The East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust – which runs Hertford County Hospital, Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Northwood, and The New QEII Hospital in Welwyn Garden City hosted its annual staff award event on Thursday 11 July.
Staff from across the Trust were invited to put forward nominations before the event, with a panel of judges scoring each nomination to determine the 42 finalists.
More than 380 members of staff attended Tewin Bury Farm to celebrate the success of their colleagues, including the 13 winners crowned on the night.
The first award was the Dedalus Quality Award. Won by Jo Lewis – who had recently supported three patients receiving end of life care, all with individual complexities. Jo has risen to this physical and emotional challenge, providing additional home visits at the weekends and working to ensure the children and their families receive the care and support they need.
The second winner of the night was Prabin Edayanattu Baby who had been nominated for providing her colleagues with compassionate pastoral care, career guidance and emotional support. She has particularly supported our internationally educated nurses and helped them to find accommodation, making them feel settled in the UK.
The non-site-specific symptoms team were crowned the third winner of the evening, taking home the 8×8 Seamless Service Award. The team provide a unique service for patients who have vague or non-specific symptoms to enable the shortest and fastest route to a cancer diagnosis. Without this team, patients would bounce between services and/or be delayed in receiving life-saving care.
The Stroke Team was announced as Continuous Improvement Award winners. The stroke unit demonstrated relentless dedication to enhancing the quality of care provided to patients through a range of ongoing improvement initiatives and a culture of innovation. Their audit rating has improved from D to B and the team has received several silver and gold awards within the Clinical Excellence Accreditation Framework.
Next up was Debbie Cockcroft, who won the Green Award. Debbie works tirelessly to improve our waste management process to reduce our impact on the climate. She advocates for buying and using resources more efficiently so less waste goes to landfill, and less needs to be manufactured and transported, which reduces our carbon footprint.
The Special Contribution Award went to Kirsty Hill, working at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Kirsty demystifies and breaks the stigma of traditional palliative care, enabling patients to consider and communicate their wishes and onward goals, even in the most challenging of situations. Kirsty also takes a proactive role in prioritising improvement and has led on several improvement strategies for the palliative care team.
The next three awards were aligned with the Trust’s values of Include, Respect and Improve.
The Include Award went to Pam Langford, who created clinics for pregnant women who are autistic as part of her Autism in Pregnancy work. She sought ideas to provide an environment where autistic women would feel comfortable and want to attend.
The Chiltern Dialysis Team won the Respect Award. The team look after longtime patient of the team began receiving palliative care. Disappointed she would no longer see those she got to know; the dialysis team undertook coordinated visits to see her.
The Hunter Healthcare ViP Improve Award went to Zainab Noori. Zainab’s positive, and proactive approach cannot be understated. She is a joy to have on the team and embodies all the Trust values.
Charity Champion Award went to James Utting and Jane Shaw who decided to approach a consortium of four companies and successfully raised funds for the pony visits for one year. Jane has been instrumental in making the pony visits work, bringing so much joy to patients, visitors and staff.
A regular volunteer at MVCC for just under 20 years, Susan Harris won the Here to Help award. In her nomination, Susan was described as a valued member of our team who is highly regarded by colleagues throughout the cancer centre. Susan can be relied upon to make new members feel at ease and is always accommodating.
The final award of the evening was voted for by the public and was awarded to Amanda Appleby. The member of the public who nominated Amanda sadly lost their son in 2022. Amanda was on duty in maternity triage at the time and provided comfort and calm support, never leaving the service user’s side until their partner had arrived. Amanda made herself available even after her shift had ended to provide support.
“I was both humbled and privileged to be a judge for the awards, and reading the many, many nominations that came in made me feel quite emotional.
It was fantastic to be able to see so many of our wonderful colleagues celebrating the many successes that have taken place across the Trust and our hospitals. It was also a perfect opportunity to say thank you as the Trust celebrated the NHS 76th birthday on 5 July. Congratulations to all of our nominees, as well as our award winners for an amazing night and for their incredible achievements.
Adam Sewell-Jones, chief executive
