Today marks the launch of the sixth NHS Parliamentary Awards 2024, where MPs get to recognise staff who go above and beyond to deliver excellence in healthcare.

This year we’ve seen significant demand across the North West’s NHS services. Despite these pressures, staff across the region have continued to provide excellent care and have found innovative ways to meet these challenges and improve patients’ experiences.

Now more than ever, it’s crucial to highlight the achievements of those working in the NHS, so from today, MPs across England can begin nominating individuals and teams in their local area who’ve gone above and beyond in their roles.

As the NHS launches the prestigious awards, we look back at our previous winners.

Last year the North West region won two awards. The Lancashire and South Cumbria Reproductive Trauma Service were the champions of the Excellence in Mental Health Care Award. The maternal mental health service delivers an integrated approach to providing person centred support and therapy to women experiencing moderate to severe or complex mental health difficulties, arising from their maternity experience.

Also in 2023, the Nursing and Midwifery Award was presented to Vicki Stevenson-Hornby, Pancreas Specialist Nurse at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, who is passionate about improving pathways, supporting anyone affected by pancreatic cancer and raising awareness. Her nationally recognised work has seen the average time our patients wait between referral and confirmed diagnosis fall by almost half.

The Surgical Cancer Hub Team at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust are the 2022 winner of the Excellence in Healthcare award. Established during the pandemic, the surgical cancer hub provided a co-ordinated response to the delivery of essential and urgent cancer surgery, and became the regional facility for bowel, skin and urology cancer surgery, ensuring that patients who were prioritised for treatment could receive their care safely in a COVID secure environment and in a timely manner to maximise their outcomes.

In 2020 the North West saw The Life Rooms, a Mersey Care NHS FT project become winners in the Excellence in Mental Health Care Award. The Life Rooms provide a safe and welcoming place to be or access community resources. During Covid-19 the buildings remained closed but within two weeks of the first lockdown the team transformed the social model of health into ‘Life Rooms Online’ to continue to actively support their community.

The Wellbeing at Work Award was won by The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay’ Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Staff Network in the same year. The BME network leads at the trust are a diverse team of volunteers dedicated to supporting Black, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues, and beyond their day jobs to support and advocate BME colleagues, raise themes to influence policy and procedures.

This year there are 10 award categories, including the new Excellence in Education and Training Award, which recognises a team or individual that is leading the way in supporting the delivery of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan through innovative approaches to education.

After nominations have closed on Friday 19 April, all of those shortlisted by the national judging panel will be invited to the awards ceremony in Westminster on Monday 1 July, to celebrate their fantastic achievements alongside the MPs who nominated them.

Richard Barker, Regional Director at NHS England – North West said: “We have some of the most deserving healthcare professionals, NHS services and NHS organisations here in the North West, and it would be fantastic to see them receive recognition for their work by receiving a Parliamentary Award Nomination from our North West MPs.

“Last year we were very fortunate to win in two categories – Excellence in Mental Health Care and the Nursing and Midwifery Award.  My team and I look forward to receiving the nominations to put forward to the national parliamentary awards judging panel for consideration and national recognition.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

MPs will be able to nominate NHS staff in the following categories:

The Excellence in Education and Training Award: To recognise teams and individuals which excel at innovative approaches to education and training,

The Excellence in Healthcare Award: This award recognises individuals or teams who go above and beyond to either prevent major health conditions or improve outcomes and experiences for patients living with and beyond them.

The Excellence in Mental Health Care Award: To the individual or team that has worked across organisational boundaries to develop new and effective services to help people living with mental health problems in their community.

The Volunteer Award: The Volunteer Award is for volunteers working to support the NHS to provide excellent care for patients, helping them to keep healthy and well.

The Excellence in Urgent and Emergency Care Award: To the individual or team that has made improvements in how the NHS treats people in life-or-death situations.

The Excellence in Primary Care and Community Care Award: As the needs of patients and the wider NHS evolves, so does the role of these professionals, and this award seeks to recognise practitioners and teams in primary or community care that are working with patients to help them stay healthy and avoid long stays in hospital or being admitted in the first place.

The Future NHS Award: This award seeks to highlight individuals, teams and organisations that are successfully embracing the opportunities that come from innovation and advances in medical technology, data, and connectivity.

The Health Equalities Award: This award is for an individual or organisation that has helped the NHS to do its bit by bringing together different groups and organisations to reduce health inequalities and prevent ill health in different communities.

The Nursing and Midwifery Award: This award is for any nurse or midwife that has used their skills to ensure that patients experience care and compassion and have driven improvements in their service.

The Lifetime Achievement Award: This award is for an individual who has worked within a health or care setting for 40 years or more who has left a positive legacy.

The nomination process is open from Thursday 29 February 2024 until the end of Friday 19 April 2024. Patients, the public and local health, and care organisations are encouraged to submit their nomination suggestions to their local MPs at least two weeks before the nomination window closes to give MPs time to review and choose which applications to submit.

After the nomination window closes on Friday 19 April 2024, nominations will be sent to the relevant NHS England teams for initial sifting. Successful nominations at this stage will then go forward to a regional panel comprised of senior regional NHS England representatives. The regional panels will each choose one nomination in each category to go forward to the national judging panel. A national judging panel will then score each of the shortlisted nominations and select an overall winner for each category.

For more information on how to nominate and the criteria for each category, visit www.nhsparliamentaryawards.co.uk