Staff Bulletin 2 August 2022

Working together under pressure

We are extremely busy across the trust, Poole is currently at OPEL 4 with RBH soon to follow, if no quick improvement. We all have a part to play in helping with hospital flow.

• Are your patients ready for discharge? Patients at RBH can use the departure lounge Full capacity policy and sitting out patients for discharge at Poole.
• Across sites can we identify patients who can sit out to release patients waiting in ED? Every ward that routinely admits patients from assessment units needs to ensure the first patient arrives on their ward before 10am to free up assessment unit capacity.
• Ward teams should be in regular communication with assessment units and site teams to pull patients through as beds become available.

Staffing remains very pressured so a huge thank you to everyone who is working tirelessly to support our patients and colleagues.

Wellbeing support is available to all of us. Please take a look on our dedicated intranet pages and share the information with your teams.

Join our all staff briefing tomorrow morning

Catch up with the latest news about our trust at the next all staff briefing with Siobhan Harrington. This takes place tomorrow (3 August) at 8.30-9am in the gym at Christchurch Hospital and on Teams – join here. You'll also receive a copy of the August edition of The Brief, including the cascade form to share the key messages with your teams.

Do you know who is on your ward?

Whenever you book a new staff member or agency worker on to a shift, it's essential that you:

• check their photo ID and compare it against the name of the booked worker
• raise any clinical issues/concerns around their competence immediately with a supervisor, and pass this to the temporary staffing team

RBH: Health of the ward update

From today (2 August) health of the ward will now include an automated TTA tracker, to help with the discharge process. This will replace the manual updates from the ward and pharmacy teams.

If you have any further questions relating to health of the ward, please contact Lisa Brinkman – IT specialist nurse at lisa.brinkman@uhd.nhs.uk.

Email domain update

Any emails sent to the old @rbch.nhs.uk or @xpoole.nhs.uk addresses will no longer be received. Please ensure any systems or contacts are updated now and email signatures have been updated to the @uhd.nhs.uk address.

RBH: No stoma care service

The team will be unable to provide an emergency or outpatient service until further notice.

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 rob.hornby@uhd.nhs.uk.

Ward kitchen audit

After a short audit of ward kitchens, we found some kitchens to be unsecured with a number of non-standard items of cutlery and chemicals easily accessible to patients and visitors.

Please ensure all kitchens are reviewed as a matter of urgency and kitchen doors are kept closed and secure. If this is not possible and doors are on maglocks, keep any non-standard items locked away for the health and safety of our staff, patients and visitors.

If you have any concerns please contact the health and safety team healthandsafetyteam@uhd.nhs.uk.

Updates for bank staff

The trust's management group has now agreed new trust-wide medical locum rates.

We would like all doctors to join Locum's Nest to ensure all have access to locum shifts and to support our aim to phase out paper-based methods of recording and paying for extra-contractual activity. All Locum's Nest duties are paid through your bank contract so please make sure you have a valid bank assignment number.

If you would like to set up a bank contract please call ext. 4254 or email medical.bank@uhd.nhs.uk to request internal bank registration forms. You will receive the API form and terms of engagement for medical bank doctors to complete and return signed. After receiving completed forms, medical bank will process them with payroll to create a bank assignment number. It can take up to 10 working days for your bank assignment to go live. A notification email will be sent once it's up and running.

Host accommodation needed for internationally recruited nurses

Dorset Healthcare is looking for three months accommodation from August for its international nurses who are joining Westhaven Hospital, Swanage Community Hospital, St Ann's Hospital and Shaftesbury Hospital.

Accommodation should be within easy walking distance or a short bus journey to the hospital (compatible with shift and weekend working). They pay £500 per month to hosts (inclusive of all bills) per furnished room. If you can help, or would like more information, please contact joanna.james2@nhs.net.

On yer bike!

Cycling has many benefits, from improving health and fitness to increasing energy and positivity, not to mention reducing environmental pollution! We believe cycling is for everyone and it is never too late to start. As we celebrate Cycle to Work Day (6 August) why not take a look on the intranet at our cycle to work scheme and find out how you can be more active. Send your pictures of you on your bikes and let us know why you enjoy cycling to be shared on our social media channels at communications@uhd.nhs.uk.

Delays with local GPs

Due to delays with verified letters sent electronically to Ringwood and Cornerways GP surgeries, any urgent medication changes that the GP needs to action should be directly/manually emailed to the following addresses at the point of verifying the letter.

• Ringwood Medical Centre email: WHCCG.ringwoodmc-admin@nhs.net
• Cornerways Medical Centre email: whccg.cornerwaysmedicalcentre@nhs.net

Yellow Buses update

Yellow Buses have unfortunately entered administration. We are informed that their services will be operating as normal until further notice, however we have been advised to suspend the issue of new discounted passes during this time.

Further updates are expected soon. Until then, please do show Yellow Buses your support by using their services as they've been a valued partner of UHD and the wider Dorset community for many years.

You can read a statement from Yellow Buses here.

Retiring from the NHS

NHS Pensions have planned events throughout the year to help you understand more about the pension scheme, Total Reward Statement, Annual Benefit Statement and ways to explore your retirement options. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of each session.

Click here to find out more.