Heartbeat May 2020

May 2020 

Sandwell and West Birmingham 

NHS Trust 

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

Issue 128 

No Going BackPages 

4-6 

Primary care study into 

COVID-19 launched 

into the community 

Page 3 

We launch 

our wellbeing 

sanctuary 

Page 4 

Spotlight on 

handwashing 

Page 6 

Gold award for 

orthopaedics 

Page 31

FROM THE CHAIR 

Welcome to your May edition of 

Heartbeat. This month we bring 

you all the latest news from 

across the Trust to keep you up 

to speed with everything that’s 

been going on. 

We shine a spotlight on mental 

health and how we can help 

you with all aspects of your 

psychological health during 

COVID-19. We have more 

inspirational stories from colleagues 

that have beaten coronavirus and 

we launch our Star Awards 2020. 

As always, enjoy! 

HELLO 

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 

Celebrating excellence - Take the 

time to put forward your SWB stars 

It’s always a pleasure to get to this 

time of year when we can formally 

launch the opening of the nominations 

for our annual Star Awards. This year, 

like in previous years, there will be 

very many worthy contenders who 

can demonstrate outstanding care, 

compassion and consideration for 

others. 

With well over 500 people or teams 

nominated each year, I expect this year to 

see even more nominations as you recall 

the considerable achievements of your 

colleagues. There are 21 award categories 

and you can see more detail on the 

criteria for each on pages 16 and 17. The 

categories span a broad range of areas 

including research excellence, innovation, 

quality of care and public health. There 

are also the prestigious employee of the 

year and team of the year awards that are 

voted for by you. A new category of Nurse/ 

Midwife of the Year has been introduced 

for this year only which is to recognise 

International Year of the Nurse and 

Midwife. As in previous years, one of our 

awards is nominated and chosen by local 

GPs, The Primary Care Award for the Most 

Valued Service, and, with new primary care 

colleagues joining our Trust over the past 

year, I expect to see them well-represented 

in our award nominations. 

The nominations can come from any time 

in the past 12 months, and there is plenty 

of pre-COVID excellence that should be 

recognised as well as the special stories you 

have been sharing of tremendous courage 

and kindness as we pulled together to 

respond to the COVID-19 crisis. 

We are working through how we will run 

an awards ceremony in a suitably sociallydistanced 

way which is likely to mean a very 

different event than previous years. But the 

nominations, shortlisted entrants and award 

winners will be no less extraordinary and 

humbling. 

The huge respect and appreciation that 

the public has for each of you in the NHS 

has clearly been demonstrated throughout 

this pandemic and I know that people 

from our local population will put forward 

many of you in the public "Quality of Care" 

category. 

This is your chance to thank your coworkers 

and see that they are recognised 

and appreciated for their amazing actions. 

Do take the time to nominate your 

colleagues, your teams and those who have 

really stood out for you during the past 

year. I am looking forward to reading your 

incredible stories. 

Richard Samuda, Trust Chairman 

Submit an idea 

If you’d like to submit an idea 

for an article, contact the 

communications team 

Ext 5303 

swbh.comms@nhs.net 

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: 

Chairman, Richard Samuda

Primary care study into COVID-19 

launched in the community 

Help the fight against COVID-19 

Has your doctor or nurse said you are likely to have a 

COVID-19 infection, or do you have any of these symptoms? 

Are you aged 65 and above? 

Or aged 50 to 64 with any of these illnesses? 

High blood pressure and/ or 

heart disease 

Asthma or lung disease 

Weakened immune system due 

to serious illness or medication 

(e.g. chemotherapy). 

Then you could be eligible to join the PRINCIPLE 

trial and help the fight against COVID-19. 

All of the Trust’s COVID-19 research 

recruitment so far has been to four 

research studies recruiting patients 

who have been admitted to our wards 

or intensive care units. There is now a 

treatment trial open for patients being 

seen by GPs in Your Health Partnership 

(YHP) called PRINCIPLE. This includes 

residents of care homes who are able to 

consent to participate. 

The trial is open to people with COVID-19 

symptoms who are over 65 with or without 

other health problems and for patients who 

are between 50 and 64 who have one of a 

number of pre-existing health conditions. 

The trial design for PRINCIPLE allows the 

study to turn on and off trial treatments. 

The antibiotic azithromycin randomisation 

has been added into the study, in 

response to concerns regarding the use 

of hydroxychloroquine in patients with 

COVID-19 . 

Dr Abdul Tabassum, from YHP, is the 

principal investigator for the study. He said: 

“PRINCIPLE is a very important primary 

care-based trial, in areas where local health 

systems are under immense pressure. With 

a background of high prevalence of chronic 

disease and multiple co-morbidities, it puts 

many of our older patients at increased risk 

from COVID-19. The trial aims to identify 

Diabetes not treated with 

insulin 

Stroke or neurological 

problems 

Liver disease 

The PRINCIPLE trial aims to find treatments that reduce hospital admission and improve 

symptoms for people with COVID-19. 

To find out more, please visit: 

www.principletrial.org 

Tel: 0800 138 0880 

Continuous new or worsening 

cough 

And have had them for fewer than 15 days? 

Ethics ref: 20/SC/058 Patient recruitment poster, v1.2 19.05.20, IRAS no: 281958 

High temperature 

OR had you had a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 infection taken fewer than 15 

days ago AND are unwell with symptoms of COVID-19? 

email: principle@phc.ox.ac.uk 

Platform Randomised trial of INterventions 

against COVID-19 In older peoPLE 

We're strategically planning how to overcome COVID-19 and have our Trust-wide surge plans in 

place 

Platform Randomised trial of INterventions 

against COVID-19 In older peoPLE 

treatments that can help people get better 

and keep them out of the hospital by treating 

them in the early stage of the infection. 

“Experience from other participating practices 

show that the enrolment process is quite easy 

and straightforward. I am hoping that our 

patients will be open to participate and help 

to find the effective treatment to beat this 

disease which is the cause of so much death 

and misery in the world. 

“It's very important that everyone working in 

the community and primary care is aware of 

this study. Even more important is to inform 

patients about the study and give them 

information to enrol in the trial. They can do 

this very easily by directing patients to the 

PRINCIPLE trial contact details.” 

Patients will need to answer a few simple 

screening questions and the study team will 

do the rest. Dr Tabassum added: “I feel that 

we have worked well with the Trust. The 

research and development team (R&D) has 

played a key role to get YHP registered on the 

trial. I am looking forward to working with 

the team. 

“We are hoping that most patients will have 

someone who will be able to collect the 

drugs and swabs from Regis Medical Centre. 

If they are not able to do this, we will be 

asking colleagues from the Trust’s brigades 

COVID-19 

to help and deliver the medication to 

the patient’s home. These arrangements 

have been put in place to make it easier 

for patients to participate. 

“I would like to ask the help from every 

colleague working in the community and 

primary care from nurses, HCAs, and 

doctors to occupational therapists and 

pharmacists, to encourage patients to 

take part in the trial. If we work as one 

team, we can help our patients and the 

NHS." 

If a patient is registered with YHP and 

meets the criteria for this study they may 

get a text inviting them to join if they 

develop COVID-19 symptoms. The trial 

is now also screening participants online. 

This means that regardless of which GP 

surgery they are registered with, older 

people with coronavirus symptoms can 

now pre-screen for the trial at home via 

an online questionnaire to see whether 

they can be included. 

For further details about the PRINCIPLE 

trial go to https://www.phctrials.ox.ac. 

uk/principle-trial or call 0800 138 0880. 

The Trust is also recruiting to several 

other treatment and observational 

studies. The RECOVERY trial is looking 

at a range of drug treatment options for 

patients who are admitted to hospital 

with COVID-19. It is a rapidly changing 

study so that it can assess a range of 

treatments quickly. 

REMAP-CAP is a drug trial for patients 

who are more poorly and requiring 

critical care. It is a complex treatment 

trial looking at lots of types of 

treatments simultaneously. ATOMIC2 

is due to open shortly and will be 

recruiting patients who attend the 

hospital but do not require admission. 

Several other studies and registries are 

collecting data and samples to improve 

the understanding of the genetics 

of COVID-19 and how it impacts on 

patients. 

As the research portfolio is such a 

rapidly changing, R&D has created 

a special Connect page so that Trust 

staff can be kept informed of our 

current COVID research. https:// 

connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/researchand-development/covid-19-clinicalresearch/. 

There is also information on our 

external webpages - https://www. 

swbh.nhs.uk/services/research-anddevelopment/. 

3

Looking after our mental health 

COVID-19 

Colleagues will be trained up to lend 

a helping hand and support mental 

wellbeing across our Trust 

Our organisation is focussed on 

supporting colleagues through 

the COVID-19 pandemic and postpandemic 

recovery and has a wide 

range of wellbeing support in 

place. Part of this is about training 

volunteers to support colleagues 

through the impact that COVID-19 

may have on them. 

Colleagues may feel they ‘should be 

able to cope’ or ‘it is part of my role’, 

however, traumatic events or situations 

can give rise to feelings such as guilt, 

stress or reduction in our resilience which 

can impact on our wellbeing. Therefore, 

the Trust is partnering with a company called 

March on Stress –they have experience 

supporting individuals in dealing with the 

impact of traumatic and significant events - to 

develop and equip volunteer colleagues to 

undertake support roles. 

The training is starting with those in high 

intensity frontline clinical departments and will 

progress over coming months to ensure each 

frontline department, and others, have one or 

two colleagues trained. 

The roles are: 

Level 1 supervisor: This is a really important 

role focussed on identifying and supporting 

colleagues at an early stage – this could 

involve debriefing at the end of a shift or 

having a short supportive conversation 

and where appropriate, ‘opening the door’ 

to further services that may help. All line 

managers of people will be undertaking this 

training but you don’t have to be a manager 

to do so – these conversations can happen 

with colleagues at any level and in any role. 

Look out for details on how to join this 

training via the daily communications bulletin. 

Level 2 REACT plus practitioner: Similar to 

mental health first aid this role involves more 

in depth conversations with colleagues and 

may follow on from a referral via the Level 1 

supervisor role or self-referral. This may be 

Let’s help you look after you 

sufficient to help individuals, however the 

REACT plus practitioner may, in agreement 

with the individual, refer to a further 

support service. In the next few months 

there will be over 100 people from a variety 

of roles and professions, trained across the 

organisation, and you will know who your 

local contact person is via posters in your 

area (due to go up over the next few weeks) 

or you can contact a trained practitioner via 

the wellbeing hub. 

Level 3 TriM practitioner: This is training 

in a trauma focussed peer support process 

designed to help people who have 

experienced a traumatic or potentially 

traumatic event and may follow on from 

a referral from a REACT plus practitioner 

or self-referral. The conversation focuses 

on a traumatic incident or compounded 

traumatic incidents – i.e. a build-up of 

similar incidents over time. 

Few of us can predict how we will react 

to current events and their legacy and 

we believe it is important to ensure 

there is a strong network of local 

support that all colleagues can access. 

Please look out for further information 

via the daily communications bulletin 

and in your local work area over 

coming weeks. 

Dealing with the pandemic has put 

a toll on many of us, working longer 

hours, having feelings of anxiety and 

even fear. 

It is therefore now, more important than 

ever, to look after your own health and 

wellbeing. A range of resources and 

support are on offer for all colleagues 

including 24/7 access to confidential 

counsellors including a wealth of support 

and information on the dedicated 

Connect pages. 

The Trust has also turned the building 

which hosted the live and works team 

into a wellbeing sanctuary. It is open and 

available to you five days a week offering 

a range of services including massages, 

meditation, mindfulness and hypnosis. 

We caught up with Lawrence Kelly, 

Learning Works Co-ordinator who told us 

the sanctuary was developed in response 

to the pandemic. 

He said: “None of us have ever 

experienced working in a pandemic. The 

stress COVID-19 has placed on colleagues 

has been immense, and as a team we 

realised we needed to provide a service 

where colleagues could come and get away 

from everything even for half an hour. 

“The wellbeing sanctuary is a place where 

colleagues can share their stories and off 

load about their anxieties and fears. We have 

decorated the rooms to have the effect of 

calmness, with candles and relaxing music.” 

A ward services officer who has been visiting 

the wellbeing sanctuary on a regular basis told 

us. “I have been off work with anxiety and 

the help I am getting here is really helping me 

to get my mind ready so I am able to return 

to work. The colleagues here are wonderful, I 

would definitely recommend it.” 

A staff nurse added: “I have recently recovered 

from COVID-19 and have returned to work. 

I have visited the Wellbeing Sanctuary twice 

so far and I am finding it very beneficial in my 

role. The meditation and therapy relaxation 

massage is very good. It is very helpful in 

dealing with anxiety.” 

The wellbeing sanctuary currently sees up to 15 

colleagues a day. The team have extended the 

service to include colleagues from primary care 

and care homes. 

The first time you visit the sanctuary you are 

asked to complete a short questionnaire 

based on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental 

Wellbeing Scales which assesses your mental 

wellbeing. The assessment is reviewed at 

each visit to track progress. 

The wellbeing sanctuary is based at the 

Learning Works, Unett Street, Smethwick, 

B66 3SY. Daily sanctuary sessions include: 

• Deep Relaxation and Breathing 

through Soundscape - Travel from the 

peaks of the Himalayas to the depth of 

the oceans of Bali relaxing in a 

harmonious tranquillity. 

• Music Therapy - A time to find inner 

stillness through the tranquillity of 

relaxing sound vibrations. 

• Restorative Clinical Supervision 

(Health and Wellbeing Lead) - A 

safe and confidential space to explore 

the impact of work pressures. 

• Unwind with Mindfulness - Breath 

and relax. Enjoy the session of being 

present and the power of connection 

and self-kindness. 

To book an appointment contact the team 

on 0121 507 5886. More information can 

be found on Connect. 

4

Visionable – The future of 

outpatient consultations 

When improvements in technology now 

allow you to stream ultra HD video to 

your mobile phone wherever you are 

and, video conferencing with friends 

and family has become second nature, 

it’s time we put this technology to use 

and improve the care we provide to our 

patients. This is where Visionable steps 

forward and fills a long-standing gap. 

Visionable is our solution to the 

longstanding problem of having patients 

come in to outpatient clinics for a simple 

consultation, something that often only 

consists of a review of test results and 

a conversation. We ask patients to take 

time out of their busy lives, book time 

off work, leave school and journey into 

our hospitals where they then pay for the 

privilege to park when the simple straight 

forward solution would be to hold a virtual 

consultation. 

Visionable allows our clinical colleagues 

to develop virtual clinics, where patients 

can join them by video and discuss their 

care using just their mobile phone. One of 

the first clinicians to take up the challenge 

of offering virtual clinics was Consultant 

Paediatrician, Nick Makwana. Sharing 

his thoughts on the system, he said, 

Dr Nick Makwana using Visionable to 

hold a virtual consultation 

“Visionable is the future of outpatient 

consultations in specific settings. We have 

been looking for a solution to this problem 

for a long time and, although COVID-19 

hasn’t been the best of situations, it has 

helped us look at the ways we provide care 

in a much more innovative way. 

“Whilst the threat of COVID-19 remains, 

COVID-19 

patients are understandably hesitant to 

come to the hospital. This system lets 

us deliver their care to them, where 

they are, where they feel comfortable 

and relaxed and, most importantly, it’s 

allowed us to continue providing care 

to patients who are self-isolating. It will 

also allow us to move forward with our 

quality plan to prevent children missing 

time off school and essential education." 

