Join our all staff briefing tomorrow

Find out more about a range of key issues from our chief executive, Debbie Fleming, at tomorrow's all staff briefing from 12.30-1.30pm.

Topics covered will include operational performance and pressures, our Gather event at Poole and the RBH ground breaking ceremony, an update on CEO recruitment process and ICS chief executive appointment, the staff survey, the upcoming QI celebration event and our buildings and modular theatre at RBH.

Debbie and the rest of our executive team will be on hand to answer your questions. If you would like to ask any questions in advance, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Click here to join.

Take five and protect yourself all winter

Annual flu vaccinations are available at a range of drop-in clinics on our sites.

Our hospitals are seeing a number of cases of flu, which is circulating in the community together with Covid-19. The best way to protect yourself from contracting flu this winter is by having your jab at one of our drop-in clinics taking place on all three sites at a range of times.

The jab takes just five minutes but can protect you all winter.

Check the latest news on the intranet for a full list of drop-in clinics.

Our Covid-19 vaccination booster programme has ended – for details on how you can have your booster, or arrange your first or second vaccination dose, click here.

It's World Antimicrobial Awareness Week

We're supporting the World Health Organisation's World Antimicrobial Awareness Week which starts tomorrow.

Antimicrobials – including antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitics – are medicines used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals and plants.

Look out for screensavers and posters and find out more from pre-registration pharmacists in the dome at Poole Hospital from 10-11am each day on 19, 20, 23, and 24 November.

At Royal Bournemouth, Trish Turton, clinical microbiology nurse, will be touring wards at RBH with her 5 top tips about antimicrobial resistance. You can download her handy leaflet here, or get the poster here.

Join our Christmas Schwartz Round on kindness on 16 December at 2pm via Teams

Christmas can be a difficult time of the year for many of us alongside the relenting uncertainty of COVID. It is often however the random acts of kindness, particularly at Christmas that connect and unite us together.

This Schwartz round allows us to remember those times of kindness and the power and impact they can have on us and on our patients.

The event is open to all UHD staff. Please visit the Schwartz Round page on the intranet for the link and more information.

How does drinking affect our health - find out from our teams

This week is Alcohol Awareness Week. The number of people suffering from liver disease is increasing and our hospitals have seen a rise in alcohol admissions, so it is more important than ever to get our care right for our patients, and for ourselves.

We are all encouraged to stay healthy and mindful of our alcohol intake over winter, and to help our patients make better choices around alcohol. Our alcohol, liver and homeless teams are on hand to offer advice on accessing their services.

Visit our teams in the dome at Poole and the Oasis at RBH this week to find out more about alcohol intake, units of alcohol, and the effect that drinking alcohol can have on your liver.

Keep an eye on our social media for more information, and click here to read more from LiveWellDorset.

Updated festive guidance is coming

We'll be sharing updated guidance on how we can bring a little festive cheer to our work areas shortly.

A popular idea last year was the distribution of window-film Christmas decorations like those pictured, approved by our infection prevention and control team for use on wards and in departments, and we're planning to do the same this year.

Please have a check around your work area to see if yours were safely stored away so they can be reused this year. If you no longer have them and need new ones please contact Claire Davis by 5pm on Friday (19 November) via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. stating your ward/department and location.

Please also let Claire know if you have spare packs of the decorations that other wards or departments could use.

Your chance to see our showcase of quality improvements

You can now see the chosen projects which have been submitted for consideration ahead of our Qi Celebration event on 24 November.

The 24 projects feature a range of examples of how teams have tried out quality improvements in their area with the hope they'll inspire others to do the same.

You can view the selected projects ahead of next week's celebration on the intranet.

Urgent - have you seen missing biopsy guns?

Our breast screening service urgently needs to find six missing Bard biopsy guns. These are thought to have been returned to Poole Hospital from sterile services, and so are likely to be in protective packaging, but have not yet reached the department.

If you can help please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

RBH: Atrium first floor corridor closure

Due to the demolition of the former admin and discharge/AEC blocks the corridor as marked in the blue bubble will be closed until Friday 19 November between 7.30 and 11.30am each day.

Changes for Powergate users

The Powergate service has been reviewed and improved, with each care group now allocated one buyer. No matter your query, clinical or non-clinical, you will now have one point of contact who will be there to support you.

Find your buyer here:

• medical care group buyer is Megan Pigott
• surgical care group buyer is Alison Mallinson on Monday, Tuesday and Friday and Sean Fuller on Wednesday and Thursday
• specialities care group buyer is Rukia Islam
• operations and corporate care group buyer is Connor Hornby
• IT buyer is Sean Fuller
• clinical lead buyer remains as Shobha Doll with the non-clinical lead buyer remains as Gary Hall
• there will be no changes for estates staff.

