Open visiting is being introduced across the three hospitals run by Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust to help aid recovery for patients and provide a more positive experience for relatives and staff.

From April 1 all wards at Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull Hospitals will introduce a policy of open visiting following a successful trial of extended visiting hours at Solihull and feedback from patients, relatives and staff.

It is widely recognised that support from family and friends, in the form of hospital visits, is an integral part of any patient’s recovery and open visiting will allow more flexibility for relatives to visit their loved ones at a time that suits them.

This new policy also forms part of the Trust’s aim to make its hospitals more dementia friendly by giving relatives and carers the chance to spend more time with their loved one and have an active role in their care while they are in hospital.

A Visitor’s Charter has been developed and copies are displayed on the Wards. This code is a set of guidelines that visitors will be asked to adhere to and will cover areas such as numbers around a patient’s bed, preventing spread of infection and protected mealtimes. The charter can be viewed here

There will though be occasions when, for clinical reasons, visitors may be asked to come back later or move to another area of the ward for a short period of time.

Sam Foster (pictured), Chief Nurse at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We understand how stressful being in hospital can be both for the patient and their loved ones and know how much of a boost to a patient’s morale and recovery visits from friends and relatives can be.

“Therefore we are excited to be taking this step forward as a Trust to give more flexibility to relatives as to when they can visit and to the role they can play in the care of their loved ones.

“This is particularly true in relation to dementia patients. As a Trust we are busy making our hospitals more dementia friendly and open visiting will give the opportunity for the carers of patients with dementia to remain with their loved one, where appropriate, and be actively involved in their care during what can be a stressful and confusing time.”

Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust is to have its annual Monitor PbR clinical coding audit in April 2015. A requirement of this audit will be for the Trust to provide Capita CHKS (on behalf of Monitor) with access to a sample of patient records so they can fully check the accuracy of the Trust’s clinical coding activities. The records will be selected randomly within certain HRG chapters, which are selected through a risk assessment exercise. Given the scale of the clinical coding and costing audit programme and the timescales for delivery, it will not be possible to gain the consent of the individual patients concerned. Monitor is therefore relying on its legal powers (under section 104 of the 2012 Act) to require provision of the patient records necessary to carry out the audit. Condition P2 of the NHS Provider Licence Standard Conditions also contains an obligation for providers to respond to information requests such as this, where the request relates to Monitor’s pricing function.

The scope of the audit is for episodes of care with a discharge date between July 2014 and September 2014 in the Thoracic surgery and Urology specialties.

The purpose of this post is to ensure that patients are given the option to opt out of having their medical records audited. If you were discharged from either of these specialties within this period and do not wish to have your medical records audited then please contact clinical.coding@heartofengland.nhs.uk by Thursday 16^th April 2015.

Many of our waking hours are spent at work, meaning the workplace environment can play a big part in our health and wellbeing. Did you know around 131 million working days were lost through absences due to sickness or injury in 2013?

To stay healthy and avoid work-related illnesses, a number of steps and recommendations can be taken as Sara Wood, occupational health & wellbeing services manager at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, explains: “If you are feeling stressed or have any work-related illnesses, the first step to take is to find out the cause. Turning to something unhealthy to help you cope with stress such as smoking or drinking, is not the right solution.

“Eat healthily and drink water: Instead of that mid-morning snack of chocolate or crisps, have fresh and dried fruit or nuts as they are long-lasting sources of energy. If you don’t drink enough water, you’ll feel sleepy and be less able to concentrate.

“Stress and work-related illnesses can be prevented and staying active in the workplace can have a positive effect on your wellbeing.  If you are sitting at a desk all day, take regular breaks once an hour. Get up, move around and stretch your legs. A few deep breaths and stretches will help boost your circulation.

“Try to include a bit of exercise into your working day.  You might want to try doing one or more of the following:

• If you get the bus to work, get off one bus stop before your final stop and walk the remainder of your journey.
• Rather than using the phone to speak to one of your colleagues, walk over to their desk.
• Use your lunch break to exercise. Go to the gym or go for a walk. Improving your general fitness will bring benefits for your posture and help to prevent injury.
• Why not give the lift a miss and take the stairs.