He added: "Visionable is very easy to 

use. Once you’ve got your desk set up 

with an extra monitor and you have 

familiarised yourself with the workflow, 

it does just become second nature. 

The system is mutually beneficial to 

our clinical colleagues and patients as 

critically it allows us to practice social 

distancing where this would be difficult 

in a small consulting room.” 

If you would like to find out 

more about the system or to 

register for an account, contact 

Mark Whitehouse on email: 

markwhitehouse@nhs.net. 

Dermatology’s flexible working to 

maintain cancer service 

Services across our organisation have 

had to be rethought as we take on the 

needs of patients while reacting to the 

scientific evidence of COVID-19, the 

guidance of Public Health England and 

the government. For some services, this 

has meant ‘upping sticks’ and relocating 

at short notice, yet despite all of this 

these services continue. One example 

of success comes from our dermatology 

skin cancer service. 

Cancer, specifically maintaining the 

treatment of cancer, has become a hot 

topic in the press. We are continuing to 

provide services for two-week wait referrals 

– both for diagnosis and the treatment of 

cancer, with some cases being carried out 

at different sites, including in local private 

hospitals. GPs have been given updated 

guidance to ensure patients have access 

to clinic or telephone reviews and onward 

investigations as appropriate. 

To do this the dermatology team had to “reimagine” 

the skin cancer service and moved 

much of it off-site to the Westbourne clinic, a 

move they accomplished within the space of 

a week. 

The team are working in a somewhat unusual 

situation. Anne Rutland, Skin Cancer CNS for 

the Birmingham Skin Centre explained: “A 

patient visited Westbourne Clinic, to assess 

if a lesion on his foot needed surgery and to 

identify if there was skin cancer present. 

“The area was assessed by Dr Thomson and 

our plastic surgeon, Mr Salahuddin who 

agreed that the surgery needed to happen. As 

there was a cancellation on his surgical list, he 

could do the procedure immediately and the 

patient consented. So whilst the clinician, Dr 

Thomson was documenting the assessment 

on Unity, Mr Salahuddin and his team were 

able to perform the biopsy. 

“This rolling treatment by practitioners 

effectively turned dermatology into a 

one-stop-shop. It reduced the need for 

the patient, who had reduced mobility, 

to re-attend the department and expose 

himself to risk. The patient was happy 

to participate in the procedure and left 

the clinic relieved that his treatment has 

started.” 

A helpline for patients and carers or 

organisations with any questions they 

may have around their cancer diagnosis 

and the coronavirus has been set up. 

The number, for non-urgent enquiries, 

is 0121 507 3817 and is available from 

10am until 2pm. 

Cancer patients who are undergoing 

chemotherapy treatment and have 

queries can call their treatment unit. 

Alternatively, they can contact the 

24-hour emergency hospital helpline 

for the acute oncology service on 

07976 499140. 

5

#SWBCleanHands 

COVID-19 

May 2020 saw the launch of our very 

own handwashing week. Launched 

by Chief Executive, Toby Lewis, in 

his weekly Friday blog he urged 

colleagues to get on board with our 

mission to make handwashing an 

intrinsic part of our commitment to 

doing the right thing for ourselves 

and the patients in our care. 

Throughout the week we heard from 

colleagues’ right across our Trust who 

shared their views on why handwashing 

is so important. Everyone had something 

different to say, but one thing they 

all agreed on was that handwashing 

is essential in our quest to quash 

COVID-19. 

Ward Services Officer, Julie Hopkins, 

told us: “Washing your hands is very 

important in controlling the spread of 

infections. It only takes a moment but 

has a massive impact. Scrub your hands 

for 20 seconds and, you will be helping 

stop the spread of germs, viruses and 

bacteria. We should all play our part in 

protecting patients.” 

Anna Thorne, Catering Assistant from 

Hallam Restaurant, reminded colleagues 

that washing your hands isn’t just 

important in frontline healthcare. She 

commented: “You have to remember 

to wash your hands as often as possible 

when you are on your breaks, getting 

a coffee and stopping for lunch. 

Handwashing is critical in stopping the 

spread of infections.” 

Andy Farrington, from our third 

line support IT support team, told 

us how Informatics supported our 

#SWBCleanhands campaign. He 

said: “As a team, we interact with 

lots of different people every day, 

so it’s important for us to follow the 

handwashing guidelines set out by the 

Trust. We wash our hands regularly and 

ask all visitors to do the same too. We 

have signs next to our entrances and, 

we have set out markers on the floor to 

ensure everyone is socially distancing.” 

Anna Thorne, Catering Assistant from Hallam Restaurant 

As a reminder, you should wash your hands: 

• After using the toilet or changing a nappy. 

• Before and after handling raw foods like meat and vegetables. 

• Before eating or handling food. 

• After blowing your nose, sneezing or coughing. 

• Before and after treating a cut or wound. 

• After touching animals, including pets, their food and after cleaning 

their cages. 

Handwashing facts and stats! 

• On average, you come into contact with 300 surfaces every 30 minutes. 

• Many people only wash their hands for 6 seconds, not the 20 seconds 

everyone is being asked to. 

• Around 33 per cent of people don't use soap when washing their hands. 

6

Virtual recharge booth launched to 

support wellbeing 

May saw the launch of our exciting 

new recharge booth which makes up 

part of the welearn programme. 

Spearheaded by Claire Hubbard, Deputy 

Director of Governance, Knowledge 

and Learning and Richard Burnell, 

Organisational Development Specialist 

Trainer and Employee of the Year 2019, the 

booth aims to unite colleagues. 

“The recharge booth is a weekly virtual 

space that allows you to come together 

with others and share stories and 

experiences,” said Claire. “It will allow 

people to reflect, recharge and decompress 

whilst having a safe, and more importantly 

for us, a confidential discussion.” 

Sessions will last 20-30 minutes and will be 

hosted by Richard. The main objective of 

these sessions will be to focus on feelings 

and emotions that colleagues experience 

during their working day rather than just 

trying to find solutions. 

Richard believes the recharge booth 

will prove hugely beneficial, especially 

during these challenging times. “Many 

people’s emotions will be understandably 

heightened due to the COVID-19 pandemic 

Are you free at 3? 

The 

Recharge 

Booth 

contemplation, conversation, compassion : stand together 

so we must support colleagues through these 

difficult times. 

“We hope that the recharge booth will help 

staff feel better on both a mental and physical 

level which, in turn, will boost their health and 

wellbeing overall. It will also help to develop 

resilience inside and outside of work. If the 

recharge booth helps even one colleague, it 

will have been worthwhile in my opinion.” 

The recharge booth opened virtually on 

Thursday, 14 May. The sessions are now 

running every Thursday. If you would like to 

take part in a recharge booth session, please 

email swbh.rechargebooth@nhs.net. A WebEx 

invite will be sent to your outlook diary and 

you will need to click on the ‘join’ button to 

enter. For more information, please contact 

Richard Burnell on 07747 144874 or Claire 

Hubbard on 07866 004575. 

COVID-19 

Richard Burnell, Organisational 

Development Specialist Trainer facilitates 

sessions 

With life moving at what can 

sometimes feel like the speed of 

lightning, it’s essential to take time 

out. Now, more than ever, we all 

need to find time to relax, reflect and 

recharge our batteries to help maintain 

our physical and mental wellbeing. 

Recognising this, Charlie Ammerlaan, 

Serenity Midwife and Professional 

Midwifery Advocate has set up 3@3 

sessions. 

3@3 sessions have been designed by 

Charlie to allow midwifery and medical 

teams to come together at 3pm for three 

minutes. Anyone is welcome to take part in 

the meetings that are designed to promote 

mindfulness through guided meditation. 

Charlie explained: “Our minds can 

sometimes be so occupied with worrying 

about things that it can sometimes be 

difficult to see the woods for the trees. 

We use 3@3 to meditate, not to be 

professionals, mothers or relatives, but to 

just be. I lead the sessions and colleagues 

are invited to sit and let their minds stop for 

a moment. The purpose of these sessions 

Midwives, doctors, support workers, students 

and domestic colleagues’ taking part in a 

guided 3@3 meditation session 

is to give the mind a break and to allow 

everyone to take three minutes to just 

breathe.” 

Sessions take place at least five times a 

week and are open to colleagues that work 

evening shifts. This is important to Charlie 

as she wants sessions to be as inclusive as 

possible. She told us: “Research has shown 

that by just taking as little as three minutes 

there are significant changes to blood 

pressure, heart rate and neural patterns. I 

work a mixture of patterns which means 

colleagues that work in the evenings can 

also benefit from practising mindfulness 

techniques.” 

Rosie Day, Midwife has been attending the 

sessions and told us: “3@3 helps to ground 

you during a busy shift. At the end of three 

minutes, you can visibly see and sense some 

stress has been lifted from colleagues. I like 

that everyone participates regardless of their 

job roles. It gives a real sense of unity to 

meditate together.” 

3@3 also feeds into Charlie’s role as a 

Professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA). She 

revealed: “The PMA supports midwives in 

their clinical practice, to provide restorative 

clinical supervision; advocacy and support 

quality improvement activities and 

education. 

“I invite open conversations, either 

individually or as a group. The purpose of 

the restorative sessions is to provide a safe 

environment for colleagues’ to explore their 

thoughts and feelings. It's a completely 

confidential service - anyone can speak to 

me in my capacity as a PMA.” 

7

Winged sculpture pays tribute to 

health and social care 'angels' 

COVID-19 

A four-metre tall sculpture of a 

winged medical worker is paying 

tribute to NHS and social care 

‘angels’ on the frontline in the fight 

against COVID-19. 

Black Country sculptor Luke Perry, has 

created the angelic figure from steel and 

other metals in his factory in Cradley 

Heath and he has worked with Sandwell 

Council to install it at Lightwoods Park in 

Bearwood. 

The sculpture is located on a key 

commuter route used by many hospital 

and care workers travelling to and from 

Birmingham and the Black Country. The 

temporary installation, called Wings and 

Scrubs, bears the inscription ‘Thank you 

NHS and Care Workers’. The sculpture 

is a private donation and has not been 

funded by any public money. 

Luke’s long friendship with Oscar Nolan 

– a paediatric heart consultant at the 

Birmingham Children’s Hospital – and his 

recent conversations with Oscar about those 

working for the NHS was the inspiration for 

the sculpture. Luke said: “Like everyone, I have 

family members who owe their lives to the NHS. 

I wanted to create a piece of public art that 

captures the huge public outpouring of thanks 

to our health and care workers at this time. 

“It is also a monument to all those who have 

lost their lives on the frontline fighting the virus 

and a reminder of how important the NHS 

is. This is a marker to all our key workers and 

everyone fighting this ‘war’ and acknowledges 

their commitment and sacrifices. I wanted the 

figure to have wings to symbolise the angelic 

quality of our health and care workers. 

He added: “I would like to thank Sandwell 

Council for helping to find an ideal location 

for the sculpture. Lightwoods Park is perfect 

as many health and care workers travel along 

the Hagley Road to and from hospitals 

in Birmingham and on their way to their 

caring roles. I hope they will see it and 

know that their inspirational work is so 

highly valued by us all.” 

Councillor, Yvonne Davies, Leader of 

Sandwell Council and Chair of the Sandwell 

Health & Wellbeing Board, said: “This is a 

wonderful, visual symbol of the gratitude 

we all feel towards our NHS and care 

workers and, I would like to thank Luke 

Perry for creating this inspirational piece of 

public art. 

“We know this is a very challenging time 

for our health and social care workers. We 

hope that when they see this sculpture at 

Lightwoods Park, it will be a reminder of 

how much they all mean to us and that 

we all appreciate the amazing job they 

are doing. The bravery and selflessness of 

our NHS and care workers – as well as the 

service of all key workers – is an inspiration 

to everyone.” 

Luke Perry, sculptor pictured with his winged angel creation 

8

Terry talks about COVID-19 

experience to BBC 

COVID-19 

Charge Nurse Terry Ma 

Charge Nurse, Terry Ma came under 

the spotlight when he shared his 

experience of COVID-19 with the BBC. 

Terry who works in City Hospital’s 

emergency department, was off work 

for six weeks as he battled the virus. 

He was interviewed by journalist Sian Lloyd, 

Charge Nurse, Terry Ma, with colleagues Anna 

McManus, HCA and Senior Sister, Amy Roberts 

about his experience and featured on News 

at Ten and BBC Online, with footage of him 

at work filmed by the Trust’s communications 

team. 

He said: “I was scared. Because I heard so 

much in the news about the virus before I got 

ill, it was scary. It doesn’t matter how healthy 

you are, some people can get over it 

easily, but some people may die because 

of the virus. So at the time, I was really 

scared.” 

He also shared how he feels wearing full 

PPE whilst working on a red ward, within 

ED: “I feel very hot and restricted, but 

the reason I am wearing full PPE is to 

protect myself, my colleagues and also 

the patients around me.” 

Patient Mohammed Rashid, who was 

also featured during filming after being 

treated in ED for COVID-19 symptoms, 

said: “I can’t thank the staff enough. 

They witness stuff that we can’t even 

imagine every single day, but they still 

work through it, and they’re smiling, 

they’re positive. It is incredible, they are 

heroes.” 

Doctor reveals how his mum spotted 

COVID-19 from 6,000 miles away 

Colleague Dr Kun Hu, has revealed how 

his mum saved his life 6,000 miles away 

- by spotting he needed urgent hospital 

help as his coronavirus symptoms 

worsened. 

Dr Hu, a paediatric registrar at Sandwell 

Hospital, who has very mild asthma, had 

been battling the deadly virus from his 

home in early March before the true extent 

of condition was known in the UK. 

But his mum, Qing, a retired public health 

doctor and scientist, who lives in Singapore, 

kept a daily check on her son who was 

living on his own. It meant that as his 

condition deteriorated she was able to alert 

him to seek help. 

Dr Hu said: “My mum saved my life. My 

symptoms started with a fever of 39.2C, 

muscle aches, chest tightness, headache 

and fatigue. I didn’t have a cough. My 

friends were dropping off food for me 

on the doorstep whilst I self-isolated, but 

I didn’t have anyone at home to keep a 

constant eye on me. What I initially thought 

was a normal viral illness was just not 

getting any better. 

“Luckily my parents were keeping in touch 

with me and my mum, in particular, was 

on top of the situation. She would call 

me every four-six hours, and over the first 

Dr Kun Hu with his mum Qing 

week, she could hear that I wasn’t improving. 

She noticed that I was becoming breathless 

just talking to her, and on top of all the other 

persistent symptoms, she ordered me to seek 

medical attention. 

“I think it was really important that I had that 

contact as I did not realise I was becoming 

seriously unwell. I was trying to rationalise and 

minimise my symptoms, but in fact, I had lost 

objectivity.” 

Dr Hu was sleeping downstairs on his sofa for 

up to 20 hours a day and he was unable to 

climb the stairs without being out of breath. 

On his mum’s advice, he called 111, then his 

GP and then 999. He was taken by ambulance 

to Heartlands Hospital where he spent 11 

days being cared for. 

“I was treated for severe COVID-19 viral 

pneumonia in both lungs as well as liver 

dysfunction. The majority of my stay 

was on the infectious diseases ward,” 

he explained. “My temperature spiked 

at 40.5 degrees every day for 13 days. 

