NHS Excellence Awards: South East regional champions 2026
The NHS Excellence Awards have been created to celebrate the most innovative and impactful work taking place across health and social care – and to help spread the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS.
The South East regional champions from the NHS Excellence Awards 2026 are:
▼ Delivering value award
The Medway SMART Acute Virtual Hospital
Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Medway Foundation Trust has developed a multi-specialty, virtual hospital delivering acute care at home with 24/7 monitoring, consultant oversight, and direct admission pathways, in response to significant bed pressures and evidence that over half of inpatients could be safely treated virtually. Building on years of digital innovation, the model now saves thousands of bed days, reduces costs by at least 30%, maintains strong safety outcomes, and provides a scalable, system-wide solution aligned with the shift from hospital to home care.
▼ Digital innovation award
Enhancing T2/T3 Prescribing with Digitisation and Decision Support in ePMA
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has embedded Mental Health Act consent-to-treatment (T2/T3) documentation directly into its ePMA system, replacing unreliable paper processes with a clinically designed, legally compliant digital solution that provides real-time decision support and clear medication-level legal status. This innovation has driven near-universal documentation availability, improved legal compliance and patient safety, reduced staff burden and anxiety, and established a scalable, first-of-its-kind model for safer, digitally enabled mental health care.
▼ Improving health outcomes award
Isle of Wight Ambulance Service – Out‑of‑Hospital Cardiac Arrest Survival Improvement Programme
Isle of Wight NHS Trust
The Isle of Wight Ambulance Service has transformed its out-of-hospital cardiac arrest pathway by strengthening every stage of the chain of survival, from widespread community CPR training and volunteer responder mobilisation to enhanced critical care skills, rapid transfer pathways and multi-agency governance. This whole-system approach has delivered outstanding survival outcomes while building long-term community resilience and demonstrating how integrated innovation can overcome geography and improve patient outcomes.
▼ Leadership award
Michelle Gallagher
Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust
Michelle was recognised for over 20 years of leadership improving access to specialist liver care for vulnerable groups, including people experiencing homelessness and those with addiction or in prison. She established Surrey’s first hospital-based Alcohol Liaison Service supporting over 12,000 patients, and led Royal Surrey to become a national Hepatitis C network hub in 2015. Michelle also spearheaded the development of a mobile community liver screening service, enabling more than 10,000 people to receive liver FibroScan® assessments outside hospital settings.
▼ Neighbourhood health award
East Brighton Integrated Community (Neighbourhood) Team
NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board on behalf of East Brighton ICT (East and Central PCN and Deans and Central PCN)
East Brighton Integrated Community Team established an open-access neighbourhood Health Hub and outreach model bringing together multidisciplinary clinical, social, and voluntary services to deliver same-day, holistic care in the community, targeting underserved populations and reducing barriers to access. This approach has improved patient experience, reached the most deprived residents, reduced pressure on GP and urgent care services, and contributed to early evidence of lower A&E attendance and avoidable admissions.
▼ Patient involvement and choice award
Care Co-ordinators + Family Engagement Leads – The Baby Steps: Our Neonatal Journey Cards
South East Neonatal ODN
The Baby Steps: Our Neonatal Journey Cards project co-produced a set of accessible, parent-centred information cards used across 27 neonatal units, improving consistency, communication, and support for families throughout their baby’s care journey. The initiative has strengthened Family Integrated Care, increased parental confidence and engagement, enhanced continuity between units, and delivered highly positive feedback from both families and staff, with improved understanding, reassurance, and more meaningful conversations.
▼ Quality improvement award
Integrated Frailty Crisis Pathway
Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust
A whole-system frailty programme was implemented using quality improvement, workforce training, and integrated services including frailty same-day emergency care, hospital at home, rapid community response, and a single point of access to deliver comprehensive geriatric assessment across care settings. This has significantly improved outcomes and flow, reducing admissions, length of stay, readmissions and care home placements, while improving ED performance, staff capability, patient safety, and delivering over 5 million in system-wide savings.
▼ Sustainable healthcare award
Green Nursing Challenge 2025: A transformative 15 week journey
Centre for Sustainable Healthcare
The Green Nursing Challenge 2025 supported multidisciplinary nursing teams through a structured programme to design and deliver sustainable quality improvement projects that reduce carbon, improve care, and build leadership capability. This frontline-led approach generated significant environmental and financial benefits—saving an estimated £691k and 77,398 kgCO2e annually—while improving patient pathways, strengthening staff engagement, and demonstrating the power of sustainable innovation at scale.
▼ Valuing our people award
BrigHT futures @BHT
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
BrigHT futures @BHT is a structured pre-employment and outreach programme that builds an inclusive local talent pipeline through work experience, careers education, and targeted support for underrepresented groups. It has significantly improved career readiness, widened access to NHS roles, strengthened workforce supply, and increased local interest and entry into healthcare careers while reducing reliance on external recruitment.
▼ Working in partnership award
Solving Problems, Transforming Lives: Addressing the underlying triggers of mental health crisis
Hampshire & Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust & Citizens Advice Winchester District
Hampshire & Isle of Wight Healthcare partnered with Citizens Advice to embed specialist caseworkers within mental health inpatient teams, addressing social issues such as housing, finances, and employment alongside clinical care. This integrated model has improved patient outcomes, reduced length of stay and readmissions, eased pressure on clinical staff, and delivered a £14 return for every £1 invested, enabling more sustainable recovery and discharge.