New emergency pagers in September

Our emergency pagers are due to be replaced. Our new system will offer us more resilience. During this change, we are bringing in standard calls across the trust for 2222 (medical, fire, security) and 5555 (major haemorrhage) at all acute hospital sites.

If you have any questions regarding this change contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Poole: Healthcare support workers' (HCSW) forum

All our HSCWs are invited to join our drop in sessions on 14 September in the education centre to meet our new HCSW practise mentors based across Poole and RBH. The sessions will be held in seminar room 1 and 3.

This is an opportunity to speak up about any concerns you may have, find out about wellbeing sessions, information on speech and language therapy, and meet other colleagues. There will also be a cake sale in support of our UHD charity. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to find out more.

Save the date for the next all staff briefing

Join us for our next all staff briefing on Wednesday 7 September. We will be holding this live event in the Oasis at RBH with an opportunity to talk to executive colleagues from 8am before the briefing starts at 8.30am. Colleagues who cannot come to RBH can join the live event online at 8.30am here and a recording will be shared via email afterwards.

Face to face Schwartz Rounds are back

We are thrilled to announce our next Schwartz Round will be held in person at RBH on 15 September at 1pm in the lecture theatre. The theme of this round will be ‘Small acts of kindness'.

Schwartz Rounds can help us feel more supported in our jobs, and give us time and space to reflect on our roles. The September event is open to all UHD staff and a light lunch will be available from 12noon in seminar room 5. Future Schwartz Rounds will be held at different UHD sites to make it accessible for staff to attend. These rounds will not be available online.

Discounted staff tickets for Walk for Wards 2022

Walk for Wards returns on 17 September. Join our UHD Charity at Upton Country Park and walk 3km, 5km or 10km along our wheelchair friendly routes to raise money for a ward or department close to your heart. We're offering discounted tickets to all staff – just choose ‘Staff Discount' as your ticket option and sign up using your uhd.nhs email address.

This year's event will feature live music from The Late Shift, a mini-makers market, and refreshments from Rapid Relief UK who will be on hand to provide a delicious free burger meal to every participant. Sign up here.

A new website domain for UHD

Each user that logs in on any device that connects to the hospital's network is connected to a domain – this then allows the users and computers to talk to each other and our systems. Currently most devices are connected to one of two domains, XPOOLE (Poole) or XRBCH (RBH and Christchurch).

As a result of the merger, all users and devices will be required to migrate across to the new domain so that the old domains can be retired. The migration is scheduled to start in autumn 2022 and each trust area will be contacted with suggested migration dates. If you have any questions, contact our domain team via Teams or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Creating change for the people of Dorset

The Dorset Health Inequalities website and Virtual Academy is now live and can be found here. It has been set up by the Dorset Health Inequalities Group which aims to reduce health inequalities through raising awareness, creating learning and development opportunities and supporting services to think differently to create new ways of delivery.

Poole: Advanced warning of road closure 16-19 September

The crane on the IHP theatre build site in Longfleet Road will be removed from 16 September. The crane lift over the building will take place on the Saturday and Sunday and there are areas below the lift zone that will need to be vacated for short periods during the day. The areas affected will be the mortuary, help desk, porters lodge, mitie store room and pathology labs.

Access into ED for ambulances and access to the underpass will be maintained at all times.

Your Total Reward Statement (TRS) is here

Your TRS is a personalised summary that shows your full reward package, including basic pay, pension information and local benefits. Find out how to access your statement here.

Meet your UHD Schwartz Round team

Schwartz Rounds can help us feel more supported in our roles and give us time and space to reflect on what we do. Want to find out more? Then come and meet some of your UHD Schwartz Round team this week and find out how Schwartz Rounds can help you.

• Wednesday 24 August - 12-2pm between restaurants at RBH
• Friday 26 August - 12-2pm in the dome at Poole
• 6/9 September – the team will walk about at Christchurch, visiting and speaking to staff.

The Schwartz team would like to find out what future Schwartz Round topics would be useful.

Watch our short video about Schwartz Rounds here and find out more about future rounds on the intranet.

Parking at UHD

To be able to offer as much parking as possible across our sites, we have been able to rent some spaces from sites near the hospitals. Please note these site owners have their own enforcement systems and we need to abide by their terms and conditions to avoid a penalty notice.

