Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust s Staff Newsletter

Transcription

1 February 2014 In form Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust s Staff Newsletter Patient and Carers Panel the start of something special A new chapter in the Trust s ongoing commitment to patient and public engagement has been launched. Around 30 people representing a wide range of groups and views came together for the first meeting of the new Patient and Carers Panel to discuss what it wanted to achieve and begin to work out how local people can make a positive impact on their NHS services. Jan Ditheridge, Chief Executive, said: This is the start of something special for community health services in Shropshire. We know the way we see our services is sometimes different to how local people see them or the experience that they receive. So we want to make sure that we re continually listening to people, really understanding what they are telling us and then doing something about it. This Panel is one very important way that local people can let us know what we can do better and also where we are doing great work. At the meeting the Panel discussed ways in which it could help the Trust get views and opinions from local people including those who are sometimes marginalised in society and often have little input into the care that they receive. It also explored how the Trust can help support Panel members to become advocates for community health services, which are often over shadowed by main hospital services. Wendy Brook from SIAS and representing the Voluntary Sector Assembly commented: There was much creativity and energy in the room, I believe this is a positive and exciting time for Shropshire s community services as the NHS and voluntary sector work closely together. The Panel will meet every three months, but will also work on different projects between meetings to ensure it continually gets different views and opinions on different issues from a wide range of people. For more information about the Panel, and working with it, please contact Mark Donovan, Community Trust Patient Engagement and Experience Lead, on There s plenty to cheer about in this edition of Inform. As you can see above the Patient and Carers Panel has launched thanks to everyone who has helped to get this off the ground. I m particularly excited about where we can take the panel and the opportunities it opens up to make real improvements to the way we deliver our services. Watch this space! Well done to all staff whose hard work has resulted in such an impressive reduction in the number of avoidable pressure ulcers over the past 12 months or so (Page 5). There s been a big effort by the whole local health and social care economy to address this issue and no one is resting on their laurels. There s a lot more work to do of course if we re going to achieve our ultimate ambition of completely eliminating all avoidable pressure ulcers, but I hope you re all as encouraged as I am by the progress that has been made. I m sorry I wasn t able to attend the recent Health Visiting conference held at Shrewsbury Town Football Stadium, but from speaking with Tessa Norris, who chaired the event, I understand it was a great advert for the service. Congratulations to School Nurse Kirsten Ellmore for her Nurse Award nomination (Page 3). It s a real endorsement of both Kirsten and the wider School Nurse team. I ll be keeping my fingers crossed come the awards in May! Finally, I d like to thank everyone who got their flu jab over the last few months (Page 2). The Occupational Health team has worked really hard on getting as many clinical and corporate staff as possible to have the vaccination and these efforts have made a real difference to the uptake from staff. Keep an eye out for my weekly updates to find out what I ve been up to and my thoughts on the issues affecting community health services. Jan Ditheridge Chief Executive

