The BMJ‘s annual awards saw the best of the best in healthcare come together to celebrate exceptional work earlier this week
The BMJ Awards reflect The BMJ’s mission to improve patient outcomes and to recognise the exceptional work done by doctors and their clinical teams around the UK.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust won Cancer Care Team of the Year for delivering lung cancer health checks to the ‘hard to reach’ in supermarket car parks. The judges praised how the project has evolved to consider conditions beyond cancer.
Clinical Leadership Team of the Year went to University College London and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital for setting up the first fetal surgery service for spina bifida in the UK. The judges praised the group for putting groundbreaking treatment into practice to improve outcomes for children.
Prevention and Lifestyle Team of the Year went to Barts Health NHS Trust for a project to support people admitted with stab injuries. Case workers support patients and their families for up to six months. From 2015 to 2017, re-attendance rates were down from 35% to one per cent.
Education Team of the Year went to the Epilepsy Safety Education programme at Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust for developing a seizure safety checklist for clinicians and a mobile app (EpSMon) to help patients assess their own risk and contact their doctor if their risk is high.
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust won Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine Team of the Year for improving outcomes in older patients with hip fractures. Their ‘perioperative trauma care bundle’ has increased the number of patients with no pain or mild pain 24 hours after surgery and reduced the length of stay in hospital.
Care of the Older Person Team of the Year went to University Hospital Southampton for improving the experience of older patients as soon as they are dropped off by an ambulance. The project has seen time from admission to senior decision making go from eight to two hours, and average length of hospital stay cut from 14 days to eight.
Bromley by Bow Health won Primary Care Team of the Year for a programme to teach parents how to manage minor ailments, such as fever, diarrhoea, coughs and colds. Over 300 families have so far taken part and there has been a 35% reduction in health service attendance for minor ailments.
The Flow Coaching Academy at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals won Innovation in Quality Improvement Team of the Year for helping staff to implement new models of care delivery based on the ‘Big Room’ methodology used by car manufacturer Toyota. There are now 80 Big Rooms around the country and results so far are impressive.
Digital Innovation Team of the Year went to Imperial College Healthcare Trust for creating an algorithm to analyse patient feedback and help identify where improvements can be made. The judges were impressed with staff enthusiasm in listening to patients and felt this project could be rolled out across the NHS, empowering patients and staff, and fuelling quality improvement.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust won Mental Health Team of the Year for a service supporting patients with alcohol dependence. Evaluation showed that patients used three times fewer bed days than those receiving usual care. The judges praised the patient-centred approach to helping a very disadvantaged and excluded group of people.
Stroke and Cardiovascular Team of the Year went to Barking, Havering and Redbridge University NHS Trust for changing working patterns to reduce the time patients with suspected stroke wait for a consultant review. The changes have seen waiting times drop from an average of 16 hours to 1.45 hours.
Diabetes Team of the Year went to Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for a dedicated young people’s diabetes service. It uses Instagram to provide educational information and texts rather than letters for communication. Non-attendance at clinic appointments has dropped by 4.3% in the past three years and hospital admissions from 35% to 17%.
Dermatology Team of the Year went to Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust for establishing a national xeroderma pigmentosum service (a rare genetic condition that stops the body repairing damage from ultraviolet light). With input from a patient support group, the service has reduced appointments and unnecessary surgery – saving the NHS £80,000 a year.
Diagnostics Team of the Year went to the Royal Free London NHS London Foundation Trust for improving diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoea. The new pathway has brought down average waiting time to diagnosis from 232 days to just 37 days. The judges were impressed by the ‘clear improvements in the patient pathway and experience as well as significant cost savings’.
UK Research Paper of the Year went to the PRECISION trial, showing that MRI-targeted biopsy is more effective than standard biopsy for prostate cancer diagnosis. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, led to MRI being recommended as first line investigation to diagnose clinically localised prostate cancer.
The BMJ Award for Outstanding Contribution to Health was won by Parveen Kumar, professor of medicine and education at Barts and the London School of Medicine and co-author of the textbook Clinical Medicine, used for decades by medical students and doctors worldwide.
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