our ICS or STP Plan that whilst we 

have shared objectives across the Black 

Country and West Birmingham, we 

will work to deliver those objectives in 

slightly different ways in slightly different 

places. And in particular we have agreed 

that the scale of Sandwell and West 

Birmingham is a sub-system which 

needs to manage itself locally. Our 

neighbours in Wolverhampton, 

Dudley and Walsall will work closely 

together and closely with us. But 

with around 700,000 people 

looking to us for their care we 

need to move at pace to improve 

outcomes. 

So which is our system 

and what comes first? 

1. We need to do everything we 

can to improve outcomes in 

two places: Ladywood and 

Perry Barr and in the towns of 

Sandwell: Each will be an ICP 

(integrated care partnership). 

2. When we succeed that 

will help take pressure off 

tertiary partners like the 

Children’s Hospital or UHB in 

Birmingham. 

3. And we will work alongside 

colleagues in the Black 

Country to support vulnerable 

specialties where workforce 

challenges or changes in 

subspecialist practice mean 

that we need to aggregate 

service planning. 

In other words, system first does 

not mean we do everything 

together. 

It does mean our success is 

judged collectively, and we have 

not succeeded if one of our 

neighbours is struggling. And 

it does mean that we need to 

ensure that as we develop our 

workforce and our workforce redesign 

we build teams and ways 

of working that can borrow from 

the best in our region or can be 

replicated in other places. If our 

Places succeed our System will 

come first. 

Do read the planning guidance 

if you get a chance, but this 

summary tries to boil it down 

succinctly. 

27

Taking a million steps is no 

mean feat for critical care’s Amber 

YOUR TRUST CHARITY 

in the USA planned with the family and 

I will enjoy it as a fitter, healthier version 

of myself.” 

@SWBHCharity To donate 

to the Your Trust Charity text 

“SWBH16 £5” to 70070 

Welcome to the new home for 

news about Your Trust Charity 

which will now be featured 

on the back page of Heartbeat 

each month. 2020 marks an 

important year for our charity 

as we launch our appeal to raise 

over £2m to add enhancements 

to the new Midland Metropolitan 

University Hospital, supporting 

the arts, research, education and 

regeneration programmes as well 

as the latest clinical equipment. At 

the same time, we want to ensure 

that fundraising continues to grow 

to enhance the we provide for 

patients and carers across all our 

sites. Every month we will share 

ways you can get involved. 

Part of the critical care team, Amber has 

made her first personal goal to lose 70lbs 

in weight by the end of August 2020, 

a goal she is already making significant 

Amber is a matron on a mission. Pictured here 

having lost 13 Ibs of her 70 Ibs weight loss goal. 

strides to achieve. She spoke to Heartbeat 

about her aims and the journey in front of 

her. 

“I had already begun a weight loss journey 

with the Chawn Hill Slimming World group 

and thought it was a great opportunity to 

not only improve my health but support 

the Trust’s vision for tackling obesity. Since 

Christmas, I have lost 13Ibs. Along with 

my weight loss goal, I’m also looking to 

gather a group of colleagues to support me 

in walking 500 miles, the equivalent of a 

million steps.” 

Amber will be tracking her step target via 

the Inkin fitness app and publicising her 

progress to keep colleagues up to date. 

Whilst she admitted she had only told a 

select few so far about her goals she’s 

already received a lot of support from those 

in the know. Speaking candidly she said: 

“I’m determined to hit my goal. Losing the 

weight will make a massive difference to 

my health and wellbeing. I have a holiday 

Money raised will be donated to Your 

Trust Charity – Critical Care Services to 

support the work they do. She said: 

“Critical care is my passion and, I want 

to build on some of the great work we 

already do for long term rehabilitation 

patients. We do a lot but we can do 

more. I would, for instance, like to use 

the money raised to purchase some 

portable mood lighting and equipment 

to help reduce delirium and improve 

sleep health for our patients. This could 

not only enhance the patient experience 

but ultimately have an impact on 

reducing their length of stay.” 

“70lb is a significant goal but Amber 

is extremely focused,” added Amanda 

Winwood, Your Trust Charity Manager. 

“We’re delighted that she’s chosen to 

support Your Trust Charity and once 

again is leading the way for her team. 

Members of the charity team, as well 

as volunteers and the communications 

team, are also tracking our steps as part 

of a health drive. We're right behind 

Amber and wish her all the best on her 

journey." 

Should you wish to support Amber’s 

efforts with a donation you can do so via 

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ 

ChallengeAmber 

Your Trust Charity are offering 14 

places on this year's Birmingham 

Velo on Sunday 21 June. 

Starting in the heart of Birmingham City Centre, Velo Birmingham and Midlands will take 18,000 cyclists of all abilities on a 

truly unforgettable journey through two iconic Midlands cities and the beautiful West Midlands countryside on closed roads. 

Note: We ask you to commit to raising a minimum of £250 sponsorship for Your Trust Charity. 

If you wish to take part, please contact amanda.winwood@nhs.net or call 0121 507 4847 

February 2020 staff lottery results 

1st £190.25 

Tracy Lyndon 

2nd £114.15 

Mark Ward 

3rd £76.10 

Raffaela Goodby 

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 

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

Heatbeat February 2020

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