New Interim Chief Executive
Announced
I’m pleased that last week we were able to announce the appointment of Julia Bridgewater to the position of Interim Chief Executive of the Trust—starting from 1 April 2013.
Julia brings a wealth of NHS
experience to the Trust, most recently in delivering change and redesigning health care services in North
Staffordshire.
Julia will help the Trust to continue to work towards achieving its objectives
– and in particular, supporting the development of high quality care closer to home for our local communities.
Once Julia is in‐post, we will provide staff with an update on our interim management arrangements and our plans to appoint a permanent Chief Executive later in the year.
I would also like to take this
opportunity to thank everybody in the Trust for their support during my time undertaking the role of Acting Chief Executive. This support has been much appreciated.
As I’m sure you’re all aware we are currently running a series of staff focus
groups around the Francis Report which are being held across the Trust.
These are really important sessions that give all staff information as to the background of the Mid Staff Inquiry and also provide details on the most recent report’s findings and
recommendations, as well as providing you with an opportunity to tell us your views.
If you’ve not yet booked on to a session, then please do so. See page 7 for details of how to do this.
Maggie Bayley
Acting Chief Executive
In
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust’s Staff Newsletterform
March 2013
Message
from
Maggie
Bayley,
Acting
Chief
Executive
Coming
very
soon…
NHS 111 aims to be an easy to remember number for when it is less urgent than 999. The service will be available 24/7 for people living in England or registered with an English GP practice. Patients who are registered with a welsh GP practice will need to contact their usual services, including Shropdoc for out of hours advice or NHS Direct Wales.
The NHS 111 service will be launching on Tuesday 19 March
Don’t
forget
* If your service answer phone message directs people to Shropdoc, this needs to be changed to 111. The Shropdoc telephone number (for patients registered with an English GP practice) will be diverted to NHS 111 in preparation for the evening of 19 March. Ideally, answer phone messages should instruct people to hang up and dial 111 rather than being diverted. They should also make it clear that NHS 111 is a freephone number
* Please start removing any references to Shropdoc or NHS Direct in printed materials and websites from 19 March
* Please ensure your staff are aware of NHS 111, in case a patient mentions the new service. If you have any questions about the new service, please email:
In December 2011 school nurse
Jo France was successful in
gaining funding for a pilot pro‐
ject from the Queen’s Nursing
Institute. The project objective
was quite simple: can the
school nursing service improve
access for school children by
introducing a texting service?
We all know that a lot of chil‐
dren use their mobile phone or
smart phone as a way of com‐
municating with friends, for
staying in touch on social net‐
works and simply keeping up‐to‐
date with what’s going on. Tex‐
ting provides a quick, anony‐
mous and convenient method
for communication – one that Jo
France thought could be ex‐
ploited for the benefit of pa‐
tients.
“I wanted to see just how we
could start to use technology to
help us. I wanted to use a
method that students use day‐in
and day‐out to communicate
with each other and see if it
could be used to help them
solve their health problems,”
says Jo.
Planning the project and work‐
ing with students from the two
pilot secondary schools in
Shrewsbury to help develop the
service and the marketing mate‐
rials took place during the be‐
ginning half of 2012. “It was es‐
sential that the schools and their
students were involved and en‐
gaged in the project to make
sure it would be as successful as
possible,” comments Jo. “We
wanted to make sure that the
project had the full support of
the school’s management team
and also that the students could
relate to the project from the
beginning so they helped us de‐
velop our posters.”
The project also developed its
own YouTube video to promote
the service. This can be seen by
following this link:
http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eqzioQ75EC8
The pilot was launched during
May 2012 and ran until Decem‐
ber 2012. It was available to
around 2,000 students across
the two schools, and allowed
them to communicate with the
‘TXT
UR
School
Nurse’
The results speak for
themselves:
202 total texts were re‐
ceived from May 2012 –
Dec 2012
45 texts led to a face to
face appointment being
arranged
25 young people text
back to say ‘thank you’
for the help/advice
received
The students text about the
following issues:
Sexual health inc
puberty and relationships – 56% Emotional health – 25% Physical health – 7% HPV – 8% Healthy eating – 5%
“The pilot was really successful.
Not only did we get a large
amount of enquiries via text, but
the awareness of the project
and of the school nursing service
in general was really good,”
explains Jo. “370 students took
part in an end of pilot survey,
and we compared these results
against results from a British
Youth Council (BYC) survey
conducted in 2011, the feedback
was really positive”.
Feedback from the students
revealed that 93% of local
students knew about the texting
service in the school compared
to 69% of students that
reported that they didn’t know
how to contact their school
nurse (BYC 2011).
87% of students from the pilot
schools knew that the school
nurses provide a confidential
service, compared with 61%
nationally (BYC 2011).
