New Year— New Vocare

2015 has been an exciting year for the Vocare Group, with new regions joining the company, a big move and restructuring.

This year we welcomed a number of new regions and services to the Vocare Group, including York and Scarborough GPOOH, Somerset NHS 111 and GP OOH, Sunderland WICs and GPOOH, Mid Staffs GPOOH and West Midlands NHS 111.

Thanks to this expansion we now have over 2300 staff working for us, cover in the region of 10 million patients across the UK and have an annualised turnover of approximately £69 million .

Growing in other ways, the Vocare Group moved head offices in September, and now reside in Vocare House situated on Balliol Business Park, Newcastle upon Tyne. The new building has three floors and currently houses the NE Regional team

on the second floor, and the Vocare Group Office on the first floor. The ground floor is being reserved for future expansion. The carpets are down, the painting complete and all in time for the Christmas trees to go up!

Wander into Wolverhampton

Vocare has been successful in a new bid to provide an Urgent Care Centre (UCC) in Wolverhampton. The service will go live on the 1st April 2016, covering a registered population of 262,000 patients. The centre will be operating 24 hours a day 7 days a week for people who walk in or are referred there by NHS 111 (this also includes GP OOH provision).

The UCC centre will be based above the Emergency Department in the newly built Emergency and Urgent Care Centre (UECC) on the New Cross Hospital site, which opened on 25th November 2015. The new £38million building combines Accident and Emergency with the radiology and x-ray department, and also homes a clinical decisions unit, facilities for urgent outpatient appointments, an acute medical unit and our urgent care centre.

Inside the Emergency and Urgent Care Centre,

Wolverhampton.

December 2015 | Issue 7

Vocare Newsletter

Meet the Team : Cynthia Clayton

Vocare welcomed West Midlands Doctors Urgent Care to the group in September. Head of Clinical Practice for the West Midlands Region, Cynthia Clayton, told us a little bit about herself and the service.

Q:What is your professional background?

I’m a qualified nurse and my specialisms are emergency nursing and telephone triage. I’ve also have worked in paediatrics and trauma.

I’ve worked as a nurse advisor for NHS Direct, before moving into the training and coaching department for 6 years. I then moved into management.

Q: Tell us about your role?

I have clinical responsibility to ensure that the services we provide are safe and appropriate from a clinical/operational and a clinical governance view. I manage the Clinical Manager team, the Clinical Governance team and oversee the Learning and Development team. I also line manage the DoS Liaison Lead and the Clinical Support Manager.

Day to day tasks can include networking with external stakeholders, working with the CG team to ensure the service we deliver is clinically robust, reviewing organisational learning and working with other clinical leads across the Vocare Group. No two days are the same. I can have a day crammed with meetings all over the region or a day on the contact centre floor working with staff. The variety

keeps the job fresh.

Q: Outside of work, what are your interests?

I am married to Chris, with 3 daughters Abii 20, Sophie 17 and Charlotte 15. I’ve sung backing vocals for a few well known artists, I am a vocalist in a band and have sung in an award winning Gospel Choir. That said, working for NHS 111 takes up the majority of my time, so I don't have as much to pursue my love. I’ve also recently been encouraged (cajoled and bullied) to take up running by a colleague who will remain nameless. ‘Tis the Season to be singing so I hope you enjoy the holidays, and wishing all the best to the West Midlands team.

“The variety

keeps the

job fresh!”

SUNDERLAND GP OOH

GP RECRUITMENT Head of Clinical Recruitment Felicity Stewart and her team, have transformed GP and nursing recruitment across the Vocare Group. I caught up with Fliss to discuss the team’s success and plans for the future.

Q: When did your team begin? The centralised GP recruitment team started on 1

st July 2015.

With my team of four assistants we have recruited a total of 148 GPs – which is phenomenal. We have now been asked to manage all clinical recruitment across Vocare - no rest for the wicked!