“Whilst you are at your desk, having the right posture and correct workstation requirements for your needs is essential if most of your time is spent sitting in front of a computer. Incorrect posture can be a contributory factor in back pain and can exacerbate existing conditions.

“During breaks and holidays, it is also important to completely switch off and switch the work phone off and stay away from checking emails.”

Being able to deal with your time effectively and prioritising your workload, is one way of helping you deal with stress. The way you deal with stress can have a profound effect on your mood, behaviour and ability to cope and function effectively.

The Live Well Work Well website (www.heftlivewellworkwell.co.uk) has more information and tips about staying fit and healthy at work.

• Can you please provide me with a list of all of your current and planned information technology programmes and projects? Please include the budgets and time frames. Specifying what percentage/amount of the budget for each programme/project is to be allocated to programme, project managers, technical solution designers, technical solution architects.  A list  of all ICT projects is attached.  It is not possible to give the budgets and timeframes as they vary from project to project and many of the costs are internal and so not budgeted for by project in the way requested. Please see attached. Copy of FOI 3618 ICT budgets

• What is the IT directorates total budget for the current and forthcoming financial years? Budget for 2014/15 was c £8m.   Budget for 2015/16 has not yet been finalised.

• How much money has the Trust spent on external IT consultancy companies in the past three financial years? Information not available in this format and would take  more than 18 hours as allowed by the FOI Act, section 12 to determine as each project over the last 3 years would have to be reviewed against supplier type.

• How much money has the Trust spent on external IT contractors in the past three financial years? Information not available in this format and would take  more than 18 hours as allowed by the FOI Act, section 12 to determine as each project over the last 3 years would have to be reviewed against supplier type.

I would like to request the number of live births at Heartlands/Good Hope/Solihull in 2014

Around 80 golfers will be hoping to score a hole in one when they take to the tee at a Sutton Coldfield golf club next month by raising vital funds for elderly care wards at a Birmingham Hospital.

The charity golf match at Wishaw Golf Club on Wednesday 1 April will see all money raised go directly to helping elderly patients at  Heartlands Hospital, part of the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.

Clive Conroy works as a physiotherapist at Heartlands and has helped to organise the event at the club where he is a member.

He said: “It is fantastic that the club has agreed to put this event on to raise money for the elderly care wards at Heartlands. All the money raised will be used to directly benefit the patients and enhance their stay on the wards.”

Prizes will be presented to the winners by the Matron of Elderly Care at Heartlands Helen Seymour and Ward 30 manager Ryanne Musgni.

Anyone who would like donate to the cause or any businesses who like to sponsor the event can contact Clive on 07812 245304.

It was celebrations all round yesterday as organisers announced the winners of the first ever Solihull Together for Better Lives awards and there was great news for the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.

Phil Hall (pictured), Senior Nurse for Dementia at Solihull Hospital, part of the Heart of England Trust, went away with the award for Health Professional of the Year.

Phil heads up the Dementia and Delirium Outreach Team at Solihull Hospital, identifying people with dementia and delirium who use the Hospital and improving their experience while they are there. The team also support the relatives of patients and train and educate staff on complex issues to help them best care for their patients.

The Solihull Together for Better Lives awards were developed to recognise and celebrate outstanding work by individuals and organisations in Solihull to support older people in the community.

Dr Patrick Brooke, Accountable Officer for Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group, representing the award organisers, said, “We hope that the Solihull Together for Better Lives awards will help to raise awareness of the outstanding work which is going on across the public, private and voluntary sectors to support our older residents. And, of course, from local people, friends and neighbours too. Our aim is for these awards to become an annual celebration to showcase how we are working together to improve care and support in the borough.”

Dr Brooke continued: “It has been a real privilege to meet so many of the finalists and winners and hear their stories. What they are doing, whether in a professional or voluntary capacity, to improve the quality of people’s lives, is amazing and inspiring. We have a lot to be proud of in Solihull.”

Jacqueline Aldred, Chair of Healthwatch Solihull and Chair of the Awards judging panel, commented: “These awards are a first for Solihull and mark an exciting new way of working together. They are a great example of how we want to move forward, with our shared aim of making life better for people in the borough.”