• Please ensure you have a valid permit for the site you are parking at and that it is displayed correctly.
• Keep your permit up to date by making sure that the vehicle you park has the registration linked against your permit at UHD - you can have multiple registrations on one permit.
• Park considerately in the designated area. These are monitored twice daily to ensure we do not have unknown parking in our staff areas.

If you need to make any changes or updates to your permit, log into www.staffparkingatuhd.co.uk and follow the instructions in the renewal/changes section. You will be notified when your application is updated, and the new permit can be collected. If you have any issues with parking off site, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Save the date for the next all staff briefing

Join us for our next all staff briefing on Wednesday 7 September. We will be holding this live event in the Oasis at RBH with an opportunity to talk to executive colleagues from 8am before the briefing starts at 8.30am. Colleagues who cannot come to RBH can join the live event online at 8.30am here and a recording will be shared via email afterwards.

Fancy a jumbo challenge this bank holiday?

Can you combine your strength with others to pull a Boeing 737 plane 50 metres, raising money for our Gully's Place service at the same time?

Our UHD Charity has a few spaces left for the Dorset Plane Pull, taking place at Bournemouth Airport on Monday 29 August. Sign up today by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and find out more here.

Communication Workers Union industrial action

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has called on its members who collect, sort, distribute and deliver parcels and mail to take action this Friday (26 August), Wednesday 31 August and for two days on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 September. This is expected to affect services provided by Royal Mail and Parcelforce.

We have been advised that we should post items as early as possible in advance of this action where possible.

Look for the sunflower on Health of the Ward

From this Thursday (25 Aug) there will be an additional icon within Health of the Ward to show whether a patient has a learning disability.

Collaborative research: Now and in the future

Join us for a celebration of the collaborative research already underway

between UHD and Bournemouth University and contribute to plans for the coming years. With short keynote speakers, videos, poster displays, facilitated themed areas and living walls - plus an opportunity to review new collaborative research databases and research pathways - this event is designed to celebrate, inform and inspire.

The event takes place from 5.15-7.30pm on Tuesday 18 October at the Executive Business Centre, Bournemouth University. Book your free place here.

Menopause support

The next UHD staff menopause listening event will take place this Thursday (25 August) from 12-1pm via Teams. This is an informal, peer led, confidential opportunity to share discussions relating to Perimenopause and Menopause.

In addition, the Our Dorset Wellbeing Service has a number of menopause events and information – see here.

Calling all veterans and reservists

Rob Hornby, our armed forces community advocate, is running a survey to establish how many reservists and veterans we have working at UHD to see how well we're doing recruiting from the armed forces community. If you are a veteran or reservist, please take part in this one-minute survey. This can be done anonymously, with the option to leave your email address to find out more about our Armed Forces Support Group. If you have any questions please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

RBH: Saturday trial for dementia and delirium team

Our dementia and delirium team are trialling a Saturday service from 8am-4pm for the month of September. To contact the team, call ext. 5335.

Cycle challenge to help others keep well

Bournemouth Heart Club will be holding a 'Heart to Heart' sponsored exercise cycle ride in the atrium of RBH on Tuesday 13 September. Club members will be cycling non stop for 10 hours with the aim of raising money to fund up to 20 places at the Bournemouth Heart Club's Keep Well Hub for people on low income who need to exercise regularly but cannot afford a regular gym membership. BHC exercise instructors will be in attendance to talk to the public about the benefits of regular cardiovascular exercise, and to ensure that their members, all of whom have some form of heart condition or other health related issue, exercise safely.

Mindfulness for wellbeing

Join our UHD mindfulness sessions to help train your mind to be in the present moment though the practice of mindfulness techniques such as mindful breathing, mindful movement and different types of meditation.

You can join a taster session via Zoom on 9 September from 1-2.30pm. All staff welcome, to book a place email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more information see our mindfulness intranet pages.

Remembering Millie

The family of Pamela Millett, who worked at Christchurch Hospital in the 80s and 90s, are looking for anyone who knew her ahead of her funeral this Wednesday (24 August) at 2pm.

Pamela, known to her colleagues as Millie, died on 2 August aged 88. She had worked at Douglas House in Southbourne as an auxiliary nurse during the 80s before being transferred to Christchurch Hospital. She retired in in 1993 aged 60. Her daughter Sue remembers her being involved in a work walking group and having a close nurse friend called Eileen.