Q: What changes did you make to the way we recruit? I wanted to ensure we were delivering a personal, individual service to all candidates, as I have found recruitment is often sales heavy and robotic. Vocare is an extremely dedicated and passionate service, which is committed to the welfare and development of our staff – we must begin this ethos at recruitment stage! The recruitment process was long and quite demanding on potential new recruits. We reviewed and streamlined the procedure, to ensure it was a smoother, quicker process for the new recruit and for us as a service. We have also introduced much quicker, simpler recruitment registration checks for example on line DBS checks. We are continually looking to improve the way we recruit and the process we follow. As a central team we can make changes and improvements much more quickly – a huge benefit.

Q: Why it has worked? We have developed a consistent approach to recruitment, each new recruit across the business goes through the same process, to ensure the whole recruitment experience is thorough and

logical. This helps us bring people in onto the rota quickly and being centralised gives us the opportunity to respond quickly to any anomalies outside of the process. Improving the recruitment branding provides us with a professional image and attracts more people – you will have all now seen the new design of internal adverts – this is mirrored externally as well.

Aims going forward Our ultimate aim is to become an Employer of Choice and have candidates knocking down our doors wanting to work for us.

Iain Bruce, Kerry Magson, Fliss Stewart, Bryony Herbert and Max Summers

Michael House

Michael Boyd’s family at Michael House Scarborough The Yorkshire Region Operations Centre in Scarborough, has been renamed ‘Michael House’ in memory of Michael Boyd. Our policy is to name buildings after employees who have died in service.

Michael Boyd worked in GPOOH on Teesside with the previous provider Primecare for many years and joined Northern Doctors Urgent Care in February 2011 as a driver. Michael sadly passed away earlier this year and is still missed dearly by his colleagues, who described him as a colourful character and very well liked.

‘Michael House’ was named on the 11th November 2015 and the ceremony was attended by Michael’s family from Teesside and from as far afield as Colchester.

Our new Sunderland GP OOH service went live on 1st

October. The service works on a slightly different model to the rest of the North East Region in that we only provide a Telephone Advice and a Home Visiting service. We can refer patients to our existing 3 centres in Sunderland, Bunny Hill, Washington and Houghton, but we don’t have a specific OOH centre to see patients. The operational base is situated in Leechmere in Sunderland.

The Sunderland model is geared around integration and subsequently our GPs work within the Recovery at Home office alongside community nursing teams. This enables healthcare professionals to discuss cases face to face to determine the best course of care possible for patients to avoid unnecessary admissions or attendances at A&E. Lee Miller, Assistant Operations Manager helped mobilise the service and confirms that this unique setup for referrals is working well.

We welcome to the North East Management Team Louise Keeler as Operations Manager and Jacqui McLoughlin as Clinical Services Manager. Louise has a wealth of knowledge having worked for Primecare for 20+ years and is a valuable addition to the North East Management Team. Jacqui is an experienced nurse and will primarily support our 3 existing UCCs. Both Louise and Jacqui are bringing valuable management skills to help improve our service and the patient experience across the Sunderland Area.

Nearly 1 in 6 convicted drink-drivers are caught the morning after drinking as even small amounts of alcohol can affect your reaction times. Before attempting to drive in the interval after drinking alcohol ask yourself - How much have I drunk, when did I stop drinking, and when do I plan to drive? For most people it takes about 1 hour for your body to rid itself of each unit of alcohol (although this depends on factors including how healthy you are and how much you’ve eaten). Therefore, 1 hour after drinking 1 unit, your Blood Alcohol Content (Bac) will return to 0 or near 0. However, it takes time for your body to process this alcohol. Drinking more than 1 unit per hour will build up higher concentrations of alcohol in your blood, meaning it will take longer to leave your

system. For example: Each pint of 4% beers or cider is 2.3 units, so takes at least 2 hours to leave your blood stream from the time you stopped drinking.

One 250ml glass of 13.5% wine at 3.2 units takes at least 3 hours. Drinking a bottle of wine (three 250ml glasses) is:

275ml – 330ml Alco pops are 1.5 units and take 2 hours. Bear in mind that it is easy to drink a lot because they taste sugary, but 5 bottles of Bacardi Breezers until midnight means you can’t drive until 11am the next day. Spirits can range in strength but generally a 25ml single shot is 1 unit and takes 1 hour to leave your blood stream, whereas a generously poured 70ml double is a 3 hour drink. It doesn’t matter what mixer you use, the alcohol takes the same amount of time to leave your system whether your vodka’s just on ice or in a large glass of orange juice. It is best to know when you are next planning to drive, calculate the maximum you can drink using this or other unit guides and then stay well under your limit.