2 Make a Pledge - Do Something Better Today You can make a difference on March 3 by pledging to support NHS Change Day. Its mission is to inspire and mobilise staff, patients and the public to do something better together to improve care. Anyone can get involved to pledge something that will make a difference, no matter how big or small. Every voice counts and every pledge matters. Visit the Staff News section of Staff Zone for more information, or click here. Thank you for helping us record our best flu jab figures to date A big thank you to all staff who got flu safe by receiving their free flu vaccination. Thanks to the efforts of the Occupational Health Team, flu champions, managers and colleagues, the final uptake for staff involved in direct patient care this year was 64.8% a massive improvement on last year s figure of 41.2%. Meanwhile, 35.6% of corporate staff had the vaccine. This is the first year the Trust has recorded flu jab figures for staff not directly involved in patient care. In total, 57% of Trust staff had the vaccine. Clare Guerreiro, OH Business Manager, said: Thank you so much to everyone who had the jab. By getting vaccinated you have protected yourself, your patients, your family, friends and colleagues from contracting the virus. I d also like to thank those staff who telephoned the OH department or returned the flu jab flyer attached to last month s payslip letting us know they had got their jab elsewhere as this has also made a real difference. You can still get the jab by calling the Occupational Health team on to make an appointment. Each month in Inform, Risk Manager Peter Foord focuses on a particular topic and explains why it s so important to report and manage the risks. What is the risk? Mandatory training is training that must be done either regularly, or before an activity is undertaken. The prime reason for attending is to ensure we have the right information to keep ourselves and our patients safe. There are a variety of different reasons why training becomes mandatory, including both local and national requirements. The most common reason is that there is a particular risk which must be consistently managed, and training is a part of the risk management. A good example of this is handling personal information. If we fail to deliver mandatory training, as well as potentially causing harm to patients, we run the risk of being held to account by the various bodies that regulate the NHS, including the Health and Safety Executive and the Care Quality Commission. If a member of staff has not completed mandatory training it can also have a significant effect on other legal processes, for instance the management of claims and inquests. How does the Trust manage the risk? Staff should be aware of the mandatory training needs analysis, which is updated annually. A review is currently underway, which will change the current format fundamentally, and will be published in due course. What incidents have occurred? An incident occurred recently related to a claim where a member of staff had booked onto a mandatory training course two years running, but had not attended either session. The reason for this could not be established. The member of staff had a significant injury related to the subject covered in the training. Even though the incident would not directly have been affected by the content of the training it was deemed the claim was not defendable, and the Trust agreed to admit liability. The member of staff was also deemed to be liable, and had contributed to the negligence. What do we need to do in the future? Staff should ensure they attend relevant training. Where staff are professionally registered the registration authority would expect staff to take personal responsibility for this Managers should ensure at a staff member s appraisal that they have completed all necessary training and should follow up with them any failure to attend sessions when booked For further information, please contact Peter Foord at peter.foord@shropcom.nhs.uk or Anita Bishop, Assistant Risk Manager, at anita.bishop@shropcom.nhs.uk. Page 2

3 School Nurse Kirsten nominated for national award The fantastic work of a school nurse has received recognition after she was nominated for a highly prestigious national award. Kirsten Ellmore, Specialist Community Public Health Nurse, is on the School Nurse Award shortlist in The Nursing Standard Nurse Awards She submitted an entry on behalf of the team in respect of the roll out of the Asthma Guidance in Schools initiative and a very positive review audit which showed a healthy increase in asthma care for children and young people in schools. Kirsten will be required to give a presentation to an awards panel on February 27 before attending the awards ceremony in May at London s Savoy hotel, where the winner will be announced. Jo France, School Nurse Manager, said: We are extremely proud of Kirsten for being shortlisted for this prestigious award. The award recognises Kirsten's dedication and the partnership approach to improving asthma care for children and young people in schools in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. Kirsten is pictured holding the asthma guidance alongside other members of the School Nurse team Update to Trust s lease car policy The Trust s lease car policy is being updated to accommodate a new process which ensures all staff travelling enough miles in the course of their duties are entitled to a lease car. For those staff who already have a lease car through the Trust scheme, the process to renew their contract will remain the same i.e. the Car Leasing Manager will contact them before the end of their contract to let them know whether they are still eligible for a lease car and work with them to renew the contract where appropriate. Those colleagues who have never had a lease car, but are travelling more than 3,500 miles per year in business miles (or are projected to do so) will be contacted by HR to request they meet with their manager to discuss taking up a lease car contract. These staff would be supplied with a new car, for the duration of the lease, from the Vauxhall range. Personal contributions towards the cost of the car are dependent on the model chosen and the private mileage undertaken and they include insurance and servicing costs. If you think that you may be travelling over 3,500 business miles per year or are likely to do so, please bear in mind you are likely to be asked to move to a lease car contract over the coming months. This is particularly important if you are considering changing your vehicle in the near future. Page 3

