by
Sarah Turner
| Jan 23, 2019
The winner for January 2019 is:
The Community Audiology Team (Children's Services - Luton and Bedfordshire)
The team was nominated by Ruth Trudgian who said: “All staff working within the Community Audiology team (both clinical and non-clinical) have been working tirelessly to improve their waiting lists and Key Performance Indicator which is a referral to assessment target of six weeks. After months of hard work and dedication, and new developments such as weekend clinics across multiple sites, design and recruitment to a Band 4 Audiology Practitioner role within the service, and hard pushes for sustainable recruitment, the team is no longer breaching this six week KPI.
“The arranging and staffing of weekend clinics for the service took many hours of work, but has proven to be greatly effective and well-loved by parents/carers, with some wonderful feedback received for the team. Throughout this time of capacity challenges, service user feedback has maintained extremely positive, and staff have felt encouraged that the care they’re able to provide for children and young people across Luton and Bedfordshire has remained effective and safe.
“Even during this busy time for all, the team has managed to make other improvements within the service, such as planning improvements to waiting areas with new toys, and redesigning our noticeboards in service user waiting areas, in addition to clinicians providing training to the National Children’s Monitoring Programme in the School Nurse Team. We’ve also had a number of visits from a member of the Bedfordshire CCG Quality team which have produced very positive feedback for the team and service we provide. All in all, the whole team has shown strength and dedication to its role and its service users throughout a time of challenge!”
Huge congratulations to all members of the Community Audiology Team:
Augustina Williams - Clinical Service Lead
Ruth Trudgian - Senior Audiologist
Lisa Ronsisvalle - Senior Audiologist
Charlton Barnachea - Locum Audiologist
Michelle Jorge - Locum Audiologist
Melanie Miller - weekend Locum Audiologist
Amjad Mahmood - weekend Locum Audiologist
Tracey Sullivan - Audiology Practitioner
Gemma O'Brien - Audiology Support Worker
Sharon Smith - Audiology Support Worker
Angela Presland - Audiology Support Worker
Linda Lydiatt - Admin Team Lead
Lorna Swain - Business Lead
Aneesa Begum - Administrator
Helen McKendrick - Administrator
Maria Bambury - Agency Administrator
Also nominated this month:
At Home First Coordination Team, Luton Adults
The Team was nominated by Sarah Bunn who said: “Luton Adult teams are working together on the models of care pilot which is a collaborative approach to supporting elderly frail patients in a different way. The At Home First Coordinators have embraced these new ways of working, taking a pivotal role in ensuring the success of the safety huddles and supporting a greater understanding of patients’ conditions by telephoning and asking five simple questions.
“They have all gone the extra mile, working together to provide extra capacity to support these initiatives on top of their existing priorities. Their can-do attitude and determination to ensure that contact is made with patients in a timely way and that care plans are completed and shared has been fantastic. They have been a good example of how by working together teams can overcome the challenges that 'change' can bring. The project team would like to support this nomination in recognition of the team’s hard work and support for their patients and their colleagues across the wider teams.”
Nicky Minnett, Administration Assistant for Finance
Nicky was nominated by James Davis who said: “Nicky acts as the first point of contact for all issues around manual salary payments for our staff. During a short processing timetable and at a very busy time of year when employees need to ensure they have their salary paid correctly, Nicky’s acted with great efficiency and provided real assurance to those affected. By displaying excellent communication and organisation skills, combined with energy and enthusiasm, she’s liaised with staff and payroll to ensure manual payments have been processed as urgently as possible.”
The Newborn Hearing Screening Team, Luton & Dunstable Hospital & Bedford Hospital
The team was nominated by Augustina Williams who said: “The team consistently achieves and maintains national KPIs (offering and completing hearing screening of newborn babies within 28 days of birth). Its clinical practice has improved significantly over the last 12 months and reduced the referral rate to acute audiology services, having a significant impact on KPI2 (referred screens requiring an audiology assessment within 28 days).
“During summer 2018, despite having reduced staffing capacity equivalent approx. 2.0wte, the team still managed to achieve significant results in maintaining KPIs. The team has received positive feedback from Public Health England Quality Assessment Visit 2017 and all recommendations were completed within 12 months. Team members have embraced the new national requirements for Newborn Hearing Screeners to achieve NVQ Level 3 in Screening. Although only mandatory for new screeners, three experienced screeners have taken the opportunity to access this training.
“The NHSP Team Lead has completed her NVQ Vocational Assessment Training Programme which allows her to assess and teach screeners within CCS and other national sites. This has led to Public Health England requesting the Team Lead train to become an Internal Quality Assessor, a role that will support the assessment of other assessors within the south east region of England. Individual Screener activity is identified as regionally outstanding and Team Lead was asked by other sites how this is achieved. Team members are always striving to improve working relationships with other agencies with a plan to work with East Herts to present a Newborn Hearing Screeners Day for the region.”
Julia Cresswell, Nurse, Holly Ward, Hinchingbrooke Hospital
Julia was nominated by the parent of a patient who said: “She was very, very nice with my son Charlie, she always found the time for him. She really did make him feel comfortable and smiley and always went the extra mile for him.”
Huge congratulations to all this month’s nominees!