NHS staff recognised for efforts in crisis
A hospital trust has won an award for its contribution towards the Covid-19 pandemic.
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) has scooped the Midlands Region Excellence in Urgent and Emergency Care Parliamentary Award.
The Emergency Department Medical Assistant team have been named as Regional Champions for their contribution during the Covid-19 pandemic and will now be entered into the final round of the Parliamentary Awards.
The coronavirus pandemic is the greatest public health challenge in NHS history and has prompted a record number of nominations from MPs across the country who have sought to shine a light on the dedication of health and care staff and volunteers who have contributed to the response.
The judges, drawn from across the NHS, have now selected the 10 regional winners who have been selected from over 147 nominations, one in each of the 10 categories.
The medical assistants are a team of students from Keele University who work alongside senior medics at UHNM to provide support to patients and staff.
During the pandemic, 22 additional medical assistants were recruited and the service was expanded to involve other community-facing medical portals.
The addition to urgent care has benefitted patients and clinicians, with initial data showing the medical assistants team have helped to improve clinical decision-making time in the Emergency Department by 29 minutes.
The team was set up by Dr Andrew Davy, GP lead for Research and Development in Accident and Emergency at UHNM and Dr Ruth Kinston, Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Final Year Co-Lead at Keele University.
Dr Davy said: “The medical assistant team at UHNM the first in the country of its kind.
"It was established in response to a need for quicker assessment and decision making in one of busiest areas of our emergency department: ambulance triage.
"Senior doctors were taking their own blood tests and testing urine samples and although admirable in terms of team building, we felt that it wasn’t a good use of their time and in particular their unique skills as decision makers.
“Many of the medical assistants now want to start their F1 careers in A&E and in our emergency department at Royal Stoke University Hospital we have already welcomed three of the year five medical students as F1 doctors.”
The UHNM medical assistants team will now go head to head with other winners from across the country to be judged by a national panel made up of senior leaders representing staff and patients, for the chance to win the prestigious national award, which will be presented at a special ceremony in the House of Commons on the 7 July 2021.
The full list of regional winners can be found at nhsparliamentaryawards.co.uk/shortlist
