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The
Word
Friday 13 March 2015
I have been immensely proud of teams of health
and social care staff across the organisation during
recent months who have continued to demonstrate
commitment to providing safe care for people in
the right place and the right time.
With our hospital colleagues, we have been dealing
with challenging peaks of demand in urgent care,
supporting discharge and helping keep people at
home. Despite this, you have helped improve
performance which means our people are largely
waiting less time for treatment. Significant
improvements have also been made across offender
health with regulatory bodies.
Since I last had the opportunity to write “From the
Top”, there have been a number of achievements I
would like to acknowledge. Namely UNICEF
accreditation of infant feeding services across both
north and south division and the successful
implementation of the children’s immunisation
programme. The Walk –in Centre at Haywood
Hospital has also treated a record number of
patients with 100% performance record. Thank you
and well done to all involved.
North Division and Stoke-on-Trent’s Speech and
Language team are also to be congratulated for an
outstanding quality visit made earlier this month.
The original planned Quality Visit couldn’t happen
and the visit was last minute and the team had no
chance to to pre-prepare. Despite this the report
was absolutely glowing in all areas which is a huge
achievement and fantastic rehearsal for our future
Care Quality Commission inspection later this year.
On Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of
accompanying four of our Health Visitors in London
as they became Fellows of the Institute of Health
Visitors. It was wonderful to see our staff being
recognised nationally. Congratulations!
In coming weeks and months you will no doubt
again be called on to demonstrate your usual
creativity, resilience, patience and endurance as we
manage proposed changes to school nursing, drive
forward the integration of health and adult social
services to ensure patients are receiving high
quality joined up care and commissioners have
confidence in our ability to deliver and as we focus
on our pending inspection from the CQC.
This week, all staff have been encouraged to
embrace change and share best practice as part of
our 1Vision events and NHS Change Day on
Wednesday. We will continue this by Celebrating
Excellence at our annual awards this evening
(Friday 13 March). Good luck to all those who have
been nominated and look out for a full report and
pictures in next week’s The Word.
On a final note Liz Onions, Chief Operating Officer
South Division will be retiring at the end of this
month and together with the executive team, I
would like to wish her well and thank her for her
invaluable input over the years. Claire Bailey, Area
Manager Stoke will be acting up into the COO role
while recruitment takes place.
Kieron
Kieron Murphy
Director of Children’s Services
& Acting Director of Operations
www.staffordshireandstokeontrent.nhs.uk
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Trust welcomes New Members to Board
The Trust has appointed a new non-executive
director and an associate non-executive
director to its Trust Board.
Gary Crowe, appointed as a non-executive
director and Jane Gaddum, appointed associate
non-executive director both took up post on 6
March 2015.
Gary has more than 29 years’ experience in
commercial banking and risk management and
Jane Gaddum has more than 20 years
healthcare experience at pharmaceutical
company AstraZeneca and BUPA Hospitals.
“These appointments bring further strategic
thinking and management experience which
compliments the strong clinical experience
currently on the Trust Board. We very much look
forward to working with them.”
Professor Nigel Ratcliffe, Chairman said: “I am
delighted to welcome Gary and Jane to the
Trust. Together they offer a wealth of health
and commercial expertise which will be very
beneficial to the delivery of health and social
care services.
Nutrition and Hydration Week 16 – 22 March
Every 10 minutes someone dies in hospital of
malnutrition. This is a shocking fact and one we
are keen to tackle. Poor nutrition and
hydration reduces patients’ ability to recover
and return home from hospital quickly,
contributes to poor patient experience and
leads to poor health and wellbeing.
hydration? How can you help improve this?
Getting these very basics right and promoting
good nutrition and hydration should be at the
center of everything we do. Dietitians and
nutrition nurses at Partnership Trust invite you
to take part in Nutrition and Hydration week
Join the following events on 18 March to get
involved!
This dedicated week (@NHWeek) creates a
global movement to reinforce and focus energy
and activity on nutrition and hydration in
health and social care settings.
Good nutrition and hydration is everyone’s
responsibility. Are you and the people in your
care receiving good nutrition and
The Staffordshire Nutrition Support Guidelines
which give clear guidance on nutrition
screening (MUST) and 6 steps to nutritional
care with the simple message “Make Every
Mouthful Matter” will help support patients.
