Royal Surrey Stars 2023 Winners
Royal Surrey Stars 2023 Winners
Congratulations to our Royal Surrey Stars 2023 winner, who have been recognised for their outstanding contribution to our Trust and patients. 
Our 2023 award received 543 nominations – 426 from colleagues and 116 in our Patients’ Choice category.
The ceremony is fully funded through sponsorship. Thank you to our partners Thornbury Nursing, Philips, Russell Cawberry, Wavenet, Medirest, LSA Secure Medical Services, Nutricia, CBRE, Oracle Health and k2 for supporting our awards ceremony.
Access and Medicine Champion
Jenna Robinson, Lead Inflammatory Bowel Disease Specialist Nurse
Jenna is an incredibly caring individual who is recognised for demonstrating true patient-centred care. She is very empathetic, considers patients’ needs and communicates with them in a calm and caring manner. She is well known for dropping whatever she is doing to support patients, developing a great relationship with those she looks after, and improving their experience from diagnosis to treatment. Jenna does this within a busy service setting and shares her positive energy with everyone around her.
Adult Community Health Services Champion
George Kalogiannis, Health Care Assistant, Haslemere Community Hospital
George never stops working hard for his patients. He is very efficient and patient-focused, making sure that his patients have everything they need. He is very approachable, has a wonderful sense of humour and is always laughing and positive, keeping up morale in the workplace. Most importantly, patients love him. He is great at reorienting patients who have been transferred to Haslemere from the Guildford hospital, making sure they are settled and calm. He takes time to help those who suffer from cognition issues, and makes sure they are as happy as they can be, feeling safe and reassured at what is often a very frightening time.
DCSS Champion
Histopathology and Molecular Diagnostics Teams
Diagnostics grows ever more complex and the quality work of these colleagues helps to save and prolong the lives of cancer patients across the region. These teams have embraced exciting improvements in medical diagnostics for cancer patients, staying up to date with emerging technology and working hard to bring new instruments and resources into our Trust. Because of their innovative approach, patients who need screening to see if they or a family members are at risk of developing tumours are now able to have tests at our Trust.
Oncology Champion
Janice Quiambao, Practice Development Sister
Janice provides tremendous support and training for new colleagues on Chilworth and Onslow Wards, and in the Oncology Outpatients departments. They greatly benefit from her wisdom and advice. She is a talented coach and mentor and is always working hard to keep colleagues up to date with training and competency needs. She is well known for being a friendly face who is skilled, inspiring and knowledgeable – the team simply couldn’t do without her!
Surgery Champion
Wendy Gray, Sepsis, Lead Nurse Critical Care Outreach
Wendy has raised awareness and understanding of the management of sepsis, ensuring a skilled and trained workforce across primary and secondary care. To improve patient safety and meet NICE guidelines, she has delivered sepsis information to more than 1,500 colleagues in our Trust and the wider local healthcare community. Earlier this year, she organised our Trust’s first Sepsis Conference that was attended by more than 100 healthcare colleagues and was universally well received.
Women and Children Champion
Emma Allen, Specialist Nurse - Safeguarding Children
Emma is described as atruly exceptional nurse who demonstrates excellent care and compassion for children, families and staff. She is an approachable, compassionate and supportive person and a source of knowledge and expertise helping families navigate safeguarding processes. Emma is also an excellent advocate for children, able to share their voices and challenge other professionals if the outcome is not in their best interests. She goes above and beyond, having developed training resources, authored newsletters, completed an audit, and delivered high-quality supervision.
Corporate Services Champion
Maria De Souza, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer, Deputy Chief Clinical Information Officer
Maria has played a pivotal role in embedding Surrey Safe Care, engaging with people across our Trust to make sure the system met the broad range of needs. Surrey Safe Care was a big change for our organisation and presented many challenges. During what was a difficult implementation, Maria led from the front, listening to, empathising with and responding to everyone’s perspective. She regularly went out and about to speak with colleagues, checking for issues and seeing what she could do to support, despite an already high workload. Nothing was too much trouble for Maria. She now leads a team of nursing information officers who support the whole Trust.
Patients’ Choice – Individual Award
Anna McGuire, Oesophago-gastric Clinical Nurse Specialist
Anna was nominated by one of her patients for providing overwhelming support, advice and encouragement during what was otherwise a dark period for the patient. She was described as having “manner of reassurance that makes you feel anything can be sorted”. On the nomination form, her patient said:
“I am eternally grateful for the care that I have received from everyone at Royal Surrey, but the support, advice and encouragement that Anna provided during an especially dark period was overwhelming. She is simply priceless.”
Patients’ Choice – Team Award
Teenage and Young Adult Cancer team
The Teenage and Young Adult Cancer team was nominated by six of their patients. They are described as providing unwavering support to patients and their families during the most difficult times of their lives and making the hospital environment warm and welcoming, reducing patients' anxiety around treatment. Comments from their patients included:
“Every single member of the team goes above and beyond. Professional yet extremely friendly, loving and caring. Devoted not only to the patient but to the patient's family and future.”
