Team of the Month – winners

September 2024

Northumberland 0-19 Infant Feeding Team

The team consistently demonstrate our KITE values, on this occasion highlighting the Teamwork and Equality values. They have experienced a difficult few months with almost 50% reduced staffing at times, however they have worked together to ensure that our families have continued to receive their weekly proactive calls, enabled all 9 support groups to continue across the county and supported with training delivery (80 staff (92%) trained April-June) and mothers audits (50 audits completed June-July).
The team are geographically located across the county, they have used excellent communication skills and planning to ensure service delivery. The team have travelled outside of the usual working areas to cover groups and when distances have been travelled, this time has been utilised to enable the team to have a face to face huddle. They have grown closer as a team during this time and played to each other’s strengths.

August 2024

Oakdale Ward

Oakdale Ward are an amazing team who always pull together and support each other even in the most challenging of circumstances. There was a patient Oakdale with a learning disability and the team despite managing her complex needs still manage to go above and beyond even on the busiest of days. Well done team Oakdale for always adhering to the trust values and behaviours and for always putting your patient’sneeds above your own. Please see the feedback from the learning disability lead who witnessed the team making a real difference for our patient. “I just wanted to pass on to you the kindness that was shown to a patient by the team on Oakdale. As it was her 60^th birthday and her mental health has been so badly affected by this admission, it could easily have been a very difficult day, however the team really made her feel special. She had a visit from her parents in the café and was extremely upset on her return to the ward, a big group of staff then appeared in the side room to sing happy birthday to her and it turned her round instantly. Understanding the challenges that the patient’s admission presented to staff, makes this kindness and compassion even more apparent.”

July 2024

Silverdale Department

May 2024 

Capital Planning

The Capital Planning Team were nominated for having worked tirelessly and solidly for more the last year, and particularly during the last incredibly intense 6 months, to deliver the biggest capital programme the Trust has seen in many years. This has included a very challenging project to relocate the services in Block C Therapies to alternative locations in order to mitigate the risk to staff and patients from RAAC and enable us to build a new theatres and imaging block. This has involved liaising with many different clinical teams to find suitable new locations, which has been challenging, contentious and complex. They have solved every problem presented to them, delivering at high quality and at pace. They have taken criticism in their stride and continued to work professionally and calmly to address concerns and find solutions. The team have been proactive, problem solvers in the face of every challenge and difficulty they have been presented – they have been determined and undefeated. Professional and reliable, often working beyond what could be expected of them in order to meet deadlines and keep the programme on track.

April 2024

Wensleydale Ward

Wensleydale ward were nominated for the way they all pulled together to support the ward move from Bolton to Wensleydale. Staff came into work in their own time to help move the ward and support their colleagues, a mammoth task, along with multiple managers and matrons. The team have embraced the new environment and all the digital technology that is incorporated into the ward, and learnt new skills in the higher dependency area. They have all worked extra shifts to cover the increased workforce plan to ensure patients are cared for safely and are all so supportive on one another.

March 2024

Offsite Casenote Library Team, Hornbeam Park Business Centre

The library team have been phenomenal over the past couple of months, they have supported moving 60,000 records with a real ‘can do’ attitude. This has been a challenging time for the whole team, with every member working hard, demonstrating flexibility, and showing real resilience all whilst living the HDFT values throughout. They are an asset to HDFT and I feel incredibly lucky to work alongside them. An incredible achievement – what a team!

February 2024

Every day of the year, the community midwife team work hard supporting our families, whilst also taking turns to be on-call each night to support those families choosing to birth at home. Over the winter period, this carries on, with the team battling challenges such as bad weather and increased staffing sickness. Without hesitation, the team have continued to support and champion people’s choice to birth at home, and in January they supported a high number of people choosing to do so. In order to meet this need, the community midwives have worked as a team and gone above and beyond such as picking up extra on calls to prevent gaps in the rota.

The team have been supported by the wider MDT team including maternity support workers who have helped with workload, obstetricians who have supported complex cases, and leadership team who on one occasion authorised the possibility of staffing two simultaneous homebirths in order to protect the wishes of the women involved
The team have regularly picked up extra on call shifts, often at short notice. Everyone has worked as part of a team to support each other such as swapping on calls to ensure greater rest periods, helping cover workload etc. The team have also supported students to gain experience attending homebirths, even out of hours.

Team Manager: It is really pleasing feedback to here from one of our staff, as the team are currently under significant pressure with the two roll outs currently, so brilliant to hear that their customer service and approach remains as it should be and our colleagues feel that the team are approachable and support them.  We always strive to help!

January 2024

Management Team – Darlington from January 2024

The Management Team were awarded team of the month for the Intergity they show, their hard working attitude, kindness, going that extra mile for the team and their dedication to providing the best service they can. They are all round genuinely lovely people and are very supportive to everyone.

December 2023

North Yorkshire Children in Care Admin Team

Over the last 6 months the Children in Care admin team have undergone significant changes in their processes, which has brought additional pressure and time constraints; however the team have kept smiling, been solution focused and have been supportive of each other and their colleagues. The team continues to liaise with agencies outside of HDFT with confidence and always hold the trust values in everything they do. The team pulls together and are always happy to support the Named Nurse with new ideas and ways of working. All members of the team continue to be devoted to their job giving it their all.

October 2023

The Digital PMO Team

The Digital PMO Team show kindness through compassion and appreciation of others, they are always smiling and always make people feel valued in meetings by asking for everyone’s opinions. They show appreciation to others by going out of their way to see how people are doing and seeing what they can do to help. The team have enormous amounts of integrity, by being honest about what they can do and positive in their approach. People, both internally and externally, have remarked how much of a professional team they are, with comments such as “a really positive, can do attitude” who are “switched on, make things happen” and “a great asset to the Trust”.

They reflect incredible teamwork through their involvement in most facets of the Trust, helping every specialty and department to the best of their abilities, communicating their processes and thoughts clearly and listening intently to improve systems and processes to guide patient care. A great example is delivering a waiting list validation initiative, which has freed outpatient appointments. This required communicating with different specialties and departments in the Trust (clinicians and non-clinicians), and listening to concerns and acting on them to successfully deliver a project to enhance the care and reputation of our Trust.

The team reflect equality, by showing respect to every department and are inclusive and act fairly. Despite the pressures involved in juggling different competing programmes of work, they clearly state how they prioritise in a fair way, and try to communicate this clearly to all stakeholders. The digital team are a keystone in the Trust infrastructure, and they should be deserving of this award.

September 2023

LTUC Medical Secretaries

Following the restructure and integration of Dermatology, Rheumatology and Gastroenterology into Long Term Unscheduled Care, we have seen incredible team work coordinated by the LTUC Medical Secretary teams. They have pulled together and embraced supporting each other to improve the typing backlogs, seeing a reduction from 356 jobs to 112 jobs in Dermatology alone. This will make a huge difference both for patient care and getting on top of the back log will improve team morale.