Any emails already sent to either the clinical or non-clinical email address do not need to be resent as they will be worked through during the transition.

Training videos to help our end users with PowerGate processes and procedures are currently being recorded to be shared on the intranet as soon as possible.

Please email any feedback to your designated buyer.

Update your Apple ID email address on your trust devices

Soon emails sent to @rbch.nhs.uk and @poole.nhs.uk addresses will stop working as part of our UHD email migration project.

It is important that if you have a trust iPad or iPhone you update your Apple ID email address to @uhd.nhs.uk. This document by Apple will guide you through the process of changing your Apple ID.

Failure to update your Apple ID to your new email address ending in @uhd.nhs.uk may cause you issues in the future.

Have your say at the consultation launched on NHS Pension Scheme member contribution rates

The Department of Health and Social Care has announced a consultation on proposed changes to member contribution rates for the NHS Pension Scheme.

This includes a change for employees working part time. It proposes your pension contributions will be calculated on your actual annualised earnings from the previous scheme year, instead of your notional whole-time equivalent, which may result in you paying a reduced per cent rate.

Currently part time employees contribution rate is based on whole-time equivalent earnings.

A new member contribution structure containing new tiers and new contribution rates is also proposed. This new structure would be introduced over two years with the first changes introduced in April 2022 followed by the remaining changes in April 2023.

Click here and here for more information and click here to have your say by 11.45am on 7 January 2022.

Removing the age discrimination - busting common myths for staff moving to the NHS 2015 pension scheme on 1 April 2022

The McCloud judgement ruled that to stop age discrimination staff under protection to stay in their previous pension scheme will be moved to the 2015 scheme in April 2022.

All pension scheme members with the protection will end on 31 March 2022 and all members will move to the 2015 NHS Pension scheme on the 1 April 2022 regardless of age and scheme membership.

We are keen to help staff understand some common myths around this change:

• It is a myth that if you don't retire before 1 April 2022, you will have to wait until state pension age to claim your pension.
• Your Pension benefits already built up in the 1995/2008 schemes will not be lost – you do not need to retire in March 2022 to ensure your current 1995/2008 pension benefits are secure.
• All scheme members will be in the 2015 scheme from 1 April 2022.
• You do not need to make any decisions about retiring before March 2022 to secure your current benefits.

There are more helpful documents around how NHS employers is supporting this change here, and please see these FAQs about the change for further clarification.

Training sessions to mark International Fraud Awareness Week

For the next two weeks our fraud teams from RSM UK will be hosting training sessions via Teams.

There are sessions suitable for all staff on general fraud, bribery and conflicts of interest and cyber fraud. There are also specific sessions covering finance fraud and recruitment fraud updates.

Click here for a timetable of events and use this link to join your update of choice.

You can also read the latest edition of the Notice Fraud newsletter from the RSM team here.

Healthcare support worker (HCSW) apprenticeships

Applications are now being taken for the upcoming HCSW apprenticeship in January and May 2022.

This is an opportunity to gain new qualifications and progress your career, and enables you to apply for registered nurse training programmes.

This programme is funded by the levy and you will need to attend Bournemouth and Poole college once a fortnight.

Applicants need their Care Certificate and maths and English GCSEs at grade C/4 or above, or functional skills level 2. If you don't have these, contact us as we can provide training.

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information and an application form by 5 December.

Having trouble accessing the eForm Portal?

Following recent updates to chrome, some legacy desktop shortcuts will no longer work, including the 'tree' icon for the eForms Portal and other clinical systems.

You can access these systems using the managed bookmarks feature in your preferred browser (Edge, Chrome or IE) on any machine in the trust.

IT are working to remove the legacy shortcuts to prevent further issues with access and out of date versions.

Please note:

If you are unable to locate the bookmark you need, please check another browser before an issue to IT.

Some systems such as eForms Portal (Chrome / Edge) and ESR (IE11) are browser specific and will not show in incompatible browsers.

Job of the week – mental health care support worker

You will be supporting patients primarily on the older people's admission assessment unit and following their care through to the older people's wards.

The patient group will be those presenting with mental health or cognitive difficulties in the context of declining physical health and/or neurological or neurodegenerative conditions.

You will spend significant periods of time with patients providing physical, emotional, and psychological care. This patient group may present with some challenging behaviour however additional training will be given to enable you to confidently and competently manage this patient group.

The closing date is 22 November and the role is based at Poole read more here.

Your wellbeing weekly

Don't forget to keep up to date with all our wellbeing offers. This week, sign up for courses on posture and working with back pain, find out more about our motivational Monday sessions and don't miss your last chance to sign up for this week's Woodland Wellbeing sessions.