September 2014
Welcome
Hello and a warm welcome to the
September edition of Inside St John’s.
It can be completed online, over the
phone or by post.
The Good Food Challenge
If you have not received an email to your
nhslothian or nhs.net email account with
details on how to access the survey
online, can’t find a survey pack in your
organisation or would like one sent to
your home address, please contact
Capita directly on 0800 587 3115 or email
them at ScotlandNSSTeam@capita.co.uk
Congratulations to the NHS Lothian team
who won the first heat of The Good Food
Challenge in the Royal Victoria Hospital
in Dundee at the beginning of September.
The hospital’s catering department
represented NHS Lothian in the
challenge and chefs were asked to look
at creating an original, Scottish themed
two course meal that could be used on
our patient menu.
The final is penciled in for the 8th October
2014 and is to be held at The Golden
Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank once the
other regional heats have taken place.
Staff Open Sessions
The next open staff meeting will be held
on 10 October from 11-12 in the lecture
theatre, SJH. Come along and meet
senior managers, hear key issues in
scheduled and unscheduled care
services and ask about any concerns.
For more information contact Laura
Mancini, PA to Site Director.
NHSScotland Staff Survey
Over 30% of staff in NHS Lothian have
now filled out the 2014 NHSScotland
Staff Survey (as at 25 September).
Call for ‘Flu Champions’
The annual staff flu vaccination campaign
gets underway this week and we are on
the hunt for NHS Lothian ‘Flu Champions’
in service areas who will liaise with
operational leads and enthusiastically
encourage their colleagues to have their
flu vaccination.
All healthcare workers, particularly
patient-facing staff, are being advised to
get the seasonal flu vaccine to protect
themselves and reduce the spread of
infection to others, who could be
vulnerable to the virus. The vaccination is
the best way to help protect you, your
family and your patients against this
serious but preventable disease.
If you are interested in becoming a flu
champion for your service area, please
contact
Patricia
McIntosh
at:
Patricia.McIntosh@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk or
Andrew
McArthur
at
Andrew.McArthur@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
There’s still time to have your say as the
survey runs until 6 October.
Staff Flu Vaccinations
Free staff flu vaccinations will be offered
as of the 1 October at clinics across
Lothian sites. Visit the intranet to find a
clinic near you or contact your local area
lead for a flu jab in your workplace.
Critical Care Decant to Ward
20
ICU/HDU at St John’s is a 7 bedded ward
located on the ground floor of the hospital
building. The unit itself was initially
opened in 1993 as a cardiology care area
and has seen a variety of changes to the
patients it looks after. Within the next
month or so the ICU will be moving to the
former Burn’s Unit in Ward 20 which will
be a temporary measure to allow a
refurbishment of the existing area. This
may take 3 or 4 months to complete.
We are all looking forward to having a
newly refurbished ICU to enhance and
improve the care we deliver to our
patients, their families and friends.
New Blood Sciences
Laboratory
The Haematology and Clinical
Biochemistry Laboratories have
effectively merged, and are now housed
in a single refurbished facility, which was
formerly the Haematology Lab. This new
facility is now known as the Blood
Sciences Laboratory. As well as the
laboratory space being totally
refurbished, the layout has been changed
to allow both disciplines to work side by
side. The longer term plan is to train the
staff resulting in a multi-skilled workforce
who will be able to perform any type of
blood analysis required regardless of
whether they used to be a Haematologist
or a Biochemist.
The Blood Transfusion laboratory
remains unchanged but will utilise the
same multi-skilled workforce.
A huge thank you to all of the staff that
made this possible with minimal
disruption to services.
Airway’s Group
Services in West Lothian for those living
with chest conditions have evolved and
the West Lothian Airway’s Group now
offers a Pulmonary Rehabilitation
programme. The programme runs over a
six week period and combines education
and exercise. Through improving
confidence and knowledge patients
develop the skills to manage their chest
condition and increase their muscle
strength, fitness and improve their quality
of life.
Through these group sessions there is
also valuable peer support.
Those completing the Pulmonary
Rehabilitation programme are
encouraged to remain physically active
and are signposted to various initiatives
within the community. This also provides
continuing support and companionship
for those living with chronic respiratory
diseases.
The Airway’s Group felt that in view of
developments in West Lothian the need
for a self-help group has changed. On 28
July the group held their final meeting
and to mark the event, they have made a
donation of £500 to the Edinburgh and
Lothian’s Health Foundation. Members of
the Airway’s Group met with the West
Lothian Respiratory Care Partnership
group on 28 August to present the
cheque and this generous donation will
be used for the provision of equipment to
enhance the Pulmonary Rehabilitation
programme.
Dental Decontamination
Project
A new building project will shortly be
underway at St Johns to form a Dental
Decontamination suite
within our Hospital.
The new suite will allow for the cleaning
and sterilization of dental equipment in a
dedicated and fit for purpose department.
Once complete, this will
supersede current non-compliant dental
units within West Lothian and add
additional capacity to the overall service.
Through local alterations to existing
buildings the new suite will be
accommodated within a part of
the footprint of Pharmacy .