July 2023

East Team, Growing Healthy, Wakefield 0-19 Service

This team of professionals have worked together to provide an excellent standard of care to our parents and children. Despite high work load, lower staffing levels and going through a huge period of change being transferred to a new trust, they work together, listen well to each other as well as continually offering practical and emotional support to one another. Other team members cover and oversee workload for each other without any hesitation. The team are in constant communication with one another answering any queries or signposting them to what they need to do their job. All members support and volunteer to teach our new students and provide them with excellent placements. Our line manager continually praises our hard work, effort and passion for the work we do through such transformational change. We offer each other lots of emotional support. We are always available to each other for some supervision about our work. Everyone is able to contribute and have their say and listened to. Everyone is respectful of the needs of the families we visit, and with the capacity of the practitioners fluctuating, we all help out in delivering the best care even when families are not on our own caseload. We work together even though we work apart.

June 2023

The Special Care Baby Unit

The Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) provides care to the neonatal demographic here at HDFT. Whilst they are a small team, they absolutely embody the phrase “above and beyond”; everyone has passion, knowledge and care shines through them on each and every shift. Whenever you walk onto SCBU, no matter what is happening you are greeted with friendly face. You’d never know they could be saving a tiny life right next door, they will always prioritise the experience of the babies and families as paramount. They are clinical experts in the care they provide, and in their job roles they all go above and beyond with their combined skill set. From intensive care, resuscitation skills and neonatal management they blow you away with their knowledge, but what really sets them apart is their passion, joy and commitment to the unit and to each other. They know how to make families feel at ease when their whole world is upside down. They are reassuring, kind and gentle, knowing exactly what to say, and making you feel a part of the SCBU family every step of the way. They inspire trust and confidence in the parents on the unit and the wider MDT. All of the KITE values shine through in every member of the team on SCBU, however their Teamwork is a sight to behold. They truly are a family, and the parents on the unit can see that first hand. They laugh together, they support each other and they go out of their way to improve and support the unit to ensure safety beyond expectations. They love what they do, and being able to experience that level of passion is truly inspiring.

A mother also shared their experience with us and said “The team all have such a special bond, they have fun and create a joyful environment. They are all very knowledgeable and their passion for nursing really shines though. I have been here for 10 days with my premature baby and they have been really reassuring, allowed me to sleep in a side room to care for my son and have helped me mentally though a really anxious time in my life. I will miss listening to the nursing team when I go.”

May 2023

Harrogate North Community Care Team

Harrogate North Community Care Team (CCT) were nominated by a student who did their placement with the team, telling us that the Harrogate North CCT are an incredible, highly professional and supportive team with the most knowledgeable and friendly staff who value teamwork. Harrogate North CCT upholds high levels of integrity, each staff member extends a warm welcome to students and new starters. The team are proactive, innovative, supportive and highly approachable, everyone genuinely makes a positive impact on patients’ and colleagues’ lives. Harrogate North CCT take great care of their patients and are eager to promote independence and individual wellbeing, they are dedicated to delivering and promoting excellent care and actively support students in receiving quality educational skills. Harrogate North CCT look after one another by checking in on each another and recognising if anyone is struggling, they will assist colleagues without any prompting.

April 2023

Advanced Care Practitioner team – LTUC

The Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) LTUC team were an integral part of the success at HDFT during the Junior Doctor Strike in March. The team showed tremendous support to their colleagues by going above and beyond their normal duty. They showed their dedication by swapping shifts, working extra hours, working during their annual leave and planned days off, and working on wards and on shift patterns they do not usually work. The ACP LTUC team worked almost 200 additional hours over the 3-day strike to provide invaluable support to consultants, nurses, physiotherapists, and other members of the wider team. Above all, they demonstrated kindness and commitment to ensuring patients continued to receive quality care. The flexibility, adaptability, and teamwork displayed by the ACP LTUC team demonstrate what a valuable workforce they are. The award also recognises the valuable contribution of Physician Associate’s Olivia, Rosie and Sophie for their help with HDFTs response to the Junior Doctor’s strike.

March 2023

CT Team

Before Christmas, one of the CT scanners broke down and since then the CT Team have been working tirelessly to provide extended hours using the remaining CT scanner. The team have managed to maintain the efficient use of the scanner to keep cancer breaches and disruptions in care pathways to a minimum; whilst working under pressure to maintain a quick scan service for the Emergency Department and inpatients. They have done all of this in a kind, thoughtful and enthusiastic manner with patients being the centre of their approach. The team includes the Radiographers, Healthcare Assistants and Booking Officers and they are a huge credit to the Imaging Department.

February 2023

Antenatal and Newborn Screening Team

The compassion and dedication shown by the Antenatal and Newborn Screening Team makes a huge difference to women and their families. The team work tirelessly and without complaint to ensure their service runs smoothly and efficiently. Our quality assurance advisor for the region has personally thanked the HDFT team for their hard work and dedication and the team ensure all women are given accurate advice, guidance and compassion when communicating screening procedures, results and options.

The Antenatal and Newborn Screening Team are involved in offering all pregnant women screening for abnormalities in pregnancy. They counsel women, deal with difficult situations on a regular basis and regularly have challenging conversations to communicate sensitive information; the team really do provide emotional support to women and families. The team recently filmed a video to communicate the common themes of why Newborn Blood Spot tests are rejected by the laboratory. They created this video without any technical assistance and disseminated it to our staff. This shows their commitment to learning from rejected samples and demonstrates how passionate they are in driving quality improvement within our service. Each team member is passionate about achieving their KPIs and are always looking for ways to improve the service and the care for women and their families.

January 2023

Business Development, Harrogate Hospital Community Charity, Volunteers team, Communications team

The Business Development, Charity, Volunteers and Communications Team is a shining example of the Trust’s values of Integrity and Teamwork. They are an incredibly positive, proactive and have a “can do” attitude. They are the “go to” team when things need to be done at pace to a high standard. They are proactive, flexible, professional and reliable.  Here are some examples of what they have achieved recently:

• Domiciliary Care.  Support was specifically requested because of their expertise and demonstrable ability to deliver mobilisation of new services at pace.  They have driven forward a complex project to establish a completely new service for the trust.  This has involved researching and understanding the service, its regulation, service model, costing etc.
• KITE Awards.  They were asked to support the delivery of the KITE Awards ceremony.  They brought organisation, attention to detail, determination and flair to deliver a high quality, brilliantly presented event which made staff feel valued and celebrated!  They demonstrated Integrity, Teamwork and Kindness in supporting staff to attend and ensuring that everyone felt welcome and all need were catered for.
• Vaccination & Immunisations Tenders.  In early December NHSE launched tender processes for all Vaccination & Immunisation services in the North East & Yorkshire with submission deadlines of 9 January.  To retain our existing Vaccination & Immunisation services and to grow our services to align with our 0-19 Services (in line with our Growth Strategy) we decided to bid for four lots.  They rose to the challenge, carefully planning how to deliver the bids in a short period which included Christmas and New Year.  The bid partner provided a final review of the bids before submission, but was only able to find minor changes and typos – a testament to the hard work, teamwork and professionalism of the team.

December 2022

Congratulations to 5-19 Children’s Service Northumberland who are December’s Team of the Month!

