The NHS in the South East are celebrating staff and teams winning three of the ten awards at the 2024 Parliamentary Awards.

Innovative AI technology and training to improve health outcomes for people with learning disabilities and autism were among the South East winners announced at the awards ceremony held at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, Westminster, yesterday, 14 October 2024.

The awards are designed to recognise and celebrate some of the biggest achievements of those who work in and alongside the health service.

This year South East MPs nominated a record number of individuals or teams since the awards began, they believe have made the biggest improvements to health services in their constituencies, across the ten award categories.

Ten South East regional champions were put forward, together with regional champions from across the rest of England, to a final stage of judging.

The Excellence in Healthcare Award was won by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust for their innovative use of AI technology to support clinical decision making in radiology. AI is transforming patient care across Frimley, from improving the detection and identification of cancer to helping patients following cataract surgery.

These initiatives demonstrate the potential of AI to improve care and outcomes for patients with earlier and more accurate detection of disease, reducing waiting times and utilising the precious skills of clinical professionals more efficiently and effectively.

Training named after Oliver McGowan, whose avoidable death shone a light on the need for health and social care staff to have better training in learning disability and autism was a joint winner in the Excellence in Education and Training Award.

The training, co-delivered by trainers with lived experience of learning disability and autism aims to save lives by ensuring our health and social care workforce have the right skills and knowledge to provide safe, compassionate and informed care for autistic people and people with a learning disability. This aims to reduce the stark health inequalities often experienced and promote wider equality of opportunities.

A service that has transformed the outpatient care of kidney patients in Portsmouth took home The Future NHS Award.  Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust’s MyRenalCare delivers remote monitoring and digital communication between consultants and patients, this, together with a wealth of resources and access to the help they need, when they need help means patients feeling more engaged in managing their condition.

It is not only health outcomes that are improved, as the model of service delivery also contributes to reducing carbon emissions with travel miles per patient reduced by more than 50%.

Anne Eden, Regional Director of NHS England in the South East region, said:

“I congratulate our regional winners recognised in this year’s Parliamentary Awards who exemplify the best of what the NHS and its partners do day in, day out. Your commitment and dedication are an inspiration.

“Selecting our regional champions from the record high number of high-quality nominations we received from local MPs was incredibly difficult, so all of those who went forward to the national ceremony should be extremely proud of their achievement.”

“There really is a lot of incredible work going on across the South East which undoubtedly makes a difference to the patients and communities we serve.”