Heartbeat July 2020

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Sandwell Council COVID-19 outbreak plan wins national praise COVID-19 Sandwell Council’s COVID-19 outbreak plan has been highlighted as a model of best practice by Department of Health officials. The plan, created by the borough’s public health team in response to a government instruction to all councils, has been published and the government is pointing other organisations to the Sandwell plan to help with their own outbreak contingency arrangements. It sets out detailed plans which will be immediately activated in case of further virus outbreaks and includes an online video summary. Sandwell’s Director of Public Health, Dr Lisa McNally said she submitted the plan to the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) and the feedback has been very positive. “The local DHSC coordinator has put it forward to the national team as an example of good practice.” She added: “Our outbreak plan brings together everything we do into one place – and will be something we keep adding to. The latest version will always be available on the council’s website along with a short video summary and other resources to help people understand more about what we do. “Our main aim is to be ready for whatever this pandemic throws at us next. We don’t know whether the ‘second wave’ will just be a modest increase in cases or something much bigger that will once again threaten health and social care service capacity. Either way, we’ll make sure that we do everything possible to protect our local community.” The plan sets out in detail how the public health team, in collaboration with other local and regional organisations, are responding to the challenge of COVID-19 outbreaks. It includes information on how outbreaks are managed in schools, care homes and workplaces by a seven-day-a-week outbreak response team. There are explanations about how testing and contract tracing is managed and how to protect the needs of those most vulnerable to COVID-19. To date, Sandwell has had 1,090 confirmed cases which, for purposes of comparison with other areas, is a rate of 332.9 per 100k population. Dr Lisa McNally - Director of Public Health for Sandwell In the ‘league table’ of case rates, this puts Sandwell 51st highest nationally and third highest out of the four Black Country local authorities. Dr McNally said there was currently a factory outbreak where a multi-agency team was working with the company to manage the situation and conduct testing across the workforce. Two schools have also had positive cases since they reopened. In both cases, the school benefited from having excellent infection control procedures in place, including good maintenance of ‘bubbles’, which meant that only a small number of children were exposed and minimal disruption to the school. She said: “School staff have done an awesome job in working with us to get these measures in place. I must have done over 30 risk assessments with headteachers myself – so I know first-hand how hard they’ve worked. She added: “We continue to see a few cases in care homes – but it’s greatly reduced, as thankfully are the number of deaths in care homes from COVID-19. Overall, across the pandemic, we have seen a lower death rate in Sandwell’s care homes than in other areas. Again, that’s thanks to continuous efforts of care home staff to work with us in making care homes as safe as possible. The PPE supply is now good.” Sandwell's COVID-19 outbreak plan has received national recognition 6
The patient’s Unity – coming to a smartphone near you The days of patients frantically trying to find their paper based test results, appointment dates and clinical advice will soon be over as we move Unity – our electronic patient record on to its next stage and begin offering a brand new patient portal. Unity launched in September 2019 and moved our Trust forward in leaps and bounds in terms of moving all of our patient records away from the confusing assortment of third party systems and on to one single unified record which we refer to as Unity. However in the months following our move to Unity, it quickly became evident that although clinical colleagues had taken a big digital step forwards, our patients had not – until now. In the coming months, a brand new patient portal will be rolling out across our Trust which will transform how patients access their own clinical records and interact with their care teams. A range of documents and test results will be available for patients to view. They will also have the ability to communicate with their care team and can complete pre and post appointment forms and questionnaires via secure messaging. Unity for patients All this can be done at any time using any device, whether it be a laptop, desktop or mobile phone. Leading on the rollout of the new patient portal Martin Chadderton said: “We have a legal obligation to allow patients to see their own records but this isn’t the only reason why we’re pushing forward with this. We know that patients who are kept up to date with their own care plans are more able, knowledgeable and prepared when they need help. These systems empower patients to truly take control of managing their health, to engage with their care teams and, at the click of a button, be able to see their latest information all in one place. The Unity optimisation begins to take shape new system will enable patients to see their consultation letters, test results and complete pre and post appointment forms and questionnaires – potentially saving lots of in-clinic time and allowing for a more focused consultation.” The new system will begin rolling out in October <strong>2020</strong> and will make its way across our Trust in a phased approach with colleagues in surgery and primary care, community and therapies being the first to take advantage of the system. If you would like to find out more about the new system, contact Joe Cridge on email: joseph.cridge@nhs.net. Unity launched in September to great fanfare, a major leap in our workflow supporting colleagues to better manage patient records – all from the comfort of one single system. Since the launch, there has been a lot of talk of ‘optimisation’, however this month the talk begins to turn in to actions as we launch two significant projects to move Unity in to the next phase. Unity has successfully been supporting our Trust since September 2019, with outages few and far between, behind the scenes our supplier ‘Cerner’ have been hard at work improving the system to offer better performance, improved user interfaces and a better structure supporting future development. We are now working to upgrade our system at overnight on the 26 August to take advantage of the improved code. Sharing his thoughts on the upgrade, Chief Clinical Information Officer and Consultant Ophthalmologist, Ash Sharma said, “Everything that is changing is under the hood, none of the processes or practices you have learnt will be changing, and the system itself at first glance will look almost completely the same. However, much of the underlying code that manages Unity will be updated to take advantage of improved processes delivering a much slicker, stable and most importantly safer experience for patients and staff.” The upgrade will take place overnight and will be one of the few updates that require elements of Unity to be taken offline for a short period. Details of the affected systems and schedule of upgrade will be shared through staff communications. Also this month, we see the relaunch of the Unity Go Paper-less project which is focussed on moving the remaining clinical forms and records which are still recorded on paper over to a digital solution. Colleagues are being encouraged to come forward and share their processes and forms with their group representatives. With the aim of declaring any remaining paper clinical documents by Monday 10 August. To find out more about the Unity Go Paper-less project, contact Essie Li via Essie.li@nhs.net. 7
Page 1 and 2: July 2020 Sandwell and West Birming
Page 3 and 4: Dad reveals 58-day battle with dead
Page 5: Lockdown through the eyes of frontl
Page 9 and 10: Shout out has been a regular featur
Page 11 and 12: Trust shines a light for 72nd NHS a
Page 13 and 14: Junior doctor’s children’s book
Page 15 and 16: The importance of moving to Midland
Page 17 and 18: Regeneration is key to success of h
Page 19 and 20: Red vs Blue streaming in ED making
Page 21 and 22: WebEx - maintaining multi-disciplin
Page 23 and 24: Memories really do matter… Mainta
Page 25 and 26: Community care continues on the ter
Page 27 and 28: Pulse News in brief from around our
Page 29 and 30: ??? ??? ??? Kathleen French | Inter
Page 31 and 32: David talks about: Public health pr

Heartbeat July 2020

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