JUNE 2015
Welcome
Welcome to Inside St John’s, bringing
you the latest news from St John’s
Hospital in Livingston.
The Celebrating Success
Awards
The annual Celebrating Success Awards
were held on 19 June.
Congratulations to our finalists from St
John’s and West Lothian.
You can view a full list of finalists and
winners on the intranet.
A New Counselling Room for
the Department of Spiritual
Care
Space can Make you Feel Good (Dame
Zaha Hadid, architect)
At the end of June, work begins to
transform two small spaces into a new
counselling room for the Department of
Spiritual Care. This is thanks to a
successful application for a grant from
Edinburgh and Lothians Health
Foundation
The new space will provide an improved
setting in which the chaplains may offer
generic, person-centered spiritual care to
outpatients, visitors and relatives.
Staff support has also become an
important feature of the work of the
chaplains, in the form of spiritual and
bereavement care, pastoral supervision
and group reflective practice – the
ultimate aim of which is to help promote
the compassionate care of patients by
well resourced and motivated staff.
The new counselling room will be a
comfortable welcoming space which will
offer the hospitality of spiritual care to
individuals and to groups, often at difficult
and distressing times. It is designed,
literally, to lift the spirit and to promote the
wellbeing of all who make use of it.
We hope that it will make a quiet but
confident statement about the importance
of spiritual care in the task and art of
healing and will help St John’s to
continue becoming what the writer
Thomas Moore calls ‘a Hospital with
Soul’.
Standardise Rationalise
Project
Standardise Rationalise is a project which
aims to explore opportunities to
standardise clinical and non-clinical
products in order to deliver reduced
variation and to ensure the delivery of
high quality, efficient patient care.
The project was launched in April and will
be reviewing products across NHS
Lothian.
It is vital that the project takes its direction
from clinical and non-clinical staff to help
identify products which could be
standardised. In order to facilitate this
process a series of Technical User
Groups (TUGs) are being set up across
the Board. TUGs are panels of expert
product users who will work alongside the
project team and the procurement
department to select the best value
products to be used across Lothian.
Initially TUGs will be set up for each
surgical speciality alongside two
additional groups, one which will review
general medical products, such as
tourniquets and oxygen masks and
another for non-clinical products, such as
stationery and furniture.
Information stands, where you can
discuss more about the project, as well
as share ideas for product
standardisations, will occur across
Lothian in the next few months. The first
ones are:
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Main Mall –
10 June, 10am – 2pm
St John’s Hospital, Main Dining Room –
11 June, 10am – 2pm
If you have ideas of products which you
feel could be standardised or you have
any questions about the project please
contact the project team:
StandardiseRationalise@nhslothian.scot.
nhs.uk.
OPAT satisfaction
questionnaires
The results from St John’s Outpatient
Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT)
service satisfaction questionnaires have
been released.
The survey was completed by 102
patients and the results are outstandingly
positive.
Around 98 per cent of patients said they
would use the service again and some of
the comments included:
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“A really good service. I cannot
thank the team enough”
“More flexibility coming to OPAT
than being in hospital”
“Everyone connected to the
service was brilliant. Overall the
service is fantastic”
“Best hospital service ever. The
staff were very approachable and
helpful”
“Completely satisfied with the
service provided by efficient and
most pleasant and helpful staff”.
The consultant-led service allows
intravenous medication to be
administered to outpatients either via selfadministration in their own home or
attending the dedicated OPAT clinic for a
short period. The service means more
beds are available for patients who need
to be treated in hospital and this in turn
leads to a more efficient service, whilst
providing the same high level of care and
promoting the road to recovery for
patients in their local communities.
Consultant Claire MacKintosh said: “The
success of this service is almost entirely
down to the dedicated and highly skilled
nursing staff. Patients have shown great
appreciation of their time and clinical
excellence. It is clear that being able to
either avoid hospital admission or
complete treatment for complex infection
at home can aid patients’ recovery"
Celebrating 25 Years
Memorabilia to celebrate the anniversary
of the hospital is available from Agnes
McKenna.
