Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (ASPH) is delighted to announce that its Allied Health Professionals (AHP) Workforce Planning Team has been shortlisted for Workforce Initiative of the Year and its Urology Team has been shortlisted for Acute Sector Innovation of the Year at the HSJ Awards 2026.
The AHP Workforce Planning Team has been recognised for their innovative project, AHP Safer Staffing: The right staff, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time, which is helping to strengthen workforce planning and support the delivery of safe, high-quality patient care.
Fran Peplow, Interim Associate AHP Workforce Planning Lead at ASPH, said: "By using real-time data to better understand patient demand and workforce requirements, we have been able to support safer care, improve workforce planning and create a more sustainable way of working. We hope the learning from this project will help inform wider practice and contribute to the growing national conversation around AHP safer staffing."
The Urology Team has been recognised for their use of TULA (Transurethal Laser Ablation) and its impact on Bladder Cancer Care. The TULA project is a UK-led innovation, developed from challenges in managing elderly/frail patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Patients traditionally required inpatient admission, high-risk general anaesthesia with high recurrence rates.
Sachin Agrawal, Consultant Urological Surgeon at ASPH said: “TULA enables outpatient-based, local anaesthetic care, using digital flexible cystoscopes and next generation lasers reducing the risk for elderly and frail patients and provides better patient outcomes. TULA provides the ability to perform six cases in a half-day session under local anaesthesia on a walk-in, walk-out basis. Nationally, 10,000 procedures are performed annually with an estimated 18,000 bed days saved and a potential system saving of £15m.”
Jay Dungeni, Chief Nursing Officer at ASPH, said: "I am incredibly proud of both teams for achieving this recognition. This shortlist reflects their hard work, dedication and commitment to improving the way we plan and deploy our workforce and improve patient care. Their efforts are already making a positive difference for patients and colleagues, and it is wonderful to see that recognised on a national stage.
"I would like to extend a huge congratulations to the teams leading these pieces of work and for helping to shape and improve processes that have the potential to benefit organisations across the NHS."
The selected winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at Evolution London on Thursday 19 November 2026. The full list of nominees for the 2026 HSJ awards can be found at https://awards.hsj.co.uk/shortlist-2026.
Pictured top: Allied Health Professionals (AHP) Workforce Planning Team
Urology Team