If anyone has any stories or would like to attend the funeral, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for the family details.

Are you unable to access Employee Online?

After a recent update, some people may be struggling to access their Employee Online and will be receiving 'error' messaging. To fix this, you need to clear the cache on our device or browser. Find out how to do this here.

Yellow Buses pre-paid tickets update

The 18, 33 and 36 routes will be operated by Yellow Coaches for the next six months. Please note that they will honour pre-bought 30 and 90 day tickets until next Friday (26 August) and drivers will be made aware to accept cards. Please keep your staff ID badge with you on your journey.

Job of the week: Pharmacy technician

We have an exciting opportunity for either a soon to be, or newly registered, pharmacy technician to work on a rotational basis across UHD and Dorset HealthCare, as a rotational foundation pharmacy technician. Applications from all areas of pharmacy, acute hospital, GP surgery, community pharmacy, primary care and more are all welcome.

Want to know more? Watch this short video and apply here.

UHD Excellence Awards – who's your August hero?

Do you know someone who has gone above and beyond, or is a shining example when it comes to living our trust values? If so, why not nominate them for this month's staff excellence award.

Every day our colleagues and volunteers are living our values to help care for our patients and for each other and we want to celebrate where you have gone above and beyond. The winners will be chosen by Siobhan Harrington, our chief executive. Find out more and nominate someone here.

Speak to the Schwartz Round team today

Our Schwartz Round team met colleagues in RBH earlier this week and will be at Poole today (Friday) and Christchurch in September to find out what Schwartz topics would be useful for you.

• Today - 12-2pm in the dome at Poole
• 6/9 September – the team will walk about at Christchurch, visiting and speaking to staff

You can also watch our short video about Schwartz Rounds and find out more about future rounds here.

Ward clerk listening events

A series of listening events will take place at the Village opposite RBH and in St Mary's Church in Poole throughout September. If you're a ward clerk, come along and tell us what works well, whether you have any issues or concerns and what needs to improve.

• Tuesday 13 September - Village
• Tuesday 20 September - St Mary's
• Tuesday 27 September - Village
• Thursday 29 September – St Mary's

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 30 August to find out more and book a session.

Shoot your shot with our new netball team

Do you want to play for netball for fun, and improve your health and wellbeing? If so, there could be a spot for you on our new trust netball team, funded by the UHD Charity. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you're interested in becoming a team coach, joining the trust team as a player or if you want to create your own departmental team. Please include your preferred first and second position preference.

RBH: Atrium coffee shop opening times

Our atrium coffee shop will have extended opening hours from Monday 5 September.

• Monday to Friday: 7.30am-6.30pm
• Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays: 10.15am-5pm

Five-a-day audit results and winner

Thank you to all of you who took part in our recent five-a-day audit as part of Clinical Audit Awareness Week. Participants had the chance to win a £25 M&S gift card, and we are delighted to announce that Tracy Moran, lead nurse of workforce and education, was the winner! Tracy is pictured receiving the gift card, and the results of the audit can be viewed here.

For further information about clinical audit and if you would like to register a project, please visit our intranet pages. Note that five-a-day is also one of the activities promoted by UHD's new sustainability and wellbeing app, EcoEarn.

Healthcare support worker vocational scholarship – spread the word

Calling all young people between the ages of 18-21. UHD has collaborated with Join Our Dorset and Bournemouth and Poole College to offer a healthcare support worker vocational scholarship programme. It will run over five weeks starting 19 September, taking place at The College. To find out more email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Get ready for the 2023 TCS London Marathon

Our UHD charity is launching its ballot for the 2023 TCS London Marathon, taking place on Sunday 23 April 2023.

To enter, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your name, DOB, email, telephone number and why you'd like to run the TCS London Marathon 2023 for your hospitals. Find out more here.

We don't like cricket, we love it!

Congratulations to our Hospital Services Cricket Team for taking part in a charity match earlier this week against the Bournemouth Wanderers. While they didn't win, they helped to raise an impressive £1,000 for the RBH vascular fund and welcomed a visit by Harry Redknapp. The match was set up by Bournemouth Wanderers player, George Stratford, one of our thankful patients who was thrilled to discover his surgeon played cricket too. Well done all!