While the service has been undergoing transformation following TUPE to HDFT, the team have pulled together to support each other, with professionalism and positivity. Whilst adapting to new ways of working they have continued to deliver outstanding quality of care to the children, families and parents of Northumberland. Colleagues witness outstanding team working and everyone in the team putting fairness and equity at the heart of their safeguarding allocation, and ensuring no member of the team is overwhelmed with workload. The team’s Service Manager added how the 5-19 team have shown incredible resilience and teamwork while managing an increase in referrals and the transformation by contributing to decision making and being solution focused. Throughout this period the team have demonstrated kindness to one another including taking time to listen to each other and checking in with each other daily.

November 2022

The Same Day Emergency Care Team (SDEC) are committed, pro-active and super flexible. They buy fully into the rapid testing approach which enables the service to respond quickly to patient needs. For example, they have adjusted their working hours to extend the service in order to support winter flow. Extending the service this way has avoided around 30 ED attendances and up to 7 hospital admissions per day, releasing resource for other patients. The team display excellent teamwork with colleagues in the service, with the ED team and more recently by welcoming the MDU; they show, support, kindness and compassion towards both colleagues and patients at all times and are generally a pleasure to work with. We also received the following compliments from Patients:

• I have had wonderful treatment today in the SDEC department. The doctors and nurses have been so helpful and kind and made me feel reassured.
• We just want to express our gratitude to the whole SDEC team who were on duty yesterday – we were extremely well looked after from the moment we transferred from A&E. The team were friendly, efficient and explained every step along the way. We are very aware how much pressure NHS staff are working under at the current time and hope that you can pass on our heartfelt thanks to them all.

October 2022

Bolton Ward

Bolton Ward, as a team, really came together to help another ward when they recently lost a beloved colleague. This colleague was so loved by their team and everyone on the ward wished to attend a ceremony being held, Bolton Ward were amazing in their offers of support to enable this to happen. When asked if anyone could pick up an additional shift to provide sufficient cover, so many colleagues offered to do full or part shifts so that all colleagues were able to attend and the ward remained safely staffed. This was a shining example of Teamwork and Kindness for their colleagues, not just in their own ward base but for others across the Trust too.

September 2022

Littondale Ward

Littondale Ward were nominated by patients and colleagues who commented on how hard the team work to ensure patients receive high standards of care, and that their stay in hospital is a pleasant experience. The team are always willing to take patients from other wards and having mixed patients requires exceptional skills, meaning the team always pull together and help each other out – playing to their skills set and taking opportunities to learn. A patient, who was admitted on to Littondale Ward, received amazing care from everyone they met, they felt like they could not have receive better care. Another patient added how grateful they were to everyone on Littondale for their gentle and caring nature, everyone looked after them and made their recovery quicker and easier.

August 2022

Adult Community Nursing Team

As with all NHS teams, the Adult Community Nursing Team have been operating under significant pressures during and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. They have continued every day with the upmost professionalism and respect for their patients. The surge in fuel prices has adversely affected the community teams but they continue to use their personal cars for community visits. The Adult Community Nursing Team is made up of 4 smaller teams spread out over a large area, on a daily basis the teams work extremely well to share resources to ensure equity – for example, when one of the Knaresborough teams were struggling with high work demands and low staffing levels, Ripon team offered to expand their boundary to absorb some of the Knaresborough caseload.  This selfless act caused Ripon to have increased pressure on their team but allowed Knaresborough to breathe and meant patient care was not compromised.

The Adult Community Nursing Team have recently seen a dramatic increase in compliments being received from GPs, Hospital based teams, students, relatives and patients, here is just one example:

Outstanding. I have been given so many learning opportunities whilst on placement, I have been encouraged to be independent but supported when needed. The staff have a positive attitude towards all staff and students, they are very supportive and understanding. I have been encouraged on a daily basis and given both positive and best practice feedback. This has been given in a constructive manner and has helped me improve my skills. I did not think, prior to starting this placement, that I would experience quite as much as I have, the learning opportunities have been varied and extensive. I have loved experiencing so much.

July 2022

Nutrition and Dietetics

The team consists of 22 individuals working part time and full time across varying roles, different settings and different specialities. They were nominated for how everyone goes out of their way to support each other, in every role and in every area – striving for perfection at all times. The team look after approximately 100 patients, at any one time, with feeding tubes in the Harrogate and District locality supporting with equipment and feeding plans. Their team ethic is to support patients to make changes to improve their nutritional status and live as well as they can. So, treatment plans are very patient centred and everyone is very skilled in listening and supporting people to change eating behaviours. The team are also accommodating to patients who are unable to attend face-to-face appointment during clinic times, contacting them at convenient times for the patients to ensure contact isn’t broken. Whilst the team have been under enormous pressure with vacancies and sickness, they have still facilitated student dietitians and supported them through to completing and passing their placements. The team receive an overwhelming amount of feedback from patients and relatives, here are just a few nice comments:

“You are the best dietitian in the world ever. You have changed my life! None of the doctors listened to me or believed me-but you did!”

“You should be very proud of your work with my father and I hope you have nothing but positive emotions.”

“We really appreciated meeting you today, you were really helpful. You made it feel like all of this is so much more manageable.”

“You’ve given me so much confidence to progress, and we have learnt so much from you! We are all certainly feeling much more relaxed about eating and introducing new foods now.”

June 2022

Fardale Ward and Wensleydale Ward

Farndale and Wensleydale Ward were nominated by a patient’s relative who was overwhelmed at the kindness and compassion that both wards showed to their husband. On arriving at hospital, the doctors and nurses were incredibly proficient and professional, giving their husband every form of assistance to alleviate his pain and keeping them informed to what was happening at every stage. Due to restrictions, they were unable to visit which was a really difficult experience but every day they called and were given as much information as possible – even managing to speak with their husband one day via the ward mobile. “The staff were, without exception, unfailingly helpful and kind”.

They were able to visit their husband which was a great comfort to them and their family; they noticed how well he had been cared for and how clean his gown and bedclothes were. They are so appreciative of the high standards of care demonstrated and consistently upheld, every effort was made to ensure comfort.

May 2022

Ophthalmology Secretaries

Our ophthalmic secretarial team are a real asset and key part of our team. All trainees who rotate through the department and locums who between them have worked at many other eye units, and they all comment on how fantastic our eye secretaries are- unlike any other! They go above and beyond every day,  helping with safety netting – checking all results ordered by the department have been checked and actioned. They continually look to improve efficiencies in the department, one example is setting up standard patient letters for common conditions. The team are always happy and showing kindness to all our MDT, totally reliable and trustworthy; if you ask for something, it’s always done. They are great team players.

April 2022

Trinity Ward, Ripon Community Hospital

The ward has been working at escalation capacity and all staff have gone above and beyond to ensure the quality of care is maintained, caring for every patient as if it was their own relative. The criteria on the ward has recently been extended to include a greater dependency of patients with varying needs and complex discharges; the team have had to have difficult life changing conversations honestly, frankly and with empathy. The ward has truly embraced team working and maintained quality indicators, showing great integrity by working together and caring for each other. Staff have gone above and beyond in replanting the garden, coming in on days off to read to patients, asking the kitchen to bake birthday cakes and providing alternative food to patients who are not eating much.

