GREAT Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is in the running for a prestigious award because of its commitment to patient safety.

The body, which oversees Great Western Hospital, has been nominated for the Top Hospitals Awards because of the high level of care and safety.

The national award highlights the performance from healthcare organisations across the country.

Healthcare group CHKS has nominated the trust.

Julie Marshman, the trust’s deputy director of quality governance, said: “This award nomination is absolutely fantastic news and I’d like to thank every member of staff who has worked incredibly hard over the last year to make this possible.

“Patient safety has always been the trust’s number one priority and to have our work recognised by our peers at a national level is incredibly rewarding.

I have seen first-hand some of the really terrific work taking place all over the trust, from raising awareness of harmful conditions such as acute kidney injury to ensuring that all staff are familiar with the sepsis six pathway.”

Nominees for the award are chosen after a panel of judges have compared each trust’s performance against a wide ranging criteria.

Some of the indicators for the 2015 award included the number of patients who contracted sepsis – a potentially life-threatening condition caused by infection – following an operation and the number of pressure ulcers in patients who have been in hospital longer than four days, both of which are included as priorities in GWH’s ‘sign up to safety’ pledge.

The introduction of the sepsis six, a series of steps designed to help medics identify and treat sepsis quickly, has also been affective with 80 per cent of severe sepsis patients now making a full recovery. Jason Harries, CHKS’ managing director, said: “Our patient safety award highlights those trusts that clearly share a commitment to driving improvement and engendering a culture of excellence.

“It is a credit to the staff at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that it has been shortlisted for this award.”

The trust will find out if they have won the award at a ceremony taking place in London on Tuesday, May 19.

For more information about the hospital’s safety procedures, visit gwh.nhs.uk.