I required oxygen therapy for 14 days, 

and I needed oral morphine for the 

pain when I breathed in. Eventually, I 

started to recover after two weeks. I had 

fantastic care from all the staff on the 

ward - from the medics, nurses, health 

care assistants, and housekeeping staff, 

as well as the support of all my family, 

friends and work colleagues. 

“Whilst I was in the hospital, my parents 

flew back to the UK, and it made a 

difference knowing they were closer 

by.” Dr Hu has been recovering back at 

home since the end of March. He can 

now walk up the stairs without getting 

breathless, but still feels ongoing fatigue 

and reduced exercise tolerance. He has 

recently started phased return to work at 

Sandwell Hospital. 

“At the time when I had the symptoms, 

there weren’t a lot of cases or 

information on what to look for at all 

in the UK. I feel very lucky that I have 

overcome the virus, and I know that 

seeking early hospital help was the best 

thing that I could have done.” 

9

Come on Aileen! Priory 5 nurse beats 

COVID-19 after hard fight 

COVID-19 

As colleagues are well aware, it 

is not just the public at large that 

are at risk from the coronavirus 

pandemic. Many NHS workers across 

the country, as well as our peers and 

cohorts overseas, have also been 

at risk, and a number have sadly 

passed away. 

Happily today we can share a positive 

story from one of our own who has 

thankfully fought off the virus - Aileen 

Dela Cruz, a familiar face to those on 

Priory 5 at Sandwell Hospital. Aileen, 

a staff nurse, has spent the last 19 

years helping at the hospital. Although 

she recently found herself staying at 

the hospital for a lot longer than she 

expected. 

With Aileen thankfully recovering 

at home, Heartbeat spoke to her 

husband John, himself a worker at the 

Trust, about her treatment. "It was an 

extremely tough time," he told us. "But 

one made easier for all the hard work, 

effort and kindness shown by staff 

across the hospital." 

Aileen first became symptomatic on 

26 March, immediately self-isolating 

following the Trust and national 

Aileen Dela Cruz, Staff Nurse 

guidance. However, after twelve days she 

developed shortness of breath and with 

her condition deteriorating John called an 

ambulance. 

“It was very worrying, all of it was. The 

ambulance came along and quickly got her 

into A&E, she ended up in AMU for four 

days, and despite everyone’s efforts she 

deteriorated further. She was moved into 

the intensive treatment unit (ITU) on 12 

April where she was incubated for eleven 

days. 

“We almost lost her. Very nearly lost her,” 

admitted John, with difficulty. “The team 

never gave up, and she never gave up. I 

knew everyone was doing their very best to 

save her.” 

Despite being a Trust worker, John could 

not visit Aileen during this time which he 

admits was hard. “Concentrating on my job 

would have been impossible; to not be able 

to go in was very tough to accept. But I’m 

extremely grateful to all those who treated 

her including Eileen the ward manager and 

Stacey Collins – consultant, Emma Leno too, 

the nurses. They were all so compassionate; 

they all went the extra mile.” 

“I’m also particularly thankful to our Chief 

Nurse, Paula Gardner. Paula rang me, 

checked how I was doing and asked if I 

needed any support. She told me I could 

get in contact with her if I needed and 

checked on Aileen when she visited the ITU. 

I’m very grateful to her and everyone." 

Discharged from hospital on 26 April, 

Aileen is still recovering from the effects of 

coronavirus as well as the arterial collapse 

she sustained on her left hand. She 

continues to receive support from Sandwell, 

although now from the therapies team. 

“Thank you, everyone, for all your messages 

and your prayers for Aileen during this time. 

It has meant a great deal to us both.” 

We at Heartbeat look forward to seeing 

Aileen back at Sandwell when she has 

recovered. 

Doctor donates plasma to help blast 

COVID-19 

After recovering from COVID-19, Dr 

Zahid Sarfraz, one of our A&E doctors 

at Sandwell Hospital, has donated 

his plasma to help in the quest to 

develop a potential treatment to try 

and overcome the illness. 

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) 

are leading a programme to collect 

convalescent plasma from people 

who have recovered from COVID-19 

to support a national clinical trial. The 

trial will investigate whether plasma 

transfusions could improve a COVID-19 

patient’s speed of recovery and chances 

of survival. 

Convalescent plasma is taken from 

people who have recovered from an 

infection. Recovered patients’ plasma 

may contain antibodies that their 

immune systems have produced in 

fighting the virus. That plasma can be 

Dr Sarfraz pictured having donated his plasma 

transfused to patients whose immune systems 

are struggling to develop their own antibodies. 

Although there is some evidence of patient 

benefit from the use of convalescent plasma, 

the safety and effectiveness of convalescent 

plasma transfusions needs to be confirmed by 

a robust clinical trial. 

Speaking of his experience, Dr Sarfraz 

told us: “Initially I had a headache and 

aches, later I developed a high fever and 

sore throat. The week spent sick in bed in 

isolation was tough. Luckily, I recovered and, 

I am back working alongside my colleagues 

to try and overcome this virus that has 

impacted so many people.” 

He added: “Everybody has been playing 

their part. I am hoping that by donating 

plasma I can help too, plus it’s easy to 

donate. NHSBT primarily contact potential 

convalescent plasma donors directly. It 

is important that potential donors have 

recovered and that they have had time to 

develop a good antibody response. If people 

have a confirmed positive test result and 

they are willing to donate, they can also 

provide details via a form on the NHSBT 

website at www.nhsbt.nhs.uk.” 

10

It’s no ‘SWAB’ – spotlight on 

COVID-19 community testing 

Testing has always been at the 

forefront of our response to the 

COVID-19 pandemic, and we have been 

pivotal in achieving some success on 

this since the virus took hold. 

We expanded our drive through swab test 

centre service in early April at Sandwell 

Hospital to accommodate council 

colleagues. Chief Executive, Toby Lewis, 

explained: "Testing local people who are 

staff of the NHS or local authority, or key 

workers in care homes, is going to be vital 

in the next few weeks. 

"It is important everyone locally continues 

to stay home as much as they can to save 

lives, and meanwhile those whose job is 

needed to tackle COVID-19 are protected 

too. We are working closely with the 

council to make sure we maximise our joint 

ability to help care staff from all sectors with 

swab tests both at the general hospital and 

in community locations. This service is also 

supporting social workers and care workers 

from Sandwell Metropolitan Borough 

Council.” 

The initiative was welcomed by Sandwell 

Testing of council colleagues is now underway 

at our Trust 

Council leader, Yvonne Davies, who said: "The 

council is pleased to see that testing is getting 

underway. We hope that this will support 

efforts to respond effectively to the challenges 

ahead." 

Meanwhile, bus drivers and train conductors 

are being swabbed for coronavirus at Midland 

Met testing site, due to a deal between 

the Trust and Transport for West Midlands 

(TfWM). Frontline transport workers who 

fear they have COVID-19 or have come into 

contact with someone who has it will be 

offered tests. 

Procurement delivers 

on PPE challenge 

COVID-19 

Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy 

Street said: “Key workers across the 

West Midlands are risking their lives day 

after day to protect us, and we need to 

do everything we can to keep them safe. 

“I hope this gives reassurance to both 

transport staff and the key workers still 

relying on public transport to get to and 

from work. I want to personally thank 

Toby and his team for helping to make 

this happen.” 

Toby added: “Transport workers provide 

vital public services, supporting key 

workers getting to and from work 

which is why I’m delighted that the 

new regional testing centre on the 

grounds of the Midland Metropolitan 

University Hospital site, is providing this 

essential testing. The drive-thru facility 

is also providing tests for social care, 

community healthcare and mental health 

colleagues, a critical part of our fight 

against COVID-19.” 

When COVID-19 struck and hospitals 

across the country began frantically 

scrambling for gloves, gowns and 

masks, the procurement team at our 

Trust were hard at work phoning 

suppliers and building their own supply 

chain to ensure we could continue 

protecting our patients and staff. 

Whilst our Trust often holds local stocks of 

common Personal Protective Equipment 

(PPE), the unprecedented scale and impact 

of COVID-19 brought with it challenges that 

had never been imagined, but nevertheless 

challenges that were wholeheartedly taken 

on by the procurement team. 

With the disastrous thought of ‘what if we 

run out?’ running through their minds, the 

team quickly took on the task not simply of 

sourcing the vital protective equipment but 

also the task of ensuring it went to the right 

departments. 

To find out more about the procurement 

response to COVID-19, Heartbeat caught 

up with Chief Finance Officer and interim 

‘Tsar of PPE’ Dinah McLannahan. She said: 

“COVID-19 is an incredibly challenging virus 

for our clinical teams to manage. We knew 

that the only way to keep them safe was 

to ensure that we had adequate supplies of 

equipment and PPE for them to be able to 

focus on their job of keeping patients safe 

and well. Stocks of PPE unfortunately very 

quickly became scarce, not just locally or 

nationally, but internationally, so our teams 

had to work very hard to make sure they 

scoured every one of our suppliers to keep 

stocks coming in. 

“Alongside the issue of ensuring an 

uninterrupted supply of PPE, the team also 

worked to develop a dashboard which 

allowed us to not only map the current usage 

rates of critical PPE but also to forecast usage 

against our deliveries. 

"The ever-changing supply chain also brought 

with it the challenges of aligning the needs 

of our staff with the supply of equipment. 

One of the critical elements of PPE is 

the assurance that it works as intended. 

With masks, this is determined by fit 

testing where staff wear a mask and a 

machine is used to check the seal and 

ensure it is doing its job. When particular 

masks became short in supply, our teams 

went ahead and supported additional 

fit testing sessions so that staff could go 

to work, safe in the knowledge that the 

equipment they had was keeping them 

safe from COVID-19." 

Dinah added: "The procurement teams 

have done an amazing job to keep 

this critical piece of our COVID-19 

infrastructure going. We've had some 

close calls, but through their hard work, 

we’ve managed to keep everything 

going. Thank you to not only the guys 

in the procurement offices but also all 

of our colleagues who have been out 

on the ground managing the stock and 

supporting the distribution across our 

organisation.” 

11

Tip of the week helps to optimise Unity 

CORPORATE AND GENERAL 

NEWS 

We may have launched Unity last 

October, but for the past few months, 

we have focused on optimisation in the 

form of our Unity Tip of the Week 

Since Unity go-live seven months ago, 

the electronic patient record (EPR) has 

revolutionised the way the majority of our 

clinical colleagues work across our Trust. 

However, we found many end-users were 

not utilising all of the benefits of Unity 

which is where the Tip of the Week concept 

originated from. 

“Unity can be simple to use, but the 

challenge is to enter structured data, such 

as medications, in the correct location to 

get the full benefits from the system,” said 

Ash Sharma, Chief Clinical Information 

Officer. “With this in mind, we came up 

with a method to allow colleagues to share 

their learning from our EPR.” 

Unity Tip of the Week allows users to share 

quick wins or top tips they have for using 

Unity in their ward, area or department 

which enhances the user experience for all. 

“Over the past couple of months we have 

been receiving numerous fantastic tips 

from the labelling of blood bottles to easier 

ways of accessing GP records in Unity," 

said Leong Lee, Consultant Interventional 

Cardiologist and Clinical Safety Officer. 

“All of the tips so far have made a massive 

difference to the user experience. They have 

resulted in staff being able to complete 

processes faster whilst learning better and 

more efficient ways of working. 

Tip of the Week is really helping users optimise Unity 

“Since we introduced this initiative in March 

optimisation of Unity has become clearer 

allowing us to make the most effective 

use of our EPR. This has benefitted us 

enormously in the current situation with 

helping clinicians have virtual consultations, 

for instance.” 

Though Unity Tip of the Week has been an 

initial triumph, Leong wants to maintain 

the success of the project and is urging 

everyone to continue submitting their tips. 

“Colleagues are reaping the rewards of 

our EPR, but we believe there are many 

more opportunities for us to optimise 

Unity, which is where we need your help. 

I’m encouraging colleagues at all levels 

across the Trust to suggest any tips. All 

suggestions are welcome, no matter the 

size or complexity!” 

Some of previous tips of the week 

include: 

“Double clicking on the UNITY 

Banner Bar RXK number (or 

any other demographic) will 

automatically copy this allowing you 

to paste information with ease into 

other programs.” 

“Stick labels onto blood bottles 

vertically and NOT horizontally. This 

allows for easier barcode scanning.” 

“You can view patients’ previous 

resuscitation status on the Related 

Results window in Request/Care 

Plans.” 

If you would like to submit a Unity 

Tip of the Week please email swbh. 

unitytips@nhs.net. The best suggestions 

will be featured in our Unity Tip of the 

Week every Wednesday on Connect as 

well as the Trust’s dedicated mobile app, 

myConnect. 

“Treat transfers to community wards 

(e.g. Rowley, Sheldon and Leasowes) 

as transfers and not discharges. Do 

not finalise GP letters.” 

“Check your patient’s COVID-19 

status on the banner bar and use 

the RECOVERY Power Plan when 

recruiting COVID-19 patients into 

the trial.” 

12

Live and Work Programme highly 

commended nationally 

Congratulations to the live and work 

team for being highly commended by 

the NHS Sustainability Awards. 

The team were recognised for the 

programme developed with St Basils (a 

homelessness prevention charity) which 

provides apprenticeship opportunities and 

living accommodation within our workplace 

to young people (aged 16 - 24) who are 

homeless or at risk of homelessness. It was 

designed to break down barriers and build 

bridges with young people within the local 

community, enabling them to benefit from 

the additional support the package offers. 

Olufemi Kuforiji (Femi), Widening 

Participation Project Support Officer 

told Heartbeat: “We were absolutely 

thrilled to be recognised in this way. 

This commendation demonstrates the 

commitment of everyone involved in the 

programme especially the young people 

themselves. 

“We are currently supporting 21 young 

people undertaking apprenticeships in our 

workplace. Their roles include customer 

service, healthcare assistant and admin. 

They are all excelling in their roles and on 

The live and work team are helping young 

people achieve their potential (photo taken prior 

to social distancing guidance) 

their way to securing permanent positions in 

the organisation.” 

Lawrence Kelly, Widening Participation 

Project Lead explained how the programme 

is an essential part of the support we deliver 

towards our commitments to integrated care 

in our community. 

He said: “The success of the programme has 

enabled us to engage with other employers 

and community networks such as local 

construction, Balfour Beatty and Vinci along 

BTC – A beacon for recovery 


NEWS 

with local authorities and probation 

services. 

“With the EU exit creating uncertainty 

over the possibility of recruiting health 

professionals from abroad, ensuring 

a flow of new talent into the NHS is 

ever more important and the Live & 

Work NHS Apprenticeship Programme 

has been very instrumental in the 

development and recruitment of young 

people despite the challenges.” 

The Live and Work Programme is a 

unique programme offering safe and 

affordable accommodation, access to 

professional development and support 

into a career for vulnerable young 

people. The funding and support 

structure make it possible for young 

people to live and work without 

recourse to welfare benefits during 

their 12 or 15 month apprenticeship. 

The Birmingham Treatment Centre 

(BTC) has become a shining beacon 

of recovery as our Trust moves into 

the next stage of our COVID-19 

management plans. Through all of 

the trials and tribulations of COVID-19 

and the overwhelming changes to 

our services, inevitably our outpatient 

services were one of the first areas to 

feel the effects of the virus as services 

moved online and colleagues were 

redeployed to critical services. 

