news BARNSLEYHOSPITAL
The magazine of Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
May-July 2023
www.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk
Barnsley Hospital CEO Dr Richard Jenkins
Hospital Chair Sheena McDonnell, Dr Tim Wenham and Chief Executive Dr Richard Jenkins
ICU Intensive Care Lead Nurse Laura Limb is excited to move into the new unit
New intensive care unit prepares for patients Barnsley Hospital’s new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is preparing to accept its first patients. The £7.3m unit had an official launch in March, when media and local dignitaries gathered for speeches and tours following the 16-month construction. The development is a landmark for Barnsley in future-proofing the town against current and future demand for intensive care beds. The unit increases capacity from the hospital’s pre-pandemic seven critical care beds to 16 (plus 8 escalation bays). It will also enhance patient experience and wellbeing with more spaced out beds, better lighting and décor, and enhanced patient privacy. These factors all contribute to shorter stays, quicker discharges, and speedier recoveries. Hospital Chief Executive Dr Richard Jenkins commented: “We’re investing heavily in our facilities right across the Trust. These critical care beds will not only expand our
capacity to care for the most poorly patients, but will help relieve some of the pressures elsewhere in our hospital and allow our teams to ensure their patients receive the best possible treatment and care.’’ Laura Limb is an Intensive Care Lead Nurse at Barnsley Hospital who worked through the worst of Covid. She explained: “We had wanted a new unit for some years because we needed the capacity and there were other issues like a lack of natural light. When Covid hit, the entire unit had to move up to floor 5 and take over two general ward areas – not ideal for an Intensive Care Unit, but we had to find a makeshift solution during the pandemic.”
Bed-bays at the new Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
journeys in a safe care setting.
The new unit has more space for each bed, providing a more useful environment for all the people and activities necessary to support the most poorly patients in the hospital, with clinicians more easily The hospital critical care teams able to use specialist are delighted to move into their equipment directly at the new ICU on the ground floor bedside. at the front of the hospital. The Barnsley Hospital’s Clinical ICU is now co-located with Director for Surgery Dr Tim the Surgical High Dependency Wenham said of the new Unit (SHDU), which is not only unit: “This high-quality, puran effective use of resources, pose-built unit will allow us to but will also improve patient provide the best possible care.
In addition to the massively improved space and environment there is also the huge safety advantage of greater proximity to theatres, radiology and the emergency department.” Staff will have an area to relax and eat, as well as a suite of offices, changing facilities and showers, and for the first time in Barnsley Hospital, ICU patients will be able to use a dedicated outdoor courtyard. Relatives will also have improved facilities and more space, closer to loved ones.
Eco-friendly caps and gowns Barnsley Hospital has introduced ‘eco-friendly’ operating theatre gowns and hats – which is set to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 66 per cent and waste by 83 per cent. This is part of the Trust’s commitment to NHS net zero targets and a further step towards lessening the environmental impact of the Trust and broader NHS. The pandemic caused a boom in single use personal protective equipment (PPE), which creates a big carbon footprint as it is developed using polypropylene and natural gas. It also uses coal and oil-based manufacturing systems and the PPE is then transported by air and sea over long distances. After being used, PPE is taken to a waste plant for
incineration which is also polluting. To combat this, the Trust developed some successful trial projects, which led to bringing in reusable cloth theatre hats and gowns. The studies engaged staff and PPE users across the hospital and includes the capability to sew in names and roles of team members into the garments - assisting communication in busy settings. The garments also mean a vast reduction in plastic waste. Doctor Andy Snell who was involved in the project said: “The use of reusable theatre hats and gowns allows for more comfortable working, better clinical practice, improved communication and greater environmental benefits. This switch will provide a
range of benefits for patients, staff and Barnsley, some of which we already saw through the pilot and others that will come with the Trust-wide rollout. “People can find it hard to distinguish each other when wearing PPE. The additional options some of this reusable gear will offer, such as names on the caps, will help address this. We are introducing this change with a phased approach – with the successful pilots and feedback complete, we will now roll out caps and gowns across the Trust and ensure this continues to be successful, and then we can look at introducing these wider benefits. We’re already considering our next steps to doing our bit to improve the environment.”
Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Delivery Officer, Bob Kirton added: “This is a really important step the Trust is taking and meets our commitments to helping improve place and planet. It is part of the Trust’s Green Plan and comes alongside other important steps like reducing our use of environmentally harmful anaesthetic gases. Not only do steps like this benefit the environment, but they also improve patient and staff experience and mean we are contributing to making the planet better for our local population and future generations. By switching to reusable PPE, we will achieve a 66 per cent reduction on greenhouse gas and will reduce waste by 83 per cent.” The hats and gowns were
Sally Foster from the Day Surgery Unit.
introduced from April 24, 2023.
Hospital’s ‘bricks and mortar’ investment
Since the last edition of Barnsley Hospital News in January, we’re proud to have completed a major investment in our services that will serve our whole community – a brand new, state-ofthe-art Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This has been a challenging project, especially as the hospital worked round the build as we continued to respond and learn from the ongoing health needs created by the pandemic. The new £7.3m ICU was formally opened in March and will soon receive its first patients (see main article). This ‘future-proofs’ our town against demand for intensive care beds – an increase from seven pre-pandemic to 13 now with the physical capacity for up to 24 should this be needed over future years. It’s also a hugely improved work environment for our ICU staff. Furthermore, our Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) in The Glass Works continues to grow. The CDC received an additional £4.6m in capital funding, enabling access to more diagnostic tests for Barnsley people including ECG heart tests and specialist lung condition tests. On performance, we are on track with reducing waits for most of our diagnostic tests against the national six-week target, and we have no patients waiting longer than 78 weeks for planned care. As always in the NHS though, other challenges have emerged. We have been working hard to manage the effects of industrial action, and we will be doing a lot towards the four-hour Emergency Care Standard. This is an incredibly important standard – it links to quality of care and patient experience across the whole Trust. Recent performance is already better than the 76% level required by the NHS by March 2024. The 2023/24 national NHS priorities reconfirm the ongoing need to recover our core services. We will make progress in a whole host of ways, whether that’s preventing and managing long-term health conditions in our population or improving staff recruitment. Using innovation and technology to increase value received from every pound spent is more vital than ever. Our greatest asset in meeting these challenges is our staff. Our staff survey revealed that we have the highest scores of trusts in England for compassionate leadership, flexible working and team working. We still want to do more, and continue to invest in a broad range of health and wellbeing options for employees. Our hospital charity has played a large role in this work, providing complementary therapies and support to patients and staff. Thank you to every member of our Barnsley community for your continued support.