Welcome to Inside St John’s, bringing you the latest news from St John’s
Hospital in Livingston.
There is still time to get your free, seasonal flu jab. We would encourage you to be prepared and protect yourself sooner rather than later – the earlier you get your vaccination the better.
Details of flu clinics can be found on the staff intranet or you can contact your local area lead for a flu jab in your workplace.
Clinics are constantly being updated and further times and venues are being added. Please check regularly to find a clinic near you.
Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect patients, the community, yourself and your family from this potentially serious, preventable disease.
The Protection of Vulnerable Groups
(PVG) legislation replaced the disclosure arrangements for people who work with vulnerable groups. It helps to ensure that people who have a known history of harmful or abusive behaviour are unable to work with children and protected adults.
November 2014
After October 2015 it will be illegal for anyone who is involved in regulated work not to be on the PVG Scheme. NHS
Lothian needs to have everyone in regulated work on the Scheme by July
2015.
If you have not already completed a PVG form and think you qualify then contact your line manager in the first instance to discuss further or go to HROnline .
If you have any questions about the PVG retrospective exercise please e-mail the team: pvgretrospective@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
As part of continuing efforts to enhance patient safety at St John’s, clinical and support staff are now adopting a safety huddle approach for the morning site meeting. Led by the site management team, this is adapting from the previous traditional format of the morning bed meeting and aims to give additional opportunities to highlight any safety concerns or risks there are about patient care.
This aims to allow earlier action to be taken to address concerns that are raised as well as giving more of an overview from different parts of the site including support services such as pharmacy, estates, portering, diagnostics, AHP’s as well as the HaN team to give an overview from the overnight position.

It’s an approach that has been introduced not just on other sites across Lothian but across hospitals elsewhere in Scotland and internationally to support improved patient safety.
The huddle is being held in the Lecture
Theatre at 08.30hrs Monday to Friday and the Boardroom at the weekend. All staff are welcome to come along to see what is going on and find out how this is developing.
Following the launch of the WELPACT initiative, great strides are being taken for the benefit of patient care. The success of the Integrated Educational Events, where GPs, Consultants and Advance
Nurse Practitioners come together to discuss cases and care pathways is a prime example. It gives everybody an opportunity to learn together and capitalise on opportunities to improve.
Over a dozen short life working groups have been set up where we can explore and test changes from care bundles to case reviews and low tech patient held records to high tech Anticipatory Care
Plans (ACP’s) which will be made available to teams at all stages of the patient’s journey.
The discharge hub is now established and we are fitting out accommodation to maximise potential. Employing
“teachback” skills, discharge follow up calls and the use of a “discharge suitcase” in appropriate cases adds to the quality of a robust discharge process. We have established multi-disciplinary team meetings on general wards focusing on those most frail.
For those at the point of a crisis, it is important to ensure plans are in place where possible.
Currently we are carrying out a review of
ACP’s for groups of patients to ensure that staff have the correct information available.
The REACT service is an acknowledged success and we would like to extend its field of operations to the Emergency
Department to identify patients who would be more appropriately treated at home.
We will work on continuous improvements to allow us to maintain and enhance top quality healthcare. This work has been kick-started by two large scale events held at Howden Park
Centre. We have a third planned for 10
February 2015 so watch this space - intranet .
The Domestic and Medical Physics staff have been extremely helpful with the recent flooding in the Medical Physics department and we would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their efforts which were very much appreciated.
The eHealth Service Desk for NHS
Lothian is based at St John's Hospital.
This comprises of a team of 22 staff who deal with requests for help and support for all users across NHS Lothian, as well as supporting a number of regional applications which are hosted in NHS
Lothian and used in other health boards.
The team answering the calls deal with on average 15,500 calls every month, which is between 700 and 900 calls every day. Of these calls, around 2,800 calls a month are for users having problems with passwords on systems, and needing their password reset.

Did you know NHS Lothian has a tool which allows you to sign in once, and then log into over 60 other systems without having to enter the password again?
This tool is available for anyone who has an NHS Lothian account.
So if you sign onto the network and are not logging into a GP practice, then this tool is available. We have over 5,000 people currently using the tool which also gives you the ability to reset your own password if you have forgotten it. For more information on this tool please go to the intranet.
The Vale of Leven Inquiry Report has been published. The inquiry was launched in 2009 to investigate the circumstances of deaths and illness at the Vale of Leven Hospital between 1
January 2007 and 1 June 2008 which are attributed to the Clostridium Difficile infection.
The report showed that 143 patients were tested positive for Clostridium Difficile and it was found that the infection was a causal factor in the death of 34 patients.
The report details 75 recommendations which include infection, prevention and control, nursing and medical care, antibiotics prescribing and communications with patients and relatives. The full report can be read here.
Clostridium Difficile is a common bacterium found in the gut. It produces resistant spores that are able to persist in the environment longer than other bacteria.
In order to continue to minimise healthcare associated infections and in particular Clostridium Difficile, we would also ask for the continued support of patients and visitors to adopt strict hand hygiene practices, where possible washing hands using soap and water
(alcohol gel alone is ineffective).
An Infectious Disease consultant, Dr.
Claire Mackintosh, is now based at SJH for two days a week. As well as continuing the valuable OPAT service, the intention is to review all patients on IV antibiotics for 48 hours or greater on
General Medical and Medicine of Elderly wards twice weekly , and to provide recommendations for IV to oral switch , or other advice regarding antimicrobial therapy which we will document in the medical notes.
Requests for non-urgent ward reviews of patients with infection can be made by contacting the microbiology office Ext
53075. Triage of these referrals will be undertaken when a microbiologist/infectious diseases physician is on the site.
Urgent requests for infection advice should continue to be made to microbiology via the same extension number and office staff will direct the call to the microbiologist on site, or to the microbiologist at the RIE.
There was double success for the
Regional Eating Disorders Unit at St
John’s Hospital at the Scottish Health
Awards this year. Tracy McConnell,
Nursing Assistant, took the prize in the
Care for Mental Health Category and
Lorna Grant was recognised as Therapist of the Year. Congratulations to them both! You can see all of the photos from the glittering awards ceremony here.
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