October 2023 Extra Mile award winners announced

The Extra Mile scheme is a way for Whittington Health staff to nominate colleagues whose support has been far above what they could have hoped for.

Congratulations to the award winners for October, who will each receive a certificate, an excellence pin badge and a High Street voucher. The nominations for the winners include:

Beth Bamberger  – Speech and language therapist

“I am nominating Beth for an extra mile award for accountability because of the way she has risen to the challenge of a new role over the last couple of months. Beth has recently started as the lead speech and language therapist (SLT) in a different special school which has a huge caseload and has not had consistent SLT support for a couple of years due to staff vacancies. She has provided support to the newly qualified band 5 SLT and the therapy assistant, and is ensuring all the caseload records are up to date so that the team can work with the patients in a structured and organised way. She has kept the clinical team leads fully appraised of what she is doing and has communicated well with the school leadership, teachers and parents. I have been so impressed by her leadership skills at an early stage of her career as a Speech and Language Therapist and would like these to be recognised.”

Pedro Goncalo – IT support technician

“I have often described Pedro as one of the Trust's Unsung Heroes - so nominating him for this award really given me the opportunity to set out why I feel this is the case.  I have always found Pedro to be responsive, polite and knowledgeable.  I am sure he must get tired of the same old problems, lack of IT expertise of people like myself and my impatience to get things resolved swiftly.  Pedro always is so polite and patient - no matter what the issue is.  He always follows up personally after an issue has been resolved to ensure everything is still fine.  However what really drove home "going that extra mile" was last week, when I was off work with Covid.  I wanted to keep on top of some meetings and emails, etc, but at that point my entire IT kit at home decided to crash.  Despite spending a long time on the phone with Pedro trying to resolve (again he was super-patient and seemed to try everything in his armoury to sort) it was clear that we were not going to be able to fix.  Pedro then walked to my house and delivered a loan laptop.  Definitely above and beyond, and allowed me to continue working whilst isolating.  I strongly feel that Pedro deserves an award and recognition.“

Switchboard team (Team award winners)

“The CENCOM [switchboard] Day staff team has gone above and beyond to keep the switchboard running.  We have had some vacancies that have been hard to fill, and we are running on a skeleton staff rota until we can recruit.  They have worked double shifts and given up leave, time with their families and never complained, pulling together as a team to make sure that the hospital calls and emergencies are not affected.  I could not be prouder of the team; I would like them to be recognised for all their hard work and dedication that they have displayed in what has and continues to be a difficult time for the department.”