Staffordshire Nutrition Support Guidelines drop
in session & Make Every Mouthful Matter
recipes and supplement tasting: Edwin House,
Burton upon Trent with Gillian Rudge,
Advanced Dietitian. 12:00pm – 2pm
Brighton House and community hospitals –
Celebrating World Tea Party day
Make a Pledge www.nutritionandhydrationweek.co.uk
www.staffordshireandstokeontrent.nhs.uk
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Partnership
working
to help
hospital
admissions
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temavoid
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qui cum suntium
Partnership Trust Advance Practitioners in North Staffordshire are undertaking a month
long pilot working in conjunction with West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) and
Telemed to help avoid hospital admissions.
The advance practitioners have put together a Standard Operational Procedure which
enables patients to be assessed in their own homes to ensure that patients who have the
capacity to remain at home are enabled to do so.
The team is also working closely with WMAS on the ground to ensure clinical information
is passed on first hand to reduce the number of delayed referrals.
Case Study- How it works for patients
A local gentleman, 86, who lives at home with is elderly wife and has two care calls a
day rung for a paramedic due to continuing sickness and diarrhoea.
Paramedics visited the patients and referred him to Advanced Practitioners who
visited the patient one hour later. Following assessment and samples including urine
and blood, the team was able to prescribe appropriate medication to keep the
gentleman hydrated and tests results, available within 2.5 hours, indicated mild
dehydration with no need for admission to hospital.
The patient was referred to the intermediate care team for health monitoring and
his GP was informed of the event. The team were also able to advise the family about
who to best contact in an emergency.
“
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not
yet come. We have only today. Let us
begin.”
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Please submit your Mindful
Moments to my PA, Jill Dooney
on [email protected]
Or email me directly
[email protected]
www.staffordshireandstokeontrent.nhs.uk
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No Smoking Day – Year of the quitter!
Now Available – Updated Toolkit to Support People With Learning Disabilities
Wednesday 11 March saw Time to Quit, one the
Partnership Trust’s stop smoking services
celebrate national No Smoking Day.
The team joined NHS colleagues and patients at
Queen’s Hospital in Burton and Royal Stoke
Hospital to promote the new bedside stop
smoking advisory service which is helping poorly
patients take their first steps towards giving up
while being treated on a hospital ward.
Christine Nash, 61, from Longton suffered a heart
attack at work and required lifesaving surgery.
During her hospital stay she decided that it was
time to quit smoking.
Speaking about her decision to quit and the help
she got on the ward, Christine said: “The day after
my operation I saw the Time to Quit team. The
help and support from my stop smoking advisor
was extremely important.”
“I kept up my weekly visits which were a great
help. The carbon monoxide monitor was a massive
motivation to go in every week and see your
readings coming down to normal levels” said
Christine.
Ian Saberton, Time to Quit’s Service Manager said:
“Giving up smoking is the single best thing you
can do for your health and that’s why we are so
keen that staff continue to push this message to
patients particularly in the wake of No Smoking
Day.”
The team is also here to support the health and
wellbeing of staff and offers a flexible service to fit
around working hours for anyone wishing to quit
smoking.
To make a referral or for more information call
Time to Quit on 0800 043 4304 email
[email protected]
Following discharge Christine was given support at
home by a smoking advisor who saw her
throughout the 12 week programme.
www.staffordshireandstokeontrent.nhs.uk
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Staff Celebrate NHS Change Day at 1 Vision
Now Available – Updated Toolkit to Support People With Learning Disabilities
This year staff celebrated NHS Change Day at 1 Vision events
which took place on Tuesday 10 March at Port Vale and
Hednesford FC. During the event staff were encouraged to
think about the good practice which already exists in the
Trust and were introduced to the Home First campaign and
shown a patient case study about the effectiveness of
Emergency Care Planning.
We were pleased to see so many members of staff make NHS
Change Day pledges which aim to improve the care and
wellbeing of those who use the NHS. If you’re yet to make
your pledge see our Pledge Menu for ideas and submit your
pledge to [email protected] or #ssotppledge
To download the full 1 Vision presentation including slides
on preparing for CQC inspection click here.
Delivering Health and Social Integration through Local
Integrated Care Teams
More than 200 members of staff from the
Trust’s Integrated Local Care teams (ILCTs) have
attended a series of workshops to find out
more about innovative ways to better align
health and social care in the community and
care closer to home and encourage selfmanagement among patients by using
appropriate tools and methods.
The main purpose of the nine workshops were
to help develop and embed integration further
by providing an improved understanding of
personalisation; case management, emergency
care planning (ECP) and the use of Flo – an
automated texting service which motivates
patients to take more responsibility for their
own health.
Using case studies, staff who attended
examined current practice and identified the
changes needed.
