trust news 31 October 2014 One stop services for patients and staff First Medical Equipment Library opens next week New K&C Outpatients clinic Our new Medical Equipment Library (MEL) here at QEQM is officially open from Monday 3 November. We will be out and about on the wards at QEQM on Monday scanning for equipment and ensuring the right medical devices are in the right location. Our staff will be in all clinical areas on Monday to ensure you have all contact details and to let you know when your unit is live. A huge thank you to all the members of staff here at QEQM for making us feel so welcome and helping us work towards the library being open. We look forward to supporting you in all that you do. When you need to contact the library, you can contact us through switchboard or our extension is 725-3892. We also have a unique email address [email protected] The library is open 8.00-5.30 Monday to Friday and 8.30-12.30 Saturday and Sunday. Out of hours will be covered by the Serco Helpdesk. Caroline Ratcliffe, Medical Equipment Libraries Manager – ext: 725-3892 Next week will see the stocking of the new Clinic D in outpatients at the K&C. Following major refurbishment the area will open with seven new consulting rooms and a procedure suite. This will allow for one stop clinics for urology and the pain service. Lithotripsy (a procedure that uses shock waves to break up stones in the kidney, bladder or ureter) will be undertaken here instead of in main theatres. There is additional waiting space, including a children's area, and a nursing room for patients requiring height and weight measurements. The dental facilities there have also had some new chairs and storage units and a full redecoration. news Staff Survey – have you done yours yet? If you have an nhs.net account and haven’t completed this year’s NHS Staff Survey yet, you will have had an e-mail from Picker this week reminding you to do so. Staff listening meetings: changing culture Got something to say? Then the staff listening meetings are for you! Topic: culture and staff engagement, with HR Director Sandra Le Blanc. All staff invited to attend - make sure someone from your team is going! Picker is running the staff survey on behalf of the Trust. Picker is an independent third party, so you can be confident that the survey is completely confidential. Picker do not share the individual survey responses with us and 13 November 10-11am Lecture theatre, WHH we can only see results for groups of more than 10 staff. 2 December Picker tell us that so far, just 22% of staff have completed the survey. The 10-11am Lecture theatre, QEQM 5 December survey was deliberately opened out to all EKHUFT staff this year rather 10-11am Harvey Hall, K&C than a sample of staff – please take your chance to have your say. Staff start support group for amputee patients Staff have begun a new support group for vascular amputee patients at the Kent & Canterbury Hospital. The group was created by Jo Brereton, Vascular Nurse Practitioner, and Louise Derbyshire, Vascular Occupational Therapist, due to there being a huge gap in support services and provisions for amputees in the local area. They say: “The group takes place once a month and we aim to offer a safe and supportive environment where people can get together, share experiences, inspire each other, gain emotional, social and practical support. One of the key elements of the group is to enable members to build on shared personal experience and empathy, focusing on individuals strengths and working towards their well being. We also aim to increase confidence, self esteem, recovery and coping skills and to help to prevent social isolation by building trusting relationships between group members. “We are delighted to have had the opportunity to start this group and hope it continues to evolve, with members being empowered to take ownership of the group.” Page 2 More listening meetings on this topic will be available in the New Year for staff who need 8 weeks notice to attend. What’s happening at next week’s Chief Executive’s Forum 6 November 9.30-11.30am, Harvey Hall, K&C On the agenda for the Chief Executive’s Forum next week is: • Updates on: CQC action plan, finance, outpatients strategy • Learn more about changes to procurement • Robotic surgery – where we have got to and where we are going Plus an open questions and answer session with Stuart Bain, Chief Executive news Tissue Viability Link Nurse Study Day The Tissue Viability team held their bi-annual link nurse study day on 22 October at the William Harvey education centre. There was a great turn out with over 70 attendees from the three acute sites. Sally Smith, Deputy Chief Nurse and Deputy Director of Quality, begun proceedings by updating link nurses on progress the Trust is making within Tissue Viability. Following our recent exhibition stalls on each site to raise awareness of the importance of heel offloading and repositioning, it was important to focus on other aspects that impact tissue viability. Therefore, the study day truly was a multi-disciplinary affair with nine workshops, each focussing on a different aspects relating to tissue viability, including safeguarding, dementia, nutrition, learning disabilities, vascular ulcers, root cause analysis, as well as pressure ulcer classification and wound assessment. Seasonal Flu Vaccination Sessions – more added The Occupational Health Service would like to encourage all staff and particularly ‘frontline’ staff to be vaccinated against flu in the coming weeks. As always the aim is to protect patients, your family, and yourself. Frontline staff by the very nature of their jobs come into contact with people who are unwell every day. Simply by having the flu vaccination staff can play an important role in not picking up the flu virus and passing this on to other patients – who are already poorly and vulnerable to infection. I would ask all clinical staff to show leadership with their teams and colleagues by supporting and encouraging others to get vaccinated this year – Bring a Colleague The Tissue Viability team have already received positive feedback regarding the study day. We hope to keep the momentum going, and keep pressure ulcer prevention at the forefront of people’s minds with the upcoming international Stop Pressure Ulcer Day on 20 November. The Tissue Viability