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Cannock Chase Hospital’s surgical hub was recently visited and assessed by a national team to seek accreditation and recognition that the hub is working to a defined set of clinical and operational standards. Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) is a national NHS England programme gathering clinical data to identify changes that will help improve patient treatment and care.

A popular breastfeeding support group for families in Wolverhampton is celebrating its face-to-face relaunch following the COVID-19 pandemic. A gathering of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust’s (RWT) Breastfeeding Peer Support Group, parents and babies took place at the Children’s Village Strengthening Families Hub, Graiseley Lane, Wolverhampton. The sessions have given volunteers the chance to meet with parents and babies all in one group session, which until more recent times hadn’t happened since March 2020.

“It’s the little things that have made my time so special.” Paediatric Senior Sister Karen Allen has many fond memories from her 43-year NHS career and says working with so many wonderful children and young people has felt like an extension of her own family. Karen, who has worked for the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust for the majority of her career, has also spent the last few months with Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, and retired last Friday 24 February.

From car seat queries to which rashes and spots to be concerned about and what’s normal in nappies – a new series of videos aimed at new dads has been shared by the Black Country Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS). The series of films – entitled Oh baby! Top tips for new daddies - was developed using feedback from families across the Black Country and West Birmingham including the common topics discussed through Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) groups.

Virtual approaches to healthcare at-scale are still relatively new for the nursing profession. Equipping the modern nursing workforce for the realities it faces using new technologies to enhance access requires new thinking around education. Virtual consultations and virtual wards have spread rapidly in the NHS since the COVID-19 pandemic. They have become a progressively important means to providing access to increasingly in-demand services.

An “amazing” facility built at New Cross Hospital from a former patient’s generous donation of £442,000 has transformed the life of a young boy receiving treatment for leukaemia. The sum of £442,142 – one of the largest received by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Charity – came from Michael Worrall, who chose to donate the money through a gift in his will. Mr Worrall, who didn’t have any close family, was a former patient at New Cross Hospital who died on 15 September 2016 at the age of 78.

Community “Stay and Play” sessions have been organised for Wolverhampton asylum seekers and migrants to ensure these families can access information and support for their health and wellbeing. This partnership has been formed between The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust’s Wolverhampton 0-19 Service and the Wolves Foundation. The Wolverhampton 0-19 Service focuses on Health Visiting, School Nursing, and the Partnering Families Team and Health Inclusion Team.

Mums across the Black Country are being given an opportunity to share their experience of maternity care by taking part in a national survey which will help their local NHS Trusts target improvements. The CQC 2023 Maternity Survey is aimed at those whose babies are born in January, February and March of this year. It is confidential and anonymous and taking part is voluntary. The quality and safety of maternity services in England is its focus and it will ask for feedback on antenatal care, labour and birth and postnatal care.

A Turkish nurse living in Wolverhampton has revealed the terror and devastation caused by the earthquake disaster in his country after losing members of his family. Sefik Basli, whose wife Mukerrem has been a nurse at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust for three months, lost an uncle and an aunt in the disaster in Turkey and Syria that has so far claimed more than 41,000 lives.

Feeling crafty? Budding artists are invited to try new skills at a series of workshops offering people the chance to produce a mini magazine for patients and visitors to New Cross Hospital. Weekly workshops at Wolverhampton Art Gallery are starting on Tuesday, 28 February and continue into March on Tuesday 7, 14 and 21, from 9am-12 noon. No prior skills are needed, and participants don’t need to bring any materials – just a willingness to try new things.

A joint message from Carl Marshall, LGBT+ Employee Voice Group (EVG) Chair, and Simon Evans, Chief Strategy Officer and LGBT+ EVG Executive Sponsor: Thinking about the theme for this year’s LGBT+ History Month – ‘Behind the lens’ – the word ‘visibility’ springs to mind. The LGBT+ community is often celebrated as being diverse and vibrant, yet you may not always be able to immediately identify someone as being part of the community.

A sing song to help the medicine go down could be just what the doctor ordered for young patients at New Cross Hospital if a charity appeal hits the right note with supporters. The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Charity has been working with the Ex-Cathedra Singing Medicine Team which brings its songs and games to poorly youngsters in hospital to improve their health and wellbeing. And today (Tuesday 14 February) the Charity wants to launch an appeal to prescribe Singing Medicine to Wolverhampton patients for a whole year after seeing how delighted they, their parents and Trust staff have been by recent visits.

