West Midlands Strategic Health Authority

SHA Chairman named as 34th most influential person in the NHS

Published on: Thursday, November 12, 2009

NHS West Midlands Chairman Elisabeth Buggins has been named as number 34 in the Health Service Journal’s annual list of the 50 most influential people in the NHS.

Elisabeth is the only SHA chair to be included in this year’s list.

The judging panel cited Elisabeth’s work on the NHS National Leadership Council and Organ Donation Taskforce, and said of her:

“She is seen as the most influential of the SHA chairs, with a quiet way of getting people to take notice”.

Former NHS West Midlands Chief Executives David Nicholson and Cynthia Bower also appear on the list for their national roles, at numbers 1 and 14 respectively, and former Regional Postgraduate Dean Professor Steve Field (currently on secondment as Chair of the Royal College of GPs) is at number 28.

Also on the list are:

Sophia Christie, Chief Executive at NHS Birmingham East & North – No. 23 (and the only PCT representative in the list)
Mark Goldman, Chief Executive at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust – No. 33

See the full list here.

Pre-registration degree-only nurse education

Published on: Monday, November 09, 2009

Degree only “pre-registration” nurse education is coming. West Midlands NHS wishes to be in the vanguard of this reform to nursing. Please click on this link to learn more and to fill in one of our questionnaires. It will take no more than a minute or two of your time and by doing so you will help us work out how to get there. Thank you for taking part.

"Making a difference in 2009"

Published on: Wednesday, November 04, 2009

New medical recruitment site!

Published on: Friday, October 30, 2009

The West Midlands Deanery has launched its new medical recruitment website. To visit the site click the read more link below.read more ...

Annual health ratings show mixed picture for West Midlands NHS Trusts

Published on: Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Care Quality Commission has released its Annual Health Performance Ratings (otherwise known as the Annual Health Check) for NHS organisations and these show a mixed picture for NHS organisations within the West Midlands.

Whilst overall Primary Care Trusts and NHS Trusts have shown improvement in managing their finances, a number of ratings for quality of services within the region have fallen. Despite this, organisations on the whole have performed well on continuing to tackle healthcare associated infections and cancer waiting times.

The annual ratings published today are a challenging and comprehensive assessment of every NHS trust in the country. To do well, trusts must perform strongly across a broad range of standards and with regard to other issues that really matter to patients such as waiting times and better health outcomes.

To read the full press release click the 'read more' link below.

Seasonal flu – Protect yourself and others

Published on: Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Free vaccinations against seasonal flu are available for people aged 65 and over and for adults and children aged 6 months to 65 years in certain risk categories from October 2009.

Amid all the publicity surrounding swine flu, it is important not to underestimate the impact of seasonal flu. Every year it accounts for approximately 8,000 deaths. It can bring on serious complications for people in “at risk” groups and lead to other serious illnesses such as pneumonia. In the average winter, up to 15% of the population will be affected.

All people aged 65 and over qualify for the free annual seasonal flu jab, and adults and children aged six months to 65 years with certain conditions such as heart problems or asthma will also get a call or letter from their GP inviting them for the jab.

The jab can never offer 100% protection from seasonal flu, but does have a success rate of between 70 and 80% while others are more likely to get milder symptoms.

Don’t forget, the seasonal flu jab does not protect against swine flu.

Click on the 'Read more' link below to find out more.

EQUIP website wins BMA Award

Published on: Monday, October 05, 2009

The EQUIP website set up by the NHS West Midlands Workforce Deanery has received a ‘Commended’ award in the 2009 BMA Patient Information Awards.

EQUIP was recently redesigned as part of the Investing for Health Programme. It has quality-checked information and support for the West Midlands public.

This information includes links to accredited health and social care websites and a directory of over 4,000 local support groups and services including healthy lifestyle opportunities near you.

To visit the EQUIP site, click on the 'Read More' link below.

Our Year - Our Annual Report for 2008-09

Published on: Wednesday, September 23, 2009

"Our Year" is our Annual Report for 2008-09 - Read about our year and view a summary of our accounts here. We welcome any comments on our Annual Report and the way it is published. These should be sent to communicationsandpublicaffairs@westmidlands.nhs.uk

NHS West Midlands nominated for HSJ Award

Published on: Friday, August 28, 2009

NHS West Midlands has been nominated for a prestigious national award.

The NHS West Midlands Workforce Deanery has been shortlisted in the Workforce Development category of the HSJ Awards for the second year running. The ceremony will take place on 30 November, where NHS West Midlands will be competing with five other organisations.

The West Midlands Specialised Commissioning Team has also been shortlisted, in the World Class Commissioning category.

Visit the awards website at www.hsjawards.co.uk to find out more about the awards and see the other regional nominees.

Swine flu pandemic: Important health advice for the West Midlands

Published on: Thursday, July 02, 2009

If you experience a sudden fever, cough or shortness of breath or have a headache, sore throat, tiredness, aching muscles, chills, sneezing, runny nose or loss of appetite you may have swine flu.

For most people this is a mild illness and you should start to feel better after a few days without needing to go to your GP or A&E.

Help yourself and others by not spreading the virus and spread this advice instead.

The best thing you can do is stay at home, rest, drink plenty of fluids and take over-the-counter flu remedies to help relieve the symptoms.

It is particularly important that you talk to your doctor if you think you have swine flu and are pregnant, very young, over 65, or have long-term conditions such as asthma or diabetes.

If you feel very unwell

Check your symptoms online at www.nhs.uk or call the Swine Flu information line on 0800 1 513 513.

Still concerned?

A new self-care service which will give people with pandemic swine flu symptoms fast access to antivirals was launched today by Health Secretary Andy Burnham.

The National Pandemic Flu Service is a new dedicated website (www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu) and phoneline (0800 1 513 100 or 0800 1 513 200 (Textphone)) for people to check their symptoms and get a unique number which will give them access to antivirals if necessary.

People who have swine flu symptoms will be given a unique access number and told where their nearest antiviral collection point is. They should then ask a flu friend – a friend or relative who doesn’t have swine flu – to go and pick up their antivirals.

The flu friend must show their own ID as well as that of the patient. The authorisation number and ID information will be checked to ensure it matches the information provided when the assessment of symptoms was completed.

Anyone who suspects they have swine flu is advised not to go to their GP or A&E.

People should contact their doctor direct rather than using the National Pandemic Flu Service if:

they have a serious underlying illness;
they are pregnant;
they have a sick child under one year old;
their condition suddenly gets much worse; or
if their condition is still getting worse after 7 days (5 for a child).

Call NHS Direct on 0845 46 47, or your GP for more advice.

Please do not go to A&E, unless you are seriously ill.

Published on: Thursday, March 19, 2009

Legislation due to be enacted by summer 2009 will require healthcare providers to publish their ‘Quality Accounts’ from April 2010, just as they publish financial accounts. These will be reports to the public on the quality of services they provide in every service line- and will focus on safety, experience and outcomes.

Do you need information from this website in a different format?

Published on: Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Requests for documents to be provided in a different format (such as translation services or braille) should be sent to:

communicationsandpublicaffairs@westmidlands.nhs.uk