Now that COVID-19 infection numbers are 

down, earlier this month saw the BTC reopen 

for business, supporting patients who need 

to attend for face to face consultations and 

procedures to be able to do so safely and 

effectively. 

Whilst the threat of a second surge of 

COVID-19 still looms, colleagues have been 

hard at work putting in safety measures at 

the BTC to ensure patients who attend are 

kept safe and well. From simple markings 

on the ground to illustrate social distancing, 

additional screening in clinic areas and 

improved cleanliness regimes, patients’ health 

and wellbeing has been at the forefront of 

developments. 

The recovery has started at the BTC 

As services such as phlebotomy, imaging, 

cardiology, neurophysiology, SCAT and surgery 

begin to ramp up their support, so too have 

patient numbers as word travels about the 

lengths our Trust is taking to safeguard their 

health. 

Sharing her thoughts on the reopening of 

outpatient services, Chief Nurse, Paula Gardner, 

said: “Whilst COVID-19 has been an immense 

challenge for our inpatient teams, we must not 

forget about all of the patients who rely on our 

outpatient services as their lifeline. We know 

that although many of our services can continue 

remotely through video conferencing, 

many patients need to come and see their 

consultant or nurse face to face and the 

work that has been going on at the BTC 

sets the standard for that. 

“Simple things like ensuring patients gel 

their hands on entry and replace their 

masks for fresh ones means that we can 

limit the spread of the virus and protect 

our patients and staff. This area must 

remain COVID-19 free so that we can 

continue to offer these vital services. 

Patients can now come in for blood tests, 

procedures and surgery and be relaxed 

knowing that we’re doing everything we 

can for them. Opening the BTC is the 

first step in our journey to reopening, 

recovering and restarting services.” 

She added: “I’d like to thank our ward 

services team and all colleagues that 

helped us undertake a big clean-up 

operation at BTC. That enabled us to 

confidently reopen our doors. We’ve 

made some essential changes such as new 

handwashing zones and new flooring. It’s 

all part of our programme to get services 

up and running again.” 

13


NEWS 

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 – Janice Nelson 

Thank you for being so cheerful and 

helpful when I came to discuss my 

department's PPE needs with you. 

From – Becky Fox 

To – Ruth Shenston 

Thank you to Ruth our MSW for organising 

the Day 5 clinics so well, being there 

to support all the Midwives, helping to 

organise the workload each day, starting 

your working day earlier and always having 

a calm and professional approach. Your 

hard work doesn't go unnoticed. 

From – Nicki Tomkins 

To – Kelly Barnickle 

There is never a time where Kelly would 

not stop and hear what all team members 

have to say. She always has the patience, 

kindness and a smile no matter what is 

happening. Kelly is supportive, goes the 

extra mile with patients. Always in the 

office beyond her time. 

From – Aysha Miah-Karim 

To – Jordan Ward - IT Team 

As you can imagine, the IT team have been 

very busy. Jordan provided great customer 

service with a smile and helped to set up 

my laptop. Thank you for being patient 

and kind. 

From – Donna Mighty 

To – City Night Security Team 

For being a fantastic support to all the staff 

in ED and keeping us all safe. They are all a 

credit to the Trust. 

From – Rebecca Jeavons 

To – Jayne Redfern and Teece Dale 

For doing an excellent job behind the 

scenes to ensure staffing gaps are filled 

and thus helping to maintain safe staffing 

in emergency departments at City and 

Sandwell Hospitals. Jayne also has been 

excellent in managing sickness list. 

From – Virupaksha Sadhunavar 

To – Gill Lewis 

In the midst of all the chaos in these 

uncertain times, thank you, thank you, 

thank you, Gill Lewis, A&E Sister at City 

Hospital for ALWAYS being generous, 

considerate and including City A&E 

receptionists as part of the team. 

From – Sharne, Dawn and Yasmin - A&E 

Reception at City Hospital 

To – Jaff Borja and Carmel Madden 

Both senior sisters work tirelessly to ensure 

patient flow and safety adhered on both 

AMU's (Sandwell and City site). You are 

both indeed true leaders and leading by 

example. Keep up the good work and may 

you continue to serve the Trust in these 

most difficult times. 

From – Anonymous 

To – Andy Farrington and the IT Team 

Huge thanks to Andy and the team for 

getting my laptop back up and running so 

quickly. We are all under pressure but they 

were so friendly and helpful even during 

this busy time. 

From – Philippa McLeod 

To – Medical Infusion Suite 

To Jackie, Eden, Fran and Merissa. Thanks 

for being so welcoming and hosting me 

for IV training. Although it was a difficult 

and uncertain time for you all, you were 

fantastic. We are ready to go thanks to 

you! 

From – Alice Harvey 

To – Estates and Medical Engineering 

I would like to take the opportunity to 

give a massive shout out to my friends 

and colleagues in the Estates and EBME 

Departments for moving heaven and 

earth over the last few weeks to perform 

miracles under extreme pressure. 

From – Michael Fenton 

To – Sarah Cooke 

Sarah has been brilliant at linking up the 

IT for staff joining the Trust this week from 

Your Health Partnership. Her approach 

is calm and has found a solution to 

everything we needed. 

From – Dottie Tipton 

To – Jane Owen and the Catering Team 

Thank you to Jane and her team who have 

worked with the charity to ensure we have 

facilities set up to accommodate donations 

of food from our community to look after 

our frontline staff during this challenging 

time. The last few days have seen teams 

coming together to make a difference 

when it matters. 

From – Amanda Winwood 

To – Critical Care 

Everyone is working so hard, and going 

above and beyond expectations to do their 

very best to care for the influx of COVID 

patients. They are hot, tired and sore from 

the masks, but they still soldier on like 

absolute troopers. They are an incredible 

team and I feel blessed to be part of it. 

Thank you all so much! 

From – Sarah Bone 

To – Jasbinder Kaur and Siobhan Yates 

Siobhan and Jas willingly helped out on the 

NNU during an exceptional staffing crisis; 

they "learnt on the job" and were amazing 

support to the NICU team. You were both 

proactive in the tasks you carried out, 

naturals with our special care babies and so 

willing to chip in with anything; you were a 

fabulous extension of our team. 

From – Jennifer Cadwallader-Hunt 

To – Nyara Hamandishe 

For being one of the very few nurses who 

volunteer to move wards when other 

wards are short without making a fuss. 

That is what you call a nurse! Thank you 

from the CNP Team 

From – Hannah Goodwin 

14

Celebrating our 

stars of the week 

Star of the Week 

Ru Hazarika, Service Planning 

and Delivery Manager 


Respiratory Physiology Team 


Leanne Devlin 

HCA 

Congratulations are in order for 

Ru Hazarika, Service Planning and 

Delivery Manager who is part of the 

improvement team. 

Ru has played an instrumental role in 

setting up the Sandwell PPE Hub, has 

volunteered for daily PPE distributions to 

wards, has been a cleaner for two days and 

has volunteered for portering and is getting 

trained to do FIT testing. She has been a 

real example to the organisation about how 

it is possible to support the COVID-19 work 

in a non-clinical role. 

Congratulations are in order for Amina 

Mohammed and her team. They have 

been working very hard to up skill 

ward nurses to allow them to initiate 

continuous positive airway pressure 

for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia 

and respiratory failure. 

Normally this is provided in a high 

dependency unit setting, but with the 

COVID-19 pandemic we had to scale up 

our facility to provide this treatment for 

a large number of patients. This meant 

training a lot more nurses. Amina and 

her team have stepped up to provide this 

training. 

Congratulations are in order for 

Leanne Devlin who is a HCA based 

at Heath Street GP Centre. Leanne 

joined the Trust last year when the 

practice she works at joined our 

organisation. She is leading her team’s 

participation in the weConnect pioneer 

team programme to improve staff 

engagement. 

In her role as an HCA, Leanne is keen 

to influence improvements within her 

sphere of responsibility and is not afraid 

to make suggested improvements. She 

always works to improve the care for our 

patients including mothers with young 

children by looking after their children, 

while they attend their 10 minute smear 

appointments. 


Frieza Mahmood 

Deputy Director of People and Organisation Development 

Congratulations are in order for Frieza 

Mahmood, Deputy Director of People 

and Organisation Development. 

Frieza working alongside her HR colleagues 

has been at the heart of organising our 

support for colleagues working from home 

as well as colleagues who are re-deploying 

to support our COVID-19 response. 

If you have someone in your 

team that has gone above 

and beyond the call of duty, 

put them forward as a Star 

of the Week. Visit Connect to 

find out more. 

15

Do you know a team or individual who deserve to be 

recognised? Nominations for the 2020 Star Awards are 

now open! 

The awards, now in their twelfth 

year are how we recognise the 

hard work of our colleagues and 

volunteers, both on the frontlines 

and the supporting services. 

This year, our awards will be more 

poignant, as the pressure being faced 

by our colleagues is unprecedented as 

they work long hours, often staying 

away from their own loved ones 

to save lives during the COVID-19 

pandemic. 

Nineteen out of the 21 categories 

Our award categories 

Employee of the Year 

An employee who has an excellent attitude 

to work, colleagues and patients, who 

has repeatedly gone beyond the call of 

duty, made improvements to the delivery 

of services or the patient experience, or 

who consistently demonstrates the Trust’s 

promises to provide excellent care. 

Clinical Team of the Year (adults) 

A team that has provided consistent, 

high quality care for adults whilst 

meeting financial and operational targets, 

demonstrating best practice or driving 

forward improvements in patient care 

or has pulled together through 

particularly difficult 

circumstances. 

are open for colleagues to nominate 

their peers, teams and services, whilst 

our patients, visitors and carers will 

be encouraged to nominate those 

staff who have made a difference to 

them as part of the Quality of Care 

Award. Our primary care colleagues 

will also put forward their nominations 

for the Most Valued Service in the 

Trust award. 

Nominations for all awards will open 

on Monday 1 June and stay open 

through to Friday 3 July. Last year 

we achieved the highest number of 

Clinical Team of the Year (children) 

A team that has provided consistent, 

high quality care for children whilst 

meeting financial and operational targets, 

demonstrating best practice or driving 

forward improvements in patient care or 

has pulled together through particularly 

difficult circumstances. This can include 

teams who care for children across our 

Trust settings and services, not just our 

specialist paediatric teams. 

Non-Clinical Team of the Year 

A team with consistently excellent 

performance whilst meeting financial and 

operational targets, demonstrating best 

practice or a team that has introduced 

a change in approach resulting in 

improvements to financial or operational 

performance or has pulled together 

through particularly difficult circumstances. 

nominations in the history of Star 

Awards and it would be great to 

surpass that this year, so please do 

take the time to think about who has 

gone the extra mile and submit your 

nomination. 

Full details regarding the awards and 

the nomination form can be found 

on Connect. 

If you have any questions, please 

contact the communications team 

on 0121 507 5303 or email 

swbh.comms@nhs.net. 

New Leader 

A rising star who has held some leadership 

or management responsibility for at 

least a year and who has demonstrated 

outstanding ability, talent and leadership, 

showing great promise for the future. 

Volunteer of the Year 

An individual who has made a significant 

impact to our Trust whilst volunteering. 

A person who has shown selflessness 

and determination to support the people 

around them. 

Fundraiser of the Year 

An individual or a team (internal or 

external) who by their hard work, 

dedication and example, have made a 

significant difference by increasing the 

awareness of Your Trust Charity. This 

can include achieving considerable and 

recognisable fundraising success and 

creating positive changes to service 

delivery. Showing good practice in the 

administration of charitable funds and 

demonstrating a true commitment to 

improving the fundraising capability of the 

charity (or charitable fund). Collaborating 

with external facilitators to bring in good 

learning and pilot projects to our Trust. 

Digital Leader of the Year 

A leader or manager who has inspired or 

brought about clear and demonstrable 

outcomes in terms of digital ways of 

working. This can include changing 

processes to reduce reliance on paper, 

improvements in service or care for our 

patients, or financial savings, and who 

productively engages with and includes 

their staff in the digital journey, providing 

effective direction and motivation, actively 

creating a positive working environment 

for colleagues. 

Distinguished Service Award 

An individual or team who has worked 

above and beyond the call of duty in their 

service to the Trust. This could be a current 

employee or someone who has left during 

the previous year. 

Prize for Innovation 

This award is presented to an individual or 

team that has introduced new innovative 

practice or an innovative scheme during 

the year that has made substantial 

improvements to services or systems and 

processes. 

Patient Safety Award 

This award is presented to an individual 

or team exhibiting best practice in 

providing safe care, who has openly raised 

awareness of safety issues, championed 

transparency or introduced new ways of 

working to a service or treatment that has 

improved patient safety. 

2020 Vision Prize for Integrated 

Care Pioneer of the Year 

Awarded to an individual or team who 

has demonstrated integrated care, either 

by working in partnership with local 

healthcare / social care / voluntary services, 

or in their daily work to ensure that their 

patients “can plan my care with people 

who work together to understand me and 

my carer(s), allow me control, and bring 

together services to achieve the outcomes 

important to me” 

Learner of the Year 

Awarded to an individual who can 

demonstrate the impact training has 

had on themselves, their team and their 

service. This is open to all staff and could 

include, for example, completing an 

apprenticeship, a computer course or 

a post grad/leadership programme or 

university module. 

Award for Equality and Diversity 

Champion 

An individual or team that has 

demonstrated engagement internally 

or externally with a minority group or 

diverse groups from the Sandwell and 

West Birmingham community to deliver 

improved services for colleagues, patients 

or carers. 

Excellence in Research Prize 

An individual or team who has 

participated in research which has made 

a demonstrable difference to patient 

experience and outcomes. 

Excellence in Education Prize 

An individual or team who can 

demonstrate excellence in providing and 

supporting high quality education. 

Chairman’s Award for Notable 

Contribution to the Local Health and 

Social Care System 

This award is presented to an individual 

or team who has made a significant 

contribution to the health and wellbeing 

of patients, carers or the public in 

the Sandwell and West Birmingham 

community. The award winner will have 

demonstrated how they have linked up 

different teams or organisations, and been 

instrumental in breaking down barriers 

for the benefit of patients or the wider 

population. 

The ‘Green’ Award 

Do you know an individual or team that 

has made simple changes to reduce our 

environmental impact? They will have 

made changes within their area of work 

(even small changes can make a big 

impact) with enthusiasm and inspired 

others to get involved. 

This could include changes that have 

potentially: 

• Saved energy 

• Saved water 

• Led to less waste 

• Changed travel habits to more active and 

sustainable modes 

• Any other sustainability related topics 

that you feel passionate about. 

Quality of Care Award (nominated by 

patients, visitors and carers) 

We want to hear about colleagues 

or teams you think provide excellent 

quality care, in line with our quality plan, 

producing improved outcomes for patients 

and those who have consistently upheld 

and demonstrate 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 

Local Primary Care Award for the Most 

Valued Service in the Trust (nominated 

by GPs) 

Awarded to the service that primary care 

clinicians deem to be of most value to 

their patients, that demonstrates effective 

working arrangements with primary care, a 

responsive service, and that integrates well 

across organisational boundaries 

Special Award – International Year of 

the Nurse and Midwife 

For 2020 only, we will be offering a special 

award in recognition of International Year 

of the Nurse and Midwife a campaign by 

the World Health Organisation in honour 

of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence 

Nightingale. 

