THE outstanding efforts of staff at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were honoured at a special ceremony in Swindon on Friday.

The GWH Staff Excellence Awards are in their first year and were established to recognise and reward the dedication and commitment shown by hospital staff over the last 12 months.

More than 180 nominations were received across eight categories covering a wide range of important areas at the hospital and on the evening 26 staff and initiatives were up for the awards.

The event, held at the De Vere hotel at Shaw Leisure Complex, West Swindon, was attended by over 270 members of staff and guests.

Lyn Hill-Tout, Chief Executive of GWH said: “These awards show how truly amazing staff working at GWH are. Staff have nominated colleagues who they believe demonstrate the highest professional standards and are motivated to go above and beyond the call of duty.

“I feel immensely proud and privileged to work with them.”

Among the gongs given out were awards to Louise Ackrill, clinical administrator in the GWH Booking Centre for epitomising the hospital’s Go The Extra Smile Campaign.

The citation read: “Louise was nominated by a number of colleagues who wanted to recognise Louise’s ability to help others, even in high pressure situations, always smiling and with an unfailing positive attitude which makes her a great person to work with for her colleagues.”

Team of the Year went to the hospital Sterilisation and Decontamination Unit for their tireless efforts behind the scenes to provide an outstanding service to clinical teams across the Trust which continues despite big increases in demand over recent years.

The service transformation and innovation award went to joint winners – Karen Braid and Alyson McSherry from the Productive Ward Team, and the Breast Care Team led by Nathan Coombs.

The Productive Ward Project aims to release more time for nurses to spend with patients and less on things such as paperwork. This has resulted in a doubling on some wards of the time spent by nursing staff on direct patient care.

The Breast Care Team were recognised for their efforts in bringing together breast screening and symptomatic breast services onto a single site – The Swindon Breast Centre at GWH. The citation said the whole team demonstrated an absolute focus on improving patient experience which means that over 75 per cent of women will be fully assessed and discharged at this first visit.

Ms Hill-Tout said: “These awards demonstrate how small changes make a big difference to the lives of people, the finalists are all people who are improving patient care and experience, seen as a role model and a great colleague to work with, either through the way they provide care, their attitude and behaviours or their ambition to drive forward services. I know that we will all take inspiration from the nominees and the recipients of these awards”.

l One of the awards which may raise some public eyebrows is the Unsung Hero award to Great Western Hospital’s car Parking team.

This award is given to members of staff who regularly go above and beyond the call of duty to provide the best service for patients, visitors and staff.

Winners David Fowler, Ron Aldred and Winston Moore, from the Car Parking Team were presented the award alongside Breast Cancer nurses and clinical experts.

The citation read: “With car parking at the hospital posing an occasional challenge, the car parking team is on hand to ease those problems for patients, visitors and staff whatever the weather.

“They are regularly seen around the hospital helping expectant mothers into the Delivery Unit, the sick and injured into A&E and helping staff find spaces so they can come to work.

Winston Moore, Parking Attendant said: “I think it is a nice achievement just to be nominated. It makes you feel honoured that people consider we do a good enough job to nominate us.

“I just do my best to keep smiling and be cheerful to help people when they are stressed”.

Inspirational Role Model Award: This award is for those people who inspire others in their day to day work, setting an example and providing invaluable guidance and support for others.

Joint winners, Chris Pearce a Nurse Consultant in Gynaecology and Sara Forsyth in the Acute Physiotherapy Department.

Chris is one of only two Nurse Consultants in the hospital and her colleagues nominated her because of the way she works across multi-skilled teams to deliver the best for her patients. Chris was nominated by four of her colleagues, an indication of how good a role model she is for others.

Sara was nominated by ten of her colleagues for the way she has stepped up to the position of team leader in the Department. The ease with which she has taken on this responsibility whilst maintaining regular contact with her team, continuing to be supportive and approachable at all times was recognised by the judges.

The Pennies and Pounds Award: GWH recognises the need to make the most out of every pound it spends continues to rise. The Pennies and Pounds award is all about ideas that have saved money and improved services to make more money available to reinvest in patient services.

The winner was Susan St George, Medical Lab Assistant in Histopathology.

Sue is a biomedical support worker in histopathology and she has the knack of being able to spot waste and work out how to do things more efficiently. Sue is someone who is keen to take on new roles and extend her skills, taking on jobs that the Biomedical Scientists do.

Learner of the Year Award: Learning is vital to the NHS and to patients. It is through learning that members of staff can develop new skills to improve the way care is provided meaning patients can get the best care possible. This award recognises members of staff who have a passion and commitment for learning.

The winner was Sandra Rekowski, outpatient clerk in the Wiltshire Cardiac Centre at GWH.

Sandra has shown great enthusiasm and motivation for learning which has inspired other colleagues in her team to take up courses themselves.

Sandra has successfully completed an NVQ level two and, demonstrating a real commitment to improving her own skills, immediately booked on to the level three NVQ.

Improved Patient Safety Award: Patient safety is a top priority for GWH and this award recognises individuals and teams who have enhanced the quality and safety of patient care.

The winner was The Aria Project, introduced in September last year with the aim of managing Chemotherapy prescribing.

This new system has helped reduce the chance of errors through transcription error or lost charts and allows much better monitoring of the treatment allowing much safer delivery of chemotherapy.