A TEAM of nurses from Solihull’s hospital trust has won a prestigious national award in recognition of its ‘patient friendly’ care.
The Macmillan Occupational Therapy (OT) Team at Heart of England Foundation Trust (HEFT) was named winner of the ‘Making Health and Social Care Patient Friendly’ category at the inaugural Patients as Partners Awards ceremony.
Founded in 2013 from a partnership between HEFT and Macmillan, the OT team provides specialist occupational therapists for patients with advanced malignant or non-malignant disease – provide seamless transfer between acute hospital and community settings and ensuring they receive the best end-of-life care.
As a winner in this category, the team will receive a bursary of up to £3,000 to spend on conference attendance or research that will benefit patients and/or the NHS.
Acting Macmillan Therapy Team Leader, Lucy Davies, said: “I am immensely proud that our work has been recognised in this way.
“It is a great testament to the hard work and dedication of the team in helping to reduce the impact that cancer and other non-malignant palliative conditions can have on the physical, functional, social and emotional wellbeing of patients and their families.
“The patient and carer feedback we are receiving has also been very encouraging and we are seeing what a positive impact our work can have on improving palliative care pathways, preventing avoidable admissions, reducing the length of inpatient stays and achieving preferred place of care at end of life.”
AbbVie, a global research-based biopharmaceutical company which aims to develop and market advanced therapies for some of the world’s most complex and serious diseases, organised the award to celebrate and raise awareness of good examples of innovations which benefit patients’ lives.
Sue Farringdon, chair of the Patient Information Forum and head judge for the Patients as Partners awards, commented: “This project provides the full package and fully meets all of the criteria for the award.”
It is patient centred, addressing a clear unmet need to ensure that patients get the specialist palliative care they need, which was previously provided by a non specialist without the skill or expertise that the Macmillan team have.”
It is estimated that more than 70 per cent of the NHS budget goes on care for people living with long-term conditions.