Compliments and comments received from patients/ patient’s relative and colleagues highlight what a wonderful Team Trinity Ward are:

“As well as great nursing care Dad received, it was especially comforting to witness how he was treated not just as a patient but equally as a person with a lifetime of experiences and memories.”

“Thank you for all your care.  You are all fabulous.”

“I want to thank all concerned.  Never in my life have I been so spoilt.  It gave me space to regain my strength.”

“‘I have loved my placement and it has really helped me grown in confidence.”

March 2022

Childhood Immunisation Team

The Childhood Immunisation team have faced considerable challenges over the past 9 months; responding to the request to deliver vaccinations to children over 12, and at the same time, extending the flu program to all School Aged children – these requests more than tripled the workload for the team. In order to support the delivery of these programmes, colleagues were redeployed, new teams were created and additional management support was drafted in to undertake this mammoth task. The Childhood Immunisation Team demonstrated true resilience, flexibility and teamwork to succeed in delivering over 120,000 flu vaccines and over 36,000 Covid vaccines across the HDFT footprint – and counting! Amongst these additional pressures, the team always kept focussed on meeting the health needs of the community and taking every challenge as an opportunity.

February 2022

Emotional Health & Resilience Team (EHRT) County Durham

Emotional health, resilience and mental health challenges for children and young people and families have increased significantly since we entered the global pandemic. The team have responded to this increased demand with professionalism and ‘a can do attitude’ they strive to offer the best service for the Children and Young Person (CYP) in County Durham. The progress this team has achieved as a newly formed team, mobilising an enhanced offer as part of the new Durham contract in the middle of a global pandemic is amazing, they provide every element of service delivery with passion and commitment. The practitioners have been very creative to enable them to see young people face to face in the most appropriate place for that young person, with the aim of CYP only telling their story once.  They have volunteered within the Durham community offering support to ‘Emily’s gift’, a local charity set up in memory of a local young lady, by networking and promoting the support they can offer within the community.

January 2022

Oakdale Ward

A huge congratulations to Oakdale Ward on winning January’s Team of the Month award, nominated by their colleagues in Cancer Services for supporting patients through complex chemotherapy treatment. This chemotherapy regime was new to the nurses, who came to work during their own time to undergo intense training and share their learning with each other. Giving chemotherapy requires 1:1 nursing of the patient, to ensure this could be delivered safely, everyone on Oakdale Ward helped out when they could – swapping shifts, working extra shifts and staying late to provide excellent care to all Oakdale patients. Oakdale Ward worked tirelessly, demonstrating incredible teamwork to support the patients and each other; they are dedicated, passionate and caring, and their colleagues in the Sir Robert Ogden’s Centre are thankful and grateful for their hard work.

Through everything, Oakdale supported each other with wonderful kindness; listening to each other, being comforting, making cups of tea, running errands and above all, they have kept smiling. #TeamHDFT are super proud of Oakdale Ward!

December 2021

Central Covid Immunisation Team

The Central Covid Immunisation Team members were redeployed at short notice to vaccinate school aged children against Covid. The Team worked extremely well together in unprecedented times ensuring a safe and effective role out of the vaccine programme, drawing upon each other’s strengths and expertise to develop knowledge and skills to enhance the service. The sessions have been challenging and staff have been pushed out of their comfort zone and have supported each other along the way, remaining solution focused. The Team members have now returned to their ‘normal’ roles but met up especially for this presentation and remain close friends.

November 2021

IT Department

The IT Department were nominated by many colleagues for their ‘sensational, solution focussed support’ during the initial mobilisation for Northumberland 0-19 services. The transfer of services was undertaken in a really short timescale, presenting a number of challenges, but the IT Department worked exceptionally hard to ensure our new colleagues felt supported and engaged with the Trust. While some colleagues supported the Northumberland 0-19 Service, other IT colleagues worked extra hard to keep ‘service as normal’ for everyone else at the Trust. This award was accepted for IT Department on behalf of the IT Management team- and certificates are on their way to IT locations across the Trust.

October 2021

Littondale Ward
Littondale Ward were nominated by a colleague, who joined the team during the Covid-19 pandemic and was delighted to be asked to stay on the ward permanently. When they joined, everyone on the ward supported them, made them feel welcome and part of the team. During the pandemic, everyone on the ward pulled together to support each other; not being one of the covid wards, there were days when they didn’t know what to expect and had to quickly learn how to care for some really vulnerable patients. Despite being short staffed, colleagues on Littondale always volunteer to help out other wards which truly embodies the Trust Value of Teamwork.

September 2021

Jervaulx ward

Jervaulx Ward were nominated for Team of the Month by the relative of a patient and a colleague, for going above and beyond to provide excellent care to patients and colleagues. A patient’s relative wanted to thank the team at Jervaulx for putting on a wonderful spread and decorating the day room for their grandparent’s 60th wedding anniversary. While their grandma was staying on the ward, the team made it possible for their grandfather and family to attend which meant the world to them and has given them wonderful, lasting memories. Alongside this nomination, a colleague also told us about how the whole team deliver the best quality of care to patients and demonstrating such wonderful kindness and teamwork in everything they do

August 2021

eRoster Support Team
The dedication and commitment from each member of the team has been amazing, the eRoster Support Team were nominated by a colleague in recognition for all the hard work that they have carried out and will continue to carry out over the coming months. The eRoster Support team started the migration of over one hundred rosters onto Health Roster; having to undergo training to be able to use and administer the new system, then commencing the migration of each roster and training colleagues to use the new system. Every member of the team has worked hard to keep the training schedule on course and ensuring teams are supported in knowing how to use the system effectively.

July 2021

Dermatology

Dermatology were nominated by a patient’s mother, whose son was referred to dermatology during the pandemic. They noticed that the department runs very efficiently and even when they had a longer wait than normal, everyone in the department was apologetic and kept them up to date. From the staff at the front desk, the health care assistants, right through to the Doctors, the family felt welcomed, always shown a smile and experienced very good service.

June 2021

Learning Disability, Day Surgery, Podiatry, Dental, Pre-Assessment and Anaesthetic teams

This group of teams were nominated in recognition of providing exceptional care to a patient and delivering a great experience for them at Hospital. A parent told us about how well co-ordinated the service was, everyone they met was friendly and professional and how pleased they were that many treatments could be arranged at short notice. By working together with their colleagues and communicating effectives between departments, they ensured that the patient and their mother had a stress-free visit, demonstrating fantastic teamwork.

May 2021

Stockton 5-19, Children’s Services, Community and Children’s Directorate

The Stockton 5-19 Children’s Services was nominated in recognition of the hard work and determination they have shown, over the last 12 months in particular. The team has undergone significant transformation to give service users the best possible support and intervention; every member of the team comes to work with a smile and provides a quality service to the children and young people of Stockton. As a team, and including the sub-teams (Public Health Nurses and Junior Public Health Nurses, Emotional Health and Resilience team and Early Intervention team), everyone has embraced the challenges that have come their way with positivity and they manage to remain solution focused. We are very proud of the team and everything they have achieved.

