Saloni Singh
National Secretary, BIDA Student Wing

6th of February 2021 marked the National Conference of the British International Doctors Association on the theme ‘Living with COVID 19 and Life beyond’.
 
Established in 1975, the British International Doctors Association (BIDA) is the OLDEST organisation representing the voice of international doctors in the UK. Ever since its inception, BIDA has played a key role in protecting the interests of the international medical fraternity through numerous initiatives with the aim of achieving equality and fairness for all.
 
One of BIDA’s recent successes was the scrapping of the NHS International Healthcare Worker Surcharge. The IHW surcharge effectively charged international doctors, nurses and HCAs for using the very healthcare system they served. This surcharge was increased during the COVID 19 pandemic which was faced by very strong criticism and backlash by numerous parties. After extensive lobbying and herculean efforts by BIDA and other partner organisations, they were successful in having the entire IHW surcharge scrapped, which is a testament to the what BIDA stands for.
 
The conference started off with an address from the BIDA National Chairman Dr Chandra Kanneganti, a GP by profession but also serves as Deputy Lord Mayor for Stoke-on-Trent City Council. This was followed by the Presidential address by Dr Birendra Sinha, BIDA National President and concluded with a short video message from Deputy speaker of the House of Commons, Dr Nigel Evans MP.
 
The BIDA National conference was honoured by the attendance and participation of many distinguished members of NHS leadership, members of the House of Lords as well as other seasoned members of the medical profession. A few of those who spoke passionately at the conference were Dr Chaand Nagpaul (Chair of Council BMA) Lord Adebowale (Chair, NHS Confederation), Prof Colin Melville (Medical Director, GMC), Sakthi Karunanithi (Director, Public Health Lancashire), Iqbal Singh OBE (Chair CESOP) and others.
 
The medical students forum was attended by nearly 200 delegates and consisted of fascinating presentations by 3 speakers followed by a panel discussion chaired by Sai and Saloni.
 
The first speaker was Tinaye Mapako, a Year 3 medical student at Liverpool who serves as Chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) Medical Students Committee. He spoke about the challenges and frustrations shared by UK students during the COVID 19 Pandemic and discussed his experience of leading the Medical Students Committee during this difficult time. He highlighted the measures actioned by the BMA to support students as well as highlighting their action so far with regards to the change in the UK Foundation Year Programme points system.
 
Dr Jeeves Wijesuriya was the second speaker at the Medical students Forum and spoke about the impact of COVID 19 on junior doctor training. Jeeves is a CQC specialist advisor and was Chair of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee from 2016 to 2019 and was the driving force behind negotiating the recent Junior Doctor contract which was preceded by one of the most publicised doctor strikes in recent times. Jeeves highlighted how junior doctors were unable to attend conferences and workshops and lack of ability to network and utilise assigned astudy leave which all play a vital part of their post graduate learning. He also highlighted the increase in cases of burnout and the impact of uncertainty on doctors mental health.
 
The third speaker, Dr Marina Soltan gave an inspirational talk about junior doctors in the frontline contributing as leaders in the healthcare system. She highlighted the several leadership opportunities available to junior doctors in medical research, innovation, education, and policy making, by reflecting on her own experiences in these roles. A good leader creates an inspiring vision of the future, motivates others to engage in that vision, and coaches a diverse team for the delivery of that vision. She reminded us that leadership is a learning experience and senior colleagues will support us throughout this journey. Both Dr Soltan and Dr Wijesuriya recommend the ‘Faculty of medical leadership and management’ for those interested in medical leadership. The session ended with a key message for junior doctors to take time out for themselves and recognise signs of burnout, especially during this busy time in the NHS where we need to look out for each other.

​Get ahead and stand out to employersThe Skills Toolkit on the Gov.uk website gives you access to free, high-quality online courses that can help you boost your future job prospects.
By setting aside time for online learning – even an hour a week – you can learn skills that employers are looking for and broaden your experience too.
The toolkit has a range of online courses including:

• Refresher courses for maths
• Help with looking for work, including CVs and searching online
• Computer essentials, including getting to grips with Microsoft Office and staying safe online
• Professional skills – such as making great presentations and collaborative working
• Business and finance – including book-keeping and being an entrepreneur
• Digital skills, like graphic design, app design, social media and coding
• And personal development too, including dealing with stress and managing your wellbeing