Sharing
the
success:
did
you
know…
The
British
Journal
of
School
Nursing
and
Nursing
in
Practice
Journal
has
run
an
article
on
the
project
and
Jo
has
conducted
an
interview
with
Coventry
University
about
how
digital
technology
is
being
used
to
deliver
services
for
young
people.
Jo
has
also
won
a
poster
competition
at
the
Energise
for
Excellence
event
held
by
NHS
Midlands
and
East
in
Wolverhampton
for
her
project.
Jo
has
also
facilitated
a
session
on
innovation,
the
project
with
the
QNI
&
social
media
on
the
school
nursing
specialist
practice
course
at
Wolverhampton
University
and
delivered
a
presentation
at
Coventry
University.
Jo
has
also
been
also
invited
to
attend
the
Child
and
Family
Health
Conference
(sponsored
by
the
QNI)
to
deliver
a
presentation
on
the
project.
So
how
did
the
project
do?
The Trust has access to video conferencing
facilities at all of it’s main offices—the
community hospitals, William Farr House,
Coral House, Oswestry Health Centre and at
Halesfield.
Staff are being encouraged to make use of
this simple, yet effective technology which
can help reduce travel times, associated expenses costs and help increase efficiency.
Two recent ‘Team Brief’ video‐conferencing sessions have highlighted some helpful hints to be borne
in mind. So, if you are thinking of making use of the facilities...consider these points:
Make sure you book your meeting room at least 15 minutes in advance, to make sure that you can switch on all the technology and so you can be ready for when the other groups joining the
conference turn up
Make sure you know how the technology works. It is pretty simple equipment, and there should be laminated instruction cards that provide step‐by‐step guidance on getting it all set up in each room. But just in case anything goes wrong, make sure you know the local contact in the office who knows how the system works as well as the IT helpdesk number (0800 181 4050) and call them if you need to
Make sure everyone knows the start time and that everyone has access to any papers or documents that you will be referring to
Whilst it is great to be able to bring people from different locations in to the same meeting, it does also mean that you need to be even more aware of not speaking when other people are speaking. If every‐ one speaks at once, then it can become very confusing and difficult to hear anyone.
So if you’re thinking of using the video conferencing facilities—give it a go! Remember, if you need
technical help setting it all up, then check with the local facilitator who may be able to help or call the
IT Helpdesk on 0800 181 4050 for support.
There is also more specific advice and support on Virtual Meetings and the Microsoft Lync System that
the Trust uses on the Staff Zone of the website—just follow this link:
Video
Conferencing
—
makin
g the most of
techn
ology
www.shropscommunityhealth.nhs.uk
Thanks to all community health staff teams that have been keeping their service pages up‐
to‐date on the Trust website. We have already started to receive a range of positive
comments back from users of the site about how much better it is than the previous site.
But it will only continue to be a useful and relevant resource for patients, public and
staff if the pages are regularly updated. So if you are a Content Owner (responsible for
the accuracy of the content) or a Content Editor (responsible for putting the information
on the website) then please review your pages and make sure they continue to be
The Journal of Wound Care (JWC) awards recognise innovation and excellence in wound care and highlight the great contribution that nurses, clinicians, scientists, researchers and academics make to development of wound‐care practice and research.
Pressure ulcer prevention is a core area of wound care and the clinicians in this field play a crucial role as up to 95% of all pressure
ulcers are avoidable.
The Shropshire Community Health Trust Pressure Ulcer Prevention Team was nominated for the category of ‘Pressure Care’. The nomination was specifically for ‘The Pressure Ulcer Prevention Helpline’ which is available to all healthcare professionals, carers, patients and relatives in the local health economy, Monday – Friday between 2 and 4pm. Messages can
be left outside of these times.
The helpline is designed to give dedicated access to a Pressure Ulcer Prevention Nurse for advice, support and referrals.
The JWC Awards received an incredibly high calibre of nominations and entrants from more than 10
countries worldwide, with
the winners truly epitomising the best that wound care has to offer. The awards themselves were shortlisted by a panel of expert judges.
The Shropshire Team received the place of ‘First Highly Commended’
and received an award and commemorative plaque.
The prestigious awards were read out by the British Gold Medallist Paralympics Champion ‘Danny Crates’ and were presented by the award sponsors at the ceremony at The Grand
Connaught Rooms in London on Friday the 8th March.
Jessica Bates, the Pressure Ulcer Prevention Team Leader, travelled to London to receive the award on behalf of The Team, the Trust, and all of our colleagues dedicated to preventing pressure ulcers in Shropshire especially our Manager (Tissue Viability Clinical Lead) Joy Tickle and the rest of the Tissue Viability Team and Dee Radford whose original idea the pressure ulcer prevention helpline was.