You can buy tote bags and thermal mugs
and all proceeds will go to Friends of St
John’s.
The event on 9 June at Howden Park
Centre went very well with John Jack,
Libby Campbell and Andy Williams doing
some great talks. Their presentations
and photos will be available on the
intranet soon.
The timeline was on show at the event
and this will be at the main reception area
soon as a permanent memorial for the
first 25 years at St John’s.
Discharge To Assess
Christine Owen has just completed her
Scottish Patient Safety Fellowship, the
first Allied Health Professional (AHP) on
the programme. Data has been gathered
to look at changes in length of stay and to
build timelines around professional
decision making. We are still in the early
stages of understanding the system and
making changes based on this learning.
Method - Allied Health Processionals
(AHP), Hospital at Home (REACT) and
Reablement (West Lothian Community
Health and Care Partnership and West
Lothian Council) colleagues chose a
group of orthopedic patients from a ward
at St John’s. Tests of change were then
planned to understand how patients could
get home more quickly by completing
assessment and rehabilitation within the
home environment.
Process Change - seven test cycles
were carried out. Test of change
meetings involving health, council and
third Sector (Horizon Housing and Care
and Repair), were established to discuss
data gathered. Real time data and
‘patient/carer stories’ taken from tests
carried out were used to develop an
understanding of current patient flow.
Conclusions and achievements
1. patient /carer feedback used to
inform each test cycle
2. patient /carer information
developed based on patient and
carer feedback and now used
across St John’s
3. AHP/nurse morning discharge
huddle to support patient flow
4. reduction in duplication of roles
between REACT and Reablement
5. spread of test sites to medical
ward in St John’s
6. data sharing agreement developed
with third sector and work started
to establish a public social
partnership funding model based
on tests of change
7. standard operating process (SOP)
developed for testing across NHS
Lothian
For further information contact Christine
Owen at:
Christine.owen@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Alderstone Road Closures
Works are still scheduled to start on
Monday 29 June 2015. The first phase of
the works will involve a road closure of
Alderstone Road between Braehead
Junction and the junction at the football
stadium. On completion of these works
there will be a second closure at Hospital
Interchange Bridge between Peel
Roundabout and the junction with
Howden West Road. Plans showing the
diversion routes have been sent on an
everyone email. Large electronic
information signs were erected on the
road on Saturday 13 June 2015 and
further fixed signs will be erected this
week to inform the public of the works.
Patient EComms
Fast, Efficient, Safe…
NHS Lothian will be enhancing its
communication capability by offering
another method of delivering patient
correspondence. Patients will be able to
opt-in to receive letters electronically
using a computer, tablet device or smart
phone. It is believed that the digital letters
option for patients will offer many benefits
both to the patient and to the
organisation. The project team is
currently liaising with St John’s Central
Appointments team and gathering
information on the letters produced and
attachments that accompany them. The
aim is to complete outpatient and waiting
list letters produced here by end of
August 2015. Further work will continue
in identifying all other letter producing
areas located in St John’s Hospital.
The event saw a large number of staff
seek information and to support healthy
eating, staff got to try a range of healthy
salads that were freshly prepared by our
award-winning catering staff. For any
staff who missed out and would like
further information please email the
healthy working lives co-ordinators Sheila
Hedley for West Lothian Community
Health and Care Partnership or Caroline
McDowall for St John’s at:
caroline.mcdowall@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Sheila.hedley@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Acute Management
Restructure
Following a restructure of acute
management services, the structure for
St John’s is now:
Site Director - Jacquie Campbell
For further details please contact:
Associate Nurse Director - Agnes
Ritchie
Senior Project Manager – Hugh Scouller
– hugh.scouller@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Associate Medical Director - James
McCallum and Mark Butterworth
Project Manager – Euan Henderson –
euan.henderson@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
General Manager - Anne Smith
Healthy Working Lives
The West Lothian Healthy working lives
group ran an event on 8 June in the
hospital dining room and 10 June at
Strathbrock Primary Care Centre to
promote and inform staff on a range of
topics to support health and wellbeing in
the workplace. Guidance was available
on the range of NHS Lothian policies that
are in place to help staff and information
provided covered smoking cessation,
drugs and alcohol, active travel, physical
activity, supporting breastfeeding mothers
on return to work and supporting staff
who are carers.
