Whittington Health Stars Shine Bright at our Annual Awards

A team administrator who supported a suicidal patient and ensured that they got the support they needed during a crisis was just one of the Whittington Health NHS Trust staff who picked up trophies for going above and beyond the call of duty at their annual awards ceremony which took place on Wednesday evening.

The award’s judges received over 300 nominations across 10 categories which they whittled down to just four finalists for each award. The finalists and the people who had nominated them were invited to the awards ceremony hosted by Channel 4 News’s Health and Social Care Editor Victoria Macdonald where the winners were announced.

 

The trust, which provides Accident and Emergency, Hospital and Community care across Islington, Haringey and beyond is blessed with thousands of hardworking and caring staff. The point of the annual awards is to find and recognise the best of the best, the people who go even further and work even harder.

 

Sam Sleight picked up the award for Excellence in a non-clinical role. He was praised for his communication with patients generally, but his citation focused on a distressing and unexpected phone call he received in his administrative business partner role working at the Islington Outlook Centre where the Trust runs several Adult Community Rehabilitation services. He took a call from an anonymous caller who told him he was considering ending his life. The caller disclosed that he was near to the emergency department but was embarrassed about going in to explain that he was in crisis. Sam talked to him to tease out important information, provided him with superb guidance about how to access support, took down his details so that he would be able to contact him, accessed more senior support to ensure he had responded in the best possible way, and then contacted back the patient concerned and the relevant departments to alert them.

 

Speaking after the awards, Sam said: “There was not any time to plan for this emergency whirlwind. Although I’ve had considerable mental health awareness training from the Trust  it still all really appeared to happen in a flash without any warning whatsoever. Looking back, I was able to somehow morph into a kind of auto pilot state of mind and do my absolute best supportive work to try and help this most desperate individual suffering an acute mental health crisis with the responsibility of preventing a loss of life disaster. I didn’t expect to win this award and am still in shock, but I am honoured to have been recognised.”

 

Other winners included Samina Ishaq Consultant Anaesthetist and Clinical lead for inpatient pain services who picked up the award for outstanding commitment to ensuring equity. Her citation said that Samina is commonly now know by many of her colleagues as ‘Ms Equity’ and described how she has trailblazed for positive changes in the Trust and was the lead contributor to the inclusion of Equity in the Trust’s values which has now become a reality across the organisation.

 

The Trust’s Mortuary Team also won the Unsung Hero Award which is designed to recognise the people or teams who contribute a huge amount to the work of the Trust but who are often overlooked, or their contribution not seen. Whilst death is not a subject that people like to talk about it is a sad reality of the life of a hospital. The mortuary team work tirelessly for their patients to ensure that they and their friends and relatives receive dignified, caring and compassionate care.

 

Whittington Health CEO Helen Brown said: “Everyone across the trust does an amazing job every day, but it is absolutely right that, once a year, we take the chance to reward the very special people who have been nominated by their colleagues and patients for going above and beyond.

 

I have now been CEO for a year and I can honestly say that I was never more proud or more humbled than when, as part of the judging team, I read all of the citations. Picking just 10 winners was an incredibly tough job so they should be as proud of themselves as everyone at Whittington Health is of them.”

 

This year the Trust’s chair, Baroness Julia Neuberger gave out two special awards in addition to the awards scooped up by the finalists. She handed the Chair’s Special Recognition Award to the Trust’s volunteers who give their time, for free, to help to support the work that Whittington Health does, from helping patients to find their way around Whittington Hospital to helping out in services. On presenting the award she described them as “A group of wonderful, dedicated, hard-working and really friendly people”.

 

She also presented the Chair’s Living our Values award to Mr Chetan Palmer a specialist Bariatric Surgeon and Clinical Lead for General Surgery at Whittington Health. During the presentation she read out a letter which a grateful patient had sent in following her bariatric procedure which said he was: “amazing and every experience I have had with them has been great” she went on to say that the surgery had changed her  life. On collecting his award Mr Palmer dedicated it to the whole bariatric and surgery team.