Hospital Trust celebrates staff success at annual awards ceremony

University Hospital Southampton (UHS) celebrated the success and achievements of staff and volunteers across the organisation at its annual awards ceremony last night (Wednesday, 16 October).

The event, held at the Hilton Southampton based at the Utilita Bowl, saw a total of 24 awards across four categories presented to individuals and teams from UHS throughout the evening recognising outstanding patient care, teamwork and innovation.

UHS chief executive David French, who hosted the event alongside chief nursing officer Gail Byrne, spoke of his “pride” on hearing the inspiring and uplifting stories of colleagues going the extra mile for patients, each other and the wider hospital.

The award categories reflected the Trust’s values of ‘patients first’, ‘always improving’ and ‘working together’, with an extra category covering ‘outstanding contributions’.

More than 600 nominations were submitted by staff across the Trust making it the most successful year in terms of engagement and nominations received.

Awards included outstanding outcomes, excellence in safety, volunteer of the year, inspirational innovator, leader of the year, team recognition, as well as special recognition awards from the chief executive and chair of UHS.

The evening kicked off with the always improving category and the ‘Patient innovation award (clinical)’ which was presented to the single-handed care team (SHC) who have revolutionised the way occupational therapy is delivered at UHS.

They were the first in the country to roll out SHC – a person-centred review of a patient’s care needs – and this approach has saved more than 1000 bed days for the Trust, improving patient flow.

The ‘Inspirational innovator (clinical) award’ was won by the D7 Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) team who have worked together to support earlier discharges, avoiding admissions and reducing the volume of medical patients seen in the main SDEC to take the pressure off the emergency department.

Next was the patients first category, which saw the ‘Outstanding outcomes award (clinical)’ presented to hepatology clinical nurse specialist Rebecca Robbins, who leads the Southampton City Hepatitis C treatment outreach programme.

The programme has achieved NHS and World Health Organisation (WHO) targets for the elimination of Hepatitis C which has been achieved a year ahead of schedule – with Southampton being one of the first cities in England to achieve it.

Basia Kuzia, clinical safety administrator in the UHS Digital team, won the ‘Excellence in safety award (non-clinical)’ for supporting the Trust’s clinical safety officers and ensuring that UHS is compliant with NHS England standards relating to the management of clinical risk in IT systems.

The ‘Generosity (volunteer of the year) award’ went to Norman Bainbridge who volunteers twice a week on Bassett Ward – an enhanced dementia care ward at the Princess Anne Hospital.

He was nominated for always going above and beyond for patients and staff having raised more than £8,000 for equipment and helping to set up a scheme to deliver 50 free copies of the local paper, the Daily Echo, to patients every day on the ward.

In the working together category, Jo Tizard, principal pharmacy technician, won ‘Leader of the year (clinical)’ for her work in the inpatient dispensary and hospital pharmacy. She has been key to the implementation of many improvements in the department and always ensures the wider team are involved in making positive change.

The ‘Team recognition award (clinical)’ was presented to the adult home ventilation physiotherapy nursing and medical team who provide care in one of the largest long-term ventilation services in the UK.

The outstanding contributions category saw Dr Catherine Hill, associate professor in child health, win the ‘Members’ award’ for her work with the paediatric sleep disorder service, while Jack Toomer, of Toomers Ltd, received the ‘Charity in the community award’ for raising more than £44k for cancer care at UHS.

The evening’s celebrations came to a close with the CEO and chair awards chosen each respectively by David French and Jenni Douglas-Todd.

The HCA Hub and mentors were presented with the ‘CEO award (non-clinical’) for the support they provide to new and existing healthcare support workers (HCSWs) which includes extensive pastoral support.

Their work has reduced the turnover of HCAs significantly at UHS and they have recently been awarded silver status from NHSE for the pilot HCSW pastoral award.

The chair’s award was presented to the day gynae unit/recovery at the Princess Anne Hospital which cares for women receiving treatment for gynae oncology, early pregnancy, fertility, urogynae and breast cancer.

They are described as a team who are united, supportive and work in great harmony to provide the best compassionate care for patients. With team members from across the world including the Philippines, Poland, Lithuania, Somalia, Brazil and Bulgaria, they are proud to utilise the culture, knowledge, skills and diversity that brings.

David French said: “Each year I am blown away listening to the inspiring stories behind the nominations for these awards and this year was no different.

“We know how hard colleagues work day in and day out, during times of extreme pressure and when issues arise, they plough on and never waver in ensuring our patients continue to receive the very best care – our people really are world-class.

"The awards gave us the opportunity to celebrate those moments of excellence and it was both an honour and privilege to showcase the incredible efforts and successes of colleagues and teams from across UHS over the past year.

“I want to thank all those who took the time to nominate and congratulate everyone who received a nomination, those who were shortlisted and of course all the winners from the evening – thoroughly deserved and I was filled with such pride to be part of the celebrations.”

He added: “I also want to take this opportunity to thank all staff – all 14,000 who work at UHS – for their continued dedication and commitment to patients and each other, this truly is what makes UHS so special.

“A huge thank you also to Southampton Hospitals Charity who made the evening possible as well as for their continued commitment to enhancing patient care and supporting the wellbeing of our staff.”

For a full list of winners from the evening please visit our award winners 2024 page.