4 Conference puts Health Visiting on the Map challenges and opportunities for the service in the future. There were plenty of reasons to celebrate when the first ever Shropshire Health Visitor conference took place at Shrewsbury Town Football Stadium. Around 160 of the county s Health Visitors and associated colleagues from across the Trust gathered for the Health Visiting in Shropshire Celebrating our People and Passion event to celebrate the great work that takes place, as well as to focus on the Chaired by Tessa Norris, our Director of Operations, the day was jam packed with speakers from the Department of Health, NHS England, Shropshire Council and Telford and Wrekin Council as well as from the Trust itself. There were also very personal, passionate and informative presentations given by health visiting colleagues from across the county touching on a range of emotive and educational subjects. We were even treated to a Graham Norton esque interview! Overall, the day was a huge success, especially as it was the first of its kind in the county. The spirit of the day was really captured by a series of caricatures developed by Martin Davies (who some of you will have met at the What Stress? workshops). Some of these are below and, as you can see, really capture the energy, enthusiasm and humour of the event. Another thing that summed up the positive mood of the event was a video played at the end of the day which focussed on some of those people in the county with first hand experience of the service who wanted to shout about why it is so important to them. It s no surprise the whole room erupted with applause at the end. After all, there was no better way to close the event than by hearing from the clients themselves to hear why they wanted to celebrate our people and passion. There is no better praise. Page 4

5 Great progress made on eliminating avoidable pressure ulcers but more work needed Eliminating all avoidable pressure ulcers has been a key priority for the Trust since its formation in A tremendous amount of hard work has been put in by staff to tackle avoidable pressure ulcers and we are seeing that dedication and determination pay off. The chart below shows how the Trust has performed since 2011 in tackling Grade 2, 3 and 4 pressure ulcers that have developed whilst patients are under our care. You ll notice there was an initial increase in the number of reported cases this is down to an increased awareness among staff of the need to improve the management of pressure ulcers. However, since the third quarter of (July September) there was has been an overall decline in the number of cases. Indeed, between the third quarter of and the third quarter of , the number of avoidable pressure ulcers fell from 96 reported cases to 38. This reduction would not have happened without the hard work of all clinical staff supported by the tissue viability team, so well done! These efforts have been bolstered by the work of the Safe Care: Harm Free programme taking place throughout the local health and social care economy, which challenges us to ensure at least 95% of patients do not suffer one of four harms pressure ulcers, falls, catheter associated urinary tract infections and venous thromboembolism. In spite of the great strides that have been made, more work is needed to achieve our goal of eliminating all avoidable pressure ulcers, so keep up the good work! Compass goes live A new single point of co ordination into Shropshire s Children s Services, which includes services to support children and young people s emotional health and wellbeing, has been launched. The Trust has worked in partnership with Shropshire Council and Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group to launch Compass, aimed at making accessing support from children s services simple, easy and clear. Compass will also provide a single point of contact for professionals to obtain advice and support. Compass is an integrated team approach, with CAMHS Senior Primary Mental Health Practitioners, Early Help Advisors (Senior Social Workers) and Family Information Service co locating to triage cases on a daily basis to ensure that children and young people get the right support, at the right time. Compass will: provide a single point of contact for professionals to obtain advice and support make accessing support from a range of children s services simple, easy and clear streamline existing processes provide advice and guidance to children, young people, their families and carers If you are concerned about a child or young person s mental health and emotional wellbeing, please call Compass on Compass will help to ensure that children and young people in Shropshire, with a range of needs, including mental health issues, receive appropriate and timely support suitable to their level of need. Please note: the process for making Safeguarding Referrals remains unchanged. These calls should be made to For more information on Compass please visit help/compass/ Page 5