This award will go to a nurse or midwife 

who has: 

• Made an exceptional contribution to 

improving care/outcomes for patients 

and/or communities 

• Has significantly contributed to delivering 

a positive outcome in service provision or 

patient care 

• Has shown outstanding understanding 

or advocacy on behalf of patients/clients/ 

residents or the profession 

#swbawards20 

Remember to nominate by Friday 3 July 

17

welearn from excellence: 

Demonstrating every day brilliance 


NEWS 

In April we launched welearn from 

excellence to recognise colleagues 

for their everyday brilliance 

and show appreciation for their 

hard work, achievements and 

improvements to quality or safety. 

Between 16 and 30 April, 41 colleagues 

and three teams were recognised and 

appreciated, with some real glimpses 

of excellence, demonstrating how SWB 

is leading the way and driving forward 

quality. 

Here are just some of their stories: 

Easy to read resources for 

managing children and 

young people – Dr Fiona 

Halton, Paediatric Registrar 

Dr Maria Atkinson nominated Dr 

Halton for producing easy reference 

guides in the clinical management of 

children and young people. 

“In my role as clinical director, I have 

disseminated a significant amount of 

information, including on changes 

to the way that children and young 

people are cared for during the 

pandemic, said Dr Atkinson. “This 

has included guidance on issues such 

as children awaiting retrieval by the 

regional ITU team, and the use new 

equipment. 

“Without prompting, Dr Halton 

collated all of the relevant 

information and pulled it together 

into a single electronic booklet. She 

even went to the detail of providing 

pictures of new equipment, such as 

ventilators, and details of how they 

work, as easy reference guides. 

“This resource has been very well 

received, and has been invaluable 

for locums working within the 

department.” 

Local guidelines adopted nationally - the nuclear medicine team 

COVID-19 guidance developed by the nuclear 

medicine team has national recognition 

Early in the pandemic, the nuclear medicine 

team realised that COVID-19 would have a 

significant impact on how they deliver their 

service, particularly around clinical pathways 

and how the care could be provided. As a 

result they produced some local guidelines 

which were taken to the British Nuclear 

Medicine Council, who then adopted the 

guidelines incorporating them into their 

national COVID-19 guidance. 

Recognising the significant impact these 

changes would have on urgent patients 

still needing to access services, the team 

also put together a supplementary 

information letter to be sent to patients 

along with their appointments. The letters 

provide extra assurance and information 

at what has been a strange and scary 

time for many. 

Well done to Joseph O’Brien, Alp 

Notghi, Manish Pandit, Jilly Croasdale, 

Mohamed El-Sayed, Matt Elms and Jenny 

Thompson-Peters. 

Providing patients with home comforts - medicine therapy team 

Just some of the donations that have come in 

for patients 

When visiting restrictions were put in 

place, the medicine therapy team noticed 

an increase in anxiety among our patients. 

When speaking to patients, Maureen 

Badger, Physiotherapy Assistant 

Practitioner noticed that they were 

missing home comforts that would 

usually be brought in by relatives or 

friends. Maureen said: “We put out a 

local plea and started to collect donations 

of products that met infection control 

standards and could be shared across all 

ward areas.” 

Hannah Jenns, Advanced Physiotherapist 

added: “We are incredibly proud of 

the way the team have considered the 

patients’ holistic and emotional needs, 

and coordinated everyone’s goodwill into 

practical methods to benefit some of our 

most vulnerable patients.” 

Keeping colleagues in the right kit - the PPE distribution point 

team (City Hospital) 

Annabel Bottrill, Emergency Department 

Matron, nominated Janice Nelson, Sohail 

Lal and Nesba Ali for the hard work and 

processes they have put in place to support 

the clinical teams at City Hospital during 

COVID-19. 

Annabel said: “Janice, Sohail and Nesba 

have worked tirelessly to ensure that 

clinical areas have the correct PPE for their 

needs. They are always polite, respectful, 

kind and helpful despite some of the 

challenges. The team have ensured that 

colleagues have the equipment they need 

and thus making us all feel safe - which is 

really important.” 

18

Protecting skin from PPE - the tissue viability team 

The tissue viability team are helping to 

prevent damage to colleagues’ skin due to 

PPE 

The tissue viability team were nominated 

by Lesley McDonagh, Clinical Lead Nurse 

who told us how the team were seeing 

an increase in the number of facial 

injuries as a result of increased use of 

PPE. The team set up mobile skin clinics, 

and started to seek solutions as to why so 

many colleagues were experiencing injuries, 

especially sore and broken skin on noses, 

and inflamed itchy skin. The team realised 

that the injuries could be the result of 

chemical residue left from Clinell cleaning. 

Lesley said: “Working in partnership with 

infection control and dermatology, we 

updated the guidance and recommendations 

for PPE and cleaning. The result is that we 

are now seeing a reduction in facial injuries 

and skin damage. 

“This learning has been shared with other 

trusts and across the tissue viability network. 

It is great work which has benefited our 

colleagues greatly.” 

Effective management of redeployment - Joanne Lee, Community 

Heart Failure Specialist Nurse 

Joanne Lee was nominated by Jacqui 

Elson-Whittaker, Heart Failure Nurse who 

told us how amazing Joanne has been, 

rapidly stepping into a leadership role 

with kindness and compassion. 

Joanne has taken on new leadership 

responsibilities whilst redeploying her 

team, who have commented how they 

really appreciate her support. 

To enable the redeployment, Joanne has 

picked up a larger caseload of patients and 

still continues to go over and above for 

them, keeping them safely at home and 

preventing admissions. 

It’s easy to appreciate your colleagues. Simply click on the welearn from excellence logo on 

Connect. There are two questions to answer: Tell us about the excellence that you would like 

to positively report, and what can we learn or do differently. 

If you would like to know more about welearn from excellence, please email 

swbh.welearnlfe@nhs.net. 


NEWS 

Providing critical therapy 

– the critical care therapy 

team 

Anne Hill, Consultant Physiotherapist 

nominated the critical care therapy 

team who have rapidly expanded 

from being a team of nine to one of 

22. She said: “Despite being a newly 

formed team, they have worked very 

well together with much flexibility. 

Their determination and dedication 

has been remarkable. There has been 

an awful lot of learning from both 

COVID-19 and also from bringing 

people together from different teams 

and backgrounds.” 

Well done to Marion Brookes, 

Quivon White, Gemma Fitzgerald, 

Tom Buckroyd, Lauren Killner, Dan 

Barrett, Steve Semple, Vanessa Van 

de Bovenkamp, Lucy Styles, Emily 

Caiger-Smith, Julia Cooper, Sophie 

Baggott, Liz Holiday, Izzy Sawyers, 

Issy Higgins, Naomi Rowden, Lauren 

Brookes, Aaron Donaldson, Heather 

Stephens, Sam Miller, and Nicki Heys. 

weConnect to ensure our teams 

are engaged 

We have completed our first 

full phase of the weConnect 

engagement programme which has 

seen all colleagues polled and give 

their views over a 12 month period. 

The weConnect survey is issued 

every quarter to a quarter of the 

workforce and is a more in depth look 

at engagement, giving us a better 

understanding of how colleagues feel 

about their jobs, their teams and our 

organisation. 

Our response rate for the weConnect 

surveys has been higher than seen in 

any previous surveys and has averaged 

32 per cent across the four surveys over 

the 12 month period. The engagement 

score out of 5 has averaged 3.8 taking 

us nearer to our target score of 4. 

Director of Communications, Ruth Wilkin 

explained more: “The average response rate 

means the feedback has reached the 30 

per cent threshold which means it can be 

treated as representative. 

“Trust has been the one enabler that 

continues to be a positive factor across all 

our surveys including the National NHS Staff 

Survey. This means that the majority of our 

workforce feel they are trusted to do their 

job, they also feel they have the freedom to 

act and make decisions in the areas where 

they work. 

“At the end of the first 12 months of the 

weConnect programme we have seen a 

general improvement across all engagement 

enablers. The results of the fourth survey 

revealed that five of the nine enablers 

increased significantly over the course of the 

year – these enablers are: clarity, mindset, 

resources, and influence. 

“This is a clear demonstration that measures 

being put into place to support teams to act 

on the survey results are having an impact.” 

The latest weConnect survey was 

completed by colleagues in organisation 

development; governance; operations; 

ambulatory therapies; maternity, health 

visiting, perinatal medicine; general, breast, 

urology, vascular and anaesthetics, critical 

care, pain. The response rate was 30 per 

cent and the engagement score was 3.93 

out of 5. 

Team leads are now working 

collaboratively to develop action plans 

on how to make improvements in their 

areas. 

19

International Year of the 

Nurse and Midwife - May 2020 

As you may be aware, this year marks 

International Year of the Nurse and 

Midwife, a campaign by the World Health 

Organisation in honour of the 200th 

birthday of Florence Nightingale. 

Nurses and midwives play a vital role in 

providing health services in our workplace. 

They 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. Throughout the year we will 

be highlighting some of our nurses, HCAs 

and midwives who are making a difference. 

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 Matron for Surgical Ambulatory 

Care, Sam Beck. 

Sam Beck 

Sam Beck 

Matron for Surgical Ambulatory Care 

For May, we feature Matron for 

Surgical Ambulatory Care, Sam Beck. 

Sam is a fine example of the Trust 

growing one of our own. She first 

joined our organisation as a student 

nurse in 2004 before moving to the 

surgical day unit at Sandwell Hospital 

as a newly qualified nurse. She said: 

“I remember when I first joined the 

Trust 16 years ago. If you had asked 

me then where I would end up I’m not 

sure I would have thought I would 

have progressed so far.” 

Following her qualification as a nurse, 

Sam briefly worked at the sickle cell 

centre before returning to surgery. Sam 

later progressed to a band 6 role, before 

being offered a senior sister post in 2015. 

In this position, she covered day surgery, 

pre-assessment and plastic surgery clinical 

nurse specialists. “When I was offered the 

senior post it was a proud day for me as I 

had been working to attain that goal for 

11 years.” 

Two years later Sam was successful in 

obtaining a matron position and went on 

to win the New Leader of the Year Award 

at the 2018 Star Awards. 

She added: “To be recognised by my 

peers as a leader was a fantastic feeling, 

especially as all the staff nominated 

alongside me were deserving winners 

too. I must say a huge thanks to all my 

colleagues, as without them, I would not 

have been able to achieve what I have in 

my 16 years here.” 

20

Monica Quinlan - Mastering her 

destiny one step at a time 

Monica Quinlan, Uro-Gynaecology Clinical 

Nurse Practitioner completed her studies 

earlier this year 

Supporting further education and 

advancement is a prominent part of 

our culture. So when Monica Quinlan 

completed her Masters in Advanced 

Clinical Practice at Birmingham City 

University (BCU), it took her on both 

a personal and professional journey 

that has changed her life. Heartbeat 

caught up with Monica who shared 

her heartfelt story with us. 

“I completed my Masters in February 

2020. It was a three-year part-time course 

funded by the Trust. Being able to join this 

course meant so much to me. I required 

the academic side to support and underpin 

my advancing role, and I was determined 

to complete the course. It involved 

combining practical work placements and 

classroom sessions.” 

“I was due to complete my course in 

October 2019; however I took four 

months off from studying as I lost my 

husband, who also worked at the Trust, in 

December 2019. He took his own life and, 

as you can imagine, my world fell apart. 

“My older son was at university at the 

time, and my younger son was completing 

his GCSEs – both were distraught. My 

eldest son did his best to support us 

through what was the most traumatic time 

of our lives.” 

Looking towards a brighter future, Monica 

explained how her studies helped her 

to find the focus she needed to start 

rebuilding her life. “I found strength in 

focusing on my academic work; it gave 

me the distraction I needed to overcome 

some of my weakest moments. My studies 

helped me discover the strength, focus 

and determination to move forward during 

this painful time, and I am thankful to the 

Trust for that.” 

Monica is also grateful to everyone that 

supported her over the last few months. 

She told us how the kindness and 

compassion of those around her made 

such a positive difference. “The Trust, my 

department, my late husband’s colleagues, 

BCU, my family and friends have all been 

a huge support to me. The wellbeing 

department has been on hand to help 

me navigate the different stages of my 

grief - their support has helped me to start 

looking ahead to the future.” 

She added: “So many people cheered 

me on to help me achieve my goal of 


NEWS 

completing my course. I'd like to say 

a special thanks to all of those people 

and in particular the library staff. Nicola 

Ager and her team have been a huge 

help over the past three years. Having 

a resource like a library within our 

organisation is invaluable.” 

If you have been affected by 

Monica’s story or need some 

support, occupational health 

offers a free and confidential 

counselling service. Contact the 

team on extension 3306. Ask for a 

counselling appointment and leave 

your phone number. A counsellor 

will be in touch. 

A drop in counselling telephone 

counselling service can be accessed 

via one of the Trust’s accredited 

counsellors. 

• Linda, Mondays between 

7-9pm, Telephone 07973664125 

• Tony, Thursdays between 7-9pm, 

Telephone 07970225929 

At the end of a phone – someone 

to talk to, this is free and strictly 

confidential, someone ‘nonjudgemental’ 

to support you. A 

listening ear – we’re here for you 

daily from 8am-10pm. 

• Lavinia 07970 88 21 08 

• Chris 07976 49 91 80 

VE Day – 75 years and counting 

8 May 2020 marked exactly 75 years 

since World War II ended. Victory in 

Europe Day or VE Day as it’s more 

commonly known celebrates Germany’s 

surrender which effectively brought 

the war to an end. 

Ever since 8 May 1945, VE Day has been 

celebrated and this year was no exception. 

Whilst we may not have been able to enjoy 

the event as perhaps we would have done 

with public events, that didn’t stop many Brits 

from enjoying socially distanced tea parties. At 

11 am the UK came to a standstill as a twominute 

silence was observed and at 9 pm, the 

Queen addressed the nation just as her father, 

King George VI, had done in 1945. 

We caught up with Diane Bate, Theatre 

Scheduler, who recently found some old press 

cuttings of a former VE Day celebration at the 

Trust. She told us: “I was having a bit of a spring 

clean and came across the old articles. I am Diane 

Chawner, I’ve since got married, but at the time I 

was an auxiliary nurse on Lyndon 4. Finding these 

articles was a real blast from the past, especially 

as I still work here; this is my 39th year with the 

organisation. 

“I recall our celebrations pictured in the articles 

vividly. We had a fabulous time and hosted a 

street party. We looked after elderly patients who 

were war veterans themselves - Edwin Talbot 

was 102 years old at the time, and he was one 

of many patients that joined in with our street 

party. We had bunting, a buffet; we dressed up 

as service personnel and even had 1940s music 

playing in the background.” 

Whilst not as jubilant as previous years, people 

across the UK still passionately observed the event 

as a mark of respect to those that had made 

the ultimate sacrifice. Diane remarked: 

“Looking back on these memories seemed 

quite poignant as we celebrated the 75th 

anniversary. This year, I spent the day at 

home and enjoyed it all the same. It was a 

special day, and I’m glad that even amid all 

the chaos of COVID-19, we were able to 

show our appreciation and thanks to our 

war heroes.” 

Old press clippings from 1985 depict a 

former VE Day celebration at our Trust 

21

Serenity blows out the candles on 

10th year! 