Know what you drink.

Drink within your hours. Don’t drink and drive.

Christmas Jumper Day!

Vocare are celebrating Save the Children’s annual Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 18th December. Staff should wear their most eye-catching festive jumper and donate to your office’s nominated collector.

Drinking in the

Christmas Spirit

4% beer x 4 pints 4 x 2 hours 8 hours

Time taken for alcohol to be absorbed into bloodstream

1 Hour

Total time before alcohol has left the bloodstream

9 Hours

If drinking up to midnight you would not be considered to be alcohol free until 9.00am

the following day

13.5% wine x 3 glasses

3 x 3 hours 9 hours

Time taken for alcohol to be absorbed into bloodstream

1 Hour

Total time before alcohol has left the bloodstream

10 Hours

If drinking up to midnight you would not be considered to be alcohol free until 10.00am

the following day

Use the highlighted letters to spell out the final answer. (All answers on last page)

1. What is New Year's Eve called in Scotland?

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

2. Who did Harry Potter go to the Yule Ball with in The Goblet of Fire?

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ / __ __ __ __ __

3. Peter Auty sang Walking In The Air in what film?

__ __ __ / __ __ __ __ __ __ __

4. Who composed the music known as The Nutcracker Suite, for the Christmas themed ballet The Nutcracker (1892)?

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

5. In 'The Twelve Days Of Christmas', what were there nine of?

__ __ __ __ __ __ / __ __ __ __ __ __ __

6. Which sauce is traditionally served with roast turkey on Christmas Day?

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

7. How many Christmas number 1 singles have the Spice Girls had?

__ __ __ __ __

8. From which country does the poinsettia plant originate?

__ __ __ __ __ __

9. In Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" what is Scrooge's first name ?

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

ANSWER : ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Christmas Quiz

SDUC clinician Terry Thompson last month began his two week volunteer mission to give aid to refugees on

the Greek Islands.

Dr Yalamanchili is raising money for Farmers in Famine through SAAKAR. Donations can be made directly via www.justgiving.com/saakar-welfaretrust

Well done to WDUC who raised £692 for Children in Need in November

Staffordshire NHS 111 raised £67 for the National Aids Trust on World Aids Day - 1st December. Staff

were encouraged to wear red to work, with red ribbons and 100 red cupcakes (donated by Bev Steele)

available to purchase.

Kelly Bromley a Tees Despatcher had a baby girl on 18

th November named Poppy. Glad to hear both mum

and baby are doing well.

Congratulations to NDUC Despatchers Hannah Richardson and Adam Rodman who got engaged end

of last month

Amy Suddes from the Recruitment Team in the NE gave birth to a baby girl - Darcee - on the 23rd October. Her colleagues wish her all the best!

Wishing the best of luck to Gary Holroyd NE 111 Team Leader and his wife, who had a baby girl named

Tabitha on the 6th December.

Congratulations to SW LCD Dr Nick Arnold who welcomed his fourth child (William) with his wife in

November.

Wishing all the best for Dr Ranaie who is awaiting the birth of his first child.

Personal NewsPersonal News

Our new Call Centre for West Midlands NHS 111 is now open and ready for business just in time for Christmas. With the help of Vocare’s IT team, a great effort was made to

get the centre up and running in double quick time. The centre is based in Angela House in Redditch Warwickshire. More on Angela House in our next edition.

Redditch Call Centre up and running

IG Training

Well done to all those staff who have already completed their IG Training module for 2015-16. We are currently at 65% compliance but need ALL staff to pass the training by February 1st 2016. This training is necessary to ensure Vocare is compliant for current contracts and any bids for new contracts.

If you are yet to complete this training please visit: https://www.igtt.hscic.gov.uk/igte/index.cfm

E-mail ruth.webster@nduc.nhs.uk if you have any problems.

