Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

This is why we work in the NHS. At Sherwood Forest Hospitals, improving people's lives and experience of care is at the heart of what matters to us. We love this before and after video showing the life-changing impact that a new treatment for Parkinson's disease is making to one of our patients. We are the first hospital in the East Midlands to offer Produodopa, a new infusion therapy treatment that is administered via a portable pump under the skin, for patients with advanced-stage Parkinson's disease. Damien Gath, 52, of Derby, underwent the treatment at Sherwood Forest Hospitals. Damien’s condition had recently worsened and he had been taking four separate oral drugs six times a day to control the problematic involuntary movements which made those everyday activities a challenge. Damien said: “It’s been extraordinary and life-changing – just shortly after first having the treatment I was able make a cup of coffee more easily and go to the supermarket.” Dr Nishantha Silva, Consultant Geriatrician and Service lead for Parkinson’s disease and related movement disorders at SFH, said: “We are proud to be the first Trust in the East Midlands to offer this and aim to build on this success by expanding access to Produodopa, ensuring that more patients can experience its benefits, providing our patients with the highest quality of care and latest treatment options. “The successful implementation of Produodopa at SFH heralds a new era in the management of advanced Parkinson’s disease.” You can read more about Damien's experiences on our website at https://lnkd.in/gfEZdz-B If you'd like to join #TeamSFH, check out our vacancies for jobs at all levels and across all departments at https://lnkd.in/e8E76D_5. NHS England

Patients at King’s Mill Hospital are set to benefit from regular therapeutic music-making thanks to a new two-year partnership with a group of healthcare musicians. OPUS Musicians have been visiting our hospitals for several years thanks to funding from the Sherwood Forest Hospitals Charity. A further two years of funding has been secured by the charity who were awarded a grant from NHS Charities Together.   During the two years Opus musicians will also deliver staff training to give colleagues the skills and confidence to use music as a tool to improve health and wellbeing in patients. Mansfield-based Constantina Samara, 33, was on her fifth day in hospital after delivering her first baby at King’s Mill Hospital when the musicians visited the ward she was staying on, giving her an experience she’ll never forget. She said, “I can’t thank them enough for the change they made in my life on that day. Their music wasn't just two people playing, it was a healing moment for me and my baby. It became a source of hope and happiness, and they gave me the strength to carry on in my journey.” You can watch a video filmed by the Trust which follows OPUS music and the impact they have on our patients here: https://lnkd.in/ePq5T26R

Thank you to our Estates and Facilities SFH and Skanska colleagues for lighting up the beautiful King's Mill Hospital white and red this weekend to celebrate England reaching the #Euro2024 final against Spain. Good luck, England! #ItsComingHome ⚽

Colleagues working in the Neonatal Unit at King’s Mill Hospital are celebrating after they were awarded the prestigious Baby Friendly Award by the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative. The celebration was attended by all members of the unit, including medical staff, nurses, support workers, housekeepers and managers, showcasing that it was a team approach. They were joined by families who had recently had a positive experience on the unit. The award comes after the unit, which is ran by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, achieved their stage three Baby Friendly Accreditation just two years after the starting their baby friendly journey. The team have worked extremely hard to achieve all three stages of the accreditation process in a short period of time after initially receiving their certificate of commitment in April 2022. Alex Taylor, 29, from Kirkby stayed on the unit for 15 days after her daughter Harriet was born by emergency caesarean at just 32 weeks. Harriet really struggled with her lungs, requiring two chest drains and developing sepsis during her stay. She is now a thriving 5-month-old and Alex had the following to say about the unit: “NICU were phenomenal, and I can’t fault them. They are all so lovely and caring – just having someone available to offer me support was the most important thing.” You can find out more about the award here: https://bit.ly/45PYQgW

