Three county finalists and one overall winner at the Best of Health Awards

Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust, which serves around 400,000 people living in Elmbridge, Hounslow, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Woking and further afield,  had three entries in this years South East Coast ‘Best of Health Awards’.

Senior Staff Nurse Terry Fulgencio in Neonatal Intensive Care was nominated by one of the student nurses she mentored, for the South East Coast Academy award which aims to recognise an individual who, though their own high standards of leadership, mentoring or staff development skills, has inspired and motivated others to make real and lasting improvements and to achieve personal and professional goals.  Of the three finalists from Kent, Surrey and Sussex it was Terry who received the Award.

Terry was nominated because “she sets a prime example of a nurse and healthcare professional.  Her positive approach is a benefit to everyone from staff to patients and promotes high morale and an enjoyment of work. A neonatal intensive care unit obviously brings great stresses and anxieties for staff and parents but despite this, Terry unfailingly remains calm and controlled yet approachable and empathetic to all relatives. She gives student nurses as many opportunities as possible to practice their nursing skills, working closely with them, involving them in patient care and using day-to-day tasks and activities to enhance their learning and development”. 

Student nurse Rebecca Morello sums it up, “I have shadowed Terry for four weeks as a nursing student and, not only have I learnt a great deal about caring for neonates, but I have developed a tremendous passion and enthusiasm for it due to Terry’s attitude and teaching methods. Terry ensures that we meet   during each shift to discuss what I have learnt and experienced during the day. She treats me as a responsible student but recognises my limitations and boundaries. However busy Terry is she will always have time to answer my questions, go through my paperwork and explain techniques and rationale.”   

Speaking after the presentation event at Brighton, Trust Chairman Clive Thompson said: “Terry is a real credit to the Trust and her profession.  I was very proud of her.”

The other finalists from Ashford and St. Peter’s were Michelle Green in the Leadership for Improvement category and the SMS Reminder Team in the Innovative ICT category.  The Leadership for Improvement award recognises great leadership approaches which demonstrate positive and sustained impact on the patients, users and staff they work with. Assessors look for evidence of leadership which embraces innovation and improvement, and shows a clear focus on enhancing the quality and experience of service users and staff.   

The awards citation says: Michelle Green has dramatically improved patient care and staff morale since she arrived as a senior physiotherapist on  Chaucer ward, a rehabilitation ward for stroke patients, nine months ago.  She immediately set about     identifying areas that needed improvement, injecting her enthusiasm and innovation from the start.  She introduced the ethos of patient-centred care and rehabilitation by encouraging relatives and carers to be involved in all aspects of patients’ treatment and care so they can work together towards achievable goals.  This greater understanding  of rehabilitation and of the need to allow independence has helped patients to reach their potential sooner than they expected. Rehabilitation sessions are timetabled so that patients    always know when and what they are doing.  Newspaper groups are set up daily to encourage patients to socialise and keep abreast of events outside the ward. Crossword groups are used to encourage speech and word finding and are attended by all abilities. Everyone helps each other. Michelle was nominated by a fellow physiotherapist Julia Farnworth who said, ‘Chaucer Ward is firmly back on the map. Michelle is very self-effacing and claims it is all the result of the team – but the team believes it has only happened because she is at the helm.’

In the Innovative ICT category the SMS reminder team (Dr Paul Crawshaw, Ian Mackenzie, Andrew Davies & Dr Peter Reynolds)  were nominated for the text reminder service which was piloted in Paediatrics and is to be rolled out across the Trust and elsewhere.   Outpatients are being reminded of their appointments by text message by this innovative new service. The initiative has led to a big reduction in the number of patients who fail to turn up for appointments, resulting in a better service for patients and a huge cost saving for the Trust.  It has been estimated that it costs the Trust £50 for each non-attended appointment. 

In any one year approximately 36,000 patients miss their appointments at Ashford & St. Peter’s at an estimated potential cost to the Trust of £1.8m per year.    The service needs no user involvement on a day-to-day basis. The message within the text is written by the Trust and is individually written as required to specialty, age, sex or any other aspect of a patient’s appointment. The approach is unique in using NHS Mail as the message sender, and by using standard NHS facilities the service is entirely free.  Interest in this across the NHS has been very encouraging and the team has now shared the software (free of charge) with sixty other NHS institutions.

Paul Bentley, Acting Chief Executive at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals says: “These are just three examples of where services at our hospitals excel.  Many congratulations to all three fianlists and in particular to Terry.    As a hospital we pride ourselves on the teaching and mentoring we have provided to hundreds of students from the medical and nursing schools at Imperial College School of Medicine; St. George’s, University of London; and the European Institute of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Surrey.   Innovative work such as that from Michelle Green and the SMS Reminder Team are helping to make Ashford and St. Peter’s a leading hospital service in a number of areas.”