Job of the week: Corporate governance assistant

This is an exciting opportunity for someone to join our company secretary team. Primarily the role will support our Council of Governors and the successful candidate will play a key part in the development and implementation of the trust's membership strategy at this really exciting time for our hospitals.

This is a great development opportunity for the successful person to work with a broad range of stakeholders throughout the organisation. Find out more and apply here.

Update on operational pressures

A huge thank you to individuals and teams across UHD for the contribution you have made in supporting operational flow this week. As a result we are in an improved position today compared with this time yesterday, with 11 patients currently requiring inpatient beds in our emergency departments (compared to almost 40 at this time yesterday).

Timely TTO medicines and transport booking, early medical reviews, the use of sitting out and RBH's departure lounge, and specialties teams working alongside colleagues in urgent and emergency care, helped make a fantastic 133 discharges possible yesterday.

When we work together we can make a difference.

The position still remains very difficult across both Poole and Royal Bournemouth, and we need to consistently take the steps that we know progress our patients' care to ensure we go into the weekend in a healthier position. Please think about flagging patients for early review with medical teams, booking transport early, ordering TTOs in good time and discussing alternative packages of care with our discharge teams where this may be delaying discharge.

At times of significant operational pressure it's essential that we look after each other. Please ensure that you and colleagues make use of the wellbeing and emotional support that is available if needed – talk to your manager or visit the wellbeing pages on the intranet for more information.

Relaxation on face mask guidance

With reductions in the Covid-19 rates in the region, and in line with our local NHS partner organisations, masks are again no longer required in 'public' areas in our hospitals, including entrances, waiting areas, corridors and restaurants.

Staff and visitors who choose to continue to wear masks (or due to a risk assessment) in these areas should do so, and we will keep providing masks at our entrances for this purpose.

Mask wearing for visitors and staff will remain in place in all inpatient (ward) areas, as well as in clinic rooms and in our urgent and emergency care settings, eg our emergency departments, urgent treatment centres, same day emergency care (SDEC) facilities.

Masks will continue to be required for patients with suspected Covid-19 as tolerated and clinically safe.

Please continue to follow good hand hygiene practices including the regular use of hand gel. Please stay away from our hospitals if you have any symptoms of Covid-19. Staff without symptoms should continue to take twice-weekly lateral flow tests, remain vigilant and closely follow infection prevention and control practices.

Changes to Covid-19 swabbing

Due to reduced activity the Covid-19 swabbing service opening hours will change from Saturday (20 August). The team will be available on Monday to Friday from 8am-4pm, Saturday from 8am-12pm and closed on Sunday. Outside these times, swabs needing to be authorised will be done with clinical site.

Give your views on impact of actual and estimated discharge dates

As you may know, wards and teams have been working to improve our understanding, application and reporting of estimated discharge dates (EDDs) and actual discharge dates (ADDs) for all our inpatients, to help improve quality of care and hospital flow.

NHS England would like you to hear your thoughts and experiences about the differences and impact it has had for your patients, your ward and yourself. This will be used to help shape future steps both within UHD and nationally.

The feedback is anonymous and should take no longer than 5-10 minutes.

Click here to take the survey.

RBH: No nutrition ward round Monday (22 August)

The nutrition and dietetic team will prioritise parental nutrition referrals and reviews. Please refer on ext. 4732. The Thursday nutrition ward will go ahead as normal.

Tips for successful recruitment

As has been widely reported in the press, there are fewer potential candidates per job vacancy than there have been for many years. Accordingly we too are finding it much harder than usual to successfully recruit to many different roles, including administrative positions we would usually fill without problem.

To aim to recruit as successfully as possible please see some recruitment tips here. For any feedback/queries please contact Danny Edwards, recruitment manager at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Sian Wright, our recruitment communication and social media officer, can also offer help with marketing advice for extremely hard to recruit roles at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Changes to cancer multi-disciplinary team (MDT) referrals

A new electronic process to refer patients to cancer MDT is due to be launched on 13 September. To refer a patient to a cancer MDT please use 'managed bookmarks' via the intranet and select 'clinical systems – electronic forms -cancer MDT referral'.

You will be prompted to answer a number of questions about the patient you are referring, including which cancer MDT you want to refer to and at which hospital site (if applicable).

