STAFF UPDATE

Today sees the start of four-days of BMA junior doctor strike action, running from 7am on Friday 11 August to 7am on Tuesday 15 August.

Colleagues from across our acute and community sites have worked together to make robust plans to preserve clinical services and to maintain the safety of our patients. The timing of this industrial action is difficult however with many colleagues taking annual leave during August and cover during the strike period is proving challenging in some areas. We are really grateful to both medical and non-clinical colleagues who are working in different ways over the period to maintain patient safety.

Against this backdrop we are also planning for BMA consultant strike action planned for 24 and 25 August.

To read today's full update please visit HUB.

We announced in July that Suzanne Tracey was stepping down as CEO of the Royal Devon.

Many of you will want to share your well wishes with Suzanne and we are arranging an eCard to send to her – click to sign it here. You can include any nice images and messages, as there is unlimited space.

We will also have handwritten cards available to sign in the Trinity Suite on level 5 of NDDH and in the executive support office 423 on level 3, Noy Scott House at the RD&E (Wonford).

There will also be an opportunity to say goodbye in person for those of you who would like to. This will take place on Wednesday 6 September at Beckett’s Rooftop Bar at Hotel Indigo in Exeter. Feel free to drop in anytime from 6-9pm.

Limited spaces are available for the at the Supporting People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People conference where the very latest policies and strategies will be reviewed, examples of best practice will be shared and lived experience will be heard.

• Register

• View full event here

• Hold a place here

Online safety for women and girls is a webinar aimed at educating women on how to keep their personal information secure as a prevention tactic against online abuse or harassment. 

See HUB for more information on content, dates and how to book.

Our community nursing careers roadshows have been a great success to date with fantastic candidates coming along who will be joining our urgent community response, community inpatient, out of hours and community nursing teams across the Royal Devon.

The next stop for our community nursing careers roadshow is Exmouth Hospital tomorrow and we look forward to welcoming candidates both internally and externally to discover what a career in the community can offer.

Find out more on HUB.

The August edition of the Royal Devon Inclusion newsletter is now available.

You can read or download it here.

The health and wellbeing of our colleagues is a key Trust priority. Supporting colleagues ensures we are a great place to work and are able to deliver safe and compassionate care to our patients.

Our Employee Experience, Occupational Health and Wellbeing and Estates and Facilities teams are working to deliver a wide ranging programme of activity to support this Trust priority.

To help highlight some of the key health, wellbeing and recognition work underway over the next few months we have developed a health and wellbeing roadmap.

Please click here here to view the roadmap which will be updated regularly and is also available to view here on the health and wellbeing pages of HUB.

If you have any questions about anything on the roadmap please contact rduh.employee.experience@nhs.net or rduh.estatesandfacilitiesadmin@nhs.net

For information about resources to support staff wellbeing, please go to the our Health and Wellbeing pages

We are seeing a rise in cases of COVID-19 across the Trust, including a small number of outbreaks at our acute sites, as well as an increase in cases among colleagues. 

To protect both patients and colleagues from risk of avoidable infections, it’s important to ensure we remain vigilant with our infection prevention and control (IPC) measures. This includes ensuring good hand hygiene, indoor ventilation, appropriate use of PPE, and good levels of cleanliness.

We also need to be alert to COVID-related symptoms and prevention methods, so please make sure you follow the advice and guidance available on the Coronavirus (COVID-19): info hub pages on HUB. This includes information on colleague and patient testing

Additional details on fit testing, PPE, and risk assessments, as well as contact details for the IPC teams, are all available on HUB.

Last week the team from Capener Ward at NDDH along with its clinical matron and NDDH tissue viability lead presented at the Quality Improvement Awards held in Exeter about the work undertaken in relation to pressure ulcer prevention. The team was awarded first prize for its poster. 

In March 2023 the team launched their campaign with the aim to reduce pressure ulcer incidents within six months, changing culture and attitudes towards pressure ulcer management, improve communication and team-working and maintain sustainable compliance with nursing risk assessment.

To date the team has seen a 67% reduction in healthcare acquired pressure incidents and has also seen a sustained improvement with risk assessment compliance raising from 24% to 96% and sustained. 

See HUB for the full story.

Well done to the therapies team at NDDH for this great feedback on Care Opinion: "Referred to the hospital by my GP, for a physiotherapy appointment to assess my painful knee. I saw a very friendly physiotherapist who listened to my description of my symptoms, gave me a comprehensive examination and gave very clear instructions on exercises to help the problem.

"I was hugely impressed by the efficiency and professionalism of the physiotherapist and by her friendly manner."

As a responder, you will be notified when feedback is posted about your service, and you can respond directly to the person who posted the feedback. If you are interested in becoming a Care Opinion responder, please email rduh.patientexperience@nhs.net to request further information, including access to a training video and full set-up details.

We are exploring an enhanced subscription for our Eastern services in the near future and will update you on opportunities to get involved.

With e-scooters now available to hire in Barnstaple, Zipp are coming to NDDH to give colleagues the opportunity to have a five minute trial with their scooters on Wednesday 16August. 

The trials will be taking place outside of the facilities offices (opposite the loading bay). 

If you would like to give it a go please click on this link and select a time.