Patients and service users are already
benefiting from integrated working and tools
such as ECP and Flo and these success stories
can be found on the Trust website at
http://www.staffordshireandstokeontrent.nhs.u
k/Service-Showcase/service-showcase.htm
Any further case studies or success stories
should be sent to
[email protected]
www.staffordshireandstokeontrent.nhs.uk
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Now Available – Updated Toolkit to Support People With Learning Disabilities
Health professionals know that the longer a person stays in hospital, the
greater impact it will have on their independence and future quality of life.
Research evidence demonstrates that staying
in hospital contributes to an increased risk of
harm and greater dependence and deconditioning of patients.
“Home First” encourages staff to develop a
greater intolerance of any delays in the
discharge process and to escalate concerns
which may be preventing timely discharge.
Ideally 30% of a person’s recovery should,
with appropriate support, usually take place
at home. However in North Staffordshire and
Stoke-on-Trent more people are admitted
into long term care than the national
average, many of which come from our
community hospitals.
Clinicians on effective ward/board rounds are
asked to keep in mind two critical questions:
Our care philosophy at the Partnership Trust
is based on a guiding principle that patients
should expect to be discharged to the place
they call home as soon as possible – “Home
First”.
All our staff will ensure our patients are well
supported and clearly understand the answers
to the following fundamental questions
about their care:




What is wrong with me or what are
you trying to find out?
What is going to happen now, today
and tomorrow?
What do I need to do help myself to
return home?
When will I go home?
1. What are you doing now to get the
patient home?
2. What could we (as a wider system)
have done to prevent the admission or
on days 1-3 to facilitate a discharge
home?
Staff are being supported to communicate as
positively as possible with patients, their carers
and families to help identify how a person’s
care could be provided at “Home First”.
Home First ambassadors across all professional
staff groups will provide guidance and
leadership to help our staff support more
people to be cared for at home with the right
support for their needs.
For more information contact:
Sue Pointon- [email protected]
Jacqueline Williams [email protected]
Care in the place that you call home
www.staffordshireandstokeontrent.nhs.uk
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Discharge to Assess Gets Patients Home Quickly
Now Available – Updated Toolkit to Support People With Learning Disabilities
Audrey was admitted to the Partnership Trust’s
new service – Discharge to Assess – following an
admission to University Hospital of North
Midlands after suffering increased pain due to
the loosening of her hip replacement.
The Discharge to Assess Service ensures patients
return to the place they call home from hospital
quickly and safely. This is usually because they no
longer need medical care and can be assessed for
their further health or social care needs either at
home or from another care bed.
Audrey was admitted to Oak Ward at Bradwell
Hospital and quickly received pain relief and was
assessed.
She explains: “Once my pain was tolerable I
could start to walk again and receive some
therapy. I had some assessments on the wards
which included how well I could get about and
look after myself and once staff and I were
confident I was independent enough to go home
I was discharged.”
Rose Goodwin, Interim Director of Nursing and
Quality, said: “The hospital environment is
recognised as a setting which can limit a patient’s
ability to live independently. People often
behave differently and recover better in their
own home than in hospital.”
“Discharge to Assess focuses on identifying
patients at the Royal Stoke who require
intermediate care or social care services and
could be discharged into their own home
supported by the right service or to a specialist
bed, for example in one of our community
hospitals, as a step to returning home.”
Audrey spent just 10 days on Oak Ward before
returning home, she didn’t require a care
package although did decide to have a stair lift
fitted following a discussion with a social worker.
She was able to continue to live independently in
the place she calls home.
Bethany wins apprentice award at Stafford College
Apprentice Bethany Mullock has been awarded
Inspirational Apprentice of the Year by Stafford
College during National Apprentice Week 2015.
Bethany, who works on Jackfield ward at Haywood
Hospital, is a level 3 apprentice in health and social
care.
Bethany pictured with her award on the evening.
Congratulations!
www.staffordshireandstokeontrent.nhs.uk
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The Importance of Information Sharing
Now Available – Updated Toolkit to Support People With Learning Disabilities
Alzheimer’s and guidance
Patient Case Study
People often think Information Governance is
about keeping information secure but equally
important is sharing with the right people as
this genuine case study from a national
Information Governance review (Caldicott2)
reveals:
A daughter was very concerned about her
father’s symptoms and the impact on her
mother who was caring for him with no
support. She suspected that her father had
dementia but this was undiagnosed because
he had not seen their GP in a long time. The
daughter wrote to the GP and received a curt
reply that she must never approach him again,
by letter or phone, because of patient
confidentiality.
