Today we’d like to introduce you to Ollie Woods who is one of our Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and Directory of Service (DoS) Clinical Leads, based in Oldbury.
Ollie is also a Peer Vaccinator, helping to protect our colleagues and patients against seasonal flu and we spoke to him about both roles to find out a little more…
“I joined DHU when they took over the West Midlands 111 contract in March 2023 but I was the Mental Health Nursing Lead for the West Midlands Ambulance Service. I TUPE’d over to DHU and went into the role of Clinical Performance Manager but was intrigued by the CQI role and delighted when I applied for it, was successful and have been enjoying it ever since.
“I can tell you there is no such thing as a typical day, all of us in CQI have our own projects allocated to us, supported through regular meetings with our managers, many of which are based around maintaining services and systems. For example, testing the Adastra system that is the basis of our 111 operations, ensuring the training system is working at optimal levels and mapping pathways to make absolutely certain that our staff have the right information for the patient and reduce any unnecessary delays to their care.
“We’re there to support at times of crisis…”
“We make sure we get at least six hours of what we call ‘live online time’ so that we can monitor all of our systems in real time. Not only does it keep us up to date on how our systems work and be grounded in patient care, it also enables us to spot any faults, glitches or anomalies that we can then raise and fix. We also chip in at times of crisis, business continuity and contingency planning so that if the worst happens and our systems are affected, we can help with repair and recovery. We also look to see where there are areas of improvement and deal with issues that are raised by the staff both clinical and non-clinical with DoS issues.
“Part of my history is having worked as a Ward Manager of a forensic mental health unit within psychiatry so it was very interesting for me to be involved in helping to roll out mental health training to our teams. To go from hands on Ward Manager to Clinical Support and now CQI is a real journey that has helped me to never lose sight of the fact that the patient is at the centre of everything, no matter what you do. I suppose that’s why I was also interested in becoming a Peer Vaccinator.
“If I’m asked why I am always involved in staff flu vaccination, I tell them it’s because it’s what I’ve always done. Some of my family and close friends have various disabilities and is very vulnerable to things like flu so by getting vaccinated myself it puts her less at risk. I always get the vaccine because I’ve seen flu wipe out perfectly healthy people, if I caught it and passed it onto any of them, I dread to think what might happen.
“I help to protect people…”
“As a Peer Vaccinator I help protect people, it’s literally hands on, in fact I’ve just been giving some to colleagues before speaking to you now. We received extensive e-learning so can answer any queries our colleagues might have from what’s in the vaccine, how we administer it and advice over allergies. If any of our colleagues want the vaccine or just a chat about it, check where your nearest Peer Vaccinator is. You’ll find us all on the flu page of the Intranet so please do speak to us.
“My advice to anyone unsure about having the vaccine is that it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Flu is a silent danger, you never know where it is or how you pick it up; the flu vaccination is a barrier to that.
“In terms of being here at DHU, I’m very excited and encouraged about the news that we were successful in taking on the Midlands contract. It was very hard earned and I’m confident it can be the new flagship for the West. From what I’ve seen it’s already done wonders for our morale and feelings of hope in Oldbury as we’ve flourished in a temporary building and the future looks very bright. I’m starting to see more collaboration between East and West Midlands in areas and this move will cement that as we become one Midlands area next April. It really has come at a good time, a very exciting future.”