Microbiology 

A huge well done to Microbiology for winning the Team of the Month award! During the last year, Microbiology Department has become integral to processing Covid-19 tests, learning to adapt and support patient flow by ensuring as many results are processed as possible. At times when analysers have been down, every member of the team has changed role to work to their strength, helping each other out during stressful times and returning to normal with ease, when the crisis has passed. There are so many examples of team members coming back into work to clean and check instruments, staying late and starting early to help ease the backlog before the next day and filling in for each other, doing anything and everything they can to support each other. Microbiology are hugely deserving of Team of the Month, we are so proud of them.

March 2021

As part of our Growing Healthy 0-25 County Durham service which launched last year, the Children in Care Team was newly established to provide support for children in care in the region. Since they have been up and running, the team have worked tirelessly to develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure the health and wellbeing of approximately 738 children. The Team have also found the capacity to support the 0-25 service in completing review health assessments; and develop and implement a 7 day service providing Covid-19 swabbing to children in residential children’s homes.

The Team have done all of this with resilience, passion and dedication and their Line Manager nominated them for Team of the Month to recognise and celebrate their huge efforts, demonstrating consistent dedication and passion for ensuring the most vulnerable children were being supported. The team are now our Team of the Month for March 2021, congratulations!

February 2021

We recently heard about the absolute dedication of our Community Night Nursing Service during the periods of heavy snowfall we experienced earlier in the year. The Team’s line manager, Lynne Boyd, told us how nothing is too much for this team who regularly overcome staffing challenges while there are fewer staff out in the community to support, being a smaller team. She said: “During the cold and snowy weather, the team never let this stop them coming to work or visiting some of the most vulnerable patients – even unfazed by having to dig the team car out of ice and snow.”

Lynne described the team as “a pleasure to work with and true warriors” and wanted to recognise their commitment to providing excellent care to patients with skill, compassion, courage and professionalism. For this, they were awarded Team of the Month for February 2021 – congratulations!

January 2021

Harrogate North Community Care Team

Recently Harrogate North Community Care Team have provided care in a complex and emotionally challenging situation. Throughout this they maintained consistency in the delivery of compassionate and high quality care. As a result, they were nominated for January Team of the Month which they won. Their nominator said: “The approach of the whole team was evidence of exemplary team work; they are a credit to Adult Community Services, the Trust and Alliances. Team Awesome!” Congratulations to the whole team.

December 2020

Harrogate Hospital & Community Charity and Volunteer Team, Catering Service Team and Healthcare Portering Team

Last year over the Christmas period over 1,100 hampers were distributed all across the Trust’s patch to children, young people and families. This was down to the dedication of the Harrogate Hospital & Community Charity and Volunteer Team together with the HIF Catering and Portering team, who worked incredibly hard together over an extremely busy time of year, facing so many challenges along the way. Their dedication to sourcing items, packing and distributing them across North Yorkshire, Sunderland, Gateshead, Darlington, Stockton-On-Tees, County Durham and Middlesbrough was amazing.

Our Chairman Angela Schofield and Chief Executive Steve Russell wanted to thank both teams for really making a difference over the festive period and have awarded them joint Team of the Month for December 2020. Congratulations to everyone involved.

November 2020

Respiratory Physiotherapy Team

Our Respiratory Physiotherapy team has played and continues to play a hugely important role at the Trust throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, doing fantastic and rapid work in training more staff to be able to offer assessments to respiratory patients, as well as upskilling many colleagues to be able to treat patients on high flow oxygen and ventilation. In total, 40 colleagues at the Trust were trained and they have all continued to be supported; the team also created essential documents for learning, online videos and support materials.

The entire team has adapted their service, championed safer PPE and have enhanced patient care at weekends by creating a seven day service. The incredible hard work and dedication of every member of the Respiratory Physiotherapy Team is amazing, and they were awarded Team of the Month in November last year. Their nominator said: “They are a truly special team who go above and beyond for patient care and staff wellbeing.” Well done and thank you to them all.

October 2020

Sunderland School Health Screening Team, Growing Healthy Sunderland 0-19 service

When the work that School Health Screening Team in Sunderland usually do was halted due to the pandemic, everyone showed great passion, commitment and drive to adapt and change to ensure the service which the team are part of were still accessible in the local area. They very quickly had to learn different processes and systems and also became part of the Track and Trace team which played a vital role in preventing the further spread of coronavirus in the area. They also organised and co-ordinated the distribution of PPE which has enabled the service to meet user’s needs, ensuring the most vulnerable still had access to support. The School Health Screening Team were described by the their team as. “flexible and supportive, having seamlessly adapted their roles to support the continued delivery of the 0-19 service in Sunderland and in neighbouring trusts.”

September 2020

Switchboard Team 

The Switchboard Team at the Trust are the first point of contact and the ‘voice’ of the hospital for many patients. We have recently been told about the team’s incredible skill and knowledge base – dealing with many varied calls and queries on a daily basis, regularly going out of their way to ensure queries are dealt with in a timely manner and always in a very helpful and positive way.

They have faced additional challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic, but have all pulled together to continue to provide a professional service, and adapted to deal with different types of calls from individuals about their own personal situations – taking it upon themselves to source answers and signpost callers appropriately.

For this fantastic care and dedication, the team were awarded Team of the Month for September 2020.

August 2020

Infant Feeding Co-ordinator Team

Our Infant Feeding Team has been working tirelessly to ensure colleagues receive PPE and carry out visits to Covid-positive households, meaning that babies and mothers received the best support possible in one contact. The team have been described as adaptable, flexible and having shown real leadership in developing virtual methods to support women, resulting in a sustained increase in breastfeeding.

For this, they were nominated for and won Team of the Month August 2020 – congratulations to everyone on the team.

July 2020

Pathology, Phlebotomy and Hub Team

Pathology, Phlebotomy and the Hub Team, which includes a range of colleagues from the Trust and NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme, are recognised for their collaborative work in facilitating antibody testing to colleagues across the Trust.

At the time of nomination, over 2000 colleagues were successfully tested in what was a very short space of time. Feedback has been very positive with colleagues saying that the antibody testing service has been very responsive.

They have all done an amazing job in setting this up so quickly and efficiently. Thank you all and congratulations.

June 2020

Wensleydale Ward

The team on Wensleydale Ward were recognised for the way they took care of a patient right up to their final moments of life. The service the team provided, along with their empathy, patience and open and honest communication was commended.

We were told how the patient was able to have a very dignified, comfortable and pain-free death, and that the whole team are a credit to their profession.

May 2020

Growing Healthy Stockton-On-Tees Infant Feeding Team 

The Growing Healthy Stockton-on-Tees Infant Feeding Team have embraced technology to provide a virtual clinic to parents, set up a Facebook resource page and offered virtual staff meetings and training amongst many other things.

Colleagues of the Team said: “The team have always been resourceful, enthusiastic, motivational and inspirational. They deserved to be nominated for a Team of the Month Award for going above and beyond their role and embracing change during these exceptionally difficult and uncertain times to provide a high quality service in the Stockton area.”

We recently publicised a news story on the work the team has been doing which you can read here.

They were awarded their Team of the Month Award jointly this month with the Medical Admission Unit (below).

Medical Admissions Unit (MAU)

Well done to Team MAU who are May’s second Team of the Month Award winners. The Team were nominated in recognition of their hard work and commitment during a period of change and reconfiguration. They have stepped up to, and embraced, new challenges. A colleague said: “I am proud to be part of such a hardworking and efficient team, who definitely needs to be recognised.”

March 2020

Farndale Ward

Well done to March’s Team of the Month Award winners – Farndale Ward. They were nominated in recognition of the care they provided to a patient who passed away on the Ward. A member of the patient’s family said: “On behalf of the family, I would like to give huge thanks for the exceptional care he received on the ward. My Father and the family were treated with great respect and dignity by the whole team from the doctors to the support and cleaning staff for which we are immensely grateful.

“We thank you SO much – it was the best end we could have hoped for.”

February 2020

Intensive Therapy/High Dependency Unit (ITU/HDU)

The winners of Team of the Month for February 2020 is the team on ITU/HDU, who deserve recognition for the compassion they showed a patient who sadly passed away in their care. Family and friends were so appreciative of the way staff made everyone who came to visit the patient feel welcome. We were told how every single member went above and beyond to ensure they had everything they needed and were described as ‘absolutely amazing’. Well done and thank you to everyone on the team.

January 2020

Jervaulx Ward

The Team arranged for an elderly patient to marry on the ward, as she was too unwell to make her wedding. They went above and beyond to arrange a cake, flowers, making the room look beautiful and organising for a hairdresser to come and make the bride look lovely.

The kindness and compassion the team showed was beyond measure.

December 2019

Medical Day Unit Infusion Team

The Team were recognised by a patient who commended them for making each patient’s experience an enjoyable and relaxing one. This patient told us how they are always greeted with a smile and a genuine interest in their wellbeing, with conversations being incredibly warm and a great distraction from the cannulation and treatment. We heard how the Team provides an exceptional standard of care, using the very best practices, but most of all how they are all genuinely wonderful, warm and caring nurses.

November 2019

Gateshead 0-19 Growing Healthy Team

The Team have embraced the Trust’s vision, mission and values by creating a fun and supportive approach to improving colleagues’ health and wellbeing every working day.

They have done this by setting up “walking meetings”, team building huddles, positive 5 minute meetings and making mindfulness sessions the normal practice. Along with many other positive service developments.

Joanne Gill, Locality Manager, is also pictured with her Making a Difference Award alongside the Team. Joanne took a leadership role in starting the “walking meetings”, team building huddles, positive 5 minute meetings and incorporating mindfulness into the working day. She also celebrates the Team’s positive service developments and set up “Friendly Fridays” and “Social and Emotional Resilience Champions” to help implement health and well-being into everything she and her Team does.

October 2019

Medical Short Stay Unit 

The team supported the care of a patient who was on end of life, palliative care and was spending her last days of life on Medical Short Stay. She was very comfortable and well-cared for, but her family were concerned as the patient’s husband of 67 years was wheelchair-bound, needing carers daily and he was not only desperately upset but was going to struggle to spend time with his dying wife. Without even being asked, the staff on MSS offered to care for the patient’s husband on the ward, so that he could spend 24 hours a day at the Trust, sleeping in the same room as his wife, spending her last days together as a couple. The family and the patient’s husband were immeasurably relieved and grateful. All MSS staff were involved, not only the nurses providing care to both the patient and her husband, but also the nurses looking after the rest of the ward patients. The nursing team on MSS really went above and beyond in caring for the patient, providing an incredible, personalised level of care that will be remembered by her family forever.

August 2019

Growing Healthy County Durham 

Our Growing Healthy County Durham 0-19 team are our Team of the Month winners for August!

The team was nominated in recognition of the their approach to supporting another team who was experiencing challenges, developing an action plan that required input from the whole team in order to be successful.

We heard how their co-ordinated efforts and flexibility as a team reduced the risk to patient safety, ensured continued service delivery and supported staff health and wellbeing.  Every single member of the team made a contribution and their wider colleagues were grateful for the support provided. The team have demonstrated passion, responsibility and respect and have gone above and beyond what is expected of them.

July 2019

Kingswood Dental Team

Congratulations to our July Team of the Month winners – the Kingswood Dental Team!

The team has been recognised for their “brilliant” approach to supporting patients, specifically those with learning disabilities, complex medical histories or anxiety, such as a fear or phobia of the dentist. The team start their days with a team huddle, discussing the day ahead and the patients they’ll be treating. This approach means the team are able to fully understand the needs of their patients and ensure all the right equipment is in place.

A colleague from the team said: “I am nominating my own team, as I’m extremely proud of what a brilliant team we have at Kingswood Dental. We have a number of extremely talented staff that go above and beyond for our patients.”

We were told how team members have even been known to go out in the rain to see patients in the car park because they are too anxious to come into the clinic.

June 2019

Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programme Team

Well done to June’s Team of the Month Award winners, the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programme Team. Pulmonary Rehabilitation is designed for people with diagnosed respiratory conditions (such as COPD, Bronchiectasis, Interstitial lung disease and asthma) who are experiencing difficulties with everyday activities due to respiratory symptoms. Pulmonary Rehabilitation aims to improve physical fitness, quality of life and confidence for those living with a respiratory disease.

The team were nominated by a group of patients who wanted to recognise them for Making a Difference. Throughout the programme, Elizabeth, Penny and Rachael, have been professional, compassionate and encouraging. The patients told us how they did not just go the extra mile, but the “extra marathon”.

Here’s just some of the patients’ comments:

“Elizabeth’s gentle encouragement and supportive attitude was exceptional.”

“Penny certainly goes above and beyond and is a brilliant ambassador for our hospital.”

“Rachael is an essential part of the team and is always willing to help. We were all very impressed with her.”

“I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say these three amazing people gave us our life back.”

Well done to the team!

May 2019

Granby Ward, Harrogate District Hospital

May’s Team of the Month Award Winners are Granby Ward, at Harrogate District Hospital!

The team was nominated for many reasons, all demonstrating their hard work, strong team ethos and commitment to providing high quality health care. Two particular examples include the ward staff going above and beyond to ensure that all patient care needs are met. The Ward Manager said: “I am often moved to near tears when I witness the care and compassion, which makes such a vital difference to patients and their families.”

Granby Ward staff have also worked hard to improve patient safety on the ward, and it’s because of this, that they have not only seen a reduction in falls, but over 12 months without a fall causing harm. There has also been a significant reduction in the number of pressure ulcers and improvements to infection prevention and control too.

Well done!

April 2019

Knaresborough Community Care Team

Our Team of the Month for April is the Knaresborough Community Care Team – congratulations!

The team has excelled during what has been a challenging period, and they have often worked over and above to ensure patients receive the best care possible in their own homes. Feedback on how they have provided excellent palliative care to patients has also been really positive – demonstrating utter care and compassion.

March 2019

Nidderdale Ward, Harrogate District Hospital

Here’s our Team of the Month for March – Nidderdale Ward at Harrogate District Hospital!

The team were nominated by a patient’s relative, and it’s clear that the whole team have made a big difference to the patient and her family, ensuring she received the best possible care.

The relative commented: “There are no words to express how helpful the team are. From Mr Mahon and all the varying consultants and doctors, to Rachel Little and her team of nurses, the dieticians, pharmacists and cleaning team.

“The respect they showed me and my mum was in true NHS spirit that often is forgotten. I will never forget what Harrogate District Hospital has done for my family. Nidderdale is a brilliant ward with dedicated and passionate staff. All I can say is thank you.”

Here’s staff on Nidderdale Ward being presented with their Team of the Month Award by Chief Executive Steve Russell. Congratulations!

February 2019

Endoscopy

Our Team of the Month winner for February is our Endoscopy Department – for the team’s hard work and efforts in achieving their recent JAG (Joint Advisory Group on GI Endoscopy) accreditation. The recent inspection saw the team receive accreditation on the day, as well as lots of extremely positive feedback – with the word ‘exemplary’ used to describe the service! A Consultant colleague said: “This has been an amazing achievement for the team and is a great accolade for what has been a superb team effort.”

JAG accreditation is formal recognition that an endoscopy service has demonstrated it has the competence to deliver against the criteria set out in JAG standards.

January 2019

Pharmacy Aseptic and Chemotherapy Team

Congratulations to January’s Team of the Month Award Winners – the Pharmacy and Chemotherapy Team! The team is responsible for making individual chemotherapy for every patient that requires this important treatment. They were described as being “unsung” – operating in the background to make sure treatments take place.

In the week between Christmas and the New Year, they continued to make chemotherapy for patients and scheduled four days’ worth of chemotherapy into just two days. They worked over and above to make this happen and showed great team spirit. This is just one example of this type of teamwork that they regularly demonstrate.

December 2018

CT Team, Radiology

Well done to the Computerised Tomography (CT) Team, part of our Radiology Department, who are December’s Team of the Month Award winners.

The team have a great ethos and will always go the extra mile for patients. There has been a recent occasion that particularly demonstrates this, whereby despite being extremely busy they ensured a patient was seen urgently who needed to be. This ultimately supported clinicians in making important and very timely decisions about the patient’s care and treatment.

A CT scan uses x-rays and a computer to produce detailed images of the inside of your body. We perform a wide range of CT examinations, including brain, body and limb imaging.

Clinicians have also commented on how helpful, compassionate, hardworking and dedicated the team are.

November 2018

Harrogate Renal Satellite Unit

Well done to November’s Team of the Month Award Winners – the Harrogate Renal Satellite Unit. We were told how the team go the extra mile in many ways, from arranging dialysis to be undertaken at home or abroad so that patients are able to take holidays, to even making a special effort for patients who are attending the unit on their birthdays.

The team’s nominator said: “The whole team, from senior nurses to cleaners, all give an exceptional service and are always pleasant and helpful whatever the circumstances.”

Renal Services are provided by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who the Trust has a clinical alliance with, and we are pleased to have been able to make this award to the team who help us to provide high quality care to patients who require this specialist service.

October 2018

Planning Department

Well done to October’s Team of the Month Award winners – the Trust’s Planning Department. The team was nominated in recognition of their hard work and commitment in supporting services across the Trust through a number of initiatives and projects.

September 2018

Pathology

Well done to the Pathology Team, who are September’s Team of the Month Award winners. The team has received their first ever service-wide UKAS (the United Kingdom Accreditation Service) accreditation surveillance inspection in September.

Accreditation from UKAS is formal recognition that an organisation is competent to perform specific laboratory processes, activities or tasks in a reliable, credible and accurate manner.

Well done team!

August 2018

Growing Healthy County Durham & Growing Healthy Darlington

Well done to these two teams who are August’s Team of the Month Award winners. The teams have been successful in achieving the Gold Friendly Baby recognition by Unicef, which you find out more about by clicking here: Great work both teams!

July 2018

PACS Implementation & Training Team, Radiology

Well done to the PACS Implementation & Training Team in Radiology who are July’s Team of the Month Award winners! The team worked tirelessly to ensure all staff were trained. They went over & above what was expected – showing dedication and conscientious throughout.

PACS is a medical image sharing network and Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust is the first Trust to have introduced this system as part of the Yorkshire Imaging Collaborative implementation.

Not pictured is Joanne Sharratt, who is also a key member of the team.

June 2018

Phlebotomy Team

The team were nominated in recognition of delivering a high quality service – showing great care and attention towards patients and putting people with anxiety and special needs at their ease. They have a great team ethos and really live the Trust’s values!

May 2018

Orthopaedic Therapy Team

The team was nominated in recognition of all their efforts to improve the quality of services they provide to patients. In their own time, the team have been fundraising to purchase an important piece of equipment to assist with the rehabilitation of patients – including a 24-hour cycle, tea party and cake bake sales. In addition to this, the Trust also came in the ‘Top 10’ of Hospitals in England in the recent National Hip Sprint audit showing greater physiotherapy compliance for patients recovering from a hip fracture.

April 2018

Clinical Coding

The team is responsible for coding all inpatient and day case admissions (around 50,000 a year). The information they produce has a variety of important uses including medical research and audit and service planning. Despite a number of pressures, the team have consistently worked hard to meet deadlines – continuously receiving excellent results and delivering a high quality service.

March 2018

Main Theatres and Day Surgery Unit Teams, Harrogate District Hospital

Both teams were nominated for their joint efforts during the week of challenging weather in March. The teams worked extremely flexibly, showed excellent prioritisation and decision-making to keep their services running smoothly – a fantastic demonstration of teamwork and dedication in action!

February 2018

Hambleton 5-19 Healthy Child Team, part of the Trust’s Growing Healthy 0-19 North Yorkshire service

The team have worked together to further improve health outcomes commitment for the children, young people and families that they support – demonstrating their passion and commitment at all times.

They have explored a number of ways to improve and promote their services, such as: linking in with the Trust’s Quality of Care Champions scheme – gaining Bronze accreditation, initiating their @HamRichSN twitter page and setting up health drop-ins in local secondary schools.

January 2018

Clinical Assessment, Triage and Treatment (CATT) Ward Team

The team were nominated in recognition of all their hard work and living the Trust’s values. It has been a very challenging and busy time for the team but they have all worked together and supported one another to maintain high quality care and manage patient flow. This particularly shone through during the Trust’s ‘Every Hour Matters’ Week, where they consistently met our expected values and behaviours.

December 2017

Medical Records Department

The team were nominated for their hard work to maintain a high quality service through increased workload and staffing pressures. They are a committed team and go the extra mile to support the Trust across a vast amount of different areas – always with patients in mind.

November 2017

Supported Discharge Service

The team were nominated for implementing a transformational change for the benefit of patients and the organisation. The team set up a new seven-day therapy service to patients who can be assessed in their own home. This service has already had a positive impact on the experience of patients, reduction in length of stay and support for patients who might otherwise be very anxious about going home. In addition, they have all worked above and beyond their usual roles to promote the service and engage with patients and their families, colleagues and external partners.

The team have demonstrated high levels of motivation, leadership and problem solving, showing initiative and high levels of flexibility instigating this seven-day service in what was a very short period.

