Hospital stars shine at Best Possible Care Awards

Northampton General Hospital’s emergency department swept the boards at the annual staff awards ceremony this weekend.

The emergency department picked up a hat-trick of awards at the ceremony on Friday night, including the team of the year accolade for their proactive approach to improving patient flow and safety. 

The work of the department in supporting older patients was recognised with the Patient Safety Award for A&E’s geriatric elderly medicine team while emergency medicine consultant Dr Sarah Vince was awarded the Chief Executive’s Innovation in Practice Award.

Chief executive officer Dr Sonia Swart said: “This year we received more nominations for the Best Possible Care Awards than ever before.  Our judges were faced with the unenviable task of selecting six shortlisted nominees from our nine award categories and then deciding upon the overall winner in each category.  

“All the nominations demonstrated that, despite the challenges our staff face each and every day, they are prepared to go the extra mile to support one another and make sure all our patients receive the best possible care. “

The full list of winners is:

• Clinical Team Award: A&E team The A&E team have pro-actively implemented sustainable changes which have led to improvements in patient flow, safety and patients’ experience. 
• Unsung Hero Clinical Award: Rebecca Smith, Dryden ward  Rebecca promotes staff morale and, importantly, promotes, improves and protects patient safety.
• Non-Clinical Team Award: Pathology management team The pathology management team was recognised for its resilience during a period of work-to-rule: providing support and encouragement to the wider pathology team, introducing service changes and ensuring the quality of service did not falter.
• Unsung Hero Non-Clinical Award: Linda Burniston, emergency assessment unit Linda "can be relied on to keep spirits high. She fosters a good team working ethic, takes time to listen – and makes great cakes!”
• Volunteer of the Year Award: Wendy Drage, Northamptonshire Cancer Partnership user group Wendy is passionate about good end of life care and acts as an advocate for patients and their families
• Chief Executive’s Innovation in Practice Award: Dr Sarah Vince, A&E Sarah has shown passion and dedication to the care of elderly and dementia patients in A&E.
• Patient Experience Award: Debbie Wigley, learning disabilities nurse Debbie has significantly improved the experience of our patients with learning disabilities 
• Patient Safety Award: Geriatric Elderly Medicine Team, A&E The GEM team’s commitment to the service they provide in a pressurised environment “is an inspiration to others.”
• Outstanding Contribution Award: Naomi Walters, Specialist Discharge Nurse Naomi has developed the weekend discharge team, training staff to facilitate 7-day discharge. Naomi is highly motivated to improve our patients’ journey and encourages teams to pursue new initiatives
• The Ken Hughes Award is given in memory of the late Ken Hughes, former NGH non-executive director who was a keen advocate for staff engagement and patient involvement in service improvements. This accolade was awarded to Mr Fred Evans, former NGH shadow governor, a staunch advocate for patients - offering challenge, wise counsel and constructive criticism - Fred is a true friend of NGH 

The awards were supported by funding from the Northamptonshire Health Charitable Fund and sponsorship from Arup, Capsticks, Deloitte, HSB, and Siimply Business.