Stars of the Royal Surrey Celebrated at Staff Recognition Awards 2011

Last week staff from across the Royal Surrey gathered at Guildford County School to celebrate the 2011 Staff Recognition Awards.  It was a full house with staff and patients coming together to celebrate the outstanding work of their colleagues and clinicians over the last 12 months.

Around 500 staff were honoured as individuals or as part of a team and included staff from across all parts of the organisation.  The evening began with the Achievement Awards category, which recognises individuals and teams who have passed a significant exam or achieved a new qualification, and the Excellent Awards, for teams and individuals who have gone over and above what is required of them in their day to day role.  There were 29 individuals who won achievement awards and an amazing 79 teams and individuals in the Excellence Award category. 

Our Learning Disabilities Liaison Nurse Kathryn Fisher won the Dignity for Patients award, which was sponsored by the Royal College of Nursing.  Kathryn has transformed the support given to patients with learning disabilities and patients now described her as a rock.  The Normalising Birth Team won the Improving Patient Care Award, which was sponsored by Philips Health.  The team have done an enormous amount of work bringing down the number of caesarean section births at the Royal Surrey and we now have the second lowest rate of caesarean sections in the South East. 

Ward Sister Maria Ashworth was the winner of the Improving Patient Safety Award.  Maria has developed a system for identifying patients that may be more at risk of developing lymphoedema following breast or gynaecological surgery. 

The Service Improvement Award went to the Oesophago-gastric (OG) Multidisciplinary Team (pictured above) led by Consultant Surgeon Mr Shaun Preston.  Following a trip to Seattle to see how one of the world’s leading teams looks after patients undergoing major surgery, Mr Preston and his team have completely changed how patients are cared for and patients are now receiving world class surgery and going home 8 days after surgery rather than staying in hospital for two weeks. 

One of the very special categories of the night was the Patient’s Choice awards, which are nominated by the patients.  Some of the patients were able to attend on the night to present the winners with their prize.  The Patient’s Choice award winners were; Consultant Rheumatologist Dr Charles Li, the Hindhead Ward Stroke Team, physiotherapist Iwona Kolodziejcyjk, the Medical Day Unit, Consultant Opthalmologist Miss Anne Gilvarry, Professor Pandha, Dr Michael and their Oncology teams and Julie Johnson, a sister in the Early Pregnancy Unit.

There were two worthy winners of the Behind the Scenes Employee of the Year - Graham Maynard, Head of Estates and Sharlene Tyrrell, Outpatients Manager.  Graham has lead large scale building and development projects at the Trust and is now leading a multi-million pound project to build a new Endoscopy Unit.  Sharlene has pioneered some substantial changes in the Outpatients Department over the last year, which has made it easier for patients who attend appointments at the hospital and improved the overall Outpatients service at the Trust.

Frontline Employee of the Year, Sponsored by the University of Surrey, also went to two people.  Medicine Matron Jenny Faulkner, won for her constant support and dedication to the teams and patients and Physiotherapist Sam Towers won her award for developing a new team, that provides patients with continuing physiotherapy treatment at home.  Sam has also been involved in improving physiotherapy services at the Trust by making it available seven days a week. 

Our Behind the Scenes Team of the Year went to Medicals Records for their work providing notes for clinicians and teams across the hospital 24 hours a day seven days a week.  Their work is relentless and critical to the running of the Trust but often goes unnoticed.

The final award of the night, Frontline Team of the Year, was sponsored by RHW Solicitors.  It was jointly awarded to the Intensive Care Unit and Nuclear Medicine teams.  The ICU team won for their efforts a year ago when the department was under extreme pressure.  The hospital was hit by a large number of critically ill patients coupled with a large volume of patients with flu.  The team remained highly professional and organised throughout this extremely stressful period and the ICU has also recently been named as the third best performing unit in the country for its clinical outcomes.  The Nuclear Medicine team have faced a tough year; with staff changes, new equipment and large numbers of patients.  They have pulled together as team and performed very well in their inspections and received exceptional, positive feedback from patients and colleagues.

Other awards included the Unsung Heroes for the volunteers who make extraordinary contributions to the hospital on our wards, outpatient departments and behind the scenes.  The Lifetime Achievement Awards went to individuals who are retiring in the next few months and have shown dedication and commitment to the Trust for many years.  The five Lifetime Achievement Award winners had amassed 119 years of work at the Royal Surrey between them.

Congratulations to all of our winners and nominees and thank you to all of those who took the time to nominate someone for this years awards.  A huge thank you must go to our sponsors; RHW Solicitors, the University of Surrey, Philips Health and the Royal College of Nursing for their support which allowed this year to be our biggest and best awards ceremony yet.