Our midwifery team recently ran a special event for mums and dads who have been lucky enough to have multiple pregnancies (twins, triplets, etc.) within LTHT. The session was a wonderful opportunity for the new parents to ask questions, share information and meet other people who have been blessed with more than one bundle of joy! Informal group meetings like this are offered for all new mums with multiple babies in order to provide an additional support network and the opportunity to chat with midwives and other parents in similar positions.

We received this inspiring story from one of our ward sisters recently who wanted to highlight the fantastic contribution of a new Clinical Support Worker apprentice, Martin Koroma, who helped save a life on his first ever agency shift on L15. Martin was part of a team who dealt with a particularly challenging issue after a patient suffered a a serious incident and needed emergency intervention before being rushed to surgery. Martin accompanied the staff and patient all the way, kept his composure, followed instructions perfectly, comforted and reassured the patient, and was an integral part of the team that saved the patient’s life that day. Martin could have very easily held back, it being his first day, but he chose to step up and take action - wholly embracing the Leeds Way! Our ward sister on L15 described Martin as "a remarkable young man who is very professional and respectful [and] I'm sure he will go far in life." Well done, Martin, your actions show that everyone can make a difference for our patients!

Well done to our teams in Bexley and Beckett wing at St James’s Hospital who wore pink on Friday to raise money for Breast Cancer Now. The teams who took part included housekeepers, receptionists, domestics and staff from facilities, many of who work at Leeds Cancer Centre. Wear It Pink day takes place every year during Breast Cancer Awareness month to raise money for the charity which funds life-saving research. Well done to everyone involved for supporting and raising awareness of this great cause!

Here is a fantastic video from BBC Look North (Yorkshire), who came to meet Play Specialist Lobke Marsden and young patient Denys as he started the first day of his radiotherapy treatment. Lobke paints the masks that some of our young patients wear when undergoing radiotherapy treatment and Denys was thrilled to see his mask for the first time! https://www.facebook.com/BBCLookNorthYorkshire/videos/10155849424264626/

Friday Flashback: The pride of the Public Health Department. Ambulances are an everyday sight nowadays and the fleet run by our friends at Yorkshire Ambulance Service is always shuttling to and from our hospitals. It wasn't always so and cities in the past had to make their local arrangements, as this atmospheric photo from the 1950s shows. A City of Leeds ambulance is pictured bringing a casualty to the old A&E department at St James's (long before it moved to its current location in the Chancellor's Wing). The white vehicle bears the Leeds coat of arms and close to the rear wheel arch is the name of the responsible officer, Dr Davies, Medical Officer of Health for the Leeds Public Health Department. The ambulance has an appropriate registration number - LUM999. The 999 number started life in London in the 1930s and was extended to other UK cities, including Leeds, after the Second World War. There's a bell and what seems to be a siren mounted on the front bumper to help it weave its way through city centre traffic.

Porter Paul Tobin has been announced as the regional winner of the Skills for Health 'Our Health Heroes' Operational Services Support Worker award. Paul has now been put through to the public vote to win the national award, which will be announced at an awards ceremony in November. The public vote for national winners of Operational Services Support Worker of the Year will be open until 6 November. Go to http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/ohh-2017 to vote now. Paul has been nominated for setting up the UK's first ever Porters Huddles, where porters come together with clinical teams to discuss patient safety and improvements. This is the first of its kind in the country and has made a real difference in collaborative working between teams and improving patient safety. Paul said: “I want every patient to feel that they’ve received the best possible care. That’s why I set up the porter huddles so that we can all work together to improve the service we provide and keep patients at the centre of everything we do. That’s what matters the most.”

It's Friday, and that means it's time for our Friday Afternoon Quiz! Love 'em or hate 'em, computers are a fact of daily life for many of us. And like any big organisation, we have an awful lot of them... But just how many? We've got Faizan Akbar, Information Management and Technology Engineer, with these week's question. So what do you think? Here's a clue: it's more than 5,000 and less than 15,000, and no, we're not counting tablets... Get posting your guesses in the comments below and Faizan will be back to reveal the answer later on today!