The project will be undertaken by Borders
Construction in partnership with NHSL
Estates and is planned to commence
from Monday 6th of October running
through until Spring of 2015. During this
time the Contractor will utilize the car
park bay immediately to the rear of
pharmacy and form a secure site
compound isolating building works from
staff parking and hospital deliveries being
made across this busy area.
The clinical areas need to demonstrate
that local systems in place meet
legislative and NHS Lothian Policy and
the self-assessment tool will assist in
reviewing local procedures concerned
with medicines use including ordering,
receipt, storage and destruction/disposal.
The audit should be completed by the
end of September with associated action
plans confirmed.
All clinical areas that store medicines will
be participating but if you have not yet
received your audit pack please contact
your manager.
Once the self-assessments have been
completed the SLWG will consider the
emergent themes from the action plans,
current medicines management
training/education available for clinical
staff and review available documentation
for example in relation to borrowing
medicines. Regular updates of progress
will be included in internal publications
but should you have any ideas how to
make Medicines Management better
please contact Sarah Ballard-Smith,
Nurse Director:
Sarah-Ballard-Smith@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
or Andrew McArthur, Project Lead:
Andrew.McArthur@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Whilst the Project team have sought to
mitigate risk we would ask for your extra
vigilance on approaching the site
compound whether via car parking or by
foot. The building works themselves will
be contained for the most part internally
within the building and should present
little or no disruption to neighbouring
areas.
Medication Management
A self –assessment tool has been
developed for the safe and secure
storage of medicines in the clinical area
and will be used as part of a pan-NHS
Lothian audit.
WELPACT 2
WELPACT 2 was a collaborative event
held on the 9th September 2014 as a
follow-up to WELPACT 1 in February
2014. Both events included the
participation of primary and secondary
care, West Lothian Council, CHCP,
patient representatives, voluntary and
third sector organisations. WELPACT 2
sought to develop the findings from and
improvements since, WELPACT 1.
The event was attended by 65
participants who heard scene-setting
information including the system-wide
constraints and improvements that are
planned or in progress in West Lothian.
Participants then heard small
presentations of examples of changes so
far – ‘Living it Up’, West Lothian Leisure,
REACT / Hospital at Home working with
Carers of West Lothian, how hospital
communicates with GPs in the form of
Immediate Discharge Letters and
Anticipatory Care Planning and SJH’s
Discharge Hub.
Examples of key messages taken from
the day were:
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Participants achieved the goal
of taking a plethora of possible
change and developing
priorities and plans that are
achievable – participants also
volunteered to become active
in Short Life Working Groups to
deliver these changes.
All participants rated this
collaborative approach as very
important.
All participants were ‘on the
same page’ and moving in the
same direction towards the
same goal
Our philosophy is that
Healthcare Professionals
(HCPs) enable patients to
manage their own care - HCPs
should act as enablers for
patients, their carers and their
family, rather than “do-ers” the ownership of patients’
health and social needs should
be theirs.
Patients are admitted to
hospital, not diagnoses.
Holistic care is key – health
and social care.
Communication is key.
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Complex Care Coordination is
key.
Flexible clinics and services in
primary and secondary care
are key.
Older People’s Week – West
Lothian
Older People’s Week runs from Monday
29 September to Sunday 5 October and
aims to be a national celebration of the
achievements and contributions that older
people make to society and to the
economy.
There are a large range of events and
activities planned in West Lothian to
coincide with this. More information can
be found on the West Lothian Council
website.
Edinburgh & Lothians Health
Foundation Grants
Programme
The Edinburgh & Lothians Health
Foundation (ELHF) is launching its
2015/16 annual Grants Programme on
1 October, with a grant fund designed to
create “a healthier future for the people of
Scotland.”
The Foundation’s Trustees are once
again inviting proposals which will
improve the health of people living in the
Lothian’s and particularly encourage
applications for projects that demonstrate
partnership working with the 3rd sector.
Grants, made possible through the
generosity of donors over many decades,
will be available to successful applicants
from April 2015. The Foundation has
specific funding exclusions, full details of
which can be found on the website.
Further information on ELHF, details of
the Grants Programme and how to apply
are available at www.elhf.co.uk. The
closing date for funding applications for
the 2015/16 Grants Programme is Friday
12 December 2014.
Staff Travel Survey
The survey is now closed. We have had
584 responses and we are going to use
the results to inform the travel element of
the SJH Masterplanning discussions and
for discussions with West Lothian Council
regarding planning permissions and bus
routes.
Ice Bucket Challenge
So far an impressive £659 has been
raised and more money has still to be
handed in. Once again well done to
Chris Stirling, Agnes Ritchie and Gill
Cottrell. If you haven’t yet donated and
would like to, please contact Laura
Mancini on ext 52163.
Celebrating Success Awards
We received a record number of entries
for the Celebrating Success Awards
2014.
A huge thank you to everyone who
submitted an entry, the judging panel
found that all of the nominations were of
an extremely high standard.
The full list of shortlisted entries can be
found here on the staff intranet.
If you would like this newsletter sent to you electronically on a regular basis or if you would like
a supply of printed copies, please contact Julie Cassidy, Public Involvement Co-ordinator at
juliecassidy@nhs.net or on 01506 771883. You can view previous editions of Inside St John’s
at www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk.