Cardiology sister scoops Nurse of the Year award

Gillian Fogarty receives the Nurse of the year award from Fiona Phillips and Mark Thomas of Vinci Construction UK Ltd

Hard-working nurse ward manager Sister Gillian Fogarty has been honoured with the title of The Pennine Acute Trust’s Nurse of the Year at this year’s Staff Awards.

Gillian, a ward manager on ward 2 at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury and the Silver Heart Unit at Rochdale Infirmary, was credited with working tirelessly to maintain high standards of care to both inpatients and elective patients and maintain staff morale during a busy year of change for Cardiology Services.

She has been instrumental in the transfer of some inpatient cardiac services from Rochdale Infirmary to Fairfield General Hospital in Bury as part of the Healthy Futures programme. She is now working on the remaining transfer of planned cardiology services to Fairfield General Hospital in August. Cardiology out-patient services will remain at Rochdale Infirmary.

The Staff Awards 2012, held on Wednesday 20 June, consisted of 12 categories which recognised the very best of patient care, dedication and innovation across the Trust’s five hospital sites and its 10,000 staff.

At a special final awards ceremony at Manchester City FC Etihad Stadium, TV presenter, journalist and Alzheimer’s campaigner, Fiona Phillips, announced that Sister Gillian Fogarty had won the award.

Described as being cheerful and approachable, Gill successfully organised the smooth transfer of an established group of nurses and patients who sometimes needed to complete their treatment at another hospital site. With her support and guidance, this was carried out with the minimum disruption to the service and her successful management strategy resulted in many thank you cards and letters from patients being received on the cardiology ward.

She achieved this excellent feat by ensuring that patient care is paramount in everything which her staff undertake. On top of her managerial duties, Gill also regularly works on the ward in a clinical role so that she can keep in close contact with what is happening ‘on the shop floor’.

Sister Gillian Fogarty, said: “I have worked for the Trust for 22 years and I continue to have the same commitment and enthusiasm now as I did when I first commenced service with the Trust.

"I feel incredibly honoured to have received this award and for the acknowledgement of the work I do. I feel I have a very privileged position working within an exciting and ever developing Pennine Acute Trust’s cardiology service. The nursing team I work with share the same values as I do, ensuring patient safety and care are paramount.

“I would like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to the staff that nominated me. The support of my team assist me in ensuring I am able to deliver a high quality patient centred service, they are such a pleasure to work with and have a huge mixture of qualities and skills that complement each other, making the team what it is. They have been through immense change over the last 15 months which they have embraced with such determination, whilst maintaining a professional and caring environment.

"I look forward to the completion of the cardiology reconfiguration with the movement of the Silver Heart unit to Fairfield General Hospital.

“The Awards evening was most enjoyable. Fiona Phillips made the nominees feel at ease during the presentation process. Her comments were emotionally charged, having herself experienced caring for a loved one recently it was obvious she values the profession and showed true admiration and respect.”

Award winners:

• Outstanding Contribution to patient care/safety – Debbie Ruff
• Hospital Doctor of the Year – Dr Narayanasamy Jeyagopal
• Nurse or Midwife of the Year – Gillian Fogarty
• Rising Star Award – Jackie Heatley
• Frontline Team of the Year – Ward 6, Fairfield General Hospital
• Skills Award – Information Governance team and Christine Tennant
• Award for Innovation – Dr Pradeep Sethi
• Manager of the Year – Yvonne Tunstall – Paediatric services
• Support function of the year – Pharmacy discharge team at North Manchester General Hospital
• Professional or Technical worker of the Year – Emma Riley
• Administrative or secretarial worker of the year – Cathy Norbury
• Support Worker of the Year – Anthony Douglas

Presenting the award, Fiona Phillips, said: “It’s been an absolute privilege to attend the Pennine Acute Hospital Staff Awards where I met scores of inspirational NHS workers. I felt really proud to be presenting the awards and to be among so many dedicated and fantastic people.

"I was really impressed with the level of commitment and hard work of many individuals and teams including doctors, nurses, support workers and managers. There were some brilliant winners, brilliant stories and examples of excellent patient care, new projects and ideas.

"I believe everyone who was nominated for an award are all winners. All the award winners truly deserve recognition and should be congratulated. NHS staff do a brilliant job caring for people. I love the NHS!”

John Saxby, Chief Executive of the Trust, said: “It is important to recognise and celebrate the extraordinary efforts and good work of teams and individuals across the Trust over the past year. Our annual Staff Awards provide the opportunity to thank staff formally with the recognition and applaud they deserve.

We have a large, highly trained and committed workforce. Some of our successes are publicised, but many are not. Not because they are not worthy of recognition, but because we just don’t hear about them.

By their nature NHS staff, including our own, are humble and modest about what they do even when what they do is extraordinary. Most of our staff deliver high standards of care day in day out. This care, and the commitment and compassion that goes with it, is something we should be proud of.“

The event was fully paid for and supported by a number of sponsors including: Vinci; NG Bailey; Weightmans; Mitie; APS Group; Philips; G2 Speech; NHS Discounts, Corporate Design Company and iSOFT. The award for nurse or midwife of the year was sponsored by Vinci Construction UK.