The full list of categories and winners is:

Care Professional of the Year

Mandy Hannigan, Promoting Independence Coordinator, Supported Integrated Discharge Service

Health Professional of the Year

Phillip Hall, Senior Nurse Dementia, Solihull Hospital

Care Team of the Year

Swallows Meadow Court

Primary Care Service of the Year

Hampton Surgery

Award for Dementia-friendly Service

Solihull Council’s Arts and Libraries Service

Award for Collaborative Working

Solihull Partnership’s Winter Warmth Campaign Project Team

Award for Outstanding Project Delivered in the Community

Paul Murtagh, Walking Football at Beechcroft Multi Sports Community Club

Thursday Club, Solihull Synagogue

Award for an Outstanding Initiative in Supported Living

The Team at Phoenix House Extra Care Service

Award for Outstanding Customer Experience

George Fentham Trust Lunch Club, Hampton-in-Arden

Award for Outstanding Neighbour

Alan Jones and Andrew Orchard

Chairman’s Award

Solihull Community Housing

Visit www.solihulltogether.co.uk to read more about the winners and awards.

Please can you please provide me with the answers to questions 1 and 2 outlined below for either

1.  The total number of patients who were initiated with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion  therapy by your Adult Diabetes Service on insulin pumps manufactured and supplied by the following companies in the period January 2014 to December 2014

Medtronic / Animas / Ypsomed mylife Omnipod / Roche / Advanced Therapeutics / Cellnovo

2.  The total number of patients who were initiated with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion  therapy by your Paediatric Diabetes Service on insulin pumps manufactured and supplied by the following companies in the period January 2014 to December 2014

Medtronic / Animas / Ypsomed mylife Omnipod / Roche / Advanced Therapeutics / Cellnovo

We only use the first four types of pump on your lists.  Across our Trust during 2014 our Adult diabetes service had 58 patients on these pumps and Paediatrics 36.

1)      The total number of qualified nurses [i.e. Band 5 and above] that you currently employ, in each Agenda for Change band.

e.g. Band 5: 112 nurses, Band 6: 45 nurses etc

We do not centrally record the place of qualification for our Nurses so we cannot answer this question. We can confirm that all of our Nurses are Registered with the  Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Registrations are monitored continuously.

2)      The number of nurses that you currently employ, in each Agenda for Change band, who qualified as a nurse [i.e. obtained their primary nursing qualification] in an EU or EEA country other than the UK.

e.g. Band 5: 23 nurses, Band 6: 4 nurses, etc.

3)      The number of nurses that you currently employ, in each Agenda for Change band, who qualified as a nurse [i.e. obtained their primary nursing qualification] in a non-EU/EEA country.

e.g. Band 5: 23 nurses, Band 6: 4 nurses, etc.

Please can you also provide me with the same information as requested in 1) 2) and 3) for the same time [i.e. February] in 2014, 2013 and 2012.

Please send me:

A summary of the annual results of any Hand Hygiene Audits conducted within your NHS Acute Trust in the time period: January 1^st 2005 – present. Including, if available, for each year:

• Number of opportunities
• Number of opportunities taken
• Number of opportunities not taken
• Details of the audit process(es) used

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide the information requested although the infection prevention and control team are responsible for co-ordinating hand hygiene audits. We do not carry out annual hand hygiene audits rather individual clinical departments including community facilities within HEFT carry out a monthly hand hygiene audit and to gather this amount of information for all the departments within the Trust for the time span requested would exceed the 18 hours of staff time as laid down under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

The hand hygiene audit was changed in 2013 (both the old and the current audit documents are attached) when we introduced the IPS hand hygiene audit based on the WHO five moments. The old audit took place over a twenty minute observational period with whichever members of staff were observed in that time being included. The new audit involves observing ten hand hygiene opportunities and can even be carried out over several days in order to obtain a cross section of HCPs.

Once completed the total numbers for each section of the audit are entered onto the electronic system and an overall % score is generated. It is unlikely that clinical departments will have retained their paper copies of the hand hygiene audit for as far back as 2005  so will not be able to provide the breakdown of information required. We have attached the overall Trust scores as an example.Old Hand Hygiene Audit Form Quality Improvement Tools HI – Performance Trends