NEWS 

Speaking at that time, Donna said: “My first 

impressions of the unit were wow! It is such 

a special unit and I had a fantastic birth. The 

midwives allowed me to listen to what my 

body was telling me and the midwives on 

the unit have been incredibly supportive. 

Dad Abdur added: “I think the beautiful 

environment and positive attitude of the 

midwives here really makes a difference, 

which has led to Donna and myself having a 

very special birthing experience. As a dad, I 

have been made to feel very welcome and it 

is great to see a birthing centre like this that 

has been designed with dads also in mind.” 

Serenity has been nominated for a number 

of prestigious awards including the RCM 

award for promoting Normal Birth in 

January 2013, Team of the Year via the 

British Journal of Midwifery in 2013 and, 

the BJM Innovation in Practice Award. The 

unit is also a beacon site for midwifery 

units. 

Speaking of the team, Sarah told us: “Of 

the original staff from our launch in 2010, 

myself, Mani Bahia, Amanda Brown, 

Maike Lehmann-Sander, Helen Powell, Sue 

Wainwright, Jas Kaur, Anna Kipps, Amie 

McGovern and Anita Taylor are still here 

and loving the job we do. We have been 

joined by many more brilliant midwives 

and maternity support workers, some of 

whom went on to complete their midwifery 

training, in the last 10 years. 

“Some of our midwives have given birth to 

their babies here as well (Jo, Gemma and 

Anja) and Lynne’s grandchildren were born 

here. Mandy has attended the births of over 

1000 babies and our much loved Helen 

Giles retired this April after being a team 

leader for eight years.” 

The Serenity unit celebrated their 10th anniversary in May 2020 

Caring midwives at Serenity birthing 

unit have proved that it takes more 

than a pandemic to stop a birthday 

celebration. Marking 10 years of 

babies born on the same day as the 

International Day of the Midwife 

– 5 May – the unit was pleased to 

welcome baby number 12,274. 

Taking to Instagram to share their 

big day, the team explained to their 

followers that although they had a 

much bigger party planned – before 

the pandemic – nevertheless they still 

wanted to mark the day with the age old 

tradition of tea and cake, to the sound 

of a newborn baby’s cry. Wellwishers 

were quick to add their messages of 

support on social media with one user 

congratulating the midwives social 

distancing party photo. 

Sarah explained: “Originally we had planned a 

garden party celebration to mark our birthday 

but had to change our plans. We wanted 

to invite families who had used Serenity 

over the last 10 years, along with staff who 

have moved on and retired. However, we 

are hoping to reschedule later in the year or 

next year depending on when restrictions are 

eased, and it is safe to do so. 

The 10th anniversary was a time to look 

forward to the future, and in so doing, to 

remember the past. In looking back to the 

very beginning and the first baby born in 

the unit, Lead Midwife Sarah Figg recalled 

baby Sakinah Mariam Yusuf, who was born 

to proud parents Donna Corbin and Abdur 

Yusuf. They were so impressed with their 

surroundings and the care they received they 

named their precious girl Sakinah (which is 

Arabic for Serenity) after the unit. 

Sakinah, the first baby born at Serenity 

22

Body cam trial aims to curb violence 

and aggression 

A trial is set to begin in early June 

which aims to curb the issue of 

antisocial behaviour, violence 

and aggression against front line 

colleagues through the use of body 

worn cameras. 

Following in the footsteps of colleagues 

in security who have already started using 

their body cameras, the new cameras will 

support nursing colleagues who may find 

themselves in a difficult situation with a 

patient or member of the public. 

To find out more about the trial, Heartbeat 

spoke to Trust Security Manager, Anil 

Bhogal. He said, “The new body worn 

cameras are a tried and tested solution 

in other Trusts across the country. They 

are there to provide colleagues with a 

means to record events in video and audio 

as they happen. The cameras are not a 

replacement for on-site security; they are 

simply going to be an additional evidence 

gathering tool which will help us manage 

our responses to these unfortunate 

incidents. 

“The cameras are small, discrete and are 

worn by colleagues throughout the day, 

One of our security colleagues wearing a body 

worn camera 

only to be switched on when there is a 

likelihood that there is an immediate situation 

which will require evidencing. Colleagues 

can still request security teams to respond to 

incidents, however, if there is a body worn 

camera to hand, they should begin recording 

with it. Where there is an incident of violence 

or aggression that needs to be referred to 

the police, we can submit the video footage 

as evidence. This will help secure convictions 

and remind perpetrators that we have a 

zero-tolerance approach to violence and 

aggression.” 


NEWS 

One of the first areas to take delivery 

of the new cameras and to put them 

through their paces is set to be Rowley 

Regis Hospital. Sharing her thoughts on 

the new kit, Matron, Justine Irish said: 

“Rowley Hospital is a quiet place most 

of the time and, usually we don’t have 

any on-site security. This means that any 

additional resources we have to manage 

our response to incidents of antisocial 

behaviour, violence and aggression are 

more than welcome. 

"The cameras are small and 

unassuming, they’re easy to wear and 

most of the time you forget they are 

there. The minute you switch them on 

and the screen on the front becomes 

visible, you can’t help but see that 

you’re being recorded. We are hoping 

that this helps us prevent, diffuse and 

deescalate incidents." 

For more information on the 

new trial contact Anil Bhogal on 

Anil.Bhogal@nhs.net 

Proning – Protecting poorly patients 

with positioning 

MEDICINE AND EMERGENCY 

CARE 

One of the most surprising 

developments to come from learning 

how to support COVID-19 patients has 

been the fact that simply positioning 

a patient in a prone position can 

significantly improve their clinical 

outcomes when used in an early stage. 

Awake proning, the art of positioning 

a patient on their stomach, face down 

with pillows in strategic places has been 

shown to considerably improve the 

clinical outcomes for patients with acute 

respiratory infections such as COVID-19. 

The technique, which looks incredibly 

simple and only requires the use of six 

pillows and a bed, is designed to reduce 

pressure on the lungs by the heart and 

diaphragm and improve ventilation. 

To find out more about the technique, 

Heartbeat caught up with Dr Eoin Dore 

CT2 to find out more. He said. “Awake 

prone position, when used at an early 

enough stage, can be extremely beneficial 

to patients and even in some cases be the 

One of the recommended ways that we can 

make a difference to patient outcomes is to 

consider proning in our acute medicine and 

general ward environments 

difference between them needing invasive 

mechanical ventilation. The method which 

involves moving the patient into a prone 

position with supportive pillows in strategic 

positions is something we can do easily in 

almost any environment, it doesn’t involve 

any complex or hard to come by equipment. 

By turning patients at regular intervals we 

take the pressure off the lungs, the fluid 

that has accumulated in the lungs moves 

to another region and the lungs are able to 

work more efficiently.” 

“Ultimately awake proning as an 

early intervention may well reduce the 

number of ICU admissions. We know 

that intubation in COVID-19 patients 

has a high mortality rate so this is key to 

procedure to keep in your mind. 

“We aim to move patients into a prone 

position usually for four hour periods, 

with an hour set aside each time where 

the patient can take a comfort break 

for eating, drinking and using the toilet. 

When patients are proned, pillows are 

placed under the head, chest, pelvis 

and shins; however, the abdomen 

should remain free and unsupported or 

compressed. Finally, the bed should be 

angled at least a 30 degree incline with 

the head at the highest point. Oxygen 

masks should remain in place and there 

shouldn’t be any need to wean patients 

down immediately. Improvements can 

take many hours to manifest.” 

Guidance on the procedure as well 

as a step by step instructional video 

is available on Connect. 

23

All roads lead to BMEC - but there 

might be a slight detour 

SURGICAL SERVICES 

The coronavirus has had a 

fundamental impact on how we go 

about our working lives. Colleagues 

will be aware of discussions about 

how our organisation is tackling 

working from home and other 

matters of performing daily tasks 

whilst maintaining social distancing. 

It has not just had an impact on 

colleagues and services, it has even had 

a knock-on effect on how we utilise our 

facilities and welcome patients into our 

buildings in the first place. One area 

that is meeting this challenge head-on 

is Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre 

(BMEC), where the flow of patients 

into and through the building has been 

reviewed. 

“When it comes to the entranceways 

of BMEC there are several obstacles 

that need to be overcome now that 

we are dealing with COVID-19.” Hilary 

Lemboye, Directorate General Manager 

for Ophthalmology and Deputy Group 

Director of Operations for Surgical 

Services explained. 

One of the major messages going 

out from the Trust throughout May 

- in particular with the deep clean 

work undertaken at the Birmingham 

Treatment Centre, Rowley Regis 

Hospital and BMEC itself was that we 

Birmingham Midland Eye Centre 

are #openforbusiness. BMEC, as mentioned 

in last month’s Heartbeat, has been at pains 

to emphasise this. “Part of being open for 

business is being open for business safely, for 

both colleagues and patients. Leading up to 

COVID-19, we had one very busy entrance 

to our building; we’ve had to rethink this in 

support of social distancing. As part of our 

improvement plans, patients now travel in and 

out of exits specific to outpatients and urgent/ 

emergency care respectively. They also queue 

in a manner that reflects current restrictions." 

Inside the department, we’ve decommissioned 

some waiting spaces and have created others 

to better protect our patients. To better 

support social distancing: 

• We are strictly monitoring the number 

of patients that we see per hour to 

reduce the number of people in 

outpatient waiting areas. 

• Relatives that are not allowed to 

enter (barring those allowed under 

current organisation guidance) will be 

asked to wait in their cars. 

• Some of our teams are implementing 

one-way traffic routes on busy days. 

“Supporting patients to reach their 

outpatient and surgical destinations quickly 

as an interim measure to getting our new 

signs is essential in avoiding congestion. 

That's why we’ve now deployed our staff, 

and volunteers to BMEC’s front entrances 

Hilary continues, “We’ve improved our 

emergency department advice line to 

reduce the need for some people to attend 

and wait in queues. Where attendance (and 

queuing) is necessary, estates have created 

a shelter to shield patients as much as 

possible from the weather. We know that 

not everyone will get it at first and so we’re 

looking into ways to get the message out 

there to patients about the new routes via 

letters, telephone calls and social media. 

“Our message continues to be that if you 

need to be seen for your eye care you 

should attend. Do not put your eyesight at 

risk." We are asking people to follow these 

guidelines: 

• Outpatients: the need for a face to 

face review in outpatients will have 

been assessed by a senior clinician. 

Should you have any concerns, call 

our advice line on 0121 507 4440. 

• Urgent/ emergency eye care: please 

call the above number and talk to one 

of our clinicians who will provide 

advice, for many of our patients we 

can offer a booked urgent 

appointment." 

2020 - International Year of the Nurse and Midwife 

JUNE 2020 

Pride month 

Monthly 

PAY DATES 

Wednesday 27 May 2020 

Friday 26 June 2020 

Tuesday 28 July 2020 

1 June Volunteers’ Week 

4 June Public Board, 

9.30am - 1pm, WebEx 

10 June Diabetes Awareness Week 

14 June World Blood Donor Day 

15 June Loneliness Awareness Week 

17 June Learning Disability Week 

20 June National Breastfeeding Week 

22 June World Wellbeing Week 

23 June Clinical Leadership Executive, 

2pm - 5pm - WebEx 

24 June TeamTalk, 1pm - 2pm, 

WebEx 

Friday 28 August 2020 

Monday 28 September 2020 

Tuesday 27 October 2020 

Friday 27 November 2020 

Friday 18 December 2020 

Friday 22 January 2021 

Friday 26 February 2021 

Friday 26 March 2021 

24

Dying Matters – and it does 

PRIMARY CARE, COMMUNITIES 

AND THERAPIES 

Dr Anna Lock, Palliative Care Consultant 

Mid-May saw the return of Dying 

Matters Awareness Week at the 

Trust. Dying Matters is a coalition 

of individual and organisational 

members across England and Wales. 

The coalition’s mission is to help people 

talk more openly about dying, death 

and bereavement, and to make plans 

for the end of life. This, in itself, is a 

big cultural shift as the coalition readily 

admits on its website. 

“This will involve a fundamental change 

in society in which dying, death and 

bereavement will be seen and accepted 

as a natural part of everybody’s life cycle. 

Changes in the way society views dying and 

death have impacted on the experience of 

people who are dying and bereaved. Our 

lack of openness has affected the quality, 

range of support and care services available 

to patients and families. It has also affected 

our ability to die where or how we would 

wish.” 

As part of the support shown at the Trust, Dr 

Anna Lock of the palliative care team took 

part in a Facebook Live discussion about Dying 

Matters. Naturally, COVID-19 became a topic 

of discussion. But so did everything from 

when is the best time to start considering 

plans for your end of life, what you should 

consider and the benefits of engaging with 

the topic – despite how unusual it may seem. 

There was also a breakdown of what palliative 

care is and how it functions at the Trust. 

“Dying Matters Awareness Week started 

approximately five years ago by a group 

of charities, with some representatives of 

hospices and bereavement charities. The idea 

behind it was to bring the conversation about 

death out from the shadows. Some people 

don’t want to talk about it. Some do but 

don’t know where to start or they’ve 

had a bereavement that’s affected how 

they lead their lives,” Dr Lock told the 

Facebook Live audience. “Most find that 

when they do talk or can talk, it truly 

helps take a weight off their minds." 

Sometimes people see the name 

‘palliative’ and shy away from what they 

think it represents. But it’s not necessarily 

about ‘imminent death’, it is more about 

the quality of life and the dignity of life 

in whatever time lies ahead.” 

“From the time we are born there is 

one thing we are all sadly guaranteed to 

do, and that’s to die. Before we started 

recording we had a discussion about 

wills – which is not exactly a topic I 

would normally engage in,” admitted 

Kevin Eva, External Communications 

Officer at the Trust and host of the 

discussion. “But it’s true that I’ve started 

looking into things and part of that is 

due to wanting to make sure those plans 

are in place before they are needed. The 

more you are organised ahead of time, 

the more time you have to concentrate 

on the time you have, and the less you 

leave behind for your friends to deal 

with.” 

Kevin also noted a certain irony about 

the discussion taking place on Facebook 

– which now has the option for accounts 

to be ‘memorialised’ for those no 

longer with us. “The more life becomes 

connected, the more connections you 

form, the more you have to consider. 

What is to become of your online 

presence as well as physical footprint 

will be a discussion that becomes more 

prominent in the years ahead.” 

“By having these kinds of discussions 

and having the plans in place both the 

patient and the relatives can be in a 

better position,” summarised Dr Lock. 

“As a patient, there’s nothing for you 

to worry about besides your wellbeing. 

For relatives, they may even have an 

easier bereavement process because they 

have comfort in knowing that they are 

abiding by the wishes of their relative. 

It’s important to not be discouraged 

by the topic, no matter how hard or 

awkward it might be. Dying Matters is 

there to remind you of that.” 

You can find out more information 

about Dying Matters on their 

website www.dyingmatters.org 

25

Respiratory physiotherapy team - 

always th-air for patients 


AND THERAPIES 

Over the past few weeks, countless 

teams and individuals have adapted 

the way they operate to cope with 

tackling COVID-19. One such team 

is our respiratory physiotherapy 

team. We caught up with Nicki Heys, 

Advanced Physiotherapist who told 

us more. 

