Welcome to the latest issue of My Download - your regular news roundup. The deadline for contributions is 5pm on a Thursday. If you have anything that needs sharing with colleagues, please don't hesitate to get in touch: dchst.communications@nhs.net.

Belper’s new health hub update: with work progressing at pace on the new Belper development, our capital and estates team has produced the first Belper Integrated Hub staff newsletter to keep colleagues up to date with the latest milestones in the building programme. You can read it here.

Well done to our latest ROSE award winner, agency nurse Yvonne Rodney.

The patient who nominated Yvonne said: “During our visit to Ripley Urgent Treatment Centre, Yvonne went over and above the call of duty to get both my wife and I the assistance we needed. Yvonne ensured we were both taken care of in the best possible way. Thank you, Yvonne. You are what makes the NHS great. Keep your light shining so that other staff members around you can see your good example, and hopefully learn from you.”

Congratulations to our latest IRIS winners! Our patient-facing winner is heart failure specialist nurse Martin Melville, who received two nominations this month. They said:

“Martin consistently promotes a positive and collaborative environment that allows us to provide a high standard of care to our patients, as well as providing this himself. He goes above and beyond to help staff in time of need and there have been multiple occasions that he has provided comfort and advice in difficult situations. Nothing is ever too much trouble, and he always has time for his staff no matter what is going on in his day.”

And:

“I would like to nominate Martin due to his exceptional leadership, dedication, and ability to support his team. He consistently creates a work environment that is motivational, non-judgemental and a safe space for both professional and personal development within the team. Not only is he a great manager but also heart failure nurse.”

And congratulations to Charlotte Butters and Gemma Cooke, who are the joint IRIS winners in our non-patient facing category. Their nomination said: “Our operational divisions have been through a re-structure which has created a lot of change for staff. Part of this structure includes the governance of clinical documentation including patient records, patient leaflets, and standard operating procedures. Gemma and Charlotte chaired their divisional documentation governance groups prior to the re-structure. They have worked so hard with me and with our safe care team to re-design these processes in the two new, larger divisions. They have both agreed to continue chairing the respective docs groups despite this now being a much bigger undertaking. This is in addition to their already very busy and high-pressure roles. They have embraced this ask with curiosity for finding solutions that support their colleagues and with the most impressive attention to detail in ensuring we maintain our high standards of control over clinical documents. This type of job takes a lot of time, focus and co-ordination. They are both a pleasure to work with and I would like to recognise their valuable contributions.”

Rare Disease Day, 28 February: 3.5 million people in the UK live with a rare condition. Patients with a rare condition wait an average five years for a diagnosis. Whilst some conditions are ultra rare, affecting just a few hundred people worldwide, others, such as sickle cell, cystic fibrosis and haemophilia are much more common than their ‘rare’ tag suggests. A campaign group, Medics For Rare Disease, aims to help healthcare professionals to recognise and manage rare diseases: “With over 7,000 rare diseases, it’s impossible to know about all of them. However, it is possible for healthcare professionals to appreciate that rare diseases are collectively common and to recognise the exceptional challenges faced by patients with rare diseases.” Find out more here and join the #ShowYourStripes stripey sock day.

Ramadan in 2025 will run from on or around Friday 28 February for 29 or 30 days, ending with Eid al-Fitr, a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide. Diabetes UK have produced a factsheet about diabetes and Ramadan, which includes information about fasting and managing your diabetes during this time. This has been developed in partnership with the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA). Take a look at the factsheet and get the latest information on diabetes and Ramadan here.

The latest edition of your Quality Improvement News is now available! Take a look to see examples of the Quality Improvement work that is taking place in DCHS, find out about upcoming Quality Improvement training and links to the most recent QI Community meeting.

Thank you and results - Information Governance (IG) working from home questionnaire: Thank you to everyone who contributed. Your honesty in answering the questions asked is appreciated and helps to inform policies, procedures and guidance. Following on from this look out for

Further guidance and advice on the dos and don’ts of IG and working from home
The opportunity to join further discussions to tell us where else you might need to support with keeping information safe and secure when working from home.

The results from the questionnaire are available here on the IG webpage. If you need to contact the IG Team in the meantime email: dchst.info.gov@nhs.net.

Research and Innovation Group (RIG) 2025 - join the next meeting on Thursday 27 March: Our RIG is open to anyone from DCHS with an interest in research. It is a place to share research stories and join a community of people who are passionate about research regardless of level of experience. Take a look at the attached poster for more details and links to join future meetings. For more information, please contact research.enquiries@nhs.net or take a look at our Research & Innovation Team webpage.