Team of the week: Inpatient Diabetes Team Here at Leeds we want to make sure all our patients are receiving care that’s right for them and that they’re not staying in hospital any longer than they have to. An inpatient stay can become complicated for patients with long-standing conditions such as diabetes. Around one in six hospital beds are occupied by a person with diabetes at any one time, and patients with diabetes on average stay a day longer in hospital than patients without. To ensure our patients have all the help needed to manage their blood glucose levels whilst in hospital is the newly-formed Inpatient Diabetes Team. Thanks to money received from NHS England’s transformational fund, the Inpatient Diabetes Team has been set up specifically to support patients with diabetes staying on our wards, whilst identifying opportunities for better education around diabetes management for both staff and patients. The team is made up of five nurses, two dieticians, one consultant, and one clerical officer. Based at St James’s the team travel across all our hospital sites where patients with diabetes need extra support during their hospital stay. Dianne Wild, Senior Specialist Dietitian, said: “Our typical day involves us all meeting in the office first thing where referrals for the day are handed out amongst our team. We then disperse across the sites to wherever we’re needed.” “There are many factors that could contribute to a patient’s blood glucose levels becoming difficult to control,” said Dianne. “These include changed meal times, new medication, variance in activity levels, and acute illness. This means the patient needs extra support to manage their diabetes, which is where we step in.” “In September we had 233 patients with diabetes that needed our help,” she said. “Sometimes we come across cases that require escalation, so we hold a weekly meeting where we meet with the consultant to discuss patients with more complex cases.” “We’re still a new team but we’re looking forward to developing our role in the future,” she added. “We’re aiming to increase education in diabetes management amongst patients and staff, and build effective relationships with ward staff and consultants. We want to make sure that patients with diabetes receive the best level of care and don’t have to stay any longer in hospital than absolutely necessary.”

Play Specialist Lobke Marsden has been feeling 'the force' this week with Twitter shoutouts from Star Wars's Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Darth Maul (Ray Park). Lobke paints the masks that some of our young patients wear when undergoing radiotherapy treatment. The children and young people are able to choose their own characters, and 13-year-old Denys wanted to be Darth Maul from Star Wars. The actors tweeted to praise the fantastic work Lobke is doing to make treatment a little bit easier for children and young people. BBC Look North (Yorkshire) came along to meet Lobke and Denys as he started the first day of his radiotherapy treatment. Denys was thrilled to see his mask for the first time - and couldn't wait to try it on! Tune in to BBC 1 at 6:30pm tonight to watch.

Congratulations to our Macmillan Head and Neck Speech and Language Therapy Team, from Leeds Cancer Centre, who are in the running for an award in Innovation Excellence at the Macmillan Professionals Excellence Awards. The team have been shortlisted alongside eight others, following a presentation to a panel of judges in London during the summer. The winner of the award will be announced at an awards ceremony next month. Our elite team of Speech and Language Therapists includes Emma Taylor, team lead, Allie Croasdale, Olivia Clarke, Paula Barnes, Sally Scudamore, Helen Downie, Jennifer Carne, Helen Rant, Sally Pratten, and Chandy Charlton. The Macmillan Professionals Excellence Awards acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding work of Macmillan professionals of all disciplines, and celebrates individuals and teams whose exceptional leadership in service improvement, innovation, and integration has benefited people affected by cancer. We recently had a photographer from Macmillan drop in to record a video and take some publicity shots to feature at the award ceremony. On the day, there was also a student artist who was painting people’s necks and faces with images of anatomy - showing the complexity of the human body in these areas. We can’t wait to hear how the team does in November, but whatever happens, well done for getting this far!

This week is National Hate Crime Awareness Week and our partners from West Yorkshire Police and Leeds City Council were in Bexley wing yesterday promoting the #leedsnoplaceforhate campaign. Hate crime is any crime that is targeted at a person because of hostility or prejudice towards that person’s Disability; Race or ethnicity; Religion or belief; Sexual orientation; Transgender identity. Anyone can report a hate crime or hate incident to the 24 hour helpline - 0800 138 1625. Hate incident reporting centres have been set up to help people living and working in Leeds who have been the victim of a hate incident. This scheme is operated in partnership with West Yorkshire Police, Stop Hate UK and Leeds City Council. For more information about the support that is available in Leeds visit: https://www.stophateuk.org/leeds/

We are very pleased to have received an Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) Silver Award from the Ministry of Defence for our support of the Armed Forces. Earlier this year we signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant, a pledge recognising the valuable contributions Armed Forces reservists make to the workforce, and which commits us to supporting them in their dual roles. We've also developed a dedicated Reservist Procedure, in addition to increasing leave for staff who are reservists, to help facilitate training attendance. Dean Royles, our Director of HR said: “We are delighted to have been recognised for our support for the Armed Forces. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country, we have been undertaking some great work to recognise the value that our Armed Forces colleagues bring to the organisation and have strengthened our connections with local Armed Forces partners.” “This award is a credit to all our staff who have Armed Forces training, whose specialist skills bring important benefits to patient care at Leeds Teaching Hospitals,” he added. We were formally presented with the award by Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Dame Ingrid Roscoe DCVO, at an awards ceremony in Sheffield. Dean Royles accepted the award on behalf of the Trust.