This award is in recognition of those teams and individuals working in partnership across care groups, directorates or external associates to achieve improvements in performance. This in recognition of individuals who have shown commitment to working towards shared goals, all for the benefit of patients.
These are truly the partnership working heroes which help to us to become outstanding in all we do.
Meet the nominees:
Diabetes Transformation – Annette Johnson
Annette has worked tirelessly with others to completely overhaul DBTH’s diabetes care. Working in partnership with CCGs and other healthcare providers like RDaSH, Annette has successfully balanced her usual duties with demanding project work in order to transform diabetes care. Indeed, she has overcome many difficulties in this past year – including severe time constraints, communication issues and funding limitations – and in the process has managed to roll out massive improvements that will be valuable for all diabetes patients.
Her work has yielded several benefits, such as a 20% reduction in prescription errors and a new 7 day, in-patient nursing service at DRI. She was also instrumental in introducing a foot check that all diabetes inpatients receive during their stay. Because of Annette’s diligent and collaborative efforts, DBTH Retinal Screening service is now providing on site care to all prisons in the area, thereby ensuring equity of care to everyone.
Missed appointments project group
In October 2017, DBTH began work with Healthwatch Doncaster, aimed at investigating why over 50,000 hospital appointments are missed on an annual basis. Engaging with the general public and joining forces with voluntary sector organisations, the project group went to great lengths in order to find their answers. The success of this part of the campaign – involving the use of social media, surveys and face-to-face interviews – was that language was kept simple
at all times and communications were clear and easy to follow.
Using the data gleaned from this engagement, a detailed action plan was produced, looking at how to implement the various improvements that were suggested by the local population. Some of the outcomes of this include; the general public helping us find a new digital communication system, patients having the opportunity to test out new appointment letters and a review of signage across our sites. The Missed Appointments Project Group has enabled the Trust to actively involve patients in the delivery of care.
100 Day Challenge Project Team
The 100 Day Challenge Team is a shining example of what can be achieved when Doncaster healthcare colleagues work together. Well-versed in all things NHS, they are a patient focused group: highly adept at problem-solving; always extremely approachable and above all else; dedicated to their jobs.
The team is comprised of colleagues from across the local area, all of whom were challenged by NHS England, to transform outpatient services for Cardiology, ENT and Urology. More specifically, they were responsible for designing and implementing new processes in order to reduce patients waiting times and inappropriate referrals in the aforementioned.
They certainly had a lot on their plate, engaging with key stakeholders, producing new referral criteria, attending events and ultimately sustaining momentum for an intense 100 day period. There was a palpable sense of camaraderie and team spirit, as people volunteered to take on new tasks, ventured out of their comfort zones and generally helped each other out for the sake of the group. All in all, they were a true credit to the NHS, resilient in the face of adversity and always pushing for new solutions and answers.