It's official — we are fab!
The fabulous work of colleagues at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust was recognised at the Academy of Fab NHS Stuff annual awards.
Urgent Care Operational Manager Mary Stracey, the East Kent Acute Response Team and the East Kent Frailty Team were highly commended for their work on virtual wards, providing acute-level care at home.
Communications Officer Jane Barlow won an NHS75 anniversary award for sharing quality improvement (QI) stories during the pandemic and for continually working closely with the academy.
The trust’s QI team was shortlisted in the QI team of the year category, for sharing projects nationally. Patient Safety Lead Sarah Denton was also shortlisted with her bladder diary QI project, where Sarah adapted the diary as a result of patient feedback.
The awards were held at the Business Design Centre, Islington, with those presenting prizes including Chief Nursing Officer for England Dame Ruth May, NHS England Chief Nursing Officer Jane Cummings and Dame Elizabeth Aninwu. Presenting the evening from the Academy of Fab NHS Stuff were health commentator Roy Lilley and Dr Terri Porrett.
The awards “set out to reward and recognise fab people and teams bringing great innovation and best practice to the NHS”.
Mary Stracey with her Academy of Fab NHS Stuff award
The virtual wards work was highly commended for the Hartley Larkin Award, which recognised work which saw people “doing what needed to be done”. The team was congratulated for creating and expanding virtual wards and since the pandemic, making them “business as usual”, providing integrated teams to treat patients at home, rather than people having to go into hospital.
The work involved integrating the skill mix of the frailty and acute response teams, to create more capacity for patients to be treated in the safety of their own homes. Virtual wards now provide consultant-level support and urgent assessments seven days-a-week. Patients are being seen by the most appropriate clinician for their health needs, from their first appointment. The project has improved patient experience and outcomes
Jane Barlow was one of six people who won a Fab NHS75 Anniversary Award. Jane won hers for “fantastic work in supporting and inspiring her team to keep sharing service improvements throughout Covid and involving Fab constantly”. The award was presented by Rachel Jury, Fab’s Social Media Manager, who said that despite never having met in person, throughout the pandemic and afterwards, regular contact virtually had created “a bond” with the academy. The winners were each given specially minted NHS75 coins.
The main awards sponsors were Giant and Voror Health Technologies.