“The team cover the intensive care units 

(ICU) and surgical wards at both City and 

Sandwell hospitals. As well as this, we 

offer specialist support to other therapy 

teams, as required, across the rest of 

the acute sites. We are lucky to have 

assistance from the paediatric team at 

weekends to ensure the service is covered 

seven days a week.” 

One of the ways the team have altered 

how they work is by extending the time 

spent on site. “We now cover working 

in ICU for 12.5 hours to not only ensure 

patients receive the physiotherapy 

they need but also to ensure we can 

support our ICU family with all the other 

necessary care needs our patients require. 

As a physio team, we hope to offer as 

much support beyond our normal remit 

to ensure the best possible care can be 

achieved in these difficult times.” 

Speaking of COVID-19, Nicki explained: 

Members of the respiratory physiotherapy team 

“The pandemic sees us in the same position 

as everyone else in our organisation and 

the wider NHS. We are facing the most 

challenging, daunting and unsettling period 

of all our careers. What is remarkable 

though is the resolve of our people. I have 

witnessed the most inspirational support, 

professionalism and teamwork from the 

whole team. Everyone has rallied together 

and gone up an extra gear.” 

Whilst making changes could have been 

challenging, with the support of colleagues, 

the team have modified how they work 

and moved forward. “The respiratory 

physiotherapy team is relatively small. Like 

other departments, we’ve had to call upon 

colleagues who have spent time with us 

in the past. The majority of the paediatric 

team have willingly swapped the treatment 

of ‘little people’ for ‘bigger people’ for the 

foreseeable future. Colleagues have also 

rejoined us from both the community and 

musculoskeletal teams, and one person has 

even postponed moving to a job in the army 

to support us.” 

Nicki explained that taking on COVID-19 

has been a team effort. “In doing all this, 

it is so important to remember all of our 

amazing colleagues who have adapted and 

flexed to backfill - I thank them all on behalf 

of the whole team. This includes all physio 

teams across inpatients, outpatients and the 

community. Also, we must thank the team 

of staff who have taken on a far greater 

ratio of night time on-calls. Their dedication 

has ensured patients continue to receive the 

support out of hours that is needed.” 

She added: “A special thanks goes to our 

ICU team and the relentless efforts of Nick 

Sherwood and Rebecca O’Dwyer. They have 

kept us informed and included us in plans, 

updates and provided us with the protection 

needed to do our job to the best of our 

abilities. Together we have all taken on 

this challenge and are determined to see it 

through.” 

Sprinkling kindness during COVID-19 

one goody bag at a time 

One of the reoccurring themes to 

come out of the tragedy and chaos 

that has been left by COVID-19 

has been that of kindness. Time 

and again, we have heard stories 

about those who have gone above 

and beyond to show kindness and 

compassion to our hardworking 

frontline colleagues. One such 

person is our very own apprentice, 

Phebe Thompson. 

Speaking to Heartbeat, she explained: 

“Since this pandemic started I saw 

hospitals being sent a lot of things from 

food and drink parcels to goody bags 

and care packages. As I work within the 

Trust, I wanted to do something to give 

back and help my colleagues who have 

been working so incredibly hard. 

“My mom raised money for the goody 

bags through friends and family donating 

money. We were overwhelmed with the 

amount of money that we received, it was 

a lot more than we first thought we would 

raise. With the funds, we managed to put 

together goody bags for McCarthy, Eliza 

Tinsley and Henderson wards at Rowley 

Regis Hospital. I’m pleased that with the 

support of our family and friends we’ve 

been able to do a kind deed." 

Speaking of her motivation behind joining 

the apprenticeship programme, Phebe 

shared how a personal experience led her to 

this career. “One of the main reasons I came 

into this job role was because I previously 

cared for my grandad who at the time was 

terminally ill. I joined the apprenticeship 

programme when I realised I wanted a 

career in the NHS. 

“I thought this would be the best option for 

me as I’m able to learn on the job, gain new 

skills whilst developing my practical and 

theoretical knowledge. I aim to complete 

the nursing associate scheme and to further 

develop my career from there.” 

Phebe Thompson, Apprentice pictured with 

some of the goody bags she has donated to 

colleagues. 

26

Breathing easy thanks to practical 

management of breathlessness course 

Recently our Trust hosted a practical 

management of breathlessness course 

for health care professionals that work 

with patients who suffer from chronic 

breathlessness. It was designed to help 

attendees develop their knowledge 

and skills in non-pharmacological 

breathlessness management. 

The event was hosted by our community 

respiratory service (iCares directorate) 

and organised by Anna McCall, Senior 

Respiratory Physiotherapist. Anna told 

Heartbeat: “Bringing the event to life 

was a real team effort. It was a chance 

to bring together experts to share their 

knowledge and experience locally. We were 

able to widen the event beyond our Trust 

and welcomed attendees from Dudley, 

Wolverhampton and Walsall Trusts. We also 

had 18 delegates from other organisations 

across the UK join us which we were 

thrilled about. 

“We were supported by some of our 

administration team to get this event off 

the ground. Cody Jones and Amanda 

Hawkins from the community contact 

centre did a marvellous job. We were very 

thankful for their input and assistance in 

Members of the Community Respiratory Service 

(iCares Directorate). This photo was taken before 

social distancing. 

making the day a success.” 

The course itself was facilitated by four 

experts from the Cambridge Breathlessness 

Intervention Service (CBIS), Addenbrookes 

Hospital and Cambridgeshire University 

Hospitals Trust. Palliative Care Consultant, Dr 

Anna Spathis from CBIS led the training. 

Delegates heard from Dr Spathis on 

important topics such as the “breathing – 

thinking- functioning” model, and current 

research applicable to non-pharmacological 

breathlessness management. The afternoon 

included workshops to put into practice some 

of the interventions discussed in the morning. 

There was also time for panel questions and a 

group discussion. 

Speaking of takeaways from the course, 

Anna said: “If the day had to be summarised 

TV fame beckons for midwives 


AND THERAPIES 

by one key message, it would be that 

breathlessness appears in many different 

conditions towards the last stages of life, 

not just respiratory or cardiac diseases. 

Non-pharmacological breathlessness 

management is an essential skill that 

should be shared across all professions.” 

She added: “We hope that healthcare 

professionals will now have the 

knowledge and tools to look at setting 

up similar breathlessness services in their 

local areas or at the very least have the 

individual skills to treat their patients 

with non-pharmacological interventions 

such as these. 

“This will benefit patients through 

receiving the best evidence-based 

treatments for their breathlessness, 

empowering them to self-manage, 

achieve acceptance and take ownership 

of this debilitating symptom. It will 

also prove cost-effective by reducing 

unnecessary prescriptions and avoiding 

hospital admissions.” 

Midwives from our Trust received 

national recognition when they 

appeared on the BBC’s The One Show 

which took a detailed look at how they 

have been hosting maternity clinics at 

football clubs. Presenter Adrian Chiles 

and lifelong Baggies fan, headed to 

The Hawthorns, the home of West 

Bromwich Albion where some of the 

sessions for pregnant women and new 

mums are taking place and interviewed 

colleagues. 

In April’s Heartbeat we shared how the 

maternity team, led by Louise Wilde, Deputy 

Director of Midwifery and Community 

Matron, Cathy Brown set up the clinics 

at Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion 

football clubs. Following national media 

coverage on the story, The One Show 

producers contacted the Trust to set up an 

in-depth look at the new venue for care. 

The clinics were set up to alleviate anxiety 

in some women who didn’t want to come 

into a hospital setting during the coronavirus 

pandemic. Louise said: “It was a great 

experience which showcased how our Trust 

is truly leading the way when it comes to 

adapting to this very unusual situation that 

we find ourselves in. 

One Show presenter Adrian Chiles with midwives 

at West Bromwich Albion 

“By moving these clinics to the football clubs 

we were thinking outside of the box, and I 

understand other Trusts are now following 

in our footsteps. Adrian Chiles was very 

passionate about what we are doing, and he 

was impressed with the setup – especially as it 

is his beloved Albion being used as one of the 

venues.” 

After his visit the presenter wrote about his 

experience in The Guardian: “I left home this 

week to make a short film for The One Show. 

The film I left lockdown to make this week was 

all about keyworkers – midwives and nurses 

with Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust. 

"Early on in the COVID-19 outbreak, the 

Trust was concerned that new and expectant 

mothers were increasingly reluctant to visit 

WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH 

clinics and hospitals for check-ups. The 

call went out for help. West Bromwich 

Albion and Aston Villa football clubs 

put their hands up, and so it is that the 

executive boxes at the Hawthorns and 

Villa Park are ringing incongruously with 

the sound of babies crying. I’ve been 

watching West Brom at this ground every 

other weekend since April 1974, and I’ve 

heard all manner of wailing and gnashing 

of teeth there in that time, but never 

babies crying. 

“I was beyond delighted to meet a fourday-old 

boy named Albie, after the club 

his dad supports and, with awesome 

serendipity, where Albie was presented 

for his first post-natal check-up. Babies 

of supporters of rival teams are also 

welcome, I should point out.” 

To read his full article visit 

https://www.theguardian.com/ 

commentisfree/2020/apr/29/how-doi-know-the-world-has-turned-upsidedown-my-football-ground-is-now-amaternity-clinic 

27

Cancer services go nuclear during 

COVID-19! 

IMAGING 

When COVID-19 arrived at our 

doors we knew right away that 

one of the most vulnerable patient 

groups at our Trust would be our 

cancer patients. After months of 

radiotherapy and chemotherapy 

their immunocompromised bodies 

would stand little chance of battling 

COVID-19. Immediately work began 

to see how we could continue 

supporting these patients but in 

a safe environment, away from 

the risks of infection in an acute 

hospital. 

With the looming threat of COVID-19, 

we took the decision to shield our 

cancer patients by immediately moving 

their treatment to two external sites, 

The Priory for gynaecological surgery and 

Solihull Parkway for breast cancer surgery. To 

find out more about the work that went in to 

safeguarding our cancer treatments we caught 

up with Bill Thomson, Consultant Physicist and 

Head of Physics and Nuclear Medicine, who 

told us about a new process being used to 

ensure surgery offsite goes smoothly. 

He said: “When our surgeons operate on a 

cancer patient, sometimes the patients need 

a radioactive tracer injection near the tumour 

site. The tracer lets the surgeon pick up the 

sentinel lymph nodes using a small radioactive 

probe and to identify the nodes which should 

also be excised at the surgery. Currently, this is 

used for some breast cancer surgery patients 

and also for some vulval cancer surgery. 

“Normally, this injection is done on the 

morning of the surgery on-site at City Hospital. 

However, to ensure our patients would be able 

to have their surgery, we set up a procedure 

whereby a patient visits nuclear medicine 

the day before surgery for their injection 

and they can still go to have their surgery 

the next day with the tracer still being 

detectable.” 

He added: “We have worked closely with 

private hospitals to ensure processes such 

as risk assessments, storage and disposal 

of swabs were put in place. It has been a 

real team effort, but it has all been worth 

it to ensure patients can still undergo their 

surgeries with minimal disruption.” 

Tina Robinson, Group Director of 

Operations – Surgical Services, told us: 

“We have completed 174 operations up 

until 13 May offsite. Being able to work 

collaboratively in this way has meant that 

patients have still been able to receive 

the essential surgeries they need. We’re 

grateful to all of the hospitals we have 

been working with for their support.” 

PET Scanner rolls in to City Hospital 

Joe O’Brien, Principal Physicist; Mike Chevan (Alliance Medical, Head of PET/CT statics); Rajesh Modha (Alliance) ;Vicky Yearwood (Alliance); Bill 

Thomson, Head of Physics and Nuclear Medicine 

No, it’s not a scanner for your dog, 

it’s the latest addition to the imaging 

team's growing arsenal of cutting 

edge technology, the combined 

Positron Emission and Computerised 

Tomography Scanner. 

Earlier this month the long-awaited PET/ 

CT scanner rolled in to view and parked 

itself outside the imaging department at 

City Hospital, the unassuming lorry hiding 

within it a scanner that is set to transform 

the offering of the imaging department. 

Positron Emission Tomography Scanners are 

unique and innovative scanners that use a 

small amount of radioactive tracer material 

to diagnose, evaluate and treat a variety of 

diseases including cancer, heart disease and 

neurological amongst others. 

To find out more about the new scanner, 

Heartbeat spoke to Bill Thomson, 

Consultant Physicist and Head of Physics 

and Nuclear Medicine. He said “What’s 

great about PET scanners is that they give 

us an insight into changes within the body 

at a cellular level and so it’s one of the most 

useful diagnostic or treatment information 

available. This is a very important milestone 

for the nuclear medicine service our 

patients can receive. 

Although operated by Alliance Medical, 

our imaging medical staff will authorise the 

PET/CT referrals. 

Also, there is potential for PET/CT reporting 

of the scans, and Alliance is going to install 

a dedicated PET/CT reporting station in 

nuclear medicine. 

This will be an important aspect for future 

recruitment of consultant staff, as well as 

allowing training in this modality for current 

trainees.” 

To find out more about the PET/CT 

scanner, contact Bill Thomson on email: 

Bill.thomson@nhs.net 

28

??? 

??? 

??? 

This month we say hello to a familiar 

face, Jawad Khan. Jawad has been with 

us for over a decade; however, he was 

recently appointed director of medical 

education replacing Dr Chilvers who 

left the position at the start of 2020. 

Jawad has spent a total of 12 years at the 

Trust as a consultant cardiologist. He has 

held teaching roles such as being the joint 

lead for simulation training, as well as 

the Head of Academy for Aston Medical 

School. He has played a pivotal role in 

designing and delivering teaching and 

education programmes, both nationally 

and internationally, over the last 10 years, 

with his area of research interest being 

simulation-based medical education. This 

formed the basis of his Masters in Medical 

Education thesis. 

Jawad was thrilled when he heard 

the fantastic news of his successful 

appointment. “I was delighted to be 

appointed as director of medical education 

at a Trust which so enthusiastically 

embraces training and education for 

colleagues and that has a strong focus on 

delivering the highest standards of care for 

patients.” 

Jawad Khan is our new director of medical 

education 

He added: “The Trust is very focused on 

ensuring the good health and wellbeing 

of its doctors and nurses is a top priority, 

providing them with a clinical environment 

that can nurture them to achieve their 

full potential. I very much look forward to 

delivering the Trust's education strategy 

Jawad Khan 

Director of Medical Education 

in the coming years and join a fantastic, 

energetic and motivated education team.” 

David Carruthers, Medical Director, believes 

Jawad is the perfect person for the role. 

He said: “Jawad’s broad educational 

background and drive to develop medical 

education as we prepare to move to the 

recently renamed Midland Metropolitan 

University Hospital makes him the ideal 

appointment for this post. I’m sure everyone 

will support him in building on the strong 

educational reputation of the Trust as we 

go through the challenges of the next few 

months. 

“Working with our existing and new 

partners, while preparing for the University 

Hospital, makes this a highly exciting time 

for the whole medical education team." 

Outside of the clinical environment, Jawad 

revealed he likes to remain active as well 

as doing activities to stimulate his mind. “I 

enjoy playing basketball and squash as it 

helps me to maintain my fitness. I also play 

chess as I find it intellectually satisfying and 

rewarding.” 

29

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 

Problematic Pulse? 

Dear Heartbeat, 

I’ve got into a good routine working from 

home; however I feel I could be even more 

productive if one major issue was improved. 

