NHS staff awarded for outstanding patient care

Clinical runner-up: Walk in centre staff

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Staff from the NHS have been awarded for going the extra mile to help their patients.

The Going for Gold award ceremony, held at Rochdale Town Hall last night (Thursday 5 February), recognised staff who have provided an outstanding service to their patients, as well as long service employees who have worked for the NHS for 20, 25 and 30 years. 

As the quality of entries was extremely high there were joint winners for both awards. The Crisis Intervention Team and Baillie Street Health Visiting Team both picked up the clinical award, with the Walk-in Centre staff coming in close second.
The PALS Prison Outreach project and the HR Equality team took home the non-clinical award, followed by the Recruitment Team as worthy runner-up.

There was also a new public-nominated award this year, ‘The Heart of Local Health’ award. This was open to any member of the public to nominate anybody working for or in association with NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale. An independent panel from the Patients Council selected the winner, looking for somebody who went the extra mile to provide excellent patient care or service.

Dr Paul Laker from Littleborough Group Practice received the award, nominated by patient Thomas Richardson for the personal care he provides, making sure his patients are at ease, getting to know them, and providing quality healthcare.

On receiving the award, Dr Laker said: “It’s a fantastic honour to receive this award and I am extremely grateful to Mr Richardson for putting me forward.”

Mr Richardson added: “Dr Laker treats everyone as an individual and calls you by name into his office. When he takes your blood pressure he rests your arm on a pillow to give a truer reading, it’s more than 50 years since I last saw a doctor do this. He is courteous, contentious and a true gentleman.”

Trevor Purt, chief executive of NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale, said: “Our workforce is one of our largest assets and without the considerable contribution and effort from every single person the delivery of effective healthcare services would not be possible.”

As well as recognising outstanding achievers, the evening paid tribute to the PCT’s loyal and long serving staff members.

Purt added: “Incredibly, our long service employees total around 580 years working for the NHS. Their breadth and depth of expertise is extremely valuable and it is a massive achievement for each individual”.