This case study is a good illustration of where
a person has misunderstood the purpose of
information governance and unfortunately
the direct impact has had a negative impact
on a person’s care.
This situation could have continued for years
but an unrelated event finally revealed the
family’s situation to social carer services who
stepped in to provide support and the father
was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Because of too rigid application of ‘patient
confidentiality’ the family lost valuable time
which could have been used to help their
father to live well with his dementia and make
plans for the future.
The Alzheimer’s Society has released a new
publication ‘Accessing and sharing
information: acting on behalf of a person
with dementia’ which is useful tool for staff
caring for people with dementia.
http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/dow
nload.php?fileID=2503)
Information Governance - Tel: 0300 124 0093 or 07860734462 or [email protected]
Safeguarding enquires - Shirley Heath, Head of Adult Safeguarding
Tel: 0300 123 1161 ext 1531 or [email protected]
Top Tips for Laptop Users from the IM&T Service
Laptop computers are exempt from the Display
Screen Equipment (DSE) Regulations if they are
not in "prolonged" use. Therefore, if you are
using a laptop for long periods of time you may
want to consider the following top
tips;
1. Use an external keyboard and mouse
2. Put the laptop on a stable base where there
is support for your arms and it won’t wobble
or slide as you work
3. Take regular breaks away from the computer
4. Adopt a good sitting posture with lower
back support and ensuring other desk
equipment is within easy reach
5. Align the laptop centrally with your body
avoiding twisting round to use it
6. Change your posture whenever it becomes
uncomfortable
7. Rest your eyes frequently by looking at
something far away or by closing them for a
minute or two
8. Take software training - the more skilled you
are the less time you will need to spend on
the laptop
9. Adjust the laptop screen angle (and height if
possible) to reduce stretching your neck and
minimise glare
10. Use Lync to share your
Desktop with other PC
users so you can each
look at the same content
on your own screens
www.staffordshireandstokeontrent.nhs.uk
9
Staff at Brighton House have been sent a special
note of thanks from a recent patient.
Thank You
A patient who visited Haywood Walk in Centre
has left a lovely comment on NHS choices about
her experience:
“I visited the Haywood worried that I may have
had a DVT but worried that I was just wasting
people’s time. The nurses were great asking loads
of questions and then referred me for a scan, I
received the all clear and felt guilty that I had
wasted time. I was reassured that my history
meant that I could have another DVT at any time
so it was always worth getting it checked out.
Thank you Nurses, you were lovely!”
Physiotherapy and Orthopaedic Medicine Service
at Samuel Johnson Hospital have received a thank
you from a lady using their service for the first
time.
Mrs Joy Beadsmore commented: “I am very
impressed with the service. Today has been my
first time I have had to access it. Everyone is
extremely helpful and efficient. Well organised
and most professional. Thank you especially
to Kelly Alexander for her guidance and advice.”
Well done to Stephen Jackson, Social Care
Assessor at Seisdon South ILCT on the following
compliment:
“Many thanks for all you have done for us both in
getting us our lovely new home and hope your
bosses will read this note –you are a STAR!!!”
“To all the staff at Brighton House, with much
appreciation. Thank you so much for all your help
and support, I wish I could stay as you all do such
an amazing job, once again thank you with all my
heart. Ernie B xx”
A local mum has thanked Claire Cheshire,
Breastfeeding Coordinator with the Infant Feeding
Team, Cobridge Community Health Centre for her
help and support.
“Just a quick thank you for your help with
breastfeeding Logan. All is well and after seeing
you Monday and Tuesday – from the Wednesday
we fully breastfed!
Thank you for your help, we wouldn’t have come
this far without you and Nikki.”
Dr Roddy, Consultant Rheumatologist, Haywood
Hospital, passed on two verbal compliments from
patients who have praised Marie Bailey.
“I’ve seen two patients recently; both said how
helpful and pleasant Marie Bailey, Senior Medical
Secretary/PA is when they ring up. She always rings
back when she has the chance to speak to them.”
Peter Nash and OT team at Smallthorne Health
Centre have received the following thanks from a
patient’s relative.
“A BIG thank you to all OT staff who helped in
getting my dad a new bed and transferring him
into it. A special thank you to Peter, you were
brilliant, your efforts were very much appreciated.”
Please send all Compliments to:
[email protected]
The team are now recording all compliments for the
Trust. A range of selected compliments will be forwarded
for inclusion in The Word.
www.staffordshireandstokeontrent.nhs.uk
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