6 Changes to Mandatory Training and Competencies on your Electronic Staff Record (ESR) There have been a number of changes recently to your Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Competencies When logging into your ESR, you will notice under Manage Your Learning a section called Compliance Matrix (pictured below). By clicking on this you will be taken to your Individual Compliance Network where a list of your competencies will be displayed. A colour key shows whether or not you are compliant with your mandatory training requirements, as well as any knowledge and skills framework (KSF) subjects also listed. If any of your competencies show up as Red (starting NHS MAND), please click on it and a relevant course will be displayed for you to achieve that competency. Mandatory Training To keep up to date with your mandatory training requirements, please visit the Staff Zone section of the Trust website and click on Organisational Development. From there click on Mandatory Training. Alternatively, you can click here. A number of e learning course names (starting with the prefix 000) are being replaced by Learning Certifications (starting with the prefix 825c). From now on, you need to subscribe to the individual Learning Certification and this will prompt you to enrol and complete the related course to give you a competency. For more information about Mandatory Training Competencies, please Simon Savage at simon.savage@shropcom.nhs.uk. Your pay slips are now being sent to your work address (shown in the Employee Self Service section of your ESR) instead of your home address. If you have not received your January payslip yet, please contact Janet Melia janet.melia@shropcom.nhs.uk with your current work location. You can log onto ESR by clicking on the NHS E Learning icon on your computer desktop. You ll need to use your smartcard or username and password (if you don t have a smartcard) to log in. Can t find Policies on the Trust s website? Read on Finding Policies on the Trust s website is easier than you might think. After visiting the Trust s homepage at you need to click on Staff Zone on the top right of the page. On the menu at the top of the Staff Zone home page, click on Policies and you will get this page (left). If you know the name of the policy you are looking for type the word in the Keywords section. Try to use words that are not too general, i.e. use 'hygiene' or 'infection' for hand hygiene or infection control policies, and use 'syringe' for policies related to syringe drivers etc. Also, don't use words like 'policy' or 'Trust' as your search is likely to return all the policy documents. Once you re happy click Go. If you still can t find what you re looking for then please contact Peter Foord, Risk Manager, on Page 6

7 Success at Infection Prevention and Control Study Day Learning was the name of the game when the Infection Prevention and Control Team held its second annual study day for IPC link workers. Topics covered on the day included the history of IPC, catheter associated urinary tract infection, decontamination of equipment and environment, anti microbial resistance, influenza and disease prevalence. It was very well attended and feedback was positive, with 96% of participants marking the event as either excellent or good. Comments included: Good structure to the day, Very enjoyable, Found all the areas relevant to the area I work and useful, very informative and relevant and useful. The IPC team hope to build on the success of the event and are already planning next year s study day. The event also saw three more members of staff getting their flu jab. Team praised for helping patient to manage his diabetes Trust Board members have commended the diabetes specialist nursing team for helping a patient to manage his condition. The Board members praised the team at the most recent Board meeting for the work they did to help the 66 year old. The gentleman told the Board how going on one of the Trust s STILE diabetes programmes had helped him to manage his own diabetes. His diabetes was kept in check by his wife, but when she died he was at a loss as to how to manage his condition properly and found his health was suffering. Following a visit to his GP, he was then seen by the Trust s Diabetes Specialist Nursing Team, who sent him on to the STILE structured programme for adults with Type 1 diabetes. As a result of attending the course, he told the meeting that he has much greater control of his condition and felt like he actually had a life now. Well done to the diabetes specialist nursing team for helping to improve the health and wellbeing of this patient. Health Visitors promote service at Whitchurch Market Health Visitors joined fruit and veg sellers and other traders when they ran a health promotional stall at Whitchurch Market. The team was keen to get out to Whitchurch to provide advice to the local community about the ways in which the service can help. The event also provided valuable practical experience for Student Health Visitors to deliver health promotion advice at a community level. The team spoke with dozens of passers by on the day and provided information on a number of issues, including vitamins and the Bookstart scheme, while also making sure to give out the Health Visitor contact details. There was also interest from other market traders, especially the bookstall whose stallholder was very positive about reading and child development. Pictured manning the stall are Student Health Visitors Sarah Hancock and Clare Jones. Gail raises hundreds of pounds for charity Well done to Gail Evans, Medical Secretary at Shropshire CAHMS, who has raised hundreds of pounds for charity. Gail sold her hand knitted bears and calorie free chocolate and in the process raised 315 for Macmillan Nurses; 135 for Children in Need; and 40 for the Philippines Typhoon Appeal. Not one to rest on her laurels, Gail is now raising money for Hope House Children s Hospices. Page 7