The issue I’m talking about is Pulse. When I 

log on initially it seems okay but throughout 

the day it seems to get slower and slower. 

I’m pretty sure it isn’t my internet at home as 

my husband seems okay when he is doing his 

work. I have spoken to other co-workers at 

the Trust and they experience similar issues. 

Is it a capacity issue when too many people 

log on at the same time and Pulse can’t 

always handle it? It can’t be a laptop issue 

as I have fairly new laptop. If my phone can 

manage to access emails and the internet at 

the same time, surely Pulse could be better? 

I have even hardwired my laptop to my 

router at home and that didn’t make much 

difference. Pulse just seems very slow and 

clunky. Surely we need to think about how 

we can improve this long term, especially 

as there won’t be a coronavirus vaccine 

coming anytime soon. We will likely have to 

maintain social distancing and work some 

days from home in the future. I don’t mean 

to moan about IT as I can imagine they are 

overwhelmed with queries at the moment, 

but I just think long term the Trust could do 

with something better. 

Dear colleague, 

Thank you for your feedback regarding 

Pulse and we are sorry that you have 

been experiencing issues. 

We have identified a number of conflicts 

with Pulse and last week made a change 

to upgrade the service. This should 

improve the service for everyone and 

increase our capacity. 

A few tips that may help everyone are: 

• To use Webex teams and Webex 

meetings you do not need to be on 

Pulse, these are secure in their 

own right. 

• Working over Pulse on large 

documents stored on Trust shared 

drives causes a lot of data traffic. 

There is usually better performance 

if you work on files you have 

downloaded. 

• As you work through the day or 

night the number of things open on 

your computer increases and all of 

these can create traffic, 

performance may improve if you 

close unwanted applications. 

If problems persist then please call the 

service desk on 0121 507 4050 which is open 

24x7. 

We hope that helps. Please get in touch if 

the problem persists. 

Kind regards, 

Martin Sadler 

Chief Informatics Officer 

Banking on a permanent role 


Most industries and businesses use agencies as 

a way to evaluate temporary workers and then 

they are usually automatically given a position if 

they meet the required standards. 

Why does this Trust insist on doing things the 

hard way? We have bank staff working hard to 

cover vacant positions, and yet they still end up 

having to go through the usual fight when the 

job finally gets advertised. 

It’s wrong! Bank staff should automatically get 

offered the position if they are doing a good 

job. It happens in every other sector, so why not 

here? 

Anon 


Thank you for your letter. Our colleagues on 

the bank provide an invaluable service to the 

Trust and we appreciate the skills you bring 

to our workplace, always there to give us 

extra support when required. 

We offer a fast track service for anyone 

on the bank who would like to become a 

substantive member of our team. Last year 

we sent out letters twice to bank staff to 

make them aware of this. We also send out 

text messages regularly to bank staff to keep 

them informed of substantive roles. If you’d 

like to find out more, please email michelle. 

jarrott@nhs.net. 

Kind regards 

Frieza Mahmood, Deputy Director – 

Organisation and Development 

Long term update on parking once 

new car parks are built 


First off, before I write this letter I would like to 

personally thank the Trust in making the parking 

free for both patients and staff during the 

COVID-19 pandemic. 

My question is more around the long term 

situation around parking. Being a regular reader 

of Heartbeat magazine a particular article in 

the April edition around parking caught my 

attention which was about us being granted the 

permission to build the parking facilities. This is 

all well and good but nothing around cost was 

really highlighted in the article. 

I’m no building expert but I hazard a guess that 

building two car parks costs money so am I right 

in assuming that to pay for these new parking 

facilities the staff will have to bear the burden 

of this with an increase in our monthly parking 

payment to the Trust? Or will the Trust continue 

to charge us the same rates once these facilities 

have been built. Some proper clarification around 

how much it will cost staff to park at these new 

car parks would be fantastic? Are we going to 

see a massive hike in parking prices? Surely the 

current situation and amount would be better for 

parking rates as TWENTY IS PLENTY!!! 

Kind regards, 

Anon 


Thank you for your letter. The government 

has paid for free parking during the crisis 

and we expect that subsidy to end. I am glad 

the article in last month’s Heartbeat about 

the Trust gaining planning approval for its 

two new Multi Story Car Parks (MSCP) caught 

your attention. It really is a good news story. 

The bad news is that as building work 

commences on these MSCP’s from July 2020, 

staff car parking will become far more 

difficult at Sandwell and City Hospitals for a 

period of time. 

Once the new car parks open the Trust 

retains control of tariff setting for car 

parking charges and the intention is to 

increase charges annually in line with the 

retail price index. So there won’t be a sharp 

rise as you fear, but prices will go up year 

by year in line with inflation. Since 2016 we 

have frozen prices, so that is a change. 

Maybe now is the time to look again at 

sometimes using public transport, car 

sharing, bicycling or walking: These are 

all things the Trust is trying to support and 

subsidize. 

Kind regards, 

30 

James Pollitt 

Assistant Director Strategic Development

PDSA mirrors the scientific 

experimental method of formulating a 

hypothesis, collecting data, analysing 

and interpreting the results and making 

inferences to iterate the hypothesis 

and so is a familiar (albeit packaged 

differently) approach that clinical staff 

understand and have adopted in their 

education and so adapt and adopt to 

quickly when Improvement Teams use 

this methodology in Change. 

Toby writes about… Being passionate about 

learning to improve care 

TobyLewis_SWBH 

TOBY’S LAST WORD 

Our league table for QIHD, or the premier league 

part of it, is shown alongside this article. It shows 

that Trauma and Orthopaedics have joined 

Children’s’ Therapies with a Gold Award. 

Many congratulations to both, with T&O this 

month reaching the mark a few years on from a 

safety summit about avoidable deaths in our care. 

We now have over a dozen teams in the silver 

category, almost ready to reach gold – mostly 

with the addition of strong involvement by GPs 

and by patients in their quality improvement 

work. If your team is not there, remember that 

opportunity knocks. The standards for achieving 

the ratings are now pretty clear and Angharad 

MacGregor, Claire Hubbard, or Kam Dhami, can 

coach you through them. We want to support 

not just large numbers of colleagues being 

part of quality improvement, but a qualitative 

conversation and programmes of improvement in 

every team. Of course including GIRFT, but going 

beyond it; reflecting lessons from complaints and 

compliments. But, in particular, demonstrating 

lateral learning inside the Trust, team to 

team. 

That is where it is really important that we get 

our GEMS and our weLearn from Excellence work 

moving. Having read through the output reports 

from QIHDs in April, and the one focused on 

lessons from COVID-19 in May, it is really clear 

that we are well set to demonstrate that we have 

great practice in our midst and need to spread 

it. We have teams that have taken to Visionable. 

Others that consistently make good use of 

interpreting. Some whose VTE accomplishments 

stand out. Teams who meet the safety plan 

standards, and always respond to sepsis alerts. Or 

we have teams like community district nursing or 

community midwifery who have literally turned 

working practices on their head to cope with the 

pandemic. Whether it is individual Shout Outs 

or more systemic learning, we need to capture 

the essence of what has worked, and learn 

from what has not. The difference between 

requires improvement and outstanding is a 

fine set of margins. Likewise then we can all do 

‘bar code prescribing’ under Unity – but there is a 

best way of doing it, and once we all know what 

that is we surely have an obligation to adopt it. 

I have often used this back page to bang on 

about the importance of collaboration time as 

an under-acknowledged variable in improving 

care. QIHDs are just that – time for people to 

talk. Our brigades have brought teams together 

to see what one another does. Now we have a 

recovery plan to implement. Under that plan, 

we deliberately put back services but not as 

they were before. So one of the components 

of our learning strategy must be to build into 

service models, and job plans, working lives and 

team structures, this time to talk and time to 

learn. COVID-19 has caused teams to talk, 

QIHD League Table: May 2020 

League 

Position 

Gold 

Silver 

Current 

Status 

QIHD League Table: May 2020 

Name of QIHD Team 

1 Children's Therapies 

2 Trauma and Orthopaedics 

3 Palliative 

4 Care Foot Health 

5 Rheumatology 

6 

Quality 

Improvement 

Half Day 

GOLD AWARD 

Community intermediate care and medically fit for discharge wards inc 

Leasowes 

7 Obstetrics and Gynaecology 

8 Health Visiting 

9 Stroke 

10 New-born Hearing Services 

11 Orthoptics/Ophthalmic Technicians 

12 Urology 

13 Rapid Response Team Medicine Therapies 

14 Gastroenterology 

15 General Surgery 

16 Paediatrics 

17 MSK 

18 

to negotiate, to experiment. We Care need of the to Elderly help team A good place to start, if you are fired up by 

that to happen 19 in the way in which Imaging creates Group service this article, might be the daily summaries 

models – probably 20 becoming expert in how we use of learning produced by our Knowledge 

Clinical Governance 

WebEx Teams to permit people to talk across sites, Management and Library team. You can find 

21 

between home and the workplace, Audiology across parts of those on Connect https://connect2.swbh. 

our organisations. 22 Travel time and Anaesthetics, messiness Critical of Care nhs.uk/library-and-information-services/ 

and Pain Management 

getting everyone 23 into one room iCares is removed and the and District we Nursing Team 

try and share content and conversation. 

24 Cardiology 

The Chairman Using PDSA to Improve Sepsis Screening 

25 

fires the starting gun 

ENT 

on this year’s 

Star Awards in this edition of Heartbeat. Next 

What is PDSA? 

I’ll Get by with a Little Help from 

The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle is one of the few Quality Improvement tools that 

26 Anticoagulant Services 

my Friends 

focuses on the nitty-gritty of change i.e. the transformation of ideas into action. 

The purpose of the PDSA method lies in quickly learning whether an idea or 

One of the main problems encountered in using PDSA is the misconception 

month we will kick off the contest to prepare our 

intervention worked and then to making necessary adjustments to increase the 

that it can be used on its own often leading to a ‘continual trail and error’ 

chances of delivering and sustaining the desired improvement. 

practice with poorly designed plans. 

Project : Improve Screening and Treatment rates to reduce mortality due to sepsis : 

Once the screening rates started to improve we were in a position to focus 

Ensure potential sepsis patients were screened (Early warning score, ews >=5), 

in on some of the reasons why screening was not being done. Using an 

2020 QIHD Posters: 27 £5,000 as usual Sandwell up for School grabs. Health Nursing 

Confirmed were treated and within 60 mins from original alert. 

iterative PDSA approach alone at this point would have slowly found the 

reasons eventually but many 

In August 2018 our Sepsis screening rate for patients that Alerted for potential Sepsis 

(that was evidenced able via electronic data) was 9% or 1 out of every 11 patients. 

Cause and effect analysis (fish-bone diagram) helped us to think through 

the causes of a non-screening including possible root causes, before we 

PDSA 1 : RECORDING AND REPORTING 

implemented the next PDSA ; it allowed us to think of a solution – not just 

Of course this symptoms. By identifying all possible causes and not just the most obvious, 

28 is the opportunity Financial to crystallise Management all 

we worked towards removing the problem. Working through cause and 

effect analysis enables those involved to gain a shared insight into the 

problem, develop possible solutions and create a snapshot of the team’s 

collective knowledge. 

that we are learning from working at home, or 

29 

using technology, proning patients, Integrated or undertaking Sexual Health Department 

specific research 30 studies. The contest In contrast to controlled trials, PDSAs allows new learning to be built in to the 

Respiratory is not Therapies just 

experimental process. If problems are identified with the original plan, then the theory 

can be revised to build on this learning and a subsequent action made to see 

Another of its QI friends (Pareto principle) can be introduced by using 

if it has resolved the problem. Healthcare quality improvement are multi-factorial and 

league tables: 

this flexibility and adaptability of PDSA are important. 

about COVID-19 of course, and by the time 

PDSA 2 : MOVING IN SMALL CHUNKS OR ALL THE SAME TIME 

PDSA 3 : SHARING GOOD PRACTICE 

31 Neurophysiology 

December’s judging comes around we will face 

32 

the usual Winter Pressures, and Capacity will have Management had six 

months to realise 33 the impact of Speech the pandemic 

Language Therapy 

on other conditions, late presentation and 

34 Neonates 

mental wellbeing. So there is much to study and 

to reflect in your QI time and those QI submissions. 

Don’t assume orthopaedics will win, albeit their 

use of confidence intervals in their accreditation 

The Use of PDSA cycles and its implementation can be seen in Meeting room1 , Sandwell HQ in the Safety Plan and Quality Plan PMO’s and can be learnt in a practical 

course delivered by the Improvement Team. 

submission gives you a hint that we are looking 

M. Chadderton, Acting Head of Improvement Team. IMPROVEMENT TEAM 

for data, impact and professionalism in what you 

submit. 

2019's winning weLearn poster 

Bronze 

Entry 

31

Support does not end at the gates, 

as Trust looks to give back 

@SWBHCharity To donate 

to the Your Trust Charity text 

“SWBH16 £5” to 70070 

The COVID-19 crisis has truly brought 

the community together behind the 

NHS, and our organisation is truly 

thankful for all the support offered. 

Be it assistance with transport, 

monetary donations to Your Trust 

Charity or donations of supplies and 

food. 

In turn, our organisation has been 

keen to reciprocate where it can; 

supporting both people beyond the 

walls of the Trust and lending a voice to 

champion those in the local economy 

who have leant aid. An example being 

the #ClapForBusinesses initiative in which 

colleagues have been applauding firms 

that have stood in solidarity with the Trust 

and its members - often supplying vital 

assistance in a number of big and small 

ways. 

However, one way in particular that the 

Trust has been giving back is with the 

redistribution of some of the food goods 

it has received. Gurdwara Aid, which has 

assisted several NHS healthcare Trusts in 

several ways throughout the coronavirus 

pandemic and lockdown, contacted Your 

Trust Charity to donate its supply of dried 

food. This has been used in part towards 

food parcels for our elderly patients being 

discharged and also our homeless patients 

coming through the doors. 

"It's a wonderfully kind gesture," Your 

Trust Charity's, Amanda Winwood told 

Heartbeat. "One that can truly have a 

great impact within our community and 

YOUR TRUST CHARITY 

with those that truly need help. Our 

first thoughts were to reach out to the 

district nurse teams who are still going 

out to the vulnerable in the community 

and who may not be able to go out and 

get provisions." 

"We thought it was a fantastic idea," 

adds Helen Taylor, Lead Nurse for the 

Homeless Patient Pathway Team. "The 

homeless team has been getting an 

increasing number of phone calls from 

the wards for food parcels for the 

elderly, not necessarily just the homeless 

and there was only so much we could 

do under the circumstances.” 

Stores have been set up for the food, 

split between Sandwell and City 

Hospitals. Further plans as to how 

supplies can be acquired and distributed 

are being developed. 

Earls High School donated visors they made 

Hampers for Heroes 

donated 10 hampers 

Sandwell Valley 

Neighbourhood Watch 

donated items for 

wellbeing packs 

Help Us Help NHS donated 260 sets of 

scrubs 

Wellbeing packs - Fabulous mag 

Nylah, aged 6, made lots of rainbow gifts and 

sold them raising £250 

May 2020 staff lottery results 

Bo the bear found his forever home 

1st £188 

Margaret Malhan 

2nd £112.80 

Karen Jackson 

3rd £75.20 

Jayne Redfern 

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.

Heartbeat May 2020

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