This week our beloved Chaplain Rodney Warden celebrated 50 years of being ordained in a special ceremony. Beginning his Minister training as a fresh-faced 18-year-old, he went on to study a four-year Theology course at London University, Richmond College and was finally ordained in Bristol, 1974 aged 30. Rodney started working for Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust as a Chaplain in 1998 and hasn’t looked back since, commenting that if he’d done anything different in his life, he would have started his work in the hospital sooner. Due to personal circumstances, Rodney has dedicated his time at SFH to supporting bereaved parents, which he says felt like the natural thing to do. He has been a listening ear and source of comfort to many local families over the years. When asked about his time at the Trust, he said: “The most important thing I have learned whilst working here is to love other people as much as I love myself.” He followed on from this by saying he would stay working at the Trust for “As long as I can still stand.” What an inspirational man and SFH’s very own national treasure - we hope you will join us in saying a big congratulations to our Rodney.

Please join us in welcoming Stacy to Sherwood Forest Hospitals. Stacy Irving joined #TeamSFH recently through the innovative Step into Health programme, which supports military service leavers and veterans in their transition to civilian employment. Shana McCullagh, a Recruitment Officer, provides one-to-one Step into Health support to applicants. Stacy secured the role of Specialty General Manager for Paediatrics and Community Paediatrics. This management position involves working with clinical teams to address day-to-day operational challenges and looking at ways to improve care for patients. Stacy served in the Royal Logistic Corps for 25 years and completed operational tours and exercises worldwide, including in Kenya, Iraq, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Germany and Cyprus. Stacy, who retired as Warrant Officer Class 1 (WO1) Regimental Sergeant Major, said: “Being in the Army was my life and I was dreading leaving it. I love caring for people so thought working in the NHS would be ideal. “I couldn’t have asked for a better role to come into for my first job out of the military. The leadership skills I developed in the Army have helped massively, as I’m used to working with senior officers and people of all ranks. “When I applied for this role, Shana approached me as I’d ticked a box on the application to say I was ex-Armed Forces. I hadn’t had a job interview for 25 years but Shana provided useful information about the Trust and the kind of interview questions to expect for a role at this level.” Rob Simcox, Director of People at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, said: “We recognise the transferable skills and cultural values that Armed Forces personnel develop when serving and appreciate the benefit these can bring to roles within the NHS. “The NHS is home to more than 350 careers so there really is something for everyone – from catering, maintenance, administration, finance, communications, management, or a role in one of the clinical services, to name but a few, this programme will benefit you.” Sherwood Forest Hospitals, which manages King’s Mill, Newark and Mansfield Community hospitals, has signed the Armed Forces pledge and has Silver employment status in addition to gold accreditation from the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) in recognition of the support it provides. Step into Health is open to all service leavers and veterans and their spouse or partner. The Trust guarantees interviews for applicants from the Armed Forces community who meet the essential criteria for a post. Placements are also available. For more information, please visit https://lnkd.in/gPkKRia or contact Shana McCullagh, Recruitment Officer at Sherwood Forest Hospitals via email at [email protected]. NHS Veteran Aware

This week is Learning Disability Week, which takes place from 17 – 23 June. This year is all about busting myths about living life with a learning disability and the theme is “Do you see me?” A learning disability is a reduced intellectual ability and difficulty with everyday activities – for example household tasks, socialising or managing money – which affects someone for their whole life. People with a learning disability tend to take longer to learn and may need support to develop new skills, understand complicated information and interact with other people. Joanne Senior is a Learning Disability Nurse Specialist at the Trust and during the week she held a stand to educate colleagues and visitors on the importance of supporting those with learning disabilities. She said: “It is important to highlight that our patients may need additional support during their time at SFH and I am proud to be able to support our staff to make the appropriate reasonable adjustments. “This week has given me the opportunity to share how I can support my colleagues and our patients with a learning disability.” The Trust currently support young adults with learning difficulties into employment by working with DFN Project Search, a one-year transition to work programme for young adults with a learning disability or autism spectrum conditions, or both. The Trust have been instrumental in enabling young adults to join the workforce, and currently have two interns from the first year now working at King’s Mill Hospital permanently.