Should you have any stories or suggestions for future editions

of this newsletter please contact ruth.webster@nduc.nhs.uk

Quiz Answers: 1.Hogmanay, 2.Parvati Patil, 3.The Snowman, 4.Tchaikovsky, 5. Ladies

Dancing, 6.Cranberry, 7.Three, 8.Mexico, 9.Ebenezer. Answer: Mistletoe

Guess Who? : SDUC Christine Oliver had previously worked as Staffordshire Urgent Care Lead, supporting the six Staffordshire CCGs, before she joined Vocare in 2015 as the Regional Head of Operations. Heather Fenton has worked in Health and Social Care for the past 18 years in an operational capacity. Heather joined Vocare 4 months ago as the Operations Manager for SDUC and NHS 111, and is enjoying the new challenge this service brings. Julie Clews has worked within the NHS for the last 22 years. Julie joined SDUC in 2013 as a Team Leader, and has recently undertaken the role of Assistant Operations Manager. Julie thoroughly enjoys working n the OOH environment. Hannah Woolaghan has been a qualified registered Nurse for over 15 years, and was a Director of Nursing prior to taking on her new role as Clinical Services Manager with SDUC. Dr Peter Jones is a part-time GP from Burton and Local Clinical Director for SDUC. Peter has been in General Practice since 1991, and is also a GP trainer and appraiser. Peter is proud of the service we provide in an environment of increasing demand and shrinking supply. Dr Raju Valasapalli works as a local GP and as Local Clinical Director for SDUC. In this role he is responsible for medical safety amongst clinicians and engagement with local services. Alison Jones is the Pharmacy Technician, who started in August 2015 to cover Alison Ratcliffe’s maternity leave. Alison has been a Registered Pharmacy Technician since August 2009 and has worked in both Community and Hospital Pharmacy. Penny Needham is the Head of Human Resources for Vocare, although works from Staffordshire House. Penny has worked in HR for over 16 years, and is married with a daughter. Chiara Johnson joined SDUC in 2013. Chiara works on planning resources for the company in her role as Rota Lead. Dave Hawley, Lead Driver for Stoke, joined SDUC in 2013 and recently also acquired the role of Health and Safety Support for Staffordshire. Steve Lavelle also works as a Lead Driver for SDUC, but based in South Staffordshire. He is involved in driver training and support. Lisa Rowley joined Staffordshire 111 service in September 2013 as a clinical advisor. In August 2015 Lisa was appointed Clinical Support Manager. Helen Poole has been a qualified nurse for 25 years. Helen joined Staffs 111 in 2013 as a Clinical Advisor, before taking on extra responsibility as a Pathways Trainer, Assistant Clinical Services Manager and has been in her new role as Clinical Support Manager since August 2015. Amy Nicholas is a Clinical Advisor and Lead Pathways Trainer for Staffordshire 111. She has been a qualified nurse since 2008 and joined SDUC in October 2013. Amy supports the CSM’s with governance investigations, auditing and training. Beverley Steele began as a Team Leader for SDUC on Easter Monday 2013. After 8 weeks Bev was offered the job of Assistant Operations Manager to mobilise the new Staffs 111 service. Bev said she has a fabulous team and loves working with all.

South Tyneside Urgent Care Hub As of Thursday 1

st October 2015, Northern Doctors Urgent Care

began operating the South Tyneside Urgent Care Hub (UCH) co-habited in the South Tyneside District Hospital. This service is provided on behalf of South Tyneside Foundation Trust. The South Tyneside UCH in its initial format is one GP and one streaming nurse located in the South Tyneside District Hospital. Patients will be directed to the streaming nurse, who will then refer appropriate patients to the UCH GP. The UCH will also accept patients referred by the A&E paediatric department. The opening times of the centre are 8am – 10pm Mon-Sun. However, during the OOH period, the GP will see both OOH and UCH referrals up until the closing time of the UCH at 10pm. Thomas Maughan helped mobilise the service, and notes that “The service has been implemented very well considering the timescales to put it in place. However, there will be continued development in regards to the flow and any improvements that can be made. This model is an interim version whilst the service is built up to the CCG specification for April 2016.” A spokesman for South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust said: “The new hub is running smoothly and linking well with A&E to ensure that patients are guided to the best service for their needs. As with any new service, we will continue to monitor its development closely to ensure that it meets patient needs.”