Recognising and celebrating our amazing people

Staff at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) have been recognised for their outstanding efforts and hard work, as part of the Trust’s reward and recognition scheme.

The Amazing People Recognition Awards, now in their second year, give staff the opportunity to nominate colleagues who they feel deserve to be recognised for going the extra mile. A panel of judges then follow a rigorous process of shortlisting the winners.

The award winners and those highly commended were invited to a small event at Newton Rigg College on Wednesday 25th April to celebrate their achievements.

Robin Talbot, Chair at CPFT, said:

“Firstly I’d like to congratulate all of our winners; you are a credit to the Trust and to our patients in Cumbria. I know the standard of nominations we received was very high again this year which meant the judges had a difficult task in picking out the winners.

“All of our staff work incredibly hard which is why through our Amazing People Recognition Awards we can celebrate and recognise those who have gone over and above what is expected of them.

“As a Trust we want to acknowledge all the fantastic work our staff do and build recognition into what we do every day. The awards are only one way we show our appreciation and we continue to look at new ways to celebrate staff achievements.

“This is also an opportunity for me to personally thank all members of our staff for their continued hard work and support throughout the challenges we are faced with.”

The awards comprised of five categories; the winners and highly commended of each are:

Outstanding Service Improvement: Cumbria Community Dental Service in Allerdale, Copeland, Carlisle and Eden.

The team have improved the patient pathway and waiting times from referral to treatment by introducing a ‘one stop’ assessment clinic; for patients who require more than one treatment at a time.

Highly commended: Occupational Therapy / Wellbeing Team, Oakwood Unit, Carlisle and Stephen Quirk, Retinal Screening.

The Occupational Therapy / Wellbeing Team have worked to change the type of methods and interventions provided to patients on the unit for example using more holistic approach treatments tailored to the individual.

For details regarding Stephen Quirk please see the Outstanding Leadership Award.

Outstanding Team of the year (non-clinical): Children and Families Team, Administrative Focus Group

The team created a new online site to enable clinician’s to access relevant documentation quicker to save time, efficiency and provide safer patient care.

Highly commended: Administration Team, Haverigg.

They reviewed their discharge process to ensure the safe and effective transfer of patients from the offender health environment to community care. This highly efficient process was commended by Alan Scott CBE, Acting Executive Director Prisons North.

Outstanding Team of the year (clinical): Cumbria Diabetes South Team and Diabetes Eye Screening Team

This team show enormous compassion and understanding towards their patients, working to ensure they receive the best possible care. They have initiated a rolling programme of education for Primary Care Staff in the management of diabetic patients.

The Diabetes Eye Screening have developed new ways to engage with patients and have seen an 80% uptake rate in the number of patients attending their appointments. This has been achieved by looking at the barriers preventing people attending appointments and finding solutions to make appointments more accessible.

Highly commended: Specialist and Special Care Dental Service, Cumbria and Keswick Community Rehab Team.

The Specialist and Special Care Dental Service have implemented a ‘health passport’ which contains information that is important to that particular patient. Including: support needs and medical history. This helps to enhance patient care.

Keswick Community Rehab Team have taken on various extra roles to provide exceptional patient care, including having a Dignity Champion (for dementia care), Diversity Champion, and CPR Champion.

Outstanding Leadership: Stephen Quirk, Diabetic Eye Screening Programme Manager, Whitehaven.

National standards for the service changed last year and Steve developed new ways to meet these and improve them further. He has introduced new clinics, built links with local communities and worked with staff to increase attendance at clinics. This has seen the service uptake rate rise to above 80% for the first time which is proven to improve patient safety and protect from sight loss as changes can be detected earlier through regular eye screening.

Highly commended: Rikki Dawson, Ward Manager, Ruskin Unit, Carlisle and Claire Davis, Clinical Lead Physiotherapist, Whitehaven.

Rikki has transformed the Ruskin Unit by ensuring person centred care is central to care delivery which was recognised as ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission

Claire has made continual service improvements to the Musculoskeletal (MSK) service through supporting, developing and implementing the north Cumbria MSK service and the new Orthopaedic pathway.

Outstanding Individual: Gillian Mulvey, Clinical Lead Podiatrist, Carlisle.

Gill has played a key role in successfully bidding for funding from NHS England to improve pathways for patients with diabetes. She has established a multidisciplinary clinic across with colleagues at North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, resulting in a successful example of cross organisational working.

Highly commended: Kayleigh Fairhurst, Statutory & Mandatory Training Co-ordinator, Carlisle.

Kayleigh has strived to make improvements to the corporate staff induction by reviewing feedback to ensure new staff have the best possible start at the Trust.

Chair’s Award:

• e-Health Team for their outstanding efforts during the international cyber-attack in May 2017.
• Dental Services and the Memory Matters Inpatients service for achieving ‘Outstanding Care’ in the Trust’s latest CQC inspection.

 Robin adds:

“The awards this year really highlight how teams and individuals in the Trust are consistently working to provide the best care possible for patients. Whether that’s through personal development or finding ways to improve services, the behind the scenes efforts our staff put into their role is exceptional.

“Following the Trust’s CQC inspection this year it was fantastic that all of our services were rated as ‘Good’ for caring and particularly pleasing our Cumbria Community Dental Service and the Memory and Later Life Wards were recognised as providing ‘Outstanding’ care. Similarly, the support our e-Health team provided during the cyber-attack last year was outstanding, with the team working around the clock to fix the issues and keep disruption to a minimum. Both of which I felt deserved to be awarded the Chair’s Award this year.

“We are also working on a introducing a new staff award and recognition scheme with our colleagues at North Cumbria University Hopsitals NHS Trust later this year.”