The winners of the Cambridge University Hospitals Annual Awards 2023 were announced at a special ceremony held on Thursday 28 September to celebrate and recognise around 200 staff members shortlisted from 1,300 nominations.
Each nomination told how staff went the extra mile for their patients and colleagues.
The evening, held at Cambridge Corn Exchange, was supported by Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) and hosted by Mousumi Bakshi from BBC Look East.
Well done to everyone who was nominated, and congratulations to this year's winners!
Images taken during the Awards evening on 28 September 2023.
Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4TReHA8K9EI
The winners and finalists:
Together - promoting team work, collaboration and inclusion
Winner:
- Cancer Assessment Unit – The Cancer Assessment Unit (CAU) has demonstrated continued collaborative working throughout the last year, under incredibly difficult circumstances. They have worked hard to ensure that the care they give is not impacted by the limitations of their surroundings. They work collaboratively with the emergency department to deliver care needs for the patients there when CAU is full. The success of the CAU team comes from a strong sense of teamwork made up of a combination of hard work, passion for the speciality and patients, kindness and a healthy amount of fun!
Finalists:
- Open Minds Network
- Ward 4NE team
- Stroke / Lewin Ward multidisciplinary team
- Michelle Harrison, junior sister
Safe - outstanding contribution to patient and staff safety
Winner:
- Diabetes in pregnancy multidisciplinary team – The diabetes in pregnancy multidisciplinary team delivers an extraordinary level of care. Pregnancy can be a difficult time, but is made very challenging for those with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The physiological dynamics of managing a pregnancy changes constantly throughout each trimester, and without the constant attention to blood glucose management could leave these patients at high risk of adverse complications. The team is in constant dialogue with their patients, seeing them face to face, but also utilising remote reviews of data downloads to keep in touch, make adjustments to medication regimens and reduce unnecessary trips to the hospital.
Finalists:
- Emilie Carey, midwife
- Blood and Marrow Transplant clinical nurse specialists
- Violeta Voyvodova, domestic assistant
- Outpatient Centralised Nursing Team
Kind - committed to care and compassion
Winner:
- Helen Ward, mortuary and paediatric histology service lead – Helen leads with kindness, empathy and compassion – in every situation. She provides exceptional support to her team and service on a daily basis. Helen coaches and mentors us to always think about the person or the patient in everything we do. She encourages team work and that we support each other throughout routine and difficult days. Helen sends cards to teams we work closely with, buys breakfast treats to give the team a boost, or a bunch of flowers when you’re having a tough time. These things make a big difference. Not only is Helen excellent at her job, leading a busy and demanding department, but she does this with a kindness and compassion that every manager should aspire to.
Finalists:
- Anthony Gill, lead chaplain
- Hena Salam, consultant paediatrician
- Ian Dixon, engineering manager
- Elizabeth Atkins, deputy dispensary manager
Excellent - delivering improvement for our patients and each other
Winners:
- Umme Ali, dietitian - Umme is dedicated to excellent service delivery. Her time as an adult dietitian fighting to ensure patients were receiving the nutritional intervention they needed is a testament to her passion for helping others. Umme’s compassionate and patient centred approach has made a significant impact on the lives of many families. Her ability to explain complex nutritional concepts in a way that is easy for children and their families to understand has been particularly valuable.
- Carolynne Betts, medical secretary - Carrie is an excellent administrator, with a keen eye for detail and the level of care that is at the core of the administrative role here at CUH. We are striving to optimise admin in our service. This has been a steady process of identifying issues, formulating solutions and improving communication, and all of the little admin bits that go into streamlining the pathway of allergy referral to appointment, and beyond. This progress and improvement could not have happened without Carrie’s dedicated help and support, adapting to our new administrative processes and excelling in patient care and communication alongside these.
Finalists:
- Hannah Donald, lead nurse, Adult Critical Care Transfer Service
- Nicola Parr, senior pharmacist – education and training
- Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
The Public Choice Award, in partnership with the Cambridge Independent
Winners:
- Specialist haemoglobinopathy team - The specialist haemoglobinopathy team go above and beyond in providing excellent care and support for the sickle cell community in the East of England. They have created a support network for sickle cell patients across our region, organise monthly sessions covering hot topics, discuss new therapies and treatments, provide the opportunity for patients to meet each other and bring in specialist speakers to help patients manage their condition such as pain management, nutrition, therapy and treatments. CUH is quickly becoming recognised as a centre for excellence in the region and this is thanks to the hard work and dedication this team puts into supporting research, improving care, patient pathways and self-education.
Finalists:
- Refractory headache team
- Palliative care team
- NICU – Mercy Agoh Dorman, Terri Feary, Fiona Walford, Melanie Collett, Ivy Del La Cruz.
- Mark Latimer, paediatric orthopaedic surgeon
- Katie Bond, Lydia Wiffen and Jordan Ho, physiotherapists
- Jaikirty Rawal, orthopaedic consultant
- Linda Underwood, nurse
- Kate Nolan, GI oncology nurse
You Made a Difference annual award – The Chair’s award
Winner
Charlie was nominated for a You Made a Difference award for recovering a patient’s phone. “Charlie went absolutely above and beyond today for us on the ward. He went out of his way to recover a phone that was accidentally placed in the linen chute. By cooperating with the ward, with excellent communication with the patient, and teamwork, Charlie recovered priceless memories. We cannot thank him enough.”
Special recognition - the CEO's award
Winner - Cambridge Surgical Movement Hub
We look after a lot of people at CUH but a lot of people are also waiting to be looked after, longer than we would like, in many parts of our hospitals.
This year’s CEO award is for an extraordinary range of people from across all of CUH and our partners in the University of Cambridge and the Integrated Care System who have come together to deliver the Cambridge Movement Surgical Hub, a 40 bedded unit with three theatres, imaging and therapy rooms. This is a dedicated facility providing planned elective surgery for orthopaedics and spinal patients.
It is difficult to think of a part of the hospital that has not been involved – medical, nursing and therapies teams across orthopaedics and neurosurgery designing how care will be delivered; Finance and Major Projects colleagues achieving approval for the build and associated funding, Clinical Engineering and Procurement teams sourcing the equipment; digital teams designing new solutions; workforce being innovative in recruiting; Operations and project teams ensuring effective mobilisation of the facility and of course capital, estates and facilities and their partners achieving planning approval and managing the build within a relatively short timeframe of 12 months.
Thanks to the efforts of this amazing team of people, from October 2023, 70 patients will have their care provided in this new facility every week.