Planned maintenance on Saturday 22 February – Care Identity Service (CIS): NHS England is carrying out an upgrade to the Care Identity Service (CIS) on Saturday 22 February starting at 10am and finishing at 5pm.

The Care Identity Management (CIM) application will be unavailable throughout the upgrade period and it will not be possible to renew smartcard certificates or request smartcard access. Additionally, the self-service smartcard unlock services may also be unavailable. This means that staff might not be able to unlock their smartcard during this time. Please make sure that any colleagues working on 22 February are aware of this national CIS downtime in advance to help minimise the disruption it may cause.

Join Dr Sarah Morris for episode 9 of Conversations in Frailty! Time to cover a condition which can be challenging to manage in our frail elderly population – acute flares of gout. This is the first of a couple of great discussions with local rheumatologist, Dr Ding from the Royal Derby Hospital. She takes us through how gout might present in different ways in this population, and practical tips around the safest drug management options. Well worth a listen!

Listen to the latest episode on Youtube or Spotify. Do leave feedback on Spotify or at ⁠⁠dchst.advancedpracticeed@nhs.net⁠⁠ about this episode or topics you’d like covered in the future.

Pressure ulcer prevention equipment authorisation: Most requests for pressure ulcer prevention equipment are received into the tissue viability service to authorise via Medequip from the prescribing clinician. In order to ensure that these requests are dealt with appropriately and in a timely manner, please can we remind staff to ensure they have also sent an electronic referral through to the tissue viability team stating that this is for equipment authorisation, the clinical reason and an appropriate contact number. This referral needs to be made at the same time as the equipment request is made. This is to prevent any delay in the provision of equipment. Without this information we will not be able to authorise the equipment requests, unfortunately.

Read the latest Adult Continence Service newsletter for more details on:

Tips for prevention and tips to support drainage on catheterisations
An update to the European Catheter Care guidelines
Continence appliance prescribing guideline roadshows coming up in 2025.

Find updates on all of the above and more in the February update here.

Nutrition and Hydration Week 2025 is coming (17 - 23 March): The focus of this year’s Nutrition and Hydration Week is Reinforce, Focus and Energise with a shared objective to highlight, promote and celebrate improvements in the provision of nutrition and hydration.

Please check here for more information, ideas and resources for the week.

This week’s leaders' and managers' update spotlights:

New opportunity for mid-level leaders
Mary Seacole programme
NHS Elect webinars.

Take a look at the latest update here. You can book via ESR self-service – search 'people management' to view all available sessions.

New wellbeing timetable for 2025: Our next update continues to offer your weekly favourites, alongside additional support for our emotional and physical health over the winter period. You can view the timetable here (password is star).

Update from your Wellbeing Team: Take a look at their February update here. If you would like to find out more about the diverse range of wellbeing support available, please visit the JUCD wellbeing website. If you need any further help with your wellbeing, you can contact our Wellbeing Team: dchst.yourwellbeingteam@nhs.net.

Jobs at DCHS: Check out all the latest DCHS vacancies here.

Patient safety shoutout newsletter: Click here to view the latest shoutout newsletter. This covers all nominations from October, November and December 2024.

What is a patient safety shoutout? Do you know a member of staff or DCHS Team who've implemented or developed a process that has had a positive impact on patient safety? Submit a shoutout so we can learn from this experience.

Other ways to recognise staff include...

IRIS award: Do you know a colleague who goes above and beyond? The IRIS award celebrates our amazing staff at DCHS. Recognise a colleague or team for their outstanding dedication to patient care and service excellence. To nominate a staff member or team, click on this link.

ROSE award: For members of the public to complete. Do you know a DCHS staff member who has made a real difference, or delivered extraordinary care? Then now is the chance to give them the thanks and credit they deserve, with our new Recognition of Staff Excellence (ROSE) award. To nominate a staff member or team click on this link.

We’re taking inspiration from Barbara Craven, our longest-serving DCHS nurse, who proves that age is just a number. At 73, Barbara followed a lifelong ambition and became a bellringer at Chesterfield’s iconic Crooked Spire.

Despite working 30 hours a week in our Clinical Navigation Team, Barbara took the leap in July 2024 and now attends practice nights every Monday. She says:

"It’s good fun and challenging... It’s a real art, ringing a set of tower bells and it has its own language.”

Barbara’s inspiring story shows that new passions are always within reach, no matter your age. Read more on Barbara’s bellringing here.

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