8 Free workshops for Family Carers Helping you care with confidence Let s Talk About the Challenge of Dementia Care An in depth session led by the Admiral Nurses on managing behaviour & communication and coping with stress Thursday 13th March am 3.00pm CVS, Wellington Refreshments and light lunch provided Sessions are relaxed and informal with lots of time for questions, discussion and sharing Topics covered include Understanding Dementia and how it affects the individual Reasons for unusual behaviour and helpful ways of responding Communication skills Ways to relax and take care of yourself We can help with the cost of transport and respite care to enable you to attend To book ring Jointly funded by Telford & Wrekin Council & CCG Shropshire RCC Carers Support Service Page 8

9 Trust corporate credit card launched The Trust is currently in the process of implementing a corporate credit card. This will initially only be used for booking rail travel and hotel accommodation to avoid staff having to use their own money and wait for reimbursement through Payroll. If this is successful, use of the card will be extended to items that are either only available online or are cheaper online. The cards will be held by staff in the Finance department so requests will be routed through them. We are waiting for the cards to arrive and for approval of the procedure for their use. This will then be communicated to all staff. We anticipate this being within the next few weeks. In the meantime, the Accounts Payable team has been reimbursing staff for rail tickets if they do not wish to wait for Payroll reimbursement. On receipt of an appropriately authorised manual payment request, reimbursement is made direct into the claimant s bank account. It s a Good Day to Tri Hard for Charity! A hugely successful annual walk between Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) which has raised more than 25,000 for charity will be bigger than ever when it is held again this summer. Organisers are hoping to raise 20,000 through the A Good Day to Tri Hard fundraiser, which will feature three events in one day on Saturday, 14 June. Nick Holding, an Improvement Manager at SaTH, said: To help celebrate 35 years of amazing fundraising by the Lingen Davies Cancer Fund, there will not only be an 18 mile walk, but entrants will also be able to choose to tackle an 18 mile run or take on a 35 mile cycle ride instead. All of the proceeds will go to Lingen Davies and whichever event participants choose, it promises to be our biggest event yet and I m sure it will be a memorable day. All events will start from PRH and will end at RSH. The walk and run will follow the same route as last year s event taking in a number of villages between the hospitals, just in reverse, and the cycle ride will be a scenic tour, taking in The Wrekin, Ironbridge, Atcham, Upton Magna, then alongside the River Severn and through The Quarry. Entry for the event is 10 and full details can be found at NUMBER NAME TRUST PRIZE 1534 Ursula Naven SaTH Katy Molland SaTH Jakub Ekert SaTH Sara Vale SCHT Craig Wilson SaTH Nicola Vaughn SaTH Catherine McCormack SSSF Carol Thomas SaTH Karen White RJAH Henry Williams SaTH Kathleen Wood SaTH Hilary Griggs SCHT Loraine Evans SaTH Hazel James SaTH Lucinda Shier SCHT Stacey Merrington SaTH Caroline Aston SaTH 25 Staff Lottery - Your Chance to WIN! Here s a list of the latest set of Staff Lottery winners. All employees of this Trust, as well as Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust and Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are eligible to join. First prize is 500; second is 250; third is 100; fourth is 50; and there are a further 12 prizes of 25 each. Twice a year there s also a super draw which gives an additional top prize of 1,500. To join the scheme, please click here where you will be able to download the lottery application form. Once complete and return it to Lucy Wilkinson, Staff Lottery Administrator, William Farr House, Mytton Oak Road, Shrewsbury SY3 8XL. If you have any queries please Lucy at lucy.wilkinson@shropcom.nhs.uk or call (ext 2257). Inform is produced by the Communications Team. If you have any ideas for features or you would like to promote you and your team s success then simply mark.fletcher@shropcom.nhs.uk with any ideas that you may have. Thank you! Page 9