Winners of the 2017 HEFMA Awards were announced last night (May 11) at the Gala Dinner held at the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate as part of the Annual Leadership Forum. Eight awards were presented during the course of the evening.
Leader of the Year was awarded to Mohit Kumar, Head of Facilities Soft FM at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust. Kumar joined Hinchingbrooke Hospital as Head Chef in 2013 in what was supposed to be a temporary position to implement new policies and procedures. Since then, he has instigated and driven many facilities projects and seen them through to implementation and beyond. Kumar is described as an exceptional mentor who is selfless, understanding and patient, encourages personal development and is able to see the potential in his team that they may not be able to see for themselves.
Also shortlisted were Susan Ball, a Senior Housekeeper at Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Mark Fenton, Head of Estates & Facilities at Worcester Health & Care Trust.
The People Development Award went to Chris Lawson and Rob Travers, Operational Head of Facilities at Taunton & Somerset NHS Foundation Trust for the development of a bespoke leadership development programme for all facilities band 3-5 leaders. In an extremely challenging financial climate where all non-statutory training has been postponed, the facilities team sought on 'in-house' solution to ensure junior leaders were able to benefit from formal leadership awareness training. Three work streams have been implemented: training and development, formal staff engagement and informal staff engagement, which has introduced structure to staff development and support on a day-to-day basis.
Also shortlisted were Vanessa Rolinson, Learning and Development Manager at Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Patient Services Team at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust.
The Project of the Year Award was won by Aintree University Hospital Trust for the £35m project to create a new, world-class Urgent Care and Trauma Centre. As well as the Trauma and Emergency Department the new Centre also houses a Critical Care and Cardiology Department, theatres, a CT scanner and a Fracture Clinic, all co-located with a dedicated helipad. The aim was to bring all of the key services associated with dealing with major trauma together in one area. The space did not exist on site to start from scratch with a new-build, so the existing facility had to be refurbished and reconfigured to create additional service capacity whilst keeping existing patient services operating smoothly.
Also shortlisted were Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust for the smooth and speedy implementation of the Health and Wellbeing CQUIN, Mid Essex Hospital's Services NHS Trust for the Sustainable Development Management Plan and South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust for its Effective Property and Asset Management programme.
Team of the Year was awarded to the Facilities Team at City Hospitals Sunderland, which embarked on a project to improve unity by nurturing a more collaborative approach to the provision of patient services across multiple disciplines, including clinicians and nurses as well as external contractors and suppliers. This work is described as a continuous journey, but it is a journey that is already responsible for visible improvements to the patient care standards. Response times for emergency cleaning have improved, rejected linen counts have reduced, patient catering incidents are at the lowest level ever and PLACE results are at an all time high. The underlying core achievement of these efforts is the enhanced profile of the facilities services and positive recognition across the organisation to the extent that the facilities team is now seen as a core service in the delivery of excellent patient care.
Also shortlisted were the Sterile Services Team from North Bristol NHS Trust, the Waste Management and Compliance Team from South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and the Facilities Team from West London Mental Health NHS Trust.
The Personal Development Award was given to Danny Bailey, Logistics Supervisor at Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Trust. Bailey has worked his way up the ranks through hard work, balancing home and social life with work and study. He started on an 'As and When' contract as a hospital porter in June 2009 and has demonstrated his willingness to progress, seizing every opportunity that has come his way. This includes completing the Certificate in Facilities Management at Sheffield Hallam University in December 2014, progressing to the Foundation Degree in Facilities Management in June 2015 and enrolling on the BA (Honours) in Facilities Management in September 2016, which he should complete in July this year.
The Innovation Award was voted for on the evening by those attending the event. There was a shortlist of three: Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust for its work on UV-C implementation, which evaluated the effectiveness of this means of deep cleaning; Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust for its Community Waste Collection scheme, which has seen the introduction of an in-house service to collect infectious waste from the patient's home, an increasing amount of which is being generated as a result of increased demand for care at home; and York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for its Green Travel Plan, which involving securing funding from the Office of Low Emissions towards its aim to improve sustainability by boost 'green travel' throughout the Trust.
The winner on the night was York Teaching Hospital.
A Special Recognition Award was given to Vajid Mahmood and the EFM Efficiency and Productivity Team at NHSI for their work with the industry following the Carter report. The final award, for Outstanding Contribution went to John Cartwright of Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.