Clinical Services Manager, Surgery Vacant
Clinical Services Manager, Front Door
IV fluid Prescribing for Adults and
Medicine - Shirley Douglas-Keogh
Clinical Service Manager, Princess
Alexandria Eye Pavilion/Outpatient
department 1 - Karen McCabe
Clinical Nurse Manager, Front Door Elaine McGranaghan
Clinical Nurse Manager, Inpatients Dianne Hagart
Clinical Nurse Manager, Princess
Alexandria Eye Pavilion/Outpatient
department 1 - Lynn Struthers
Clinical Nurse Manager, Theatres Kevin MacNab
Farewell From Chris Stirling
Critical Care Specialist - Jane McNulty.
I am very sorry to be leaving St John’s
Hospital after being the Site Director for
the last two years.
Trakcare Paper Lite
Programme
eCasenotes
eCasenotes have been live in outpatients
at St John’s since 11 May, inpatients
since 29 May and the Emergency
Department since 12 June.
Approx 55 per cent of appointments have
been paper lite.
Based on the feedback received, some
changes to software and processes have
been made and others are underway –
these have been/will be communicated
via ‘Everyone’ emails and to super users.
Of note the initial login time has been
reduced and investigations are ongoing
to try and reduce this further.
NMC Revalidation for all
nurses and midwives
How nurses and midwives renew their
NMC registration is changing. To help
you understand the changes, local
awareness sessions are taking place in
July to help you prepare and to keep you
up-to-date.
To find out more come along to one of
the sessions on:
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Wednesday, 8 July, 1.30pm2.00pm or 2.15pm-2.45pm,
Calderwood Room, Education
Centre
Tuesday, 28 July, 1.30pm-2.00pm
or 2.15pm-2.45pm, Calderwood
Room, Education Centre
While I am excited about the new
challenge that I’ve been asked to take on
at the Western General, I will be very sad
to be saying goodbye to the team here in
West Lothian. I have had some
memorable experiences during my time
and hopefully have helped support the
strengthening of St John’s as one of NHS
Lothian’s main acute hospitals for the
future.
What will I miss most about St John’s?
Perhaps receiving the ice bucket
challenge on a cold wet day will be
something I will be glad not to repeat.
Apart from the award-winning catering
and general friendliness of the place,
what I will miss most is the positive
attitude of the staff in St John’s whose
willingness to go the extra mile for their
patients is so rewarding to be part of.
The new management team under
Jacquie Campbell’s leadership will take
the site forward at an exciting stage and I
will be looking forward to seeing how
West Lothian continues to thrive as
integration with social care gathers pace.
National recognition for
“REACT”
The NHS Scotland annual conference
was held on 23 and 24 June in the SECC
in Glasgow. Paul Gray, the Chief
Executive of NHS Scotland gave one of
the keynote speeches to delegates. A
key theme of the conference was about
making the new integration between
Health and Social Care services work
effectively.
Mr Gray chose to talk about the very
positive personal experience his family
and in particular his mother had received
from with the REACT team. This was
well deserved recognition for the REACT
team (Rapid Elderly Assessment Care
Team) who were also last year’s NHS
Lothian team of the year in the
Celebrating Success Awards and
continue to support older patients being
treated at home instead of in the hospital.
This is your site newsletter and we want to hear from you about what’s going on
in your service.
Please send stories to Laura.Mancini@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk