Staff accolades

A UHDB colleague with “the patience of a saint” has been praised for helping an “important but largely unrecognisable” system that all our staff rely on to keep running smoothly. Jeanette Harper has made an invaluable difference as the Trust’s ESR Project Support Officer for nearly 14 years – helping many of our colleagues to get out of “an ESR hole” along the way. The Electronic Staff Record, or ESR, is an extremely useful tool for all NHS staff – helping them to view their payslips online, access pension benefits and view other important details – but as with all electronic systems, can often be hard to navigate for some!

UHDB’s Pathology team have been presented with the Exceptional Care Together, Annual Making a Difference Award for responding efficiently to the challenges of the pandemic.

A nurse on Royal Derby Hospital’s Ward 305 has received July’s Patient Hero Award for becoming “elder sister” to a teenage patient who spent more than 50 days in hospital.

The Gynaecology Assessment Unit at Royal Derby Hospital have been recognised for the support they offered to a patient suffering with acute morning sickness by being presented with June’s Patient Hero Monthly Making a Difference Award.

Queen’s Hospital Burton’s Fracture Clinic team have been lauded for the “creativity and ingenuity” they’ve shown to enable them to continue to be there for our communities throughout the pandemic.

The team have really risen to the challenge of Covid-19 and taken the initiative by completely changing they work – to support both our patients and colleagues by lessening the pressures on other services at UHDB.

A patient who has struggled with hearing loss for a number of years has singled out a Royal Derby Hospital audiologist for praise after he helped improve their quality of life. Piyush Patel has been named as UHDB’s latest Excellent Employee Award winner in recognition for the “fantastic” contribution he has made to improving this patient’s hearing.

Paediatric Anaesthetist, Dr Grace Monnery, has won the Patient Hero Award for providing exceptional care to a young patient needing his appendix removed.

A community midwife whose intervention “potentially saved the life” of a patient who was 35 weeks pregnant has been presented with UHDB’s Monthly Making a Difference Award for May.

Charge Nurse, Rob Bradley, has won our March 2021 Patient Hero Award for providing exceptional care to a patient with Autism & Sensory Processing Disorder. 

The dedicated nurse who works at Royal Derby Hospital was presented with the UHDB Patient Hero Award earlier last week after being nominated by Derbyshire Mum, Chloe.

A Royal Derby Hospital Nurse working on our Medical Assessment Unit has been praised by colleagues for the work she does to support the Filipino Overseas Nurses when starting at the Trust.

Minnie Inacay, Sister, was nominated by one of her colleagues to receive the UHDB Excellent Employee Award, after supporting them when they first arrived in the UK from the Philippines.

The nomination read: “When I arrived here in UK and joined MAU, I was so nervous as I didn't know anyone on the ward. When I met Minnie, she made me feel so welcome and looked after all of the Filipino overseas nurses. She always goes above and beyond even outside work hours.

A grateful grandaughter has thanked Ward 15 at Queen’s Hospital Burton for the compassionate end of life care they provided to their grandmother.

Bronwen Owens nominated the team after her Grandmother passed away at the beginning of January 2021. Bronwen’s grandmother was in hospital with Coronavirus, but sadly her body became too weak to fight the virus.

A Royal Derby Hospital nurse has been labelled “a credit to the Intensive Care Unit” for the support she’s shown to a patient and his family since being redeployed back “home” to the department during the pandemic. 

Registered Nurse Suzie Parsons was nominated by one of her colleagues to receive a UHBD Making a Difference Award, as a small thank you for helping make their husband’s near 100-day stay in hospital “a little easier”.

A patient who needed separate operations on both of her eyes in the space of three months has thanked the “amazing” Royal Derby Hospital Consultant who helped save her sight.

Mr Ravi Gandhewar, Consultant Ophthalmologist, and his team twice came to the rescue of the patient after her vision started to become seriously effected in one eye and then the other one too, shortly after. 

A Derbyshire Gran has thanked the surgeon who made it possible for her to hold her granddaughter for the first time.

In 2020, Mandy Taylor suffered a nasty fall which left her in terrible pain and both elbows continuously dislocating. After not being able to do “normal things” for herself for a year, Mr Tambe reassured her that he would fix her elbows.

Most importantly for Mandy, Mr Tambe’s work has allowed her to be able to hold her one year-old granddaughter for the first time in her life. Mandy said, “This means the absolute world to me.”

A Royal Derby Hospital Healthcare Assistant has been recognised for always going above and beyond and providing excellent care and support to patients throughout the pandemic.

David Rady was nominated by multiple colleagues, patients and relatives for his compassion and kindness towards his patients. One nomination read: “David is a lovely bloke. He delivered some clean pyjamas and toiletries into the hospital for my relative when no visitors were allowed. He goes above and beyond to help people feel special - such a caring person.”

An Emergency Department Worker at Royal Derby Hospital has been recognised for showing the importance of speaking up and showing the world there is no place for racism.

A young woman who underwent emergency surgery at Royal Derby Hospital has thanked the surgeon who saved her life.

Jess Wilson from Derby, nominated Consultant Laparoscopic & Upper GI Surgeon, Mr Syed Iftikhar, after he performed emergency surgery on her in August 2020. Jess was in hospital with a bile leak which lead to Pneumonia and Sepsis – this required surgery immediately. Mr Iftikhar, who has worked at the Trust for over 25 years, was on a day off, but as soon as he heard Jess needed the surgery, he drove straight to the Royal Derby Hospital to assist.

Security staff serving the Royal Derby Hospital have been recognised by Trust Chief Executive, Gavin Boyle, for protecting staff, patients and visitors when ‘Covid-19 denying’ protesters turned up at the entrance of our Derby site back in November 2020.

The Security Team went above and beyond to control the unfortunate situation and ensured staff and patients felt safe despite the negative actions of those who turned up on multiple occasions to share their misguided thoughts on the on-going pandemic

A UHDB colleague has received a special award for making it her mission to teach, support and guide one of our Project Search interns.

Laura Waterworth, Midwife at Queen’s Hospital Burton, has been awarded the June “Patient Hero” Making a Difference Award for her compassionate care throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Laura was nominated by a patient named Katie, who recently had to give birth in isolation due to being in contact with her dad and sister who had both contracted Coronavirus.

A UHDB senior nurse has received a special award for going above and beyond for her colleagues and returning to work in our Intensive Care Unit throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Barbara Day, Head of Professional & Practice Development, was presented with the Trust’s Excellent Employee award after being nominated by a number of her colleagues who praised her excellent leadership and support that she had provided to them and to other departments throughout the pandemic.

The fantastic lengths a Royal Derby Hospital Senior Sister went to in order to help and support a colleague and their relative have been recognised with a Making a Difference Award.

Rachel Kirby, Senior Sister on Ward 311, truly went above and beyond what was expected when her ward became a ward that cared for elderly Covid-19 patients at the start of the pandemic.

A Healthcare Assistant from London Road Community Hospital has been praised for her outstanding patient care with our “Excellent Employee Award”.

Lesley Shaw, who works in the Parkinson’s Team, was nominated by a colleagues for her friendliness and gentle manner and always putting the patients first. Her colleague Fiona Lindop, Specialist Physiotherapist said: “Lesley is an amazing team member who is always putting the patient first. She greets each patient who arrives in our department with friendliness and gentleness that puts them at their ease, especially in these challenging times. She demonstrates her care for everyone, including helping individuals who have had strokes, and can only use one hand, to gel their hands as they arrive in the department. She ensures that each person is treated with great dignity and respect, no matter how busy or stressful the working environment is.

Congratulations to Paul Brooks, Director of Patient Experience, Estates and Facilities at UHDB, who has been awarded our January “Chief Executive Award”.

Paul, who has worked at the Trust for over 30 years, was chosen by Gavin Boyle, our Chief Executive, to celebrate Paul’s achievements over the last few months. Not only has Paul showed great dedication and commitment to supporting UHDB colleagues throughout the on-going pandemic, but he has most recently been awarded an MBE for his services to Healthcare Leadership.