Today we celebrated and thanked up to 1,000 colleagues who work as part of our wider Estates and Facilities SFH team to keep our hospitals running smoothly. Members of the team had information stands in our hospitals as part of National Healthcare Estates and Facilities Day #HealthEFMDay Our Estates team, who work alongside colleagues from Skanska, Medirest and CNH (Vercity), showcased a huge range of roles including portering, catering, electrical, plumbing, joinery, cleaning, grounds and gardens, buildings maintenance, and decorating. Visitors to the stand at King's Mill Hospital had the opportunity to use a virtual reality headset and dummy fire extinguisher to put out a fire in various settings such as an office, or hospital ward. The technology enables employees to learn and practice vital fire safety through realistic scenarios without the need for a real fire, which reduces impact on the environment. The fire safety training aid is brand new and will start being used across the Trust later this year. Did you know? Switchboard answered nearly two million calls in the last year  We provide more than 750,000 patient meals per year We clean the equivalent of 15 football pitches every day  More than 17,500 security and car park patrols take place each year  A porter responds to a reactive call every three minutes - that's 183,069 per year  None of the Trust's waste is goes to landfill Thank you to each and every colleague in Estates and Facilities!

This week (June 10- 16) marks National Carers Week and colleagues at the Trust have been raising awareness of the challenges faced by unpaid carers. This comes after the Trust were awarded Carer Friendly Accreditation for the second year in a row from Nottinghamshire Carers Association. During Carers Week, thousands of individuals and organisations come together to provide support for carers, run activities, highlight the vital role carers play in our communities and draw attention to just how important caring is. Colleagues at the Trust have been highlighting the number of resources available to those who are classed as unpaid carers, as well as hosting a ‘Lunch and Learn’ session where colleagues learned more about how they can support carers in the workplace. The Trust offer several avenues of support to those colleagues who have caring responsibilities. These include a Carers Staff Network, Carers Champions and a Carers Passport which removes barriers to support carers, to name a few. As well as this, the Trust have updated their Carers Leave to exceed the national guidance of five days, which was recently put into force by the Carers Association. Corinne Kitchen, Deputy People Wellbeing Lead and Chair of the Carers Network said: “We are passionate about supporting our colleagues’ wellbeing at Sherwood, and supporting those who are unpaid carers is extremely important to us. "Our staff carers network offers peer support to colleagues who are unpaid carers, creating a safe space to talk freely and without judgement about how things truly are. It also offers a listening ear and shares tips and suggestions on where to go for further support. "We are extremely proud to have been awarded carer friendly accreditation for the second year running from the Nottinghamshire Carers Association.”

Happy retirement Janice! This week Janice retired from her role as the Trust’s Estates Property Manager after working at Sherwood for 32 years and NHS for 39 years. Janice joined the Trust in 1992 where she has a number of roles from the Estates Administration Officer at King’s Mill, for the Capital Team to the role of Head of FM Administration and performance within the Team developed to manage the oncoming PFI contract. In 2007 Janice became the Head of FM Property Services which then developed into her current role of Estates Property Manager. Julie Dennis, Senior Soft FM manager at SFH said: “I have worked with Janice as part Trust PFI team for 19 years, and we have seen many changes during that time working together. I will miss her in my work family and to note that it has nothing to do with the fruit cake and jam tarts she makes; (she is a brilliant baker making the flakiest pastry). “She has supported me and others in the team when we have faced difficult times. We wish her all the best though moving on to this next stage.” When she’s not working Janice spends her time gardening, traveling, spending time with friends, and doting upon her grandchildren. Things that Janice plans to spend a lot more time doing now throughout her retirement. Janice said: “It’s been a long time, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen what one small hospital was built into the Trust that it is today. I’ve had many career highlights but working with Leicester Housing Association to build the residential housing was probably the best one. I’ve been part of many great projects here. Working for the Trust, I’ve always felt like I was really a part of the NHS. I want to keep that connection, I may come back and volunteer. I’ve really loved and enjoyed working here.” Thank you, Janice, for all your hard work over the years. Everyone here at #TeamSFH wishes you a long and happy retirement.