A number of individuals and teams at North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) have been shortlisted for various prestigious national awards.
NBT colleagues have been shortlisted for two of this year’s Health Service Journal (HSJ) awards.
The Bristol Breast Care Centre team have been shortlisted in the Performance Recovery Award category for their breast cancer recovery plan. The team have been working tirelessly to deliver a significant improvement to patient experience and post-pandemic waiting lists for both screening and symptomatic services through their recovery plan.
The project, established in June 2022, has seen clinical and administrative staff working together to focus on patient needs and the best use of resources.
Colleagues in the Breast Care Centre have delivered additional weekend capacity through a programme of mega-clinics, where the clinical team have undertaken additional sessions on weekends to supplement the in-week clinics, which has helped the service to see patients as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, changes made to administrative processes have led to improved efficiency in theatres and reduced waiting times for those contacting the breast care call centre. On average patients can now speak with a member of the administration team within 20 seconds, which has contributed to a significant increase in positive feedback received from their patients.
The Rheumatology Pharmacist team have been shortlisted in the Medicines, Pharmacy and Prescribing Initiative of the Year category for this year’s HSJ awards. Emily Rose-Parfitt, Consultant Pharmacist in Rheumatology, and her team have designed and implemented a web-based decision making tool at NBT that empowers patients and supports clinicians when making treatment decisions in rheumatology. It also promotes the cost-effective use of medicines to better utilise NHS resources.
The tool is the first of its kind in the UK, and through collaborative working with commissioners it has now been adopted by trusts throughout the South West. There are also discussions with other regions and other specialties about adopting the tool to their areas.
NBT was also recently shortlisted in the HSJ Patient Safety Awards 2023, in the Urgent and Emergency Care Safety Initiative of the Year category for the organisation’s collective efforts to reduce ambulance handover delays.
Our Trust’s whole-hospital approach to supporting safe patient flow has made a difference to patients, while reduced ambulance handover delays have meant our ambulance colleagues can see patients requiring the most urgent care in the community more quickly.
Southmead Hospital is also part of the SHaRED (Supporting High impact users in Emergency Departments) programme to support the most frequent users of emergency departments, which has been shortlisted in the Urgent and Emergency Care Safety Initiative of the Year category.
The West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) has led the work in collaboration with local hospitals, including Southmead, with the aim of improving outcomes for patients who attend emergency departments five or more times a year.
Hannah Welbourne, Clinical Placement Lead and a Lead Clinical Tutor, was recently announced as a finalist for Nurse of the Year in the Nursing Times Awards 2023.
Hannah was nominated for her work establishing a university-based continued professional development module on orthopaedics trauma and surgery for the orthopaedic multidisciplinary team. The module, which is delivered by clinicians at NBT, has been an opportunity to partner with the University of West of England to support staff development, enabling those enrolled to participate in degree-level study. It has also benefited our patients, as the module has resulted in a number of service improvements across our trauma and orthopaedic wards.
NBT colleagues have also been recognised in the 2023 shortlist for the Nursing Times Workforce awards.
The SimSpace team has been shortlisted in the Team of the Year category. The team provides immersive simulation training for colleagues across the Trust, enabling staff to practise real-life scenarios alongside their colleagues in a safe learning environment.
SimSpace improves human factors training and patient safety by providing advanced equipment to support training in specialist or high-risk scenarios and the opportunity for teams to come together afterwards to reflect.
Honeylyn Sarao, Medirooms Education Manager, has also been shortlisted in the awards in the Preceptor of the Year category, for her work supporting staff with their professional growth and development.
Last but not least, NBT’s Dance for Dementia project has been shortlisted in the finals of the Patient Experience National Network awards.
The project, which is led by our Fresh Arts team and delivered by the Original Spinners, supports patients in the Elgar Enablement Unit at Southmead Hospital, and has also been extended for patients at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. At NBT, the project supports patients to move and be physically active through dance regularly to keep themselves well and help to manage their condition. This helps patients to maintain their balance, co-ordination, muscle strength and their wellbeing.
NBT Chief Executive, Maria Kane, said: “We are delighted to see the hard work and commitment of so many of our teams and individuals recognised in these national awards shortlists.
“We have such dedicated colleagues at NBT, keen to innovate care to ensure we are providing an outstanding patient experience, and this is testament to all their fantastic work.”