Congratulations to the
Team—great work!
Highly Commended
Helpline
NHS Pay Review:
information
The Government has announced some important changes to NHS staff pay. For Agenda for Change staff, the Government has accepted the Pay Review Body recommendation that all NHS staff on Agenda for Change terms and conditions receive a 1 percent rise in their basic pay, starting from 1 April 2013.
Click here to nominate your hero, now!
Nominations must be received by midnight on 19th June 2013
to be considered for NHS Heroes 2013.
Datix
Incident
Reporting
It is important that the Trust is aware of any events that occur that could harm patients,
staff or any other person who comes into contact with our services.
The Trust uses the Datix online computer system to record these events, all staff should
have access to the online Datix incident form. Guidance on how to complete the form has
been updated and can be found on the policies page on the website (go to the Staff Zone
of the Trust website and use the keyword ‘incident’ to
access the information) or by selecting the link on the top
of the incident form.
If you have any questions about reporting please
contact Peter Foord, Corporate Risk Manager on 01743
277661 or email.
NHS Heroes 2013 is a recognition
scheme designed to celebrate the
unsung heroes in the NHS family.
Remember, you don’t need to save
lives to be a hero.
On the contrary, it's often the
smallest, most considerate things
that go beyond expectations and
make a real difference to people's lives.
Like sharing some precious time, offering a hand
to hold, a shoulder to lean on or a few words of
comfort.
These are just a few of the things that
thousands of NHS Heroes provide
every day to make sure that each and
every patient receives the very best
care.
If you know someone who goes the
extra mile or gives that little bit extra,
show them how much you care by
nominating them as your NHS Hero
today.
It will only take a few minutes of your time but
the pride of being nominated will stay with your
Reminder:
Francis
Report
Staff
Focus
Groups
It’s one of the biggest public
inquiries into care, treatment
and culture in the NHS, and one
that will have an impact on
every single person that works
for the NHS for years to come.
So join us at one of our special
Trust focus groups to find out
more about the Inquiry and to
let us know your initial thoughts
about the report and its
findings.
Julie Thornby (Director of
Governance and Strategy) and
Nette Carder (Interim Director
of Operations) will be hosting a
series of short focus groups
across the county for all staff. It
will give you a little bit of
background to the inquiry and
also allow for some feedback
from you about your thoughts
and experiences, all of which
will help the Trust develop an
outline action plan of how it
intends to respond to the Fran‐
cis Inquiry’s recommendations.
The sessions are outlined
opposite, just click on the one
you would like to come to and
send us a quick email – just so
we know how many people to
expect at each session.
Friday 22 March, 12pm‐1pm, Training
Room, Oswestry Health Centre,
Friday 22 March, 2.30pm‐3.30pm,
Training Room, Whitchurch Commu‐
nity Hospital,
Wednesday 27 March 2pm‐3pm,
Training Room, Bishops Castle Com‐
munity Hospital,
Tuesday 9 April, 11.30am‐12.30pm,
K2, William Farr House, Shrewsbury,
Tuesday 9 April, 2pm‐3pm, Clee Ward
Meeting Room, Ludlow Community
Hospital,
Thursday 11 April, 2pm‐3pm, Room 2,
Coral House, Shrewsbury,
Your
Occupational
Health
and
Wellbeing
Stress is part of everyday life. But it’s not just about anxiety and panic. It’s the everyday experience of strain, time pressure and
trying to cope with the demands placed upon us – at work and at home. Stress can have an effect on our health and body, as can
the way we cope with stress such as smoking, eating unhealthily and not finding time to be physically active.
Please remember :‐
Highlight any work related stress concerns with your line manager
Seek advice from Human Resources or Occupational Health if you’re concerned about workplace stress and any effects
on your wellbeing or those of your colleagues
Take responsibility for your own feelings and ask for support if you need it
Be supportive of colleagues reporting or being involved in any stressful events, incidents, complaints or claims
Take a look at the Occupational Health section in the Staff Zone on the Intranet for ways of ‘Taking Control of Stress’
Be Heart Healthy
Occupational Health is holding a health and wellbeing drop‐in day on Wednesday 17 April at the Occupational Health Department,
Gains Park, Shrewsbury. Staff can drop in anytime between 8:00am and 6:00pm to get their blood pressure and cholesterol
checked and to get help and advice on how to get and stay healthy.
Heart Healthy Lifestyle Tips
Avoid smoking
If you drink alcohol, reduce the amount you drink each week
Get active
Achieve and maintain a healthy weight
Learn simple techniques to control your stress and take time to relax
Look out for future dates for Occupational Health and Wellbeing sessions being run around the County.
If there are any aspects of your health that you are concerned about
in relation to your work or you have any general health concerns