We’re proud to be shortlisted at this year’s HSJ Awards which recognise outstanding contribution to healthcare.
The Trust is a finalist in two award categories: ‘Integrated Care Partnership of the Year’ and ‘Covid Vaccination Programme’. Both awards are joint projects with other local organisations.
Integrated Care Partnership of the Year Award
Staff have been working hard to get patients who are fit to leave hospital home as soon as possible. The Discharge Improvement Project, which has been a whole system effort across northern Lincolnshire, has been recognised in the Integrated Care Partnership of the Year category.
Nobody wants to be in hospital for longer than they have to be, but a significant challenge facing hospitals and health care systems across the country is getting people back to where they call home in a timely way, once they’re fit to leave the ward. We’ve been working on improvements to the discharge process with our partners in community services and social care, so it’s a whole system approach not just a hospital one.
As a result of our efforts over the last two years we are now well under the national average for our ‘long length of stay’ figures which reflect the length of time patients stay in hospital, and one of the best performing Trusts in the North (within the top 5). Hospitals are benchmarked against 7, 14 and 21 days length of stay.
Actions we’ve taken to achieve this include introducing consultant ward rounds on weekends, moving to a fully electronic handover system and the creation of a 7-day escalation process to address things blocking patient discharges.
We’ve introduced a 7-day Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) ward, an Acute Frailty Assessment service and two integrated hospital discharge Hubs have been established for North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. Work has been undertaken to ensure patients who require support on discharge are supported by the most relevant team in a timely manner, ensuring they have prompt access to the services they require to enable them to leave a hospital bed. The use of voluntary sector organisations has also been increased to support timely discharge.
Dr Peter Reading, Chief Executive, said: “This really is wonderful news – the fact we’ve been shortlisted such a prestigious award will undoubtedly be a huge ‘pat on the back’ for everyone involved. This really has been a partnership effort, so I’d like to thank our colleagues across the system for their continued efforts to help us get people home from hospital as soon as possible.”
Covid Vaccination Programme Award
The success of North Lincolnshire’s vaccination programme has been recognised under a new category at the HSJ Awards. It was a collaborative effort between the Trust and what was previously known as NHS North Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group, North Lincolnshire Council, Safecare Network, North Lincolnshire GP practices and pharmacies.
The awards
1067 entries were received for the HSJ Awards 2022, with 219 projects and individuals making it to the final shortlist (from across 162 organisations).
Following a thorough judging process, the Trust and partners were shortlisted ahead of the official awards ceremony to be held later this year (November 17).
HSJ editor Alastair McLellan, adds; “On behalf of all my colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust and partners on being shortlisted. All of the applications represent the ‘very best of the NHS’ and often leave our esteemed panel of judges with an impossible choice!
“Year on year the number of entrants continues to rise, which I find so encouraging and is testament to the effect that HSJ Awards can have on improved staff culture and morale.
“We’re all very much looking forward to welcoming our finalists to the awards ceremony in November, celebrating their impressive achievements and jointly acknowledging our values of sharing best practice, improving patient outcomes and continuously driving for better service. But we never forget that the award ceremony is not just a celebration within a night, but a platform to recognise the hard work of all our NHS staff, all year round.”
The full list of nominees for the 2022 HSJ Awards can be found at https://awards.hsj.co.uk/
The selected winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at the Battersea Evolution Centre, London on November 17 2022.