Some of the most successful and innovative organisations have designed courses for the Skills Toolkit. You will find courses from Amazon, Microsoft, Open University and the Lloyds Bank Academy website.
Building your skills can make a huge difference to your job prospects and earning potential too.  As the jobs market adapts and changes, new skills can also open you to up new jobs you’d never thought of.
So why not pop the kettle on and take ‘An Hour to Skill’ by starting a free online course today?
Visit: the skills toolkit gov.uk website for more details.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a renewed focus on digital health – defined as the process of using information technology, digital hardware and devices, software and the Cloud, and the collection of data to measure clinician interventions. Digital health can transform the way we deliver patient care: making it safer, leading to better patient outcomes and improving efficiency in the way health services are planned and delivered.
The NHS has struggled to implement many digital health solutions due to cost, organisational obstacles and lack of buy-in from hard-pressed staff. In 2016 Professor Robert Wachter carried out a review of IT in the NHS at the request of the then Health Secretary, concluding that the NHS did not have enough staff with digital health skills to support a successful whole-system move to digitalisation of records and processes. In response the NHS Digital Academy was established to train a number of NHS staff to become change agents in their organisations. To date, nurses have been underrepresented in the three cohorts that have received training, with managers greatly outnumbering clinical staff. The good news is that system leaders, such as Health Education England, are now acknowledging that digital health will only succeed when there are health and care staff with the skills to implement it and who are supported at every stage. Three areas identified by nurse leaders as requiring support in implementing digital health solutions are: communication and culture; governance and project management; and leadership.
Burdett Trust believes that through the COVID-19 pandemic nurses have emerged as true change agents in the digital space as they innovated at scale to care for patients. In response to the pandemic nurses have fast-tracked many nascent digital health initiatives such as remote monitoring of patients and virtual clinics. However, it is clear that many nurses leading digital health initiatives would benefit from wraparound support to help them make their digital projects successful and sustainable. This Burdett Trust grant programme will give nurses the opportunity to use the insight they have gained from working on the frontline to model new ways of working that can lead to transformational change in the way patient care is delivered.
Eligibility
Eligibility will be explained in detail at the Change Agents Framework webinars. All Burdett Trust grant programmes focus on projects that are nurse-led and demonstrate an innovative approach. The Trust’s grant programmes are not designed to support projects developed and undertaken by individuals and the Trust cannot award grants to private sector organisations.
Applicant organisations must be:
• properly constituted bodies in the public or voluntary/charity sectors; or
• a university or other charitable educational body that provides health-related education, training or research and development.
Applicants must register for and attend one of two Change Agents Framework webinars which will take place from
15:30 – 17:00 on 16 and 18 March 2021 via the link below:
https://formapply.formstack.com/forms/nurse_led_improvement_projects_in_digital_health

Results from the Quality Impact Survey for Understanding & Managing Challenging Behaviour Training include:

• ​Over 82% of staff either strongly agreed or agreed that using what they had learned during the training had benefitted their ways of working and over 82% of people felt more confident in managing challenging behaviours thanks to what they had learned on the session.
• More than 85% of people surveyed felt that their awareness of challenging behaviour had improved due to what they had learnt during the session and in excess of 46% of individuals either strongly agreed or agree that their work was of better quality when they used what they had learnt on the session. 

A copy of the full survey response data is available here

The ELHT LKS has won a service development award from the North West Health Libraries Group (LIHNN). The award was won for the development of a current awareness service using a mobile app ReadQXMD

The app has streamlined library processes, engaged with clinical staff and allowed a more collaborative approach to sharing evidence based information in ELHT. Library staff have liaised with clinical departments and subject experts to follow certain journals and themes via the app. The Library staff then pick out useful articles and create collections which users can follow via the app or read online. 

The library team has worked hard to produce these bulletins and it has been a real team effort with Clare, Patrick, Charlotte, Sarah, Lauren and Judith all being heavily involved in their production. Thanks go to our senior managers Gill Cairns and Julia Owen who helped support the innovation.

​We were very pleased to be recognised in a strong field of submissions during this extraordinary year. We hope to develop further bulletins and we are more than happy to look at other subject areas.
 
For more details and training on ReadQXMD email library.blackburn@elht.nhs.uk
 
Visit our webpage here http://www.ehub.elht.nhs.uk/current-awareness.html  
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