The Care and Compassion Award, Sponsored by LV

Winner: Critical Care Family Liaison Team, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

Region: Midlands

During the coronavirus pandemic, the hospitals within our Trust had to quickly prepare to accept a high number of coronavirus patients. At the height of the pandemic, critical care bed numbers quickly expanded to accommodate hundreds of patients needing intensive care across our 3 sites. Coinciding with this rise in numbers of critically ill patients was a restriction on all visitors to our hospitals. While additional staff were drafted in to help provide the vital one to one care, this left very few staff available to communicate with family members who were not permitted to visit. A group of medical students, with support from ICU consultants and other retired / returning consultants, became the critical care family liaison team and the first point of contact for worried relatives. Each student was responsible for a caseload of 4 – 5 families. They gathered information about each patient’s progress and key messages for the following days plans. They called the patient’s family daily to update them on their relative’s condition. These calls were recorded in writing and discussed at the end of their shift, to ensure that any difficulties were identified, and support offered where needed.

The students were also able to pass messages from family to patients and specific questions to the medical teams. One message for a patient simply said: “Please come home daddy.” The students also kept a diary for each patient, detailing their progress, which the patient or family could take home with them if they wished, giving them time to reflect on their time in hospital. Intubated patients, because of the sedation needed to help them to breath, typically have very few memories of their time in hospital, so this offers them an insight into their treatment.

This group of students have had a crash course induction to critical care and will have a unique insight into communication with the families of critically ill patients. One student even said: “The conversations have helped me define the type of doctor I want to be”, while another commented: “I am extremely grateful to the relatives, for they have taught me more than any amount of formal education ever could.” We are grateful to the teams across our critical care sites. We know that the support that they have provided for families, has come at considerable emotional cost. Sensitive debriefing and mutual support has been put in place for those who have needed it. One thing they were not expected to do was to break the bad news of someone’s death. Likewise, if they reviewed the notes and felt that the patient was deteriorating rapidly or was too complex a case, they would discuss it with one of the supervising doctors and, if they agreed, request that the ward speak to the family directly. This didn’t fully protect them from all difficult conversations because every day a patient remains on a ventilator in critical care is bad news.

Nominated by: Jess Phillips MP

Highly commended by our national judges in this category were:

The Relatives’ Line, Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT)

Region: North East and Yorkshire

The Relatives’ Line service allows relatives to contact a health professional directly to enquire as to the health status of their loved one whilst being cared for by CHFT.

The service is run by staff who are predominantly shielding away from the clinical environment using the electronic patient record, enabling real-time updates whilst visiting is compromised. It was borne out of the current pandemic to enable support for patients and their relatives which it has certainly delivered and more!

Nominated by: Jason McCartney MP and Craig Whittaker MP.

The Excellence in Healthcare Award

Winner: The research teams working on the COVID19 vaccine at the University of Oxford: Oxford Vaccine Group and Jenner Institute

Region: South East

The Oxford Vaccine Group and the Jenner Institute are two research teams at the University of Oxford who joined forces to fight coronavirus by developing a vaccine in record time. The Oxford Vaccine Group is based in the Department of Paediatrics and is a team of doctors, nurses and scientists, who have been developing vaccines for 30 years to improve child health around the world, and providing the evidence that underpins much of the NHS immunisation schedule. The Jenner Institute works on vaccines to fight HIV, TB and malaria, and has programmes on many other disease including germs that cause outbreaks, like coronavirus. We were nominated for the award in recognition of our efforts to develop a vaccine for COIVD-19.

Nominated by: Layla Moran MP

Highly commended by our national judging panel in this category were:

The Active Against Cancer Team Organisation: Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust

Region: North East and Yorkshire

Active Against Cancer is one of the first services in the country to prescribing prehabilitation, in treatment exercise and rehabilitation to all cancer patients within Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust. Run from a picturesque community setting, the service provides the perfect platform for peer support by delivering group-based exercise classes and wellbeing activities. Since opening in April 2019, service uptake and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Nominated by: Andrew Jones MP.

The Excellence in Mental Health Care Award, Sponsored by the Lloyds Banking Group

Winner: The Life Rooms, Mersey Care

Region: North West

The three Life Rooms buildings provide a safe and welcoming place ‘to be’ or to access community resources and feel included in community activities. During Covid-19 the buildings have remained closed. Conscious of the effect the pandemic is having and will continue to have upon people’s mental and physical wellbeing as well as on community assets, within two weeks of the first lockdown our amazing staff transformed our social model of health into ‘Life Rooms Online’ in order to continue to actively support our communities.

Nominated by: Dan Carden MP.

The Excellence in Primary Care Award, Sponsored by Assura PLC

Winners: Dr Bruce Allan

Region: South East

When COVID arrived in Sussex we immediately knew that we needed to act to protect and support our most vulnerable populations. Our first priority was our large care home population. Building on our excellent relationships with Sussex GP providers we rapidly commissioned an out of hours service to provide weekend cover for our care home population, directly from their registered GP practice, thereby delivering personalised care 7 days a week. Rapid implementation delivered a service which proved effective for patients, as well as popular and appreciated by care home staff and GP practices.

Nominated by: Gillian Keegan MP.