Once the referral is submitted, the MDT clinical lead / representative will either accept the referral for discussion at the MDT (and will appear on EPR) or decline for a specific reason or if more information is required.

If you require further information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Mindfulness for wellbeing

Join our UHD mindfulness sessions to help train your mind to be in the present moment though the practice of mindfulness techniques such as mindful breathing, mindful movement and different types of meditation. When you practice being mindful, you practise accepting your present experience and are able recognise when your mind has wandered from the present, and learn to bring it bring back to what you want to focus on. For more information see our intranet pages. We have a range of taster sessions available for our staff over Zoom on 22 August and 9 September from 1-2.30pm and 5 December 3.30-5pm.

All staff welcome, to book a place email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the date you wish to attend and you will be sent confirmation.

Reminder: not everyone is entitled to free NHS healthcare

Anyone of any nationality who is not ordinarily resident in the UK at the time of treatment is regarded as an 'overseas visitor'. This means that they may be charged for the treatment they received at the trust. We have a legal obligation to establish whether a person is an overseas visitor, and whether charges apply or if they have an exemption. If you have any queries about overseas patients, get in touch with This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or check the finance pages of the intranet.

'Induction Switch' phone directory app being withdrawn

UHD's entries within the induction telephone directory app are due to be withdrawn within the next month. The telephone and bleep directories can be accessed via the intranet on the telecoms page.

We have produced some FAQs on the withdrawal of the app, which can be found here. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any additional questions.

Good People Management induction – more dates

Further dates have been released for the UHD Manager's Induction Module 2 - Good People Management.

• 5 October 2-4pm
• 1 November 10-12 noon
• 1 December 10-12 noon

For more information go to the professional development pages under education and training on the Poole intranet.

To book on to your preferred date, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please note that you must have completed Module 1 before taking Module 2.

Leading your team through integration - workshops

We are launching a new workshop and toolkit to support you to design a team session to start you on this journey. The objectives of this workshop are to provide you with the principles of an effective team, why developing your team is important, and how to facilitate your own team event.

This is an opportunity to empower team leaders to be proactive in planning their approach to team integration and have the confidence and capability to facilitate some exercises around basic team principles. Delegates will be expected to complete some pre-course learning and come to the workshop with ideas about the event you wish to develop. Click here to request a place.

New training available on BEAT VLE

Thanks to the work of our e-learning team, we have new courses available through the useful links page of BEAT VLE.

Autism Unlimited: a two hour programme designed to help support patients and others with ASD by learning more about neurodiversity. This does not count as your mandatory training requirement. There will be additional mandatory autism training (Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training) coming soon.

eLearning for Healthcare Programme: Children and Young People with Mental Health Needs, Autism or Learning Disability: a digital resource designed to help staff in an acute hospital setting to enhance their confidence and skills to care for children and young people and their families (CYP) with mental health needs, autism or learning disability.

Are you unable to access Employee Online?

After a recent update, some people may be struggling to access their Employee Online and will be receiving 'error' messaging. To fix this, you need to clear the cache on our device or browser. Find out how to do this here.

Graduate Management Trainee Scheme (GMTS) with NHS England

NHS England is holding two information webinars in the South West region for NHS staff who might be interested in applying for the GMTS programme in September 2023. Find out more here .

Staff Lottery draw postponed

The recent cyber attack on NHS111 via the Adastra system provided by Advanced has meant a delay to this month's lottery draw.

Advanced also provide a significant number of NHS organisations, including ours, with financial ledger services and have taken them offline to mitigate the risk of further impact. In light of this we are unable to run this month's staff lottery until the systems are back online. At the current time we are unable to state when this will be but the committee would like to assure all lottery members that we will run the draw as soon as we can.

Shoot your shot with our new netball team

Do you want to play for netball for fun, and improve your health and wellbeing? If so, there could be a spot for you on our new UHD netball team, funded by UHD Charity. For those who would like to express their interest in becoming a team coach, joining the trust team as a player or if you want to create your own departmental team, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please include your first and second position preference.

Yellow Buses pre-paid tickets update

The 18, 33 and 36 routes will be operated by Yellow Coaches for the next six months. Please note that they will honour pre-bought 30 and 90 day tickets until next Friday (26 August) and drivers will be made aware to accept cards. Please keep your staff ID badge with you on your journey.