Professor Steve Field CBE, Group Chair of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, has announced he is to step down from the role when his term comes to an end on 31 March this year. Professor Field, who has been at the helm in Wolverhampton since 2019, and added Walsall to his portfolio in 2021, said he would look back over his time with “immense pride.”

From Audiology Clinical Support Officer to Apprentice Audiologist – Deanne Taylor’s career journey is a motivational one. And she was left in “complete shock” after receiving The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust’s (RWT) first Apprentice of the Year Award as National Apprenticeship Week was celebrated. Deanne, 35, started her journey in the Audiology Department at the Trust more than 16 years ago and she is now being rewarded for her pure determination of working through the Level 6 Healthcare Science Practitioner Apprenticeship with Aston University.

A ladies choir donated more than £4,200 to help put a song in the hearts of patients at New Cross Hospital. Songbirds in Harmony from Hednesford donated £4,240.37 to The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Charity after choosing it as its charity of the year. Trish Hooper, who is the secretary and founder member of the choir, has been a cardiology patient for nearly 20 years and nominated the charity of RWT, which hosts the Cardiology team in the Heart and Lung Centre.

An “inspirational” patient who has only been able to breathe artificially for two years has finally been discharged from hospital in Wolverhampton – thanks to a new multi-team approach. Zahid Mahmood, 49, had a tracheostomy fitted in 2021 after he suffered a brain injury, and until recently, requiring one-to-one care. As so few tracheostomy patients are able to be supported in the West Midlands due to limited specialist care home places and community carers with the correct specialist skills, Zahid was transferred to a Wolverhampton care home before being admitted to New Cross Hospital.

The Trust has been made aware that a small number of patients who have received the ‘preloaded EyeCee One / EyeCee Once Crystal Intraocular monofocal lens’ at Cannock Chase Hospital since the 1st October 2022 need to be recalled. This is a national product recall. If you are affected by this, you will have been contacted by the Ophthalmology Team directly to arrange an appointment. If you have not been contacted, you are not affected by this.

People in Wolverhampton are reminded of the importance of regular testing to mark National HIV Testing Week. Run by HIV Prevention England, the annual event highlights how regular testing helps reduce the number of people living with undiagnosed HIV, or diagnosed late. Free HIV testing will be available on Wednesday (8 February 2023) at Pride House, 27 School Street, Wolverhampton, and the University of Wolverhampton from 10am-4pm.

Cannock and Wolverhampton will form the regional hub for the Midlands Endoscopy Academy after a £700,000 contract was awarded to The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT). Funding will be used to deliver training but also to improve facilities, introduce new services such as transnasal (nose) endoscopy (TNE) and to develop training programmes, particularly to boost the nursing workforce. Endoscopy is a procedure using a camera to view inside the body.

Based at the Gem Centre, local schools and other community localities, our 19 Children’s Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) work with children with swallowing difficulties (dysphagia) and communication difficulties. Few people fully understand the role SLTs have in helping children and young people with communication difficulties, and the importance of early intervention.

People attending appointments or visiting patients at Black Country hospitals are being urged to make sure they stay away if they have sickness and diarrhoea to avoid spreading infection. Norovirus, often referred to as the ‘winter vomiting bug’, is easily transmissible and in order to reduce the risk of the spread of infection, bed bays have closed at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton and a ward has closed at Walsall Manor Hospital.

A device being trialled to patients in Wolverhampton with certain infections could keep them out of hospital, saving up to 500 bed days a year. For the next three months, 20 patients treated at New Cross Hospital for bronchiectasis – a long-term condition where the airways become widened – will use machines the size of a small drinks can to administer their IV antibiotics for up to 24 hours.

A digital app which helps patients to manage their heart conditions for a lifetime has been launched at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT). Wolverhampton is the first acute Trust to launch the myHeart app in the West Midlands. It is powered by my mhealth and brings digital support to patients who have heart disease or are recovering from cardiac surgery. It comes as the NHS Long-term Plan aims for 85 per cent of patients to take up Cardiac Rehabilitation by 2028 – with RWT already on target.

Lord Carter of Coles is one of a trio of appointments by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) to help make a positive difference to patients and their families across the region’s communities. RWT welcomes Lord Patrick Carter, 76, as a Special Advisor to the Board and Angela Harding and Dr Umar Daraz as Associate Non-Executive Directors. They will start in early February.