The Excellence in Urgent and Emergency Care Award

Winner: London Ambulance Service Macmillan End of Life Care Programme Team

Region: London

The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust and Macmillan Cancer Support have collaborated to improve the quality of end of life care (EoLC) provision by ambulance clinicians. A specialist team have provided education, guidance, wellbeing support and created a network of volunteer ambulance staff to lead change at a grass roots level. The work of this passionate team and integration with wider health services has resulted in increased staff confidence, awareness of patient’s preferences and reduced hospital admissions for EoLC patients.

Nominated by: Bob Blackman MP, James Murray MP and Paul Scully MP.

Highly commended by our national judging panel in this category were:

Hearts in Little Hands, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust

Region: North East and Yorkshire

Hearts in Little Hands was set up by a group of enthusiastic and experienced staff from the Emergency Department at Airedale Hospital who volunteer in their spare time to visit local primary schools to teach the children much-needed life support skills.  Their aim is to give early grounding in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and to make first aid just a part of life for children, to help to eliminate the fear surrounding delivery of first aid treatment in an emergency situation.

Nominated by: Robbie Moore MP.

The Future NHS Award, Sponsored by Fuji Film

Winners, Sunrise Neonatal Team

Region: London

The North Mid Sunrise Neonatal Team have been nominated for the Future NHS award for the innovative way in which they were able to keep premature babies and their families connected during the start of Covid-19 pandemic. By adapting the secure NHS video calling service Attend Anywhere, usually used for pre-arranged hospital appointments, they were able introduce virtual visiting so the special bond between baby and parents could continue to grow.

Nominated by: Bambos Charalambous MP.

The Health Equalities Award

Winner:  Street Outreach Initiative for Hepatitis C, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and West Yorkshire Hepatitis C Operational Delivery Network

Region: North East and Yorkshire

The Street Outreach Initiative for Hepatitis C was an opportunistic project during the Covid-19 national lockdown between Leeds Teaching Hospitals viral hepatitis nurses, Bevan outreach team and the Hepatitis C Trust. The focus of this initiative was the hard to engage vulnerable adult (rough sleepers) in the community who were placed in hotels around the city, providing an ideal opportunity to engage, test and treat this group for hepatitis C as well as looking after their general health and wellbeing. The initiative has demonstrated that hepatitis C service delivery with a multi-agency approach works, taking services to vulnerable adults must be an integral part of healthcare service delivery in addition to treating patients in primary and secondary care locations.

Nominated by: Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP.

Highly commended by our national judging panel in this category were:

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG’s Wellbeing Pilot for Syrian Refugees

Region: East of England

Local support workers highlighted concerns for individuals adapting to resettlement in the UK. A key element related to strengthening skills to improve mental wellbeing resilience. Engagement with local and regional health and community leaders to commission a bespoke wellbeing service from the Refugee Council. This pilot has provided firm foundations for a regional project which we continue to support.  Karen and Sue work in the CCG Primary Care team and have led the project work required for successful implementation.

Nominated by: Rt Hon Stephen Barclay MP, Jonathan Djanogly MP, Lucy Frazer QC MP and Shailesh Vara MP.

The Wellbeing at Work Award

Winner: The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Staff Network

Region: North West

The BAME Network Leads at Morecambe Bay are a diverse team of volunteers dedicated to supporting Black, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues. The team go beyond their NHS day jobs to support and advocate for BAME colleagues, and raise these themes to influence policy and procedure.

This year COVID-19 has impacted BAME communities significantly and disproportionately, and the team risen to the challenge to protect BAME colleagues’ physical and psychological wellbeing as best possible through a stressful and worrying time.

Highly commended by our national judging panel in this category were:

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

Region: London

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust’s respect and compassion programme was set up in early 2019 to make the organisation a great place to work for everyone. Staff across the Trust take part in the programme, which has:

• Provided values-based training to 3,700 leaders
• Appointed 150 staff wellbeing champions and 30 mental health first aiders
• Achieved  accreditation for flexible working
• Increased the number of staff in senior roles from BAME backgrounds
• Appointed an independent speaking up service
• Reduced vacancy levels significantly

Nominated by: Clive Efford MP,  Vicky Foxcroft MP, Abena Oppong-Asare MP and Ellie Reeves MP.

The NHS Rising Star

Winner: Dr Rajiv Sethi

Region: North West

Rajiv Sethi is a Junior Doctor, Clinical Entrepreneur Fellow at NHS England and Honorary Research Fellow at Heath Education England. Alongside clinical training he has led widening participation and diversity initiatives to develop the health workforce.

Since 2017 working with a committed team, they have established open access programmes supporting aspiring and current healthcare professionals through Becoming a Doctor, Health Careers Live and International Collaborative Grand Rounds (ICGRx).

Nominated by: Sir Graham Brady MP.

The Lifetime Achievement Award

Winner: Joe Sim

Region: Midlands

Joe was nominated for the “Lifetime Achievement Award” for his dedication to the NHS and the impact he has made to NHS Trusts across Derbyshire throughout his nearly 60 years’ service. Despite officially retiring a number of years ago and now being 80 years of age, Joe’s passion for the NHS has seen him continue to help our Trust in a variety of different ways and he perfectly embodies the values that we all hold here at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust.