Making a Difference 2022-2023

Congratulations to all Trust staff nominated for a Making a Difference Award – below are our winners.

Click here for details about how to nominate.

August 2023

Elizabeth Thornton, Neonatal Staff Nurse

Elizabeth has stepped up over the last year into the Baby Friendly Lead Role on SCBU. Described as the kindest, most thoughtful colleague she has really stepped up into her role and is so supportive of her patients, their families and her team. Elizabeth goes above and beyond in everything she commits herself to and embodies the trust values day in, day out.

Levente Barabasi, Trainee Surgical Care Practitioner

Levente was nominated by a patient who was incredibly grateful for the care he gave them and told us how his amazing communication and calm, engaging manner put them at ease, built their confidence and really helped get them through a challenging time when they needed surgery.

Ali Daggett, Physiotherapist

Ali has joined the team in a new role, she has settled in great and is blossoming really well, using her initiative at all times and constantly thinking of her own learning needs and the learning needs of the team. She demonstrates the trust values in everything she does. Ali shows kindness by supporting new starters in the team and colleagues returning to work. Ali looks out for others and truly cares about others and the patients. She has been proactive in initiating the use of outcome measures in the team, and has developed the in-service training rota they have.

Catherine Hall, Health Visitor, Gateshead Central

Recently Catherine worked on a case in relation to a very young baby who sustained a significant injury. Catherine was key in sharing crucial information which included many known risks within the family. This led to a Child Protection referral being made in retrospect by a local partner, further escalation and later a local Desktop Learning Review exercise. Catherine continued to exercise a high level of professional curiosity and professional challenge despite coming across many obstacles

Rachel Askey, Antenatal Clinic Team Leader and Specialist Midwife for Public Health and Emma Barker, Recruitment and Retention Lead Midwife

Rachel has been instrumental in re-establishing the parent education sessions which were ceased during covid. Rachel has revised the entire program delivered to expectant parents, to ensure it is in-line with current evidence. She has devised a new admin system for parents to book onto the sessions. Rachel has ensured the other midwives in the team are well supported to deliver the sessions. We recommenced in the spring, the sessions are very popular, with excellent feedback given from those who attend. Rachel is very supportive to the team, ensuring midwives feel comfortable to deliver the sessions and always displays a positive attitude to any challenges faced.

Dianne Chew, Team Leader, North Yorkshire Management Team

Dianne became Locality Manager/ EHR thematic lead in 2020. Apart from the stress and difficulties of there being a global pandemic, the team were undergoing huge changes to their service. It became clear that Dianne was warm, approachable, supportive and kind. She guided the team through the next few years with humour, strong direction and a really positive attitude. Dianne is always available to listen and has the amazing ability of helping people to see the positives and plan a way through difficult times, both professionally and personally. The team feel like they couldn’t have got through this really hard time without her. Dianne ensures the team are listened to and truly heard, they feel supported to make changes that improve the service and her encouragement has made the team stronger than ever.

Dr Debbie Wiggins, Advanced Optometrist

Debbie has single-handedly pioneered the use of a new device within our diagnostic glaucoma service. The use of this device will increase our patient through-put, will enable us to tackle the glaucoma new patient backlog, and, most importantly, will improve the quality of our patient service as the patient will only need to attend for one appointment when previously the optometry led glaucoma screening service required the patient to attend on two separate occasions. The new device did not come with many instructions on how to use the device, and the company representative was unable to provide much support. In addition, we did not have the correct coupling gel, were unable to network the device to our systems, and were unsure how best to interpret the results.

Debbie took it upon herself to teach herself how to use the device safely, arrange (with the consultants and pharmacy) to have the correct coupling agent added to the formulary, arrange with IT to have the device networked and ran clinics to assess the feasibility of using the device in a new patient glaucoma diagnostic clinic. Debbie is now an expert on using this device, and is currently teaching other optometry/orthoptic/nursing colleagues to use it too.

It has been Debbie’s dedication and commitment to making something work for the good of both our service and our patients. Debbie upholds all of the Trust values but two of them come to mind in this case – Teamwork in sharing her learning with colleagues and Integrity in making the best of a difficult situation.

Kath Pinder, Orthopaedic Frailty Lead

Kath helps making sure that patients get the correct place or placement for them to leave hospital. Kath makes sure that everyone knows what happens with discharges, she communicates well with patients, relative’s and other people in the multi-disciplinary team. She rings nursing and residential homes for more information to help make the patient’s journey smother.

Leanne Tearle and Anna Rawnsley, Infant Feeding Peer Coordinators

Leanne and Anna developed a Healthy Weight and Infant Feeding Team Induction Pack to ensure new members to the team felt welcome and received guidance that supported their transition into a new role. The induction pack has been well received by new starters and has since been shared across the footprint with Specialist Infant Feeding teams. It is also to be adapted to support peer supporters commencing new roles in Parenting and Perinatal Mental Health teams.

Anna and Leanne took on an Early Latch Clinic in East Durham and have worked together to develop and offer the same service in North and South Durham. They have ensured that a clinic is available on different days, to provide more opportunities for mothers to attend, anywhere in County Durham. Anna and Leanne worked together to develop a weeklong programme across County Durham for World Breastfeeding Week, liaising with partner organisations such as DCC Family Hubs and local libraries, to provide activities for families to celebrate breastfeeding, culminating in a Family Fun afternoon at Auckland Castle.

Anna and Leanne demonstrate the KITE values within the communities in which they work, in the way they support each and other team members and are an excellent example of teamwork.

July 2023

Thomson Joseph, Charge Nurse

Thomson was nominated by a student who had just finished their first placement in their final year of their nursing degree and was lucky enough to have Thomson as their assessor. Thomson spent most of their shifts together as nurse in charge but this did not stop him from ensuring that they had all their student needs met. Despite the busy schedule of the ward Thomson remained calm and focused at all times, ensuring that all the staff and students were happy and listened to, and ensured that the safety of the patients was paramount to his day. Thomson showed excellent leadership skills throughout their placement and was keen and eager to help the student with learning whilst on the ward. Thomson is without doubt an integral part of the smooth running of team Byland and along with the rest of the team ensures that Byland is a friendly, well observed ward and it was an absolute pleasure to get to spend 7 weeks with such an incredible team.

Nicki Eyre, Ward Clerk, Littondale Ward

Nicki shows great teamwork and always goes above and beyond to help other ward clerks when she has a moment spare. Her care and compassion for others is outstanding. On Littondale they also look after the Surgical Assessment Unit and have a large amount of filing which can be overwhelming at times; the help that Nicki has provided with this has been incredible.

Concilla Jeyi, Care Support Worker, Fountains Ward

Concilla shows outstanding patient care, she’s a great team player with a positive attitude and is loved by all the patients and staff. Concilla is known for always helping out others in her team and those in other teams when she’s completed her own work.

Jess Bowles, Senior HR Advisor

Jess is always so supportive with advice, guidance, clarity and support as needed. She does this with kindness and always with a positive attitude. Jess actively listens to concerns raised, ensures that policy and procedures are followed, and respectfully challenges things she notices. She is always fair and considerate of both staff and management’s well-being during and outside of meetings. One manager Jess worked with is extremely grateful and feels very lucky that to have worked with her on some of the challenges they are experiencing, the whole team feels very well supported by Jess. Jess continues to go above and beyond on a regular basis, she is always approachable and willing to help where appropriate.

Dr Henry Stam, Specialty Doctor – Emergency Medicine

Henry is an exceptionally hardworking and caring Doctor who goes over and above for the team and his patients. An example of this is when he stayed over an hour and a half after the end of his shift to support the short staffed nursing team looking after a patient in resus. Henry undertook the patient’s basic wound care, administered iv drugs, co-ordinated finding a bed for the patient in another trust and organised transport, as well as chasing up radiology investigations and ensuring the patient and their partner had all their needs attended to. This was all done with a professional, kind and helpful attitude whilst also completing necessary work in relation to other patients under his care earlier in the shift at the same time. There is no doubt that this was not an exceptional example of how Henry works, he deserves recognition for his work ethic and demonstration of our Kite Values.

June 2023

Lauren Nicholls, Community Staff Nurse, Harrogate South Community Care Team

Lauren is an absolute credit to the nursing profession, the Trust and to Harrogate South CCT. She always naturally implements the trust values and behaviours to everyone she comes into contact with. Lauren is so methodical in all aspect of her role, assessments documentation and face-to face patient care leading and practising with compassion. This is quite often at the detriments of Lauren finishing work late. Lauren is always very supportive to students, new starters and her colleagues and does so with such enthusiasm and a smile brighter and bigger the than sun. All of the above results in outstanding patient care and excellent patient experience and feedback. Moreover, Lauren is a great role model for HDFT, Harrogate South and for students and new starters she supports. Lauren always receives outstanding patient feedback the latest patient feedback on Lauren visiting a patient who had recently undone breast surgery and had a breast drain in. The patient said Lauren was bubbly, calming, really listened to her to calm her fears and a joy to be visited by.

Lisa Ford, Information Technician, Theatres – Resource Team

Lisa is part of the Resource & Information team and has a lot to do with the scheduling of patients for their procedures. Lisa has been exceptionally helpful for Maternity colleagues when trying to locate, hold and secure any and all C-section slots; requests often come in at short notice and there is a limited amount of space on the schedule. Lisa works through the schedule to locate space for these ladies and somehow manages to pull off a seemingly impossible task! Lisa has also been instrumental in the implementation of the 0800 starts. She communicates well with midwifery colleagues and ensures that all the relevant information is available and communicated with the wider multidisciplinary team in a timely manner. She does this alongside all her other tasks and responsibilities in a very supportive way. Lisa truly does make such a difference, nothing is ever too much trouble and she is nothing but kind, approachable and supportive.

Julie Mannan, Health Visitor, East 0-19 – North Yorkshire

Julie was nominated for this award due to her commitment to going above and beyond for her team and the families of Scarborough, ALWAYS! Julie demonstrates excellent Team Values. Julie is a clear advocate for the families in Scarborough, she wants to ensure all families receive an excellent service. Julie demonstrated excellent teamwork by supporting a colleague returning to work; she was proactive in her support by driving them to services in her lunch break and taking the time to explain any changes to things like the referrals process. Julie ensured that her colleague was exposed to as many contacts and learning opportunities as possible to support their return. Julie 100% ‘makes a difference’ to her team and the families in Scarborough.

Carly Dodsworth, General Manager – Community and Children’s

Carly is an excellent manager who ensures she always involves her team. Her passion and vision for the service is outstanding, her ability to think outside the box enables her team to deliver their service in a measured and safe way. She is respectful to all members of the service and values everyone’s thoughts and opinions, she is open and honest but is not afraid to challenge in a respectful way. When her team were facing staffing pressures, Carly acted swiftly and engaged with her team to ensure their thoughts and feelings were captured. Carly then developed a clear, controlled and measured action plan which made her team feel appreciated. Carly always has the Trust values at the heart of her decision making and is very committed and supportive of the services and staff she manages. She always looks for solutions for even the most difficult of challenges and uses her skills in service improvement to ensure that she involves a wide range of stakeholders in working through difficult issues.

Jo-Anne Kellett, Community Staff Nurses, Harrogate South

Jo-Anne is an outstanding nurse who always goes above and beyond, to ensure that the patients she is caring for receives safe , effective and excellent care that is sensitive and tailored to people’s personal and cultural needs. Jo-Anne excels in every aspect of her work, she is very methodical in all her assessments, reviews, and in clinical practice. Jo-Anne is always willing to support with unplanned scheduled care to support her colleagues and deliver patient care, this is often at the detriment of Jo-Anne finishing work late. Jo-Anne is a great support to students and new starters always going above and beyond to support other people’s learning and development needs and she does so with such pride and enthusiasm. Jo-Anne is a great role model to the Trust and Harrogate South as she always so naturally treats everyone inline with the trust values and behaviours. She is an absolutely pleasure to work with. Harrogate South CCT are privileged to have Jo-Anne as a member of the team.

Rich Rowett, IT Service Desk Operator

Rich is extremely helpful in his role within IT services. Rich takes the time to explain things thoroughly to help colleagues understand and follow IT directions, he empowers his colleagues to know how to do it and why it is done that way. His demeanour is friendly, understanding and patient; nothing is too big or too small, he is always ready to help. Colleagues say that Rich is capable, approachable and makes ringing IT much less daunting; Rich has incredible knowledge and cares about the service he’s providing. Rich demonstrates integrity by taking opportunities to find new and better ways of working for not only himself, but to ensure that colleagues problems are resolved in the best way possible for them.

Lucy Marsh, Ward Sister, Granby Ward

Lucy has been an absolutely fantastic support to her colleagues and student nurses, on one occasion she showed great encouragement to a student having a difficult time on placement. Lucy shows everyone incredible support and gives great advice, all whilst working so incredibly hard on Granby to continually make a difference to the patients. Lucy has also designed a starter pack for students and new starters in her own time, showing her dedication to learning and teaching her colleagues. One student said that they are thankful to Lucy for empowering them to be the nurse that they want to be.

Susan Saunders, Occupational Therapist, Autism Service – Specialist Childrens Services

Susan is our patient feedback lead and she has worked tirelessly to support colleagues to gather and respond to feedback from the young people and families that use our service. She’s helped us trouble shoot when people have found it tricky to ask for feedback, shared helpful tips and set up a friendly competition within the team, rewarded with chocolates she buys herself. She collates numerous responses each month and supports me as team lead to use the information in making improvements in the service.

Jayne Smith, Admin Assistant, Management Team – PSC

Jayne has held up the management admin team through the past few months whilst they have had a number of vacancies within the team. She has acted with kindness, autonomy and supported with wider management team in an impeccable way. During this time, Jayne has recognised that the process for PO’s and ordering is not always the easiest and has therefore created a user guide for the common processes, which has been signed off by the Supplies team, and has been rolled out to team members across the directorate.

One of the recent new starters within the team said “I found the guide so useful, clear and concise”. Jayne is patient, an excellent trainer, a true team player and is very valued within the team and wider directorate. Jayne will always work hard to ensure that she gets the best option for colleagues and makes valuable decisions enabling us to save money. Jayne will work over and above to support colleagues, taking due care, attention and ensuring that clear instructions are left for the days when she is not at work. Jayne is respected and considered a valuable member of the team from clinical and non-clinical colleagues across the directorate as well as the immediate management team.

Mr Mohammed Hammed, ENT Associated Specialist

Mr Hammed was nominated by a colleague who told us about how he goes ‘above and beyond’ in his role every day. Mr Hammed covers clinics at short notice, puts patients first before anyone else (even when he doesn’t have a clinic) and is always willing to help anyone who needs it. Recently, he covered a clinic for a colleague who was unwell; despite having clinics of his own, Mr Hammed had no qualms about seeing the extra patients to ensure they were seen and were not impacted. He is the go-to person for advice, he acts with integrity and is a ‘true gentleman’ – the ENT department at HDFT would be thoroughly stuck without him.

Dr Theodora Georgouli, Specialty Doctor – Ophthalmology

Theodora is a very hard working doctor who is conscientious and delivers cares for her patients to the best of her ability. She is thorough when assessing patients and ensures patients are provided with the necessary care with as little of discomfort as possible. Theodora is kind to everyone, she never has bad word to say about anyone. She always reminds the team to put themselves in the other person’s shoes and try to understand other person’s perspective. She is invaluable member of team, who is approachable, friendly, supportive to the whole team. She is great teacher and does not shy away to train others and share the knowledge and skills she has. Theodora leads by example as she is trustworthy and reliable. She always support the team in their welfare and if they need advice either in professional or personal capacity, she is always there with no judgement but with sympathetic ears. She is very easy to work with as she has a great positive attitude, and great work ethics.

Dr Hazel Gilbert, ST3-ST5 – Emergency Medicine

Dr Gilbert was nominated by a colleague for the huge amount of effort and time she put into organising an innovative simulation based training event for her colleagues. Dr Gilbert booked a debrief room, organised the set-up and running of the equipment, ensured the IT was working; as well as liaising with the simulation team and colleagues in ITU and ED to make sure that all the suitable team members were invited. She also adapted really well to a few last minute changes. Dr Gilbert’s enthusiasm, efficiency and commitment to creating a learning environment where colleagues could be at their best was inspirational. As well as organising the simulation day, Dr Gilbert has helped to co-ordinate the ED teaching programme since February and has been very organised.

May 2023

Gillian Norris, Family Health Visitor, Children’s 0-25 Service – Durham and Chester-le-Street

Gill was recently involved in a very complex and serious case where a family were at significant risk. Gill escalated her concerns to the local authority on several occasions and continued to fight for the family using every resource available. Gill also sought additional support from safeguarding to ensure the family were protected. Gill showed great integrity by being open and honest with the family and challenging decisions by the local authority. Gill always maintained high respect for the family and ultimately had a positive outcome.

Jennifer Brown, Junior Public Health Nurse

Jennifer was nominated by a colleague who shared with us some feedback from a young person she supported. They said that Jennifer has helped them so much with their anger, she has supported them to keep themselves calm and now have a stronger relationship with their father. This young person said “I couldn’t think of anyone better to have helped me; she is such a supportive, kind person and I wouldn’t be where I am now or be the person I am if it wasn’t for her”. Jennifer was allocated to support this young person with their emotional health and has shown dedication and commitment throughout this time. She has allowed the young person to have their voice and to make decisions for themselves, this has made a huge impact on their life and how they will deal with difficult situations in the future.

Lynsay Wilson, Specialist Community Public Health Nurse – Health Visitor

Lynsay is the lead practitioner in the development of the Antenatal Parent Programme in Sunderland. Lynsay has developed the programme and ensured that all equipment required is available for use at each session. She has coordinated with other professionals as this is a joint delivery. Lynsay has done this whilst also completing her Health Visitor role and supporting a SCPHN student. She shows enthusiasm in all aspects of her role and has developed an information board which demonstrates the 0-19 service in Sunderland and represented our service at a recent partner agency opening event. Lynsay always demonstrates a passion for her role and provides support not only for the families she visits but a SCPHN student as well as other practitioners within Sunderland. Lynsay is always very calm and professional in her approach which showcases our service where ever she is.

Pauline Oliver, Health Care Assistant

Pauline is professional, organised and an amazing team member. She goes ‘above and beyond’ to ensure the service runs smoothly and shifts are covered, spending a lot of time doing the team’s rota and helping new colleagues settle into their roles, offering support and information. Nothing is ever too much trouble for Pauline, when her colleague are having a stressful shift she’s great at listening to them, keeping calm and checking in with them to make sure they are okay. Pauline shows empathy and kindness to all patients and their families, she’s great at putting people at ease; one colleagues said “If any of my family members or myself ever needed care, Pauline would be the person I would want.” Pauline’s a reliable team member, she’s experienced and has a fountain of knowledge; she is well respected by her colleagues and they say she is a pleasure to work with.

Liz Eagin, Practice Educator/Urgent Care Practitioner

Liz is the practice educator for the Minor Injuries and Urgent Care services based in the Emergency Department, Ripon Minor Injury Unit and Selby Minor Injuries. Liz has not only made huge improvements to the service we deliver to patients, but has been an amazing support, teacher and leader in training and guiding new practitioners starting out in this specialised area of clinical practice. Liz has faced a huge challenge in training up 9 new practitioners over the last year to ensure the Trust is ready for the expansion and service improvement in ED. This has had a direct impact on the standards of care we deliver to patients; meaning more patients are being seen by urgent care practitioners, reliving some of pressure faced by the ED and improving wait times and satisfaction for patients. Liz has organised training days, supported the practitioners in practice and given them a supportive book of references to complement the quality of teaching they have had.  Liz’s team feel lucky to have her as a manager and a role model, her inspiration has renewed her team’s enthusiasm.

Sarah Harrison, Ward Clark for Elective Orthopaedics, Rowan Ward

Sarah is a key member of the team on Rowan Ward. She is supportive, is always willing to train new members of staff and displays all the Trust values at all times. Sarah recently supported Littondale Ward, with little notice, when they were short staffed; Sarah hadn’t worked on Littondale before but took this in her stride and did an amazing job helping out, she even sought out additional training to ensure she could do everything to the best of her ability. Sarah is so patient and calm, she always does her best to make sure her job is done well. Sarah always receives positive feedback wherever she has been asked to help out, she is kind and a great team player.

Becky King, Care Support Worker, Littondale Ward

Becky always puts the patients best interests at the heart of what she does, she is always encouraging and promoting independence and going above and beyond to make sure patients have what they need. She is also a great team player. Becky is hard working, caring, professional and very supportive to the team and in particular new starters on the ward. She will always provide quality care to patients.

Miles Ripley, Acute Oncology Nurse Specialist

Miles is consistently compassionate and goes ‘above and beyond’ for patients, they always speak so highly of him, and are thankful and really appreciative of his care and support. Miles is clear, clam and honest whilst showing kindness in sometimes very difficult and emotional situations; Miles makes a difference to patient’s care and experience. Miles is considered and thoughtful in ensuring that relevant information is relayed to patients and other members of the team to ensure the best care possible; he is always professional respectful and incredibly reliable. Miles is admirable in his decision-making skill, his desire to improve and his willingness to relay difficult information, honestly and with compassion to his patients. Miles is supportive to his manager, as well as showing kindness to the team he supports; he’s always there with a listening ear to support his team.

Fiona Whiley, Community Anchor, Vaccination & Immunisations – NYY

Fiona recently started a new role of Community Anchor to expand and develop the School Age Immunisation Service’s offer for areas with historical low uptake and to enhance the offer to underserved groups in the community. Fiona has embraced this challenging role and made a significant difference to individual health, and protected the health of communities through her efforts to improve access to immunisations and to develop the service. Fiona has a positive can do attitude and has thought outside the box when exploring options with schools and communities to improve vaccination rates. Fiona has travelled many miles to ensure an improved offer is delivered, she has co-ordinated with schools to provide assemblies, captured information about barriers and challenges to immunisation access, and worked with partners to reduce these barriers. Fiona has shared her learning with others to support the immunisation coverage, with some schools achieving 100% uptake! What has been achieved in a short period of time is amazing; Fiona always puts others before herself, her team are extremely proud of the kind, caring, passionate team player Fiona is, she is an absolute star.

Robyn Messenger and Emily Denby, Screeners, Northumberland Public Health

Emily and Robyn were recruited as part of a new role to the Northumberland model, both Robyn and Emily have been proactive and have supported many other areas of the 0-19 service. This has included: supporting the setup of the public health pillar in pooling evidenced based resources and developing school resources, supporting the role of the community anchor with developing the 0-19 directory, and they are currently completing the national child measurement programme for Northumberland and have already started to plan for the next delivery for 2023-24. Emily and Robyn have demonstrated a can do attitude with the service, they are team players and are adaptable to meet the service needs when required. Everyone in the team speaks so highly of both Robyn and Emily, and have all had an element of support in their work from them. They’ve cemented themselves so well into the team in such a short space of time, the team are unsure how they managed without them!

Jonathan Green, Information Analyst Advanced, Performance Analysis

Jonathan always goes over and above in his role providing data to enable teams to evaluate and develop services. Jonathan works hard and is approachable, accommodating and takes great interest in the work teams are focusing on. Jonathan is respectful, dependable, honest and conscientious; every time you seek his professional input he does so with such openness. Jonathan is supportive and committed into helping teams in their day to day activities and also in service development projects

William Hewitt, Head of Procurement, Finance Team

William brought together Imaging Services, Capital Planning, HIF and multiple contractors to develop and rapidly deliver a solution when our CT scanner broke recently. He worked at great pace and encouraged others to do the same, always thanking and recognising their contribution. He helped the team find solutions to problems and to work pragmatically, balancing risks and pace of work. Without William’s hard work and drive, this risk would not have been mitigated so quickly. William demonstrated great leadership of the team and went above and beyond expectations to support others.

Rio Dodds and Iain Webster, Health Care Assistants, Endoscopy

Rio and Iain are hugely valuable members of the Endoscopy team. Rio is so kind and considerate towards patients and always goes that extra mile; she communicates with patients in such a fantastic way and always puts them at ease if they are worried, nervous or are finding the procedures difficult. Rio is great to work with and always works as part of the team, she is just an all-round ‘good egg’ and a joy to work with! Iain is always a pleasure to work with, whenever colleagues are teamed up with him they know he will be incredibly supportive and knowledgeable. Iain does so much around the department and embraces opportunities and challenge with enthusiasm.

Suzy Stead, Senior Paediatric Medical Secretary, Specialist Children’s – Management & Admin

Suzy goes the extra mile for her patients and her colleagues, recently for the parent of a child who received some upsetting news about a test result. Suzy ensured everything had been sent to the right people almost immediately and that the consultant contacted the family directly to discuss and reassure the parents. The list of things Suzy does for her patients is endless, she’s also the go-to person for the admin and secretarial team; her door is always open and she has the whole team smiling. Suzy is an extremely conscientious and caring colleague, she is extremely passionate about her role and is an incredible role model for all her colleagues.

Rob Cross, Capital Design Officer (Projects), Design Team

Rob demonstrates the Trust’s KITE values in everything he does, he demonstrates integrity through his professionalism and dedication. Rob responds to every request positively and delivers very high quality work at pace; he is a real team player, supporting his colleagues in clinical and operational teams. Recently Rob has supported a ward move and everyone on the team felt that Rob was kind, caring and approachable throughout all the challenges; nothing is too much trouble and he is always at the end of the phone.

Claire Patrick, Safeguarding Strategy Nurse, Stockton Management team

Claire was nominated by a colleague who was new to the safeguarding team and, despite Claire learning a new role herself, she instantly demonstrated kindness by prioritising their learning and development. Claire became an advocate for her colleagues to access learning opportunities and supported them to develop as a practitioner and to gain self-confidence within the safeguarding arena. Claire’s expert knowledge in safeguarding and her local knowledge of the complexities in the Stockton area are outstanding. Claire’s nature is friendly and approachable, she always has you at the focus of her attention. Claire demonstrates excellent team work, she is always on hand to support in other areas of the safeguarding service. She demonstrates integrity in all she does, she never loses sight of the child in highly complex situations. She inspires all people within her team to put this at the heart of all they do and inspires colleagues to work with the same passion and drive that she demonstrates.

Kayleigh Hudson, Clinical Support Worker, Same Day Emergency Care

Kayleigh received some outstanding feedback form a locum doctor who was unfamiliar with the processes at HDFT and noticed that Kayleigh was helping out with lots of activities to ensure everything ran smoothly. Kayleigh clearly loves her job, she is passionate and enthusiastic which makes a huge difference to someone new coming into the team. Kayleigh provided a succinct handover of the patients coming into SDEC – including their relevant background and any concerns from the nursing team; this saved a lot of time and enabled the team to work efficiently. Kayleigh demonstrated excellent problem solving, she was calm and methodical and dealth with challenges timely.

Rachael Stray, Operational Director – Long Term and Unscheduled Care

Rachael has demonstrated her incredible leadership, being very proactive, very helpful in supporting the Neurology team, friendly and always positive. Particularly she has shown her humanity in understanding the need to maintain up the morale of her team, going beyond her role of being a manager and facing the necessity to combine an excellent quality of service with the need of the medical professionals not to burn out too quickly. This has allowed the Neurology department service to flourish and to overcome difficulties that would have had negative consequences on the team. A colleague said “I could not hope for a better ally to have in my team”. Rachael supported each colleague in the Department with enthusiasm and understanding, engaging with the team to make the work place better.

Susie Slater, E-Rostering Officer

Susie joined the e-Rostering Support Team just over two years ago and progressed rapidly to a permanent e-Rostering officer. Her work ethic and commitment to always look wider than her role and support colleagues was evident very quickly.  She has also taken on a number of key and difficult tasks which were critical to the success of the HealthRoster rollout and delivered them very successfully.

Susie is now taking on more complex system work and configuration, as well as delivering training. She has accomplished this move extremely well and has proactively been involved with a number of teams whereby the roster may not have been maintained accurately and the manager needed support to review and correct them. Susie has made a point of meeting managers, giving additional training if required and then supporting them in making the changes in a non-judgemental manner. She also identifies other improvements that could be made and discusses them with the manager.

Mary Hughes, Patient Systems Support

Mary has helped ICU set up a new End of Shift Report, making their reporting much more appropriate for our patients and the ICU team. Mary was so approachable and accommodating to the team’s needs and is offering great on-going support. Mary has also enabled MDU to go paperlite. She has worked with the team to create pathways and documents so staff can easily navigate around the Webv system ensuring ease of use and a smooth transition to improve and update patient documentation. She has done this in a way that has alleviated anxiety for all the staff and has been present to support staff in our new venture. She always does this with a smile on her face. Mary loves her job and will spend time in a department to assess their current paper processes and then advise the team on how electronic documentation could replace their current processes, this often includes streamlining multiple paper processes into one electronic document therefore reducing admin time for staff. She maintains a close relationship with the departments throughout this process and after going paperlite so that she can support any changes needed to the electronic documentation and maintain staff engagement.

Sonia Varughese, Practice Educator – International nurses

Sonia has taken to her new role excellently well, going ‘above and beyond’. Sonia set up an evening ‘On Boarding’ event for welcoming our International Nurses to the Trust; inviting speakers from the Trust and the local community to introduce themselves as well as experienced International Nurses to offer advice and answer any questions the new nurses have. Sonia has also started creating YouTube videos to help International Nurses to settle in e.g. ‘things to know once you arrive’, this is delivered in other languages as well as English.

April 2023

Hester Marsh, Screening Data Clerk, Ante Natal Clinic

Although it is not in her job description, Hester has gone above and beyond to update the information loop on the screens in the antenatal clinic waiting area, they now display up to date public health messages for pregnant women and families, and updates from our Maternity unit. Hester spends a lot of her spare time updating her IT skills and utilising her creative flare to make the slides look professional and slick. It makes the unit look very professional. Hester’s dedication and loyalty to the department shines through and the whole team are incredibly grateful.

Elisha Teasdale, Health Care Assistant, Knaresborough and Boroughbridge

Elisha is a true example of HDFT values. Her commitment to community patients and her team is exceptional, with regular positive feedback. Elisha is enthusiastic and nothing is ever any trouble to her, always willing to help out and go the extra mile for anyone. Elisha has recently expanded her clinical skills and she displays such professionalism and compassion when putting these in practice. This has no doubt been a challenge at times when capacity has been stretched but Elisha’s strong work ethic and ability to remain focused and resilient has shone through. Elisha will make an excellent nurse one day and her team are very proud of her!

Rachel Hayman, Children in Care Staff Nurse

Rachel is a compassionate and kind practitioner; she acts as an advocate for children and is committed to ensuring their voices are heard and is able to raise concerns when she feels that a child is at risk. Rachel is a skilled, knowledgeable, and competent practitioner; she has supported new colleagues and welcomed them into the team, helping them achieve the skills and knowledge required to do their role.

Rachel is a good communicator and is able to work professionally with multi-agency partners, living the Trust values and maintaining high standards. Rachel is valued by all her colleagues and is a valued member of the Tees Valley Children in Care Team.

Gill Robinson, Clinical Locality Manager

Gill is such a kind, fair and caring manager. Her team feel so lucky to have her as a manager, Gill goes above and beyond to ensure patients safety and care needs are met. Gill goes out of her way to protect the wellbeing of her staff and ensure each staff member feels supported and valued.

Gill is an outstanding manager who puts the patients care and safety at the forefront of all decisions, she does this whilst protecting her staff and maintaining a happy healthy working environment. No matter how busy Gill’s day is, her door is always open to her staff, to lend support or a listening ear. Gill shows integrity by putting patients first, promoting patient centred care and being commitment to quality care. Gill respects staff and patients, and shows compassion and kindness to everyone who meets her.

Martine Ali, Locality Manager, Gateshead

Martine has been an extremely supportive locality manager within the South Team in Gateshead. As a Team they feel she is aware of, and takes actions, when the team are overwhelmed and understaffed and ensures that they are supported to deliver the healthy child programme and meet the service needs. Martine is empathetic and supportive to her team, regularly checking in with them and providing 1:1 support above and beyond the expected. Martine is respectful of her staff within the team and extremely approachable, staff feel valued under her management and their hard work is always recognised.

Isobel Oliver, Staff Nurse, Harrogate North Community Care Team

Isobel is a newly registered staff nurse working in community. She has shown nothing but dedication, encouragement, support and passion to her role. Isobel has taken to her further role as a practice supervisor impeccably well and has done a tremendous job at supporting students; she takes great pride in welcoming them and takes her time to support them wholly. One student said “you feel like you can achieve anything knowing that she has your back”. Any student will be lucky to have Isobel as their supervisor and she is much appreciated. Isobel has consistently shown high levels of integrity, knowledge, positivity, support and equality. Isobel continuously advocates to maximise placement experience and helps build confidence, she is a delight to be around and ensures her patients are well cared for.

Samantha (Sam) Cooper, Family Health Practitioner

Sam has recently been accredited as a Quality Improvement Champion at Silver level after completion of a project which looked at supporting colleagues in relation to children with special educational needs. This has allowed her to her share knowledge and skills with colleagues and support them with the families that they are working with. Sam is a true advocate for families of children with special educational needs. She goes above and beyond to ensure that they get the right support they need. Sam’s previous experience has been a huge benefit to the whole team and her sharing of knowledge will no doubt continue to improve the service that the health visiting team provide and ensure the best outcomes for children and their families. Sam also works hard to support families with applications, liaising with schools and relevant agencies to ensure the voice of the child is heard and they can reach their full potential.

Lisa Lewis, Health Visitor, Children’s 0-5 Service – Middlesbrough

Lisa has worked intensely with a family for 2 years and has shown integrity by being open and honest with them about help and support. Lisa has liaised with lots of different professionals to ensure the voices of the children were heard and their health needs met, going ‘above and beyond’ to keep the children safe and improve the wellbeing for the family. Lisa is passionate and committed to her role, she always gives 100% and takes pride in developing a close relationship with her families

Kirsty King, Family Health Practitioner, Northumberland School Nurses

Kirsty has shown exceptional skills in managing a case of a young person struggling to manage their mental health. Kirsty established a positive, therapeutic relationship where the young person developed skills to manage their emotions and build resilience. Kirsty also identified that the young person’s parent was experiences a decline in their mental health; Kirsty worked closely with both the young person and their parent to build an honest, trusting relationship and support them to access the help they needed. Kirsty demonstrated exemplary empathy, compassion and professionalism in supporting the family; she had difficult, sensitive and honest conversations with them in a respectful way.

Claire Mudd, Senior HR Advisor

Claire has worked for as a Senior HR advisor for a number of years and has an excellent, sound working knowledge of NHS Human Resource procedures. Claire is friendly and approachable, during contentious HR meetings with colleagues Claire always shows respects and respects the opinions of others. Working primarily in the 0-19 directorate, Claire is always available and flexible to support HR meetings across the footprint, and is an active team player. Claire upholds the Trust Values in her day to day work and her colleague say is a true pleasure working with her.

Paul Langley, Patient Systems Specialist

Paul has spent the last 2 years on the BadgerNet project, whilst doing this he supports both his colleagues and users as well as patients. Paul has listened and communicated clearly with all aspects of BadgerNet and always displays personal and professional integrity; he has even been awarded an honorary midwifery degree for his contribution to the team. Paul always has a smile and a sense of humour, and goes above and beyond for everyone. He shows compassion for others and is always willing to help, no matter what it is – no problem is too big or too small. Paul welcomes change with a can do attitude and thinks of the bigger picture, working with other departments personally to solve problems. He is always approachable and welcoming.

March 2023

Sue Craven, Clerical Officer, Audiology

Sue is always very friendly and very helpful and kind when dealing with queries about hearing care in Audiology. She is very professional and always very knowledgeable. Sue treats patients, with an always friendly, professional and positive reception. She is always keen to help sort out any problems and point patients in the right direction to get the relevant assistance with their hearing.

Emily Leese, Mandatory Training Lead

Emily was nominated by a colleague who told us about her incredible work during the Mandatory Training RPIW; Emily has been front and centre of the fantastic progress being made. Emily has shown enthusiasm and commitment, taking ownership of the actions and she has been the driving force, showing passion and a genuine interest in delivering what the team set out to achieve. Emily has single headedly built the entire mandatory training reports and dashboards that are frequently used, and are innovative with new ideas and better ways of working – recently supporting clinical teams with training role profiles to support decision-making. Emily demonstrates kindness and agility in an unprecedented time of change. Regularly going the extra mile for the entire organisation providing ad hoc training and reports for all colleagues. Emily’s kind nature supports colleagues in a judgement-free way, to access training and to ensure they are able to pull accurate data from Learning Lab.

Lorraine Dyson, Clinical Procurement Specialist Nurse

Lorraine has consistently empowered and supported all of the women and men within the Trusts Menopause Staff Network. Lorraine has made a MASSIVE difference to all of their lives, enabling them to have a safe space, to express themselves and share tips. It’s such an uplifting network group and we’d like to recognise Lorraine for her huge contribution of chairing the meetings, keeping everyone up to date with announcements and arranging guest speakers.

Ros Parkinson, Respiratory and Allergy Nurse Specialist, Paediatric Outpatients

Ros was nominated by a patients mum who told us that Ros is ‘a credit to Harrogate Hospital’. All the staff they have met have been fantastic but Ros is always there to put their anxious mind at rest, answering ‘never ending’ emails, helping to work out a care plan for their son and offering to see him in clinic at the drop of a hat. One thing that make Ros stand out is how she is so kind, reminding them that they are doing a good job. She really is a superstar.

Jean Lewis, Gastroenterology Secretary

Jean has such an open and lovely personality, she is always happy to do anything and often goes out of her way to help everyone, patients, colleagues, consultants – people in the corridor, in the lifts. Recently, a patient arrived at the hospital for a consultation, not realising it was a telephone consultation, the Clinician was on site and able to see the patient in-person so Jean arranged a room where they could wait and offered them a cup of tea – instantly putting the patient at ease. Jean is thoughtful and kind, she remembers every time her colleagues have got something going and always asks about it. Jean works hard, is eager to learn new things, likes to get to the bottom of queries and give things a go, and if someone is upset or overwhelmed then she’s down to the shop for chocolate biscuits and a sympathetic ear. Jean’s colleague said “I’ve never seen anyone say ‘I just love my job’ as often as Jean”.

Tanya Dean, Clinical Support Worker, Main Theatres

Tanya has a professional and friendly approach to everything she does and everyone she meets; she offers so much support, guidance and coaching to new colleagues as well. Tanya is thorough and conscientious within every aspect of her clinical role, and she demonstrates best practice readily. Tanya’s colleagues are proud to work with her Tanya, she works strongly within the KITE values.

Ali Pritchard, Clinical Psychologist, Child Development Centres

Ali Pritchard works with under 5’s with complex needs and she is absolutely passionate about babies and young children. She devotes much of her time and energy into thinking about how children make sense of the world, and how to support them to thrive. She works tirelessly with families, helping parents/ carers/ education professionals and others to understand the little people in their lives, and to help them to thrive. She is a fierce advocate of early intervention and holding the child at the centre of everything we do, and this passion drives her. Ali takes care of her colleagues in Northallerton, giving them time and space when they are overwhelmed; she has been integral in lifting the spirits of her colleagues by bringing in homemade treats…including her popular Scottish tablet. Ali has a wonderful sense of humour and always looks for the positive in any situation.

Terri Robson, Business Support Administrator, Safeguarding Children NYY

Terri comes to work every day with a smile on her face, ready to face challenges with a positive attitude. Terri has given so much of her own time to ensure her team continue to be able to deliver the best service to children in Care, and Terri is a huge part of why the Team are still meeting our goals each month. Even when under a huge amount of pressure, Terri makes sure the team are okay and keeps them focussed and motivated. Terri is always someone you can rely on. Terri spreads kindness by praising colleagues, checking in on colleagues if she senses they are having a bad day and she is happy to help anyone out in a time of need, even when she is busy herself.

Terri Robson, Business Support Administrator, Safeguarding Children NYY

Terri comes to work every day with a smile on her face, ready to face challenges with a positive attitude. Terri has given so much of her own time to ensure her team continue to be able to deliver the best service to children in Care, and Terri is a huge part of why the Team are still meeting our goals each month. Even when under a huge amount of pressure, Terri makes sure the team are okay and keeps them focussed and motivated. Terri is always someone you can rely on. Terri spreads kindness by praising colleagues, checking in on colleagues if she senses they are having a bad day and she is happy to help anyone out in a time of need, even when she is busy herself.

Sara Abbas-Llewelyn, Lead Pharmacist and Nadia Ali, Practice Educator – Medicines Management

Sara and Nadia were nominated for their leadership in the implementation of Omnicell cabinets across the Trust. Both Sara and Nadia adjusted their working patterns to support ‘go live’ for each new clinical area, the impact of this is that both day shift and night shift were supported, enabling a smooth implementation. Feedback from nursing teams has been “this has been the smoothest digital roll out programme at HDFT”.

Sara has maintained professionalism and integrity under extremely challenging circumstances and has been successful in achieving her goals and winning hearts and minds in the delivery of a significant medicines safety initiative. Sara leads by example and is not afraid to ‘roll up her sleeves’ and get the job done. Sara also challenges and stretches her team to be the best they can be. Sara is incredibly kind, she has invested a lot of her personal time supporting health and wellbeing sessions in Pharmacy by running meditation and mindfulness sessions. Sara recognises the value and contribution of her team and says a genuine thank you. Sara has also championed raising awareness around equality, diversity and inclusion and acts as a strong role model for women from the BAME Community and a strong role model for all her colleagues.

Nadia has gone ‘above and beyond’ to ensure that training sessions for the Omnicell cabinets were tailored to individual’s needs. Nadia has shown courage and strength in the face of opposition; the level of professional maturity Nadia has shown in these circumstances has been exceptional. Nadia has been extremely supportive to the team she has a “can-do” attitude, and has always helped pick the team up when there have been some tough times. Nadia always recognises the contribution other people make and goes out of her way to thank her team. Nadia has continued to provide health and wellbeing support in-house in Pharmacy in the form of art workshops, colleagues are able to have fun and enjoy themselves.

Nicola Finlay, Service Manager & Anna McKivitt, Health Visitor

Nicola and Anna have shown invaluable support to colleagues who are newly qualified and returning from extended periods of leave. Despite the challenging times we’re in, they have both always gone above and beyond to support the whole team with a ‘door is always open’ approach. Nothing is ever too much trouble, they are kind, calm and supportive; give sound, professional advice and are consciously aware to support the team at all times. Nicola and Anna are the epitome of kindness and are welcoming in their approach.

Judy Beeforth, Care Support Worker, Acute Frailty Unit

Judy has been a recent addition to the Acute Frailty team and has made a huge impact to improve the efficiency of the ward in multiple ways. One of the things Judy has been working on is changing how patients beds are displayed on the ward screens to make them easier to locate; Just always has up to date ward lists ready and has been proactive and positive in every aspect of her work. Judy is a fantastic member of the team and will always do all that she can to help and improve the experience for patients and relatives, she’s also great at supporting new colleagues with their staff development and is a credit to the team.

Eggifa Mwarazi, Staff Nurse, Endoscopy

Eggifa is a great person to work with and a great team member; it doesn’t matter what happens, she is always happy, caring, motivating and always looking out for colleagues and patients. Eggifa is approachable, reliable and kind; she listens to her colleagues and has an intuitive and nurturing response, particularly to younger members of the team. She is open and responsive to feedback and endeavours to learn from situational experiences to improve her practice and deliver quality care to patients. Eggifa makes endoscopy a great place to be.

Trudy Phillips, Lead Medical Secretary

Trudy routinely goes above and beyond for patients, her team and the wider Trust, she helps whenever she identifies the need and has the capacity to do so. Trudy provides support and practical resource to ensure patient’s care and staff wellbeing is not compromised. Recently Trudy has extended her support to the Acute Medicine team to go through 100s of patients records following discharge to make sure all patient’s needs are met. The LTUC management team and the Acute Medicine Consultant team are immensely grateful to Trudy for her dedication and tenacity for patient care.

Annette Cadwallader, Finance Manager

Annette is a true advocate for Health and Wellbeing across Finance and the Community and Children’s Directorate. She is empathetic, supportive and an amazingly kind individual. Annette has been key in developing a number of initiatives which have been extremely well received. She has been a great support to her colleagues and is a great role model, Annette fully represents the trust value of Kindness. Annette really understands the service we deliver and is incredibly supportive, she is always on hand to support new tenders, provide information to commissioners, and provides a clear, detailed analysis of budgets. She is always willing to go the extra mile and is always a kind and supportive colleague.

Tina Bucktrout, Community Midwife, Antenatal

Tina has been an integral part of the community midwifery team for a long time. She always arrives early, and stays late in order to ensure that all the women, and her colleagues are well cared for and happy. She is a kind to all, and provides a much needed sounding board for everyone. If anyone needs any help Tina is always the first to offer. She will regularly take work load off other members of staff if she sees them struggling. She provides true personalised care for her women, providing them appointments at a time and location which suit them. She often volunteers to be on call for homebirths to prevent the service being cancelled. Recently she offered to be on call for a women on her caseload, and worked into her day off to help this family achieve the birth they wanted.

Amy Webb, Advanced Clinical Pharmacist, Pharmacy Department

Amy has been an invaluable source of advice and expertise throughout the development, planning and launch of a new service transitioning the supply of COVID oral treatments into community pharmacies; as well as developing and delivering training to community pharmacists. This work has been a true example of how collaborative and innovative working across organisational boundaries can happen at pace and be successful in order to achieve care closer to home for patients and increase efficiencies in our healthcare systems. Without Amy, this service would not have launched when it did, which would have an impact on our patients, their health outcomes, as well as ripple effects felt in other areas.

Amy has always been warm, encouraging and supportive of the programme and her colleagues; Amy’s kind and willing nature has forged positive relationships with all involved and she is a highly valued member of the pharmacy team, working with integrity and professionalism at all times.

James Deeming, Audiologist

James was nominated by a colleague for how amazing, careful and kind he was when dealing with their hearing assessment. James was really considerate to ensure there was no pain when fitting test equipment and constantly checked to see if they were okay, comfortable and understood what was happening. It was clear that James wanted to ensure his colleague’s hearing aid was fitted to the best of his ability and, showing great knowledge of the equipment and being very friendly.

Rachel Robson, Digital Midwife

Rachel has been instrumental in the implementation of BadgerNet for Maternity Services. Rachel has led the project from the start and worked closely with her colleagues in IT services, being the creator and builder of much of the system. The project could not have been completed without Rachel and her team are so grateful to her for this improvement that will improve care for mums, babies and families. Rachel has devoted her time and energy to this huge feat and has carried herself through it with a kind helpful approach.

Emily Griffiths, Sister/Charge Nurse, Fountains Ward

Emily is an absolutely outstanding member of staff. If you walk onto Fountains ward at any given time and ask any member of the team, they will tell you exactly the same. She is so welcoming to anyone working on Fountains with her, whether that be her own team, another colleagues that may have been moved from another ward to help or someone from an agency or NHSP. Emily is so friendly, and always goes above and beyond to help everyone where and when she can. Even if she is in charge of the ward and has her own patients, she always remains calm and nothing is too much trouble. She is extremely approachable and an absolute asset to the Trust. Emily demonstrates outstanding leadership during challenging situations , both in the management of her patients and her support for her team. Emily is calm, professional, objective and leads her team well with support and encouragement

Tina Steel, Service Manager, Middlesbrough Central

‘Wow’ and ‘Inspirational’ are the first words that come to mind when describing Tina. Tina leads the most well cared for, supported and motivated team and it is Tina’s amazing nurturing, positive, kind and caring leadership style that creates this culture. In a recent meeting with the 0-19 commissioner, they could not speak highly enough of the culture that Tina has created and how much Tina is valued across the system in Middlesbrough. Tina has recently developed a staff charter in partnership with staff that focuses on how they support staff well-being and this is going to be rolled out across other areas. The team feel so lucky to have Tina as their service manager in Middlesbrough and they really feel Tina should be recognised for her dedication to getting the best outcomes for Children Young People and Families.

February 2023

Deborah Buckton, Ward Clerk, Lascelles

Deborah Buckton was nominated by her colleague for constantly going ‘above and beyond’ for colleagues, patients and visitors on the ward. Deborah often comes in early, leaves late and swaps shifts to help her colleagues out; she unpacks all the deliveries and supports when extra clinics are put on. Deborah goes out of her way to ensure patients have a good experience, providing 1:1 care for patients with dementia and neurological conditions to ensure their safety is maintained and bringing in special food and drinks for patients to ensure they get what they need if they can’t access it from the canteen. Deborah does all of this with a ‘nothing is too much trouble’ attitude always smiling as she goes. She is kind, caring and always welcoming.

Dr Thomas Heather, Doctor in Training

Tom is an incredibly skilled doctor who shows endless kindness, empathy and compassion to all of the patients he sees. He is approachable and always supportive to the nursing staff on wards and works well with the critical care outreach team. He provides expert patient care and is always willing to go above and beyond. He has a very positive upbeat attitude and this shows in the work he does. One example was when Tom was reviewing an elderly and confused patient, he spoke to them with such compassion and treated them with such dignity. He was gentle with his words and explained so clearly what was happening. It was evident to see how respectful Tom was by listening intently to them and the patient settled instantly.

Stacey Turner, Midwife, Pannal Ward

Stacey has recently been appointed as Deputy Ward Manager on Pannal Ward and since appointment Stacey has worked so hard to quickly and effectively develop leadership skills, continually supporting all of her colleagues. Stacey is perpetually kind, and is often first to offer shift swaps to help her colleagues out, she is generous with her skills and knowledge to students. Stacey is regularly complimented in patient and service user feedback and she naturally exhibits all of the trust values.

Brenda Towers, Family Health Practitioner, 0-19 Service Northumberland Central Team

Brenda is a highly skilled Family Health Practitioner who goes above and beyond in all aspects of her role to ensure families and children receive the best possible outcomes. Brenda is a fantastic team member, supporting her colleagues as well as families. Recently Brenda visited a family and mum in crisis, Brenda contacted the crisis team and waited until mum got a call back from them and arranged for someone to look after the children. She really when the extra mile to ensure the safety and comfort of the whole family.

Claire Harding, Service Manager PSC

Claire is an outstanding leader who leads by example every single day. She displays the kindness value at all times by offering colleagues support and regularly checking in with them. Claire always acts with her colleagues and patients interests at the centre of all she does.

Debbie Argent, Specialist Nurse and Sarah Grant, Health and Wellbeing Area Manager

Deborah and Sarah have improved the way we deliver the pre-chemotherapy information sessions to patients. Previously the patients would attend the unit for quite some time and the nurse would go through all of the information required verbally. This has now been made into a video for the patient to watch at home, in a more relaxed environment, with a friend or relative if desired. They still attend the unit for us to do important checks before they start treatment, however it has cut down the time the patients’ needs to spend here and gives them chance to understand the treatment process before they attend the unit and they can ask questions and re-watch the video if required. We have had great feedback from staff and patients regarding how much this has impacted on their work and improved the service. It wasn’t an easy project arranging the videographer, writing scripts and being involved in the endless editing process; as well as recruiting staff as actors! We have now been delivering the information sessions this way for many months and continually get great feedback.

Mr David Copas, Consultant

David was nominated by his colleagues for showing wonderful kindness to a colleague who was worried and stressed, and needed support. David is an incredibly kind individual who knows that treating and caring for the team around him ensures he can treat his patients to the highest possible standards. He leads by example and shows his team he cares for each and every one, no matter of role or job title. In doing so, he sets standards and expectations of the team, facilitating effective and efficient care for his patients. David continually wants to improve his patient outcomes by educating those around him. Not only is he the College Tutor, with an ongoing commitment to education of medical staff, but he has come in on his weekends off to train theatre staff. This has allowed his team to gain a better understanding of the kit and implants he uses and what his is trying to achieve for his patients. This dedication is ultimately about his patients, but it comes from teamwork, that he wants to nurture.

Christopher Busby, Care Support Worker

Chris was nominated by a patient’s relative for the wonderful care their father received. Everyone on the ward was kind and caring but Chris stood out for how he chatted and interacted with patients, relatives and colleagues on the ward. Chris was always professional, clearly displaying his name badge and was extremely polite and respectful. Chris was actively encouraging patients to be involved with their care and empowering them to make decisions and treating them with dignity. No task was too small, not matter how busy Chris was, he always managed to make relatives a cup of tea.

Ben Haywood-Noble & Sarah Foulds, Learning Disabilities Nurses

Ben and Sarah were nominated for their outstanding contributions to all the patients who have required there services throughout the hospital. A patient’s mother told us about how Ben and Sara helped organise their son’s safe admission and were kind, considerate, patient and generally all round amazing!!

Ade Whitefield, Registered Nurse

Ade was nominated for an award by a colleague for how brilliantly she helped look after an unexpectedly unwell patient. Ade was brilliant in every sense – expert clinical and logistical skills, excellent communication with colleagues and the patients’ relatives, prompt administration of medication, close observation and swift escalation when needed at 4am! The patient and their relatives received excellent care, and the team couldn’t have done their job to the same degree without her input, they appreciate her hard work.

Paula Olsen, Delivery Suite Co-ordinator

Paula is a joy to work with, after some incredibly testing shifts recently Paula has continued to lead her shift with calmness and grace. Nothing ever seems to phase her and she is a constant support to the whole team. Paula is always kind and  notably generous with her time and knowledge when on shift. Paula is also new to the trust and in her short time here she has adjusted amazingly. Paula always supports all the staff, listens and is considerate; she has excellent time management skills and always says thankyou to the teams she works with.

Cat Gill, Clerical Officer, Cardio-Respiratory Department

Cat notice a patient who came in to the department looking distressed, they then turned round and walked straight out. Cat followed them to check they were ok. The patient had missed their appointment as they had been walking round plucking up the courage to come in. The patient had a recurrence of previous symptoms, was keeping it a secret from family and was very distressed. Cat managed to persuade them to come back the next day as there had been a cancellation. Cat said she would keep an eye out for the patient so they felt reassured. She persuaded them to tell her family, supported them through her journey in cardiology and took them to blood taking, sitting with them to make sure they were ok. Cat is always kind, polite and shows real empathy for patients.

Ben Haywood-Noble & Sarah Foulds, Learning Disabilities Nurses

Ben and Sarah were nominated for their outstanding contributions to all the patients who have required there services throughout the hospital. A patient’s mother told us about how Ben and Sara helped organise their son’s safe admission and were kind, considerate, patient and generally all round amazing!!

Christopher Busby, Care Support Worker

Chris was nominated by a patient’s relative for the wonderful care their father received. Everyone on the ward was kind and caring but Chris stood out for how he chatted and interacted with patients, relatives and colleagues on the ward. Chris was always professional, clearly displaying his name badge and was extremely polite and respectful. Chris was actively encouraging patients to be involved with their care and empowering them to make decisions and treating them with dignity. No task was too small, not matter how busy Chris was, he always managed to make relatives a cup of tea.

Rachel Molyneux, Assistant Practitioner, Autism Assessment Team

Rachel has gone above and beyond to support the team over the last few months. She has supported colleagues and learned new skills to allow her to flex priority needs. She has thrived with new aspects of the role and juggling competing demands. Not only is her knowledge of autism and support services excellent, but she has demonstrated her ability to learn new tools and share written information with a range of audiences. Rachel has shown outstanding kindness in her response to families who contact the service in great distress. Families often seek help from Rachel when they feel lost and overwhelmed, either at the start of their journey into thinking that their child might be autistic, or upon finding out the outcome of an assessment. Rachel’s is kind and calm in her manner, as well as confident and knowledgeable about autism– she can gently navigate them to the most appropriate support.  Rachel is especially skilled at recognising and responding to families where they are at, rather than expecting to use a ‘one size fits all’ approach.  She can be one of the first steps in the journey through the service, as well as the last step, and she bookends the assessment they do with compassion and kindness, for which families are grateful.

Dr Beth Billington, Autism Assessment Team Lead & Paediatric Psychology lead

Beth is totally deserving of recognition, and we regularly get feedback from others on how she makes such an impact on their working lives, goes above and beyond, lives the Trust Values (and thus brings out those values in others) and has made such a positive difference to her service users and the teams around her. Beth does an exceptional job leading the Autism Team. She has amazing mental agility, she is kind and thoughtful, reflective, respectful, she gives credit where it is due, she is collaborative in her approach and she is always positive in her approach. Beth appears to handle the pressure of her very demanding role extremely well, juggling clinical work, different work projects and managing colleagues in the team. Beth’s peers think that she is supportive and creates a culture where questions are encouraged and contributions from everyone are wanted; one colleague said: “Beth is quality & I appreciate her presence in my working life”.

January 2023

Geraldine Wheeler, End of Life Coordinator, Adult Community Services – Admin Team

Geraldine goes above and beyond daily, she is a great colleague and team member. Geraldine is a vital link between clinical experts and patients, ensuring the most vulnerable patients in our community are cared for in the best possible way. During times of extreme pressure Geraldine has never shown signs of strain and has had to flex her working week on multiple occasions to help meet our service need. Geraldine also worked extra shifts to help out with the vaccination centre and always puts others before herself.

Bethany Brooksbank, Children’s Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner

Bethany was working 1-1 with a young person who disclosed an incident and Bethany was able to advocate for the young person and support them through the process of reporting this incident to the police and through discussions with their parents. Bethany then attended the strategy meeting and it was commented that Bethany was able to get the voice of the young person across and share some insight in to the lived experience for the young person. The chair commented how well Bethany was able to summarise the young person’s needs. “I believe Bethany’s approach enabled a safe place with a trusted relationship which allowed the young person be comfortable to make the disclosure”. Bethany was non-judgemental and showed respect to the young person

Mr Farooq, Consultant, General Surgery

Mr Farooq was nominated by a patient who felt privileged to have been a patient of Mr Farooq’s because he is outstanding in every aspect of his work. At every consultation, Mr Farooq was clear and honest about the situation, giving the patient and their partner confidence and reassurance about what they were facing. The operation they had demonstrated Mr Farooq’s skill and bravery as a surgeon, it was a great success and they were left with minimal scars from the keyhole surgery. During the patient’s recovery, Mr Farooq visited them twice a day to monitor progress and make helpful suggestions for a speedy recovery. It is clear that Mr Farooq is well respected and operates as a member of a team, in which all members are valued. A colleague of Mr Farooq’s also commented that he cares deeply, works extremely hard and he is very good at his job.

Gayle Wright, Health Visitor

Gayle is a really positive team member with a great can do attitude. She is really flexible in her approach to work and really supportive to her team to ensure that service delivery is maintained and colleagues are supported. Gayle is a people person and is fantastic in her role as a health visitor. Recently receiving some feedback from a client who wanted to express how much they valued Gayle’s antenatal contact and described Gayle as personable, non judgemental and “spot on.” Gayle arranged a secret Christmas raffle for the team, making, purchasing and wrapping gifts for everyone to enjoy. She didn’t tell anyone that she had done it so it remained a mystery to all until very recently. This kindness did lift all the team spirits at it was enjoyed by all, Gayle did all this in her own time and own expense.

Becci Vickers, Audit & Data Officer

Becci is our stroke data clerk who has been a great support on Oakdale and Granby Ward while they have not had a ward clerk. She has combined her role and worked extra hours to make sure that notes are in the right place, doctors have jobs completed, ambulances are booked, labels are printed, phones are answered to name but a few items.  She has taken the lead on SALUS and has now agreed to do SALUS for both Granby and Oakdale.  Nothing is ever too much trouble, you can always count on Becci to laminate something, run an errand, order equipment…the list goes on.  She is very efficient and organised, kind and caring to everyone, supportive to all MDT members and has a positive attitude.

Amanda Rayner, Physiotherapy Assistant Practitioner, Specialist Children’s Services

Amanda is so generous and kind. She always goes above and beyond for families. She is a true supporter and advocate for children with additional needs and will champion them. Amanda works with many vulnerable families and will always take a lot of care to ensure they understand about appointments, texting vulnerable families to ensure they remember important appointments etc. Amanda is also excellent at adapting physio sessions to make them fun for children – linking them to their interests. She bought Christmas presents for a family who’s Mum had told her on a visit that she couldn’t afford to buy them anything. Amanda rushed around in the days before Christmas buying the children some gifts so they would have something to open on Christmas day. She always has a smile on her face and puts the children and families she works with first. She is fab!

Helen Rogers, Health Visitor, Central 0-19 – North Yorkshire

Helen is a kind and welcoming person. She has genuine compassion for her colleagues and will drop what she is doing to help colleagues. In one instance, Helen noticed a new colleague was overwhelmed with the workload and took the time to discuss their new role with them, answer their questions and explain things to them in an easy to understand way. Helen took the time to understand her colleagues struggles and concerns, and she then, put herself in their shoes by remembering what it was like to be newly qualified. Helen supports all team members and is appreciative to them. She notices what others do to make a difference and thank them all individually and as a team, so they all feel valued.

Deborah Stuart, BFI Co-ordinator, North Yorkshire Management Team

Debbie has been inspirational in the development of the Infant Feeding Pillar. This is a completely new service which has evolved through Debbie’s passion for Public Health issues such as Breastfeeding and her leadership role within the “UNICEF – Baby Friendly Initiative”, where she has facilitated successive accreditation through staff training and audits. Debbie is a kind, supportive and approachable Clinical Team Leader, who shows integrity, vision and positivity. She values the opinions of others and has nurtured the development of a cohesive, innovative and proactive Team. Debbie is keen to promote individual development and encourages team members to adapt their skills for the benefit of children & families within North Yorkshire.

Charlotte Evans, Registered Nursing Associate, Endoscopy

At the start of 2020 Charlotte joined the team to train as a band 4 Registered Nursing Associate. This was a 2 year course where she worked relentlessly not only in the Endoscopy Department but also on ITU and many wards to help with the Covid pandemic providing front line services to patients and helping the respective ward teams. In January 2022 Charlotte successfully completed her course and received her qualification, she has achieved this by working independently and conscientiously throughout. It is a credit to her that she remained focused and committed.

Charlotte is kind, caring and extremely hardworking. She always looks out for her colleagues and is the first to offer help when she sees a colleague tiring or needing help. Several members of the Endoscopy team have individually and independently commented on what a help Charlotte is and how much they enjoy working with her. Even at the end of a busy day Charlotte is still tirelessly working with a pleasant demeanour and is still always looking for more jobs to do. She is committed to delivering excellent care within the department and is active in delivering change to make improvements.

Brooke Donkersley, Specialist Pharmacy Technician and Tasmin Preston, Foundation Pharmacist

Brooke and Tasmin continuously work above and beyond for patients. But in particular one shift when two patients were requiring discharge but were proving difficult to coordinate. Brooke and Tasmin worked incredibly well as a team to achieve the best for both patients. And were able to achieve discharges for both patients before Christmas. Brooke and Tasmin are assets to the pharmacy team and their wards.

Boby Binoy, Sister, Bolton Ward

Boby goes above and beyond for patients and the staff, she is always calm –  even on a busy day. Boby always has a plan and easily manages complicated discharges. Boby is incredibly kind and approachable, making sure everyone gets their breaks properly and helping with medication rounds. Boby is an excellent nurse and leader, she shows exceptional care, supports her team and nothing is too much trouble for her.

December 2022

Michelle Creasey, District Nurse, Knaresborough and Boroughbridge

Michelle was nominated by a patient’s relative who said Michelle is a credit to her profession, she showed both of their parents respect; she treated their Dad with dignity, kindness and excellent care at every visit. Michelle was like a ray of sunshine which brightened the family’s day, she was witty, with a hint of mischief, and more importantly really took the time to sit and talk to their Mum and ask how she was. This was so important to include her and acknowledge how she must be feeling losing her husband of almost 59 years and this has left a lasting impression. She always spoke to their Dad with the utmost respect and he would give a smile and a thumbs up after she left. The family think Michelle is a wonderful lady and a wonderful health professional, they will always be thankful for her care.

Amanda Metcalfe, Stores Co-ordinator, Emergency Department

Amanda joined the NHS just over a year ago and has thrown herself into the role, learning all about the huge range of clinical equipment, dressings and stock that we use, re-thinking how we store things, coming up with more efficient ordering schedules so we aren’t over-run or running low on particular items. The reconfiguration of the department has caused significant disruption and Amanda has been key to adapting and re-arranging the department when different areas close and things need to be moved around. Amanda is very hardworking and always remains professional. In terms of trust values, she demonstrates fantastic teamwork, going above and beyond, and being flexible with her hours to best fit in with what the department needs. Recently the department has set up a clothing bank for vulnerable patients who don’t have any clothes to go home in. Amanda has helped other colleagues to set this up and has worked to source some clothes and donations to stock it up. Amanda is the backbone of the department and nothing is ever too much trouble for her.

Katie Queally, Stroke Coordinator Nurse Specialist, Granby Ward

Katie was nominated for an award on the back of all the service improvements she has made for our stroke patients on Granby ward since she came into post . Katie constantly develops strategies to ensure practice development and education for all our healthcare workers on Granby for example she has written an inpatient stroke pathway to ensure that all new stroke patients under our care receive the best treatment and are kept safe at HDFT. Katie is passionate about providing the best possible care and experience for our stroke patients and is a core member of the MDT providing professional advice to and liaising with medical, therapy, social and nursing staff within the trust and in Primary care. Katie is a valuable member of our team on Granby and always goes above and beyond for our patients and her colleagues.

Lana Hannant, Respiratory Nurse Specialist

Lana has single handed co-ordinated the appeal for warm clothes for people living in Poltava in the Ukraine, to the point that she actually filled a van full of all of the donations. She is kind and caring and will always go above and beyond not only for her patients and her colleagues but also for complete strangers living in another country. She is a positive role model to all HDFT staff.

Chris Helks, Information Analyst

Chris has been a wonderful member of the team contributing to many areas of work most notably for the Children’s and Community Directorate but also picking up ad hocs and helping to settle in new members of the team. Chris goes out of his way to help colleagues to feel at ease and confident in their roles within the team, he is always there with a welcoming smile and an amusing anecdote. Chris also goes out of his way to make sure that his work is the very best it can be, to investigate all the way through to conclusion any problems that occur and explain both clearly, concisely and in sufficient detail to ensure his audience understands the information he is presenting before them be it a complex report, internal training or how his latest cycling achievement has gone. Chris is always willing to pick up additional duties and help out his colleagues from deputising at meetings to tackling the trickiest ad hocs. Chris has a way of putting everyone he works with at ease, he never over promises and always delivers. Chris manages expectations well, is always happy to help out and will go above and beyond.

Jolly Easo, Practice Educator

Jolly really does live up to her name. She is an educator who supports all our global nurses. These are nurses that start work with the Trust but who have just moved to the UK from countries outside of the UK. She independently supports these global nurses, not just from an education point of view, but also from a pastoral care point of view e.g. assist with lost passports, lost luggage (providing clothing after suitcase went astray), finding furniture, organising accommodation and official form filling. The majority of this is outside of Jolly’s official role, and done simply out of her good heart and her will to support nurses who are completely new to the UK. Many are very young and who are away from their families for the first time. She ensures that the global nurses are educated to UK standards, coaching them to pass an exam allowing them to work in our NHS hospital Trust. She truly embodies all of the Trust values.

Emily Reid, Resourcing Project Manager

Emily has always been supportive to all the International nurses making sure the nurses’ journey is in ease and comfort from origin country to UK. Emily has successfully met this year’s target of 32 international nurses landing in the UK before 31st December 2022 and successfully secured external funding.  The international nurses and matrons across the organisation really appreciate Emily’s dedication. Apart from that, she is hardworking and dedicated to work, her helping attitude really makes a difference.

Lynne Boyd, Matron

Lynne wears her heart on her sleeve and her passion for Community Nursing (and the wider Adult Community Services) is unparalleled.  She has shaped the service as we see it today and has led on so may service improvement initiatives it would be impossible to list them all.  She has been a champion for pressure ulcer care, has led cost saving initiatives such as ONPOS, she has led on upskilling our health care support workers and is currently doing a lot of work on safer nursing staffing. Lynne is extremely supportive, an excellent role model and voice of fellow colleagues. Lynne always brings her sense of humour with her to work which lights up the dark days.

Karen Lister, Medical Secretary

Karen goes over and above to carry out her role and support all colleagues at all times with a smile on her face. Nothing is too much trouble and she is always willing to help. She displays all the Trust values encouraging teamwork and will always be in kind in any situation. She is organised, efficient makes a difference every day. Karen treats all patients and staff with the same level of respect and kindness no matter of their background, beliefs or situation. She supports with fact finding for patient concerns and will go over and above to provide a good level of detail and will help to find resolutions where possible too, acting with integrity and equality.

Liz Simmons, Community Team Manager, ACS Central

Liz is just an amazing person, everyone she meets she leaves a lasting impression on. She has so much knowledge and so much compassion. It is an absolute pleasure to have worked with her and being able to have learned from her. Unfortunately she is retiring after 44 years of service, Liz has worked hard each and every day and deserves to look after herself for a change as she always puts everyone else first. Recently, Liz showed amazing care and compassion with a palliative patient unable to settle. Liz made the decision to contact to OOH GP for advice who then agreed to do a joint visit. From there more effective medication was administered which enables the patient to settle. The family were so grateful for all the effort Liz put in to make sure the patient was treated with the respect and care they deserved; the family were then able to enjoy and appreciate the moments they had left.

Hayley Holling, Care Support Worker, Discharge Planning Team

Hayley was nominated by a patient’s relative who contacted the Patient Experience team. Hayley showed outstanding care and concern for others. Hayley supported their 101 year old mum with great kindness and humour throughout her lengthy stay at Jervaulx, making her laugh and cheer her up. Hayley treated their mum as a member of her own family. When there were issues with her mum’s care home, Hayley was a great source of local knowledge and was instrumental in helping the family to find a place elsewhere. Hayley visited their mum whenever she was on duty and gave her hugs, her mum thought a great deal of Hayley. The family are thankful for Hayley’s care and grateful to have met her.

November 2022

Emma Booth, Family Health Nurse, Community 0 to 19 Catterick Team

Emma is a Family Health Practitioner in the Health Visiting team in Catterick, she supported a family to toilet train their child with severe learning difficulties, the child has minimal communication or understanding, so this piece of work will have been challenging and she will have had to ensure parents felt well supported with this. Emma was successful in supporting the parents with this and the child is fully toilet trained at home and in school which is fantastic for the child, the family – giving the child independence and hugely benefiting their health and wellbeing. It probably doesn’t seem a lot to expect but to this family, this is a massive achievement and will really increase the confidence for the family of what can be achieved. Emma has treated this family equally as she would a family of any other family and has persevered until the outcome was achieved.

Rachel Kelly, Early Years Practitioner, Gateshead 0-19 Children’s services

Rachel was nominated for her recent involvement with a family she has been supporting. Rachel made a few home visits, built up a relationship with parents and helped mum to set boundaries; Rachel gave valuable advice on improving and maintaining the home environment for her children. Rachel’s involvement has made a huge difference to this family. Mum appears much happier and definitely has more confidence when managing her children’s behaviour and setting boundaries. The home conditions have improved and are being maintained, resulting in a big improvement in mums mood, ahead of the arrival of her new baby in a few weeks. Rachel is a valued member of the team and has taken on a breastfeeding champion role, opening feeding clincis up to be inclusive of all parents regardless of feeding choice. Rachel is skilled at sharing her learning and knowledge with the wider team and has shown integrity in raising questions to improve practice and support the team whilst keeping patient safety at the centre.

Jane Tasker, Community Practice Teacher/ SCPHN Assessor, Central 0-19 – North Yorkshire Team

Jane was nominated for a Making a Difference award by a mum who has been so grateful for everything Jane has done for her son. Jane was temporarily covering the Richmond area and came across their son’s file noticing his ASQ-3 was overdue, since then Jane has gone over and above for their son’s care. In a matter of months Jane has had their sons application to the CDC successfully accepted, she has offered sound advice and sought answers promptly when she hasn’t known. While on leave, Jane continued to chase up appointments and sending emails to ensure the family were kept informed and up to date. Jane no longer covers the Richmond area but has continued to offer support to their son and family to ensure they have everything they need in place. The mum quoted “For the first time in over a year I finally feel positive and a lot less stressed that my little boy is going to get the help he deserves and that my worries and concerns have been validated”.

Lesley Danby, Matron, Management Team – Planned and Surgical Care

Lesley was nominated for a Making a Difference award by a colleague who was contacted by a local care provider who had been unable to access a COVID vaccine for one of their residents with learning disabilities. This resident had been unable to access day services as they were not vaccinated, and needed to be isolated from other residents to protect them from those accessing the services. The colleague reached out to Lesley for help and advice and, after a couple of discussions, the resident was able to get a vaccination. This was totally outside the scope of the staff vaccine programme but Lesley was determined to support a robust, bespoke plan and came up with reasonable adjustments to be able to administer the vaccine – the resident is now attending day services, accessing the community and having meals at the dining table with their friends. Lesley has patients at the heart of everything she does and always wants to make their experience the best it possible can be.

Carolanne Watson, Locality Manager, Middlesbrough 0-19

Since Carolanne has been appointed Locality manager the team feel valued and listened to, and know that they always have someone approachable to go to with problems. Carolanne has made a huge difference to the school nursing team, her passion and drive is what makes her an excellent team leader. Carolanne is very calm, professional and approachable, she listens, offers good advice, whether it be personal, or work related. Carolanne always goes above and beyond to support the team, and has offered to action particular tasks, deliver food bank parcels to families in need and make challenging telephone calls to parents on behalf of colleagues – it is clear that her focus is to help in any way she can to help lighten the work load and support her team.

Janet Blythe, District Nurse, Ripon Community Team

Janet has been nominated by her colleague who has received expert guidance and mentoring from Janet for 10 years! Janet has been there through the ups and downs, picked up the pieces, wiped away the tears and always offered congratulations and encouragement along the way.  Janet has been there for her colleagues through challenges and emotional times – treating her colleagues like her own family – showing, kindness, respect, integrity, caring and understanding.

Gary O’Beirne, Day Surgery Unit Nurse, Day Surgery Unit

Gary goes above and beyond his role on a daily basis ensuring a safe and smoother running of eye surgery in DSU. He is an oracle when it comes to everything to do with ophthalmology. He is also a great person to work with and a fundamental part of the team and organisation. Gary is Ophthalmic trained and has a vast amount of knowledge about eye conditions and the care of the patients that attend day surgery. He is most definitely the go to person in relation to eye patients. He is very dedicated to the Ophthalmology service. Recently he came in on his annual leave to attend a meeting about eye pre-assessments.  He has also done extra shifts to support the outpatient ophthalmology pre assessment team, during a period of staffing shortages. He is very passionate about the Ophthalmic service we provide in day surgery.

Andrew (Andy) Bell, IT Desktop Technician, Information Technology

Andy is the most helpful person to have on the other end of the phone when you have an IT issue. He is always friendly and helpful and resolves any issues immediately. Andy always sounds calm and stress free, he makes time and listens. Knowing Andy is at the end of the phone for any queries and IT related problems gives reassurance that issues will be resolved speedily and with a smile. Andy demonstrate equality by being approachable, and taking the time to explain things in ‘layman’s’ terms – without jargon or technical language to make it easy for everyone to understand. Andy shows the Trust’s values every day in everything he does, he is friendly, kind, and a real asset to the Trust.

Debbie Smith, Ward Clerk, Bolton Ward

Debbie works tirelessly to complete her ward clerking role. Over the last year the ward has had increased escalation beds and Debbie has expertly managed case notes and enquiries for all patients. Debbie has kept going, supporting other staff, speaking to patients and relatives, and assisted Doctors with queries, etc. She deserves a medal for all she has done, as a team Bolton Ward could not have got through the last year without her.

Suzanne Franklin, Medical Secretary, Ophthalmology Secretaries

Suzanne was nominated by the mother of a patient who describes Suzanne as “kind, caring, compassionate and is always committed to helping”. Their son has an autoimmune illness which affects his eyes and he frequently needs to be reviewed quickly to avoid flare ups and reduce pain symptoms quickly. Suzanne has continuously gone out of her way to arrange for their son to be reviewed quickly when he is unwell, and is always supportive in trying to find appointments which least impact his schooling. Nothing is ever a problem for Suzanne, she provides high standards of care to patients and relatives and is a credit to the Trust.

Mirian Carter, Lynda McPherson, Fran Taylor Wren and Sarah Burke, Speech and Language Therapy Team

Over the last few weeks, the Speech and Language Therapy Team has been down a few members of the team. Miriam, Lynda, Fran and Sarah have been phenomenal during this time. Together, they have dealt with reorganising caseloads and clinics, shuffling their own timetables around to prioritise patients and keeping on top of the day to day influx of referrals, all without the slightest hint of stress or difficulty. They really outdid themselves and we want to recognise their compassion, amazing efforts, dedication and skills in keeping things afloat.

Sally Elliott-Deacey, Ward Manager, Granby Ward

Sally was nominated for a making a difference award, for going above and beyond her role to make a positive difference for her staff and for a family over the past couple of months; for what has been a really emotional and challenging time for all involved. One of our registered nurses on Granby and a valued member of the team sadly passed away. Sally attended the hospital and hospice to liaise with and support their family; both emotionally and with completing several forms. Sally has also supported her team emotionally with her open door policy and covered all their shifts to ensure that they could all attend the service to celebrate their colleague’s life. Sally represented everyone on the day, doing the team proud and living the trust values and behaviours by showing kindness and integrity.

Gee Nascimento, Care Support Worker, Bolton Ward

Gee is an outstanding member of Bolton Ward team, always there to support the staff and patients. He is always looking after other staff’s wellbeing, checking they have had breaks, making cups of tea to keep them going. Always on hand to help with IT issues and making repairs around the ward. Gee volunteers to help ward clerk on weekends when no one is available. He is hard working, calm, and has a reassuring presence and has a general ace-ness, especially assisting and supporting staff who have been moved to Bolton from other areas. We can always count on Gee.

Dawn Davey, Medical Records Team Leader

The Rheumatology team, nominated Dawn for being a superb role model. Her dedication to her job, professionalism and kindness are just a few of her many qualities. Dawn constantly works above and beyond, continually striving to ensure the smooth running of our very busy Rheumatology, Dermatology and Gastroenterology clinics. Dawn always puts patients’ needs first, often trying to sort the impossible. Trying to find appointments, that often aren’t there. Her resourcefulness is admirable. Dawn is constantly teaching and nurturing, new staff and developing them into effective members of the team. Dawns patience and kindness shine through. Her hard work, dedication and loyalty to her job and the teams she supports are outstanding. She so deserves recognition for all she does for others.

October 2022

Harriet Farndale and James Taylor, Health Care Support Workers, Knaresborough and Boroughbridge

The Knaresborough and Boroughbridge team have been working through extremely busy periods of time with lots of staff sickness and annual leave to manage. James and Harriet have worked extremely hard to ensure the patients are seen and delivered excellent quality care. As well as this, they have been keeping on top of all the other tasks required to keep the community team running effectively. They have stayed upbeat and positive throughout these difficult times and showed a willingness to go above and beyond for the patients and the team. James and Harriet are a huge asset to the team and really deserve some recognition for their integrity and commitment to the job during very difficult and busy times for the CCT.

Joe Tissiman, Medical Records Clerical Officer

Joe and all his colleagues in the admin team worked extremely hard to support the therapy staff organising triaging and treating patients within therapy services. Recently Joe has been instrumental in supporting the amputee rehabilitation service and new ways of working including moving from a paper notes system on to the electronic system 1. This has improved the coordination, communication and booking systems for patients. Joe is very kind calm and organised, when he notices a mistake, he doesn’t find blame but asks what needs to be done to sort it out. Joe always has a friendly greeting for everyone who comes into the department. He is always super helpful, he’s the ‘go to’ for question about admin duties and computer systems.

Millie Dibnah-Browne, Antenatal Clerk

Millie is fairly new to the trust and has really gotten herself stuck into the role. She has been thrown in the deep end multiple times since starting, but nothing has been too much to handle and the department has always run smoothly – even whilst she is running a multiple person job by herself! She is extremely reliable, trustworthy and a great asset to the team. She has built fantastic working relationships with the whole team and always takes the time to help employees and patients whenever needed.

Lucy Marsh, Staff Nurse, Oakdale Ward

Lucy has gone above and beyond for the safety of her patients and her staff. She has covered outstanding shifts when the ward have had no one to cover, often using her days off or swapping at last minute to ensure the safety of the ward. When asked why she is doing it she responds by saying “I just want to support the ward and my ward manager”. She is selfless and always puts the needs of others first. She puts the needs of her patients above her own needs which shows her dedication to her team and is a positive role model to anyone who works on Oakdale. She is kind and caring towards her patients and always receives positive feedback regarding the level of compassion she shows to all. She was described by a patient as being “a shining light. Lucy never lets things get her down, she never moans or complains and always takes time to listen to me and explain what is happening despite being rushed off of her feet”.

Jackie Dawson, Senior Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialist

Nidderdale has recently supported 3 patients and their families throughout their last days of life. It was a very difficult time and the patients all sadly died across a 48 hour period. The support Jackie gave to the patients, families and the nursing staff was incredible. She ensured the patients were regularly reviewed and pain free which brought the families great comfort. On one occasion she visited the ward twice in one day to ensure the patients were comfortable and the staff were supported. She spent a lot of time listening to the families and also the nursing staff. Nothing was too much trouble when supporting the staff on the ward. Jackie was compassionate, kind and her passion for her role was clear for all to see. The team are extremely lucky to work alongside her!

Maureen Wallace, Admin Assistant, 0-19 Darlington Children’s Services

Maureen has worked with the Health Visiting and School Nursing service for over 30 years.  Her knowledge and experience is invaluable, Maureen is the Oracle of all things 0-19.  Her depth of knowledge and experience will be greatly missed when she retires but Maureen has taught the team well and they will continue to work as hard and be as dedicated as she is.  Nothing is too much trouble and she is a much loved and respected member of the team whole 0-19 community.  She’s amazing! Maureen has been a fantastic support over the years and is always jolly, cheering the office up with her quick wit. Every office needs a “Maureen”. She is kind, caring, thoughtful, she always makes time for everyone no matter how busy she is, she never loses her temper. She has a personal touch and remembers your family and home circumstances and if you are having a “bad” time and gives good, sage advice and a hug.

September 2022

Dr Jay Naik, Consultant Oncologist

Dr Naik was nominated for an award by a patient who wrote to us and told us how great he is; for something that could very easily be a bad experience, Dr Naik makes it as good as possible with his gentle approach and explaining things clearly. Dr Naik’s colleagues also said how he is kind, considerate and an strong advocate for both professional and service development. He is dedicated to providing a very high standard of care to his patients but also offers a great deal of support in offering education and support. Nothing is ever too much trouble and he always goes above and beyond.

Natasha Hughes, Clinical Audit & Effectiveness Advisor (Maternity), Delivery Suite

Tash has been in post in maternity since April and has worked conscientiously to improve their audit rates, completing multiple audits at the one time and even showing off her acting talents in the departments safeguarding simulation. Tash has been instrumental in producing the work required for the ockenden assurance visit and works closely with the leadership team in maternity services. Tash is always willing to help out where she can and has volunteered for interview panels and simulation exercises generously sharing her time and valued opinions.

August 2022

Jodi Tregonning, Staff Nurse, Children’s 0-5 Service – Middlesbrough

Jodi completed a 6-8 week check on a baby and due to her quick thinking, her observation skills and knowledge she was able to identify that this baby was very ill and encouraged the parents to take the baby to A&E straight away. Once in A&E the baby was kept in and stabilised before being transferred to the RVI in Newcastle. Jodi’s actions probably saved this baby’s life. She displayed amazing kindness towards the family, the mum has since rang her and could not thank her enough. Jodi is an amazing team member who is kind and caring and will always go above and beyond and is an excellent role model and employee who represents HDFT to the highest standard. Everybody instantly warms to Jodi both the team and the families. She has a kind selfless caring nature. Jodi is someone not only I can rely on but so can the rest of the team. If a job is allocated we know this will be carried out to the best of her abilities with the children and families at the centre of all decisions made. Jodi is a pleasure to work with and is a credit to the team, the children and families of Middlesbrough and HDFT.

July 2022

Dr Xiu Jun Lim, Trust Grade Doctor – Specialty Registrar

Dr Xiu Jun Lim has been tirelessly working on the medical junior doctor rota and has done a lot of the ground work and data gathering that has contributed in a business case to increase the base number of medical staff. She is approachable and has a can do approach to fixing most rota problems. This will mostly involve trying to coordinate other juniors, but a lot of the time she has also stepped up last minute into doing extra night shifts as a medical registrar. She is an excellent doctor, very caring, supportive to juniors and allied health professionals alike. She is an asset to our elderly and medical team and constantly goes above and beyond to support all of us!! Xiu Jun demonstrates excellent teamwork every day, by showing support to her juniors and providing good oversight of everyone’s wellbeing- whether it be on our frailty wards, working as the on call med reg, or as her role in providing rota support. She is an excellent role model for peers and juniors alike by leading well, but also supporting the team by filling in gaps when she can.

March 2022

Tracy Lane & Kelly Spencer, Family Health Practitioner’s, Children’s 0-25 Service – Durham and Dales

Both Kelly and Tracy have worked incredibly hard in their role and have support their team to provide an excellent service for families, at a period of time with increased challenges and pressures. Kelly and Tracy work holistically with families and are excellent at identifying any additional needs, making appropriate referrals both to voluntary services for vulnerable families and also referring to a range of professionals. Kelly and Tracy always ensure excellent verbal and written communication to ensure safety and continuity. Both Kelly and Tracy have identified a number of babies that have needed urgent medical treatment and ensured that appropriate actions have been taken. Without Kelly and Tracy, the team would have struggled to deliver the Healthy Child Pathway and would have also struggled to manage to visit the families who have required intensive intervention; they have supported a range of services from targeted weighing, monitoring, behaviour support interventions, delivering food parcels and independently supplying families with resources, for example milk, food and clothing.

Photo taken after recent changes to mask wearing guidance.