October 2017

Sterile Services Team

Sterile Services were nominated in recognition of all their efforts in maintaining a high quality service during the major refurbishment and extension to the existing department. It was a challenging period for the team as they were required to work off-site but they really went the extra mile to continue providing a safe and quality service for our patients. The team maintained high levels of compliance with their standards – above 99.5% – and also underwent an external accreditation audit whilst located at the off-site location with excellent results!

If you want to know more about the work of our Sterile Services Team, please click here.

September 2017

Trinity Ward Multidisciplinary Team

The team was nominated in recognition of their innovative processes to improve patient care and reduce length of stay on the ward. Goal-planning meetings have been introduced for each new patient on the ward. These meetings involve therapy and nursing staff, patients and their relatives/carers to help establish appropriate rehab goals and set a target discharge date. Setting these goals with patients and their relatives/carers makes them feel involved in their rehab and empowered to engage with the therapy and nursing staff. This also helps to reduce length of stay on the ward.

August 2017

Seaham and Peterlee School Nursing Teams

These two teams were nominated for their resourcefulness and resilience when having to cross-cover. The team have also taken a proactive approach to act as thematic leads, as well as successfully flexing their approach to work with the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub to provide cover in collaboration with key partner organisations. Although the team have faced some challenges, they have continued to deliver new initiatives with excellent feedback being received and have been proactive in their involvement to engage with their communities, such as the Growing Healthy Bus and Bikewise. The team have and continue to be flexible and adaptable in trying to find solutions to achieve the best possible outcomes for young people.

July 2017

Littondale Ward

The team on Littondale were nominated for their whole team, from doctors to nurses to domestics to the ward clerk, approach to ensuring a patient received such compassionate care at the end of life. The patient’s family commended the team’s ability to support them through this difficult time and they all helped to make sure that the patient’s final days were bearable, dignified and comfortable as possible.

June 2017

Intensive Care Unit

The entire team comprising doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians, healthcare assistants and pharmacists were nominated for their exemplary efforts, where over 50 members of the team took on the Total Warrior Challenge at Bramham Park on Saturday 24 June 2017, to raise money to improve the environment for patients on the unit.

Their aim was to raise enough money to buy vital respiratory support equipment, a transport monitor and audio-visual equipment to stimulate patients during their prolonged rehabilitation.

The team have raised over £10,000 so far, which is a fantastic achievement and will make a big difference to patients.

You can find out more and see photos from the day here.

May 2017

IT Team

The IT team were nominated for their exemplary efforts during the international cyber-attack week. The team’s diligence in having systems in place and their prompt actions at the time, ultimately ensured that our patient systems were kept safe and we were able to continue providing high quality of care across all of our services.

April 2017

Long Term and Unscheduled Care Directorate Administration Team

Congratulations to the Long Term and Unscheduled Care Directorate Administration Team who have won this month’s Team of the Month award! The team was nominated in recognition of their hard work and commitment to support their directorate to move forward.

They have worked alongside clinical psychologists, receptionists in the Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre and the Appointments Team to streamline the Cancer Clinical Psychology referral and appointment process. This new process is proving to be working really well.

The team has also been working alongside ward clerks and consultants to complete dementia-screening requirements in a timely and efficient manner, which has had a positive impact.

March 2017

Farndale Ward

The team was nominated by way of recognising their immense effort and support during ‘Every Hour Matters Week’. The focus of the week was to safely reduce the amount of time patients spend in hospital.

The whole team really embraced the week and, in the process, set up a fantastic discharge planning board. The board makes it easy and clear to see when patients are due for discharge, which is a vital part of patient care. The team achieved this whilst facing their usual daily challenges but worked together to support the Every Hour Matters Week and make sure that patients receive high quality and safe care.

February 2017

Clinical Site Team

The team were nominated by colleagues in recognition of their dedication to patient safety and keeping it at the heart of everything they do.

The team have faced a very busy few months, but they have continued to work together to ensure patients receive the best possible care. They have supported their colleagues on the wards, managed difficult situations and kept managers who are on call well briefed and assured.  The team maintain excellent communication, ultimately ensuring smooth patient flow through the hospital.

January 2017

Haematology and Oncology Secretaries

The team were nominated by a colleague for going the extra mile to turn their workload around, from being behind, to being on top of it all in a matter of weeks!

During a challenging time, the team found themselves to be behind and there was a high backlog of patient letters that needed typing and sending to other clinical staff and GPs. But the team really pulled together, by supporting each other, going over and above, and maintaining excellent communication.

The team are aware of the important role that they play to help provide high quality of care. They make a big difference to patients and the care and treatment that they receive.

December 2016

Trinity Ward

The team on Trinity Ward includes Domestics, Porters, Allied Health Professionals, Clinical and Medical colleagues. They were nominated by colleagues for their exemplary efforts to improve patient safety and reduce the number of falls on the ward. The team have enthusiastically adopted the Falls Safety Huddle and as a result, the team achieved 62 days without a fall from 9 October to 10 December 2016. The team have made a big difference by working together to ensure our patients are safely cared for.

November 2016

Pathology Team

The team were nominated by colleagues for going the extra mile by supporting the Pathology department at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) and Leeds GP practices. An IT issue had arisen at LTHT and Leeds GP practices, and our Pathology Team contacted colleagues at LTHT offering their support in an way possible. Together, they came up with a plan to ensure the delivery of a safe and efficient service whereby samples could be requested, tested and reported via the IT systems at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (HDFT) for patients at LTHT. Some members of the team, alongside colleagues from Information Services at HDFT also took the time out to visit Leeds GP practices in person to provide training and advice, which we know was very much appreciated by those concerned. During this time, the team dealt with thousands of extra samples and continued to deliver high quality of care to patients at HDFT.

October 2016

Ferryhill and Sedgefield Health Visiting Team

The team were nominated for their hard work and innovation in setting up a dedicated Facebook page in order to promote their services to the wider community. The team responded to the families, that they support, who said that Facebook was the preferred way of keeping up to date with the Health Visiting service. We were made aware that at a weaning course, some of the mums said that they found out about the course through the Facebook page which led to them attending. As well as promoting services, the team are using the page to post about research based evidence and relevant topics such as, breastfeeding and behaviour management. They also have Friday’s ‘TOP TIP’.

The team have also responded to a breastfeeding challenge set locally by commissioners, part of which, was to increase the attendance of mums at the breastfeeding group. The team have responded to this by inviting pregnant women to an information session, once a month, as well as working in partnership with EYPs and Children’s Centre staff, to provide information and advice about feeding, bonding and attachment, and support that can be offered post-natally.

Another shining example of a team who exemplify the Trust’s values and have made a difference to the families that they support.

September 2016

Mel Kavanagh and Liz Sagar, Health Visitors – Harrogate locality

Mel and Liz were nominated for going the extra mile by providing high quality of care to mums, their children and families. They have set up a MIMS (Mums in Mind) Group in Harrogate and have worked with their colleagues in the North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) Prevention Service to meet the needs of mums. They have also liaised with the IAPT service and have demonstrated true partnership working. They used evidence based tools to support their work, which has showed that women’s mental health and wellbeing is improving.

Mel and Liz really have exemplified the Trust’s throughout the process of setting this group up, and we are pleased to hear that they have plans to roll out the group to other areas.