team will be visiting wards and departments on the three acute sites to raise awareness and to deliver information packs with all the necessary material to increase knowledge and awareness of the importance of risk assessments, pressure ulcer prevention and care. We hope by empowering all staff to feel confident assessing patient’s risk, categorising pressure ulcers, implementing prevention strategies and documenting, we can eliminate avoidable hospital acquired pressure ulcers. Many thanks to the matrons and specialist nurses who took the time to present at the study day and to all the company representatives who attended and supplied some great resources for staff. Most of all thank you to all the staff who took the time to attend, to develop their skills further. Full dates are available on www.trustnewsonline.org Lorraine Crawley, General Manager, Occupational Health K&C’s bowls club parking ends today A reminder that the facility for staff to park at the bowls club on South Canterbury Road ends today – 31 October. From today, EKHUFT staff are no longer entitled to park within the bowls club, and instead should use the newly opened and extended staff car park on the land adjacent to the Orchards residences. Thank you. EKHUFT Travelsmart Parking Services Royal Victoria Hospital 01303 852788 Page 3 feature The big build The Estates teams have been refurbishing our hospitals over the last couple of years in a programme to improve facilities for patients, staff and visitors. Here’s a snap shot of some of the work done so far and what’s happening next... Improving public areas Before and after: the main entrance to William Harvey Hospital. The main corridors at QEQM have had new flooring, painted walls, bumper rails, lighting and new windows. The main corridors and main entrance at K&C have also been transformed into fresh, uncluttered spaces. Public toilet facilities have also been improved at QEQM and K&C. At K&C, the fracture clinic reception desk has been refurbished and new privacy booths have been created in clinics B and C in Outpatients. A new bathroom and store room have also been installed on CDU. Improving wards and clinical areas There is a long list of wards that have been refurbished and decorated so far - Kings/Cambridge Bay at WHH, Bishopstone, Quex, Deal and St Margaret’s at QEQM and Mount/Mc Master, Taylor, Invicta, Kingston, Marlowe and Kent wards at K&C. New staff kitchen facilities have been created across the K&C site and the patient kitchens on all wards have been upgraded. The Ambulatory Care Unit at K&C refurbishment. Before and after: St Margaret’s Ward. Deal Ward. Quex Ward. Plans for the future We plan to carry on with the refurbishment programme on the remaining wards from April/ May. A refurbishment programme of the public toilets at WHH is also planned, as well as refurbishment of the doctors’ resource room and maternity areas. We are also creating Medical Equipment Libraries on the three acute sites. Page 4 At K&C, additional security for the ECC and additional staff safety measures in fracture clinic are planned, as well as additional disabled car parking spaces, upgrade of lighting in the 1937 building, extensive repairs to the roof above theatres and renal outpatients, new bumper rails to support way finding, new seating in some areas and refurbishment of Harbledown ward’s sluice. £200,000 has been allocated to repair roofs at K&C and this work is now underway. We care news Dyslexia Awareness Week – 3-9 November Dyslexia affects 1 in 10 people. So there is probably someone with dyslexia in your team, if not several! However, lots of people don't understand what it is. Hopefully, after attending our market stalls and presentation you won't be one of them! Patient Centre Downtime – Software Upgrade Tuesday 4 November 6am – 8am Next week is Dyslexia Awareness Week and here at EKHUFT we aim to celebrate Please be advised that Patient Centre by raising the profile of and aiming to support those with dyslexia. PAS will be upgraded on Tuesday 4 November at 6am, please ensure you There will be market stalls at the following locations: are logged off by then. Patient Centre will be unavailable for approximately 2 • William Harvey Hospital on Tuesday, 4 November, Restaurant between 10am hours. Please refer to your downtime 2pm procedures during this time. • Kent & Canterbury Hospital on Wednesday 5 November, Restaurant between 10am - 2pm Details of the new upgrade can be • QEQM Hospital, Margate on Thursday 6 November, Restaurant between 10am found on Staff Zone – www.ekhuft.nhs. - 2pm uk/staff/systems/patientcentre-pas/ There will also be a presentation and workshop (especially for managers): If you have any problems post upgrade Dyslexia in the workplace - Are you discriminating without actually knowing please log a call via the HIS Service so? Find out about the legal issues and how to recognise and support your Desk staff. Many thanks in advance for your coScheduled at the following venues: operation CIS (PAS) Support • William Harvey Hospital, Education Centre, Seminar Room 12noon - 1pm • QEQM Hospital, Education Centre, Seminar Room 2, 11.30 - 12:30 Places are limited so book early to avoid disappointment at [email protected] Become a staff governor for 2015 We are looking for people who are passionate about health care to help East Kent Hospitals develop services that meet the needs of our staff. To book a place, please register your interest by emailing: [email protected] The events will be held at: As an elected staff governor, you will be involved in representing the views of Monday 3 November 2014, 18.30 – the workforce to work with the Trust and 20.00 Kent & Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury shape the hospital services in Kent. The Chairman and Chief Executive of East Kent Hospitals are holding four meetings for those who are interested in becoming a candidate for the public and staff elections in February 2015. Page 5 Wednesday 12 November 2014, 18.30 – 20.00 William Harvey Hospital, Ashford Tuesday 18 November 2014, 18.30 – 20.00 Buckland Hospital, Dover Wednesday 26 November 2014, 18.3020.00 Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, Margate If you are unable to attend, but would like more information and a candidate pack, please contact the membership office or email [email protected]