NHS staff in north Cumbria have been voting for their 2020 thank you award winners.
Earlier this month staff at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) nominated their fellow colleagues across 8 different award categories. Over 100 nominations were submitted with those shortlisted put into a voting poll for staff to pick their winners. During the 5 days that poll was open, more than 13,000 votes were cast.
The thank you awards have been introduced to give thanks back to staff at the Trust and to recognise the total commitment, dedication and immense efforts they have given during the past 6 months of the coronavirus pandemic.
The awards also coincide with the Trusts’ Festival of Thanks and Wellbeing week which begun on Tuesday.
Lyn Simpson, Chief Executive at NCIC said:
“Every single staff member within NCIC has gone over and above within their roles to support the NHS during what has been one of the most difficult times we have ever faced.
“Individuals and teams were thrown in at the deep end, with many being redeployed into other areas where they were needed, others moved out of their homes to keep their families safe and everyone adjusted and adapted to new ways of working to make sure we could look after our Cumbrian communities.
“I am so proud of our staff for what they have achieved, we could not have managed the pandemic without them.
“Because of this we felt it was important to give some thanks back to our staff, to thank them for their incredibly hard work this year and the complete dedication and commitment they have given to the trust, their patients and the wider community. As such we launched our staff thank you awards which are part of our 3 day virtual Festival of Thanks that has been introduced as one way we can say thank you.”
“We have received some absolutely outstanding nominations that really showcase the exceptional work our staff have been doing. We know this is only a snippet of the work that’s been happening behind the scenes and would also like to thank and recognise every member of staff at the Trust for their support.”
The votes have been tallied up and the winners can now be revealed:
Student award winner is: Abbie Stainton who has been working as a student midwife at the Cumberland Infirmary.
Abbie’s colleagues said: “Throughout the pandemic Abbie has shown commitment, enthusiasm, professionalism and fantastic team spirit. She is a student who embodies the Trust values and will be a wonderful asset to the Trust when she qualifies.”
As the votes were so close in this category, we have a highly commended individual and this is for Georgia Capstaff, student nurse at the Cumberland Infirmary.
Georgia has been working as a student nurse on the Beech Ward at the Cumberland Infirmary and when students were unable to continue their placements, Georgia continued working on the ward as a bank health care assistant. She provided support on the ward when it expanded and began treating covid positive patients.
Volunteer award winner is: Joseph Dean, Meet & Greet volunteer at West Cumberland Hospital.
During the pandemic, Joseph stepped up and supported a group of newly recruited volunteers, ensuring that they were welcomed to the Trust, felt supported and had a point of contact. Joseph demonstrated kindness to both current and newly recruited volunteers and he supported many other teams.
We also have a special volunteer award for a group of individuals who wanted to help the NHS during the pandemic and set up their own production line of making visors for teams at NCIC. JWDG Printers are our special volunteer winners.
Redeployed individual award winner is: John Mulligan, Physiotherapist Cumberland Infirmary Carlisle.
John has been described as “amazing” and “invaluable” by his colleagues.
He was redeployed from the out-patient musculoskeletal service to the acute in-patient physiotherapy team. From day one of his redeployment, colleagues say he was flexible, adaptable, supportive and professional.
Redeployed team award winner is: Sexual Health team, across Cumbria.
During the early days of the pandemic back in March and April, this team were quickly redeployed to support a range of other teams and services. This included supporting the COVID track and trace, community hospitals, other community teams as well as clinics.
Compassionate individual award winner is: Jill Li, Physiotherapist at the Cumberland Infirmary Carlisle.
Jill is the lead physiotherapist for surgical and ITU and put hard work and dedication into working on Intensive Treatment Unit during the pandemic. She put great effort into meeting patients’ needs making sure all patients were able to receive physiotherapy. She also provided great support to her team and other staff.
Compassionate team award winner is: Health visiting team, across Cumbria.
This team work all across Cumbria and have adapted their service to continue supporting and caring for the families they work with. They have embraced and utilised technology to not only support those they are caring for but also to work together as a team virtually.
Innovative practice individual award winner is: Laura Hocking, Physiotherapist, West Cumberland Hospital.
Laura led musculoskeletal team at West Cumberland Hospital during the pandemic, she has been described as a true rock who implemented new ways of working to both benefit her team and also patients.
Innovative practice team award winner is: The Intensive Care Unit team at West Cumberland Hospital.
This team have had to implement innovative working throughout the pandemic in order to keep their patients, visitors and colleagues safe. The team took it all in their stride when the capacity on the unit was increased by adding capacity to the COVID Red Zone and the team have shown amazing resilience, incredible team work, compassion, kindness and outstanding care under extremely difficult circumstances.
They have supported and thought of inspirational ways of keeping families in touch with one another during these unforeseen times. A patient’s relative commented that the ICU team at Whitehaven is a team that the trust should be proud of.