Working well in hot weather

The heat health alert for the UK is still in place, with temperatures now expected to be highest from Monday (18 July) until Wednesday (20 July).

Please continue to ensure patients are kept cool and we keep hydrated. Remember to monitor temperatures on wards and identify those sickest patients who may need to move to somewhere cooler. Please also ensure you and your colleagues are staying hydrated and taking regular breaks.

Be aware of medicines kept outside of the medication fridge as heat may reduce use by dates. If ward temperatures reach 30 degrees celsius or above, please store all insulin in the fridge. This includes the in-use insulin/opened insulin.

Please familiarise yourself with our Heatwave Plan, and for our policy on the use of fans check the infection control pages on the intranet. General heat advice for both staff and patients can be found in this short video from Dr Tristan Richardson, medical director for medicine.

Timely discharges essential to hospital flow

Patient discharges are critically important throughout the year, but particularly so during these times of exceptional pressure on our hospitals. Discharges directly impact our ability to admit very sick patients, and in turn support our colleagues in the ambulance service to reach more patients sooner by reducing handover times in our emergency departments, as Dr Tristan Richardson, medical director for medicine, explains in this short video.

Please consider how you can support patients to go home sooner and make use of facilities and services that can help, like the departure lounge at RBH and our discharge teams across the trust. The departure lounge is a comfortable and safe environment for those patients medically ready to be discharged from hospital. We're working hard to bring the same facility to Poole Hospital as soon as possible.

Find out more about the range of discharge services available, offering practical help to ensure patients can leave hospital when ready to do so, on the Poole intranet.

• Patient transport for patients due to be discharged on Monday should be booked today – this will help reduce avoidable discharge delays at the start of the week.

Thank you to teams supporting our patient flow

Earlier this week members of our operations team, including chief operating officer Mark Mould, and medical care group representatives presented staff on ward A4 at Poole Hospital and ward 14 at Royal Bournemouth with tokens of appreciation in recognition of achieving the most discharges and greatest use of the departure lounge respectively.

"We know our hospitals are under a lot of pressure right now, and staff are working extremely hard to support our patients and colleagues," said Stuart Willes, head of operations.

"We wanted to show our appreciation for some of those teams helping patients to get home sooner, which in turn helps us admit further patients and reduce pressure on our emergency departments.

"It's important that we all think about patient discharges and take every opportunity we can to help our patients to get home sooner."

Catch up on 'Ask Ruth and Siobhan'

If you missed Ask Aly this month, you didn't miss out! This month's session was hosted by Dr Ruth Williamson, deputy chief medical officer, and our chief executive, Siobhan Harrington.

Attendees heard updates around the hot weather, uniforms, pressures on our services, the rise in Covid cases and the booster programme, the importance of using our departure lounges, smoking and litter, parking, and our new UHD Excellence Awards for Living our Values.

You can view a recording of the session, and catch up on earlier sessions, on the communications pages of the intranet.

Contacting our workforce teams

To help reduce the number of duplicate emails received by our workforce team and to speed up response times, please send all general enquiries to the below email addresses. The team will aim to respond within 3-5 working days and will prioritise any urgent emails.

For all ESR, smartcards, annual leave and general workforce enquiries email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For all Healthroster, EOL, Safecare and general eRostering enquiries please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Have your say and make a difference in our July People Pulse survey

We use our quarterly People Pulse survey to check in with you, find out how you are feeling and what we can do to improve.

When you take part in our NHS People Pulse, and National NHS Staff Survey, you help to make a real difference across our hospitals, influencing positive change and making your voice heard.

Take five minutes to share your views in the July People Pulse Survey, so we can make changes that matter to you.

Police requests for patient information

Please contact the clinical site team if the police arrive on site requesting to speak to staff regarding a patient incident or requesting information about a patient. Information is not to be given without relevant authorisation.

Covid staff absence – updated guidance

The trust's Covid FAQs have been updated and include updates to infection control measures, staff pay and recording of absence and further national guidance.

The guidance is available here. With the changing nature of Covid and national guidance, please always refer to intranet.

RBH: Service updates

• Our medical photographer will be on annual leave from today (15 July) -Friday (22 July) inclusive. An emergency camera is available from the site office.
• There will be no stoma care service next Tuesday (19 July).

Smoking on our hospital sites

Please remember that you should not be wearing scrubs if you are taking a cigarette break, please ensure you get changed out of your scrubs, or cover up your scrubs with your own clothing.

Cigarette breaks should only be taken in our designated smoking shelters, and litter should be disposed of in the bins provided, especially in this hot weather.

If you would like to access support to help you give up smoking, please contact our stop smoking team on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Join our new medical bank rates and escalation process workshop

A new trust-wide suite of medical locum rates is in place. New rates are in force from 1 July and the escalation process will be implemented in full from 1 August.

All shifts booked and confirmed prior to the 1 July will be honoured at the old rates.

Shifts should now only be advertised in alignment with the designated rates which can be found on the Locums Nest app, and our other electronic platforms.

We will be holding workshops for all departments to attend, aimed at rota-coordinators, general managers, clinical directors, care group clinical directors and doctors.

Workshops are on the following dates and times with a representative from joining from Locums Nest to answer any questions about the system and to offer additional training.

• Friday 15 July, Poole education centre, 9am–12pm and 2.30pm–4pm,
• Wednesday 27 July, Poole education centre, 12pm–1.30pm
• Thursday 28 July, Poole education centre, 9am–1pm
• Thursday 28 July, RBH education centre, 3pm–5pm

Please e-mail the temporary staffing team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you, or your colleagues would like to join Locums Nest. To download the Locums Nest app click here for IOS and here for android

If you have any questions, 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. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For technical issues on accessing Locum's Nest platform contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Join in the Women's Network conversation next week

A new staff network is coming to UHD. Our Women's Network will be open to all who would like to support women, raise their voices for women, and help implement change and positive conversations across our organisation. If you are interested in hearing more about the network, join us for our listening event on Teams on 20 July at 1.30pm. Click here to join the meeting.

If you are unable to attend the event, but would still like to share your views on what you think should be the key aims of our network click here to fill out a short form.

New food safety eLearning module live on the VLE

If you work on a ward and handle patient food as part of your role our new eLearning module is for you.

Please self-enrol into the module via your heart on the green brain. This short course includes details of what food safety is, what food contamination types there are and the impact of poor food hygiene.

If you visit the BEAT VLE intranet pages you can find the guide on how to enrol in the 'useful documents' section.

Poole: Missing equipment

A4 Ward are missing an Aerogen Pro-X, please check your area and if you have the device, return it to A4 as soon as possible.

If your area has any unused BiPAP masks or circuits, please can these also be returned to A4 for patient use as the designated BiPAP ward.

Showing our pride

Thank you to all who joined the Bourne Free parade last Saturday (9 July). It was great to see so many NHS staff taking part, celebrating 50 years of Pride and proudly wearing NHS t-shirts and lanyards.

If you were given a t-shirt or large flag and would like to return these to us so we can re-use and reduce costs for future events, please bring them to the organisation development office at RBH or at Poole or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Changes to Yellow Buses 3 and 3X service

From Sunday 24 July Yellow Buses are merging routes 3 and 3X to provide a quicker and more direct service, with an increased number of journeys to meet the requirements of our hospital shift patterns.

We will continue to be able to purchase discounted tickets from the estates office and on the Yellow Buses App.

Click here for more information on the changes and to download the new timetable.