York and Scarborough NHS hospitals trust's awards finalists praised at ceremony

The winners of this year's Celebration of Achievement Awards 2024 were unveiled at York Racecourse, where the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's finalists were praised for their efforts.

This annual event is an occasion that honours those who go 'above and beyond’ and the teams who received the title undoubtedly improved outcomes for patients.

The award is split into clinical and non-clinical categories.

The Team of the Year category (non-clinical) highlights how staff are key to the smooth running of services.

This was awarded to a team who has been instrumental in leading a flagship £47 million building project at Scarborough Hospital’s Urgent and Emergency Care Centre (UECC) on the Woodlands Drive site.

The team were praised for their efforts by working closely with contractors, Integrated Health Projects (IHP), which is an alliance between two of the most established and trusted contractors in the UK and international construction industry - VINCI Construction UK and Sir Robert McAlpine.

The new build represents the largest investment the Trust has ever undertaken. The UECC team has also scooped building industry awards in 2024 for their approach to the construction project.

The major expansion will provide redesigned acute and emergency services on the ground floor and a 26-bed enhanced and critical care facility on the first floor, within a new fit for purpose build which will support significant operational benefits internally and for the wider community. The investment has also provided the ability to upgrade the hospital’s existing engineering infrastructure and will therefore support future development.

Reflecting on the award, Joanne Southwell, Capital Project Lead, said: “It has been a privilege to work with this fantastic team of people who are so committed to our vision of delivering accommodation solutions that provide compliant state of the art facilities to improve our patient and staff experience and services. We are so proud to have been recognised as finalists in this category and ultimate go on to win the award.”

The clinical category is awarded to a team who consistently look to improve patient care.

The recipient was named as the Musculoskeletal Service Team (MSK) who have led six successful Community Appointment Days (CAD) in York and Selby, seeing over 1,000 patients across the region.

The initiative involves offering patients health coaching, physiotherapy, and access to a range of community services to support their health, all in the same place on the same day. The Trust became only the second in the country to adopt this collaborative, community approach to care.

Speaking of the team’s achievement, Matthew Bowes, York MSK CAD Lead, said: “The service is thrilled to achieve the award. We recognise all the amazing work that goes on at the Trust and to be highlighted at the Celebration of Achievement Awards is testament to the commitment of all the team who work daily to maximise the health of our community.

“In the last 12 months we have developed CAD and are now a national leader of this innovative approach. We have gone on to mentor 15 other Trusts to develop their own CAD, helping many hundreds, if not thousands of patients, to maximise their health through this innovative approach. As a service we look forward to continuing to work with our community and partners to provide exceptional care to patients.”

Over 350 staff and guests left their everyday NHS uniforms behind at the awards ceremony, which is generously fully funded by sponsors, whose sponsorship makes the evening possible.

This year’s headline sponsor was PPL Training, who is one of the UK’s leading Safe Systems of Work and Technical Compliance training course providers, and currently work with over 100+ NHS trusts year on year. However, their business' roots firmly in York, as a family-run, engineer-led organisation since 2005.