“They help patients (like me) going through the scariest time of their lives with compassion and consideration.”
“I wouldn’t have gotten through this awful time without them and always leave [the hospital] feeling a little lighter, with a smile.”
Improving the Patient Experience
Claire Barraud, Birth Reflections Midwife
Claire empowers people to recognise their achievements, improving their self-esteem and outlook for the future. She founded the Listening Service at Royal Surrey, which provides vital support for all women and birthing people who have experienced psychological trauma during their birth experience. Through this service, she invites these patients and their partners to discuss their individual experiences; aiming to answer any questions they may have and help alleviate their worries and potential fears for future pregnancies.
Improving the Staff Experience
Elizabeth Skidmore, Anaesthetic Department Manager
Elizabeth runs the department efficiently and always considers the wellbeing of her team.
She has lead several complex projects, including the transition to a new electronic rota system, juggling the often conflicting needs of theatres, the department and training to ensure that everything ran smoothly.
Elizabeth goes above and beyond regularly and her colleagues say that they owe their ability to concentrate on their work to her efficiency in ‘running the ship’.
Creating a Better Future Champion
Emma Dillsworth, Enhanced Supportive Care Project Manager
Emma is committed to supporting her team to excel through the use of digital technologies. She has been instrumental in developing, leading and improving the Enhanced Supportive Care app for patients undergoing anti-cancer treatment. This allows patients to complete a symptom assessment questionnaire prior to attending clinic as well as being signposted to useful resources. This is one of only a few bespoke apps used in the Trust, which shows Emma’s forward-thinking and innovative approach and she has received an overwhelmingly positive response from patients on the app, and for her professional and friendly approach.
Leader/Mentor of the Year
Dr Izhar Bagwan, Clinical Director, Department of Cellular Pathology
Izhar is an exceptional leader and mentor, who inspires every team member. He is responsible for recruiting trainees to his division through the Medical Training Initiative (MTI), many of whom feel daunted by the recruitment process. But Izhar always provides exceptional guidance throughout the recruitment and training process. He has strong vision and integrity, and helps all MTI trainees to fulfil their destiny. MTI trainees say that thanks to Izhar, they have received extensive teaching and essential support for exams and that he is an outstanding educational supervisor, who guides trainees to go beyond routine laboratory work, and do research, audits and case reports.
Rising Star
Shelley Dulwich, TB Support Worker/Healthcare Assistant
Healthcare support worker Shelley has been nominated for an award because of her hard-working nature and the lengths she goes to, to improve the patient experience. She wears many hats, supporting the TB service and the TB Clinical Nurse Specialist, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the service, and has become an integral member of the team. She supports her colleagues, covers for staff absences, and always has a smile on her face. Her colleagues say she’s “one in a million” and that “everybody needs a Shelley”.
Volunteer of the Year
Hobby Dean
Hobby is one of the volunteers who supported the vaccination hub during the Covid-19 pandemic. She worked at weekends in the hub while still working full-time. She also volunteered over Christmas and Easter so that staff from the Emergency Department (ED) could spend much-needed time with their families. Hobby also provides mentorship and induction to new hydration volunteer teams in the ED. She is an amazing person, encouraging and kind, providing support to staff, patients and other volunteers.
Non-Clinical Team of the Year
Blood Sciences Pathology Team
Over the past year, the laboratory team has faced a challenging workload with a positive attitude and great team spirit. They have successfully implemented new equipment with no disruption to business as usual. At the same time, a stringent UKAS inspection was carried out, which resulted in zero technical findings – a massive achievement in its own right! The laboratory has also had a MHRA inspection this year, which it has passed with praise. Retention has been 100% for the past year and the team receive consistently positive feedback from the departments they work with about the improvement and resilience of the service.
Clinical Team of the Year
Palliative Care Team
The expertise, care, compassion and effectiveness of the Palliative Care Team is phenomenal. They allow patients to attend an outpatient setting and manage the crippling impact of incurable diseases with dignity. They achieve this while minimising horrible side effects of intensive treatments, such as chemotherapy, to give their patients the best possible quality of life. They get to know their patients and help them enjoy the time they have left as much as possible. They’ve even helped a patient get special permission to get married quickly and see his much-loved dog while staying with us an in-patient.
Chief Executive and Chair’s Award
Charlotte Morley, Lead Emergency Practitioner ( Minor Injuries Unit)
Charlotte received six different nominations across four categories. She is an instrumental part of the Minor Injuries Team, which also received multiple nominations.
Charlotte has played a central role in transforming the Minor Injuries Unit over the last 12-18 months. The service has increased its daily opening hours and is now open weekends. Without her personal dedication and commitment, leading by example, her colleagues do not think that our Trust would have seen the same improvements. Her relentless determination to improve the service is evident in the marked improvement in timeliness of treatment, and overwhelmingly positive feedback for an ever increasing number of patients attending the MIU.