PICTURES: Awards shine spotlight on NHS heroes

Audience members were almost reduced to tears on a number of occasions as they heard the inspiring stories behind the nominees at the United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust staff awards.

For the trust, which is responsible for services across the district including Pilgrim Hospital, it was seen as the perfect way to reward those described by chief executive Jan Sobieraj as ‘doing extraordinary things’.

He said: “This is a fantastic evening when we rightly recognise great practice in the organisation. We are a very modest, very humble organisation and sometimes its very hard to get people to come forward because they just think it’s what they do everyday but actually we have staff here tonight doing extraordinary things.

My job as chief executive is to make sure that we learn from the experience here tonight, we share the good practice, we innovate, we improve and that inspires confidence in the organisation and confidence in the community.

“The personal stories we have heard are very humbling for me. We’ve had nominations from patients, from carers and nominations from other staff so this is not just about staff nominating staff “

And among the winners at Thursday’s event at the Princess Royal Sports Arena were those from Pilgrim Hospital, including Pat Hiley who scooped the title of Volunteer of the Year for the role she plays at the Chemotherapy Suite.

Pat, who helps with patient care, said: “I means a lot, not just for me but for everyone in the chemo suite. We are a team, we just all work together and it’s for everyone and all the volunteers as well.”

Asked why she volunteered, she told the audience simply ‘because I love it’.

Highly commended in this category was Winifred James, who volunteers on ward 3B to assist patients who need help feeding.

Pilgrim senior occupational therapy assistant Ellen Smith walked away with the Extra Mile Award gong. She was nominated for always being a ‘willing and cheerful person who never thinks twice about going the extra mile to ensure here patients meet their personal goals’.

In the Working Together Award category, clerk of works at Pilgrim Andrew Hind was highly commended for his role with major building works at the hospital.

Deputy chief nurse at Pilgrim Jennie Negus was highly commended in the Great Leadership Award category. Jennie’s nominator said she was an ‘inspiring leader who has a passion for improving patient experience’.

The EPIFFany team at Pilgrim won the Quality and Safety Award after implementing a programme which resulted in a 60 per cent reduction in junior doctors prescribing errors in the surgery department.

Helping to keep the hundreds of staff and patients fuelled on a daily basis are the Pantry staff, who claimed the Chairman’s Fantastic Customer Service Award.

More than 400 nominations were put forward for the awards, which were paid for by sponsorship from businesses.