NHS staff in Wolverhampton handed national nursing award for efforts to minimise spread of Covid-19
A team of NHS staff which helped people to minimise the spread of Covid-19 across Wolverhampton has won a national nursing award for their outstanding work.
The Infection Prevention (IP) team at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital, were handed an accolade at The Nursing Times Awards.
They were successful in the Infection Prevention and Control category for providing a localised and integrated response to Covid-19 prevention and management in the city.
It has seen them work with staff in hospitals, GP practices, educational settings, homeless shelters, faith settings and care homes to minimise the spread of the virus whilst working alongside public health at Wolverhampton Council.
Mark Beddow, senior infection prevention nurse, who attended the event with infection prevention nurse Michelle Bonney-Wheate, said: "We’re in shock! There’s a lot of fantastic work that’s gone on in recent months, across the UK, and at the event we were surrounded by lots of brilliant nursing professionals, we just can’t believe it!
"We’d like to thank the judges and panellists for the recognition – we’re really proud of what we’ve achieved."
After the initial award submission earlier this year, entitled ‘Collaborative working with public health’, the team were invited to present their work to a panel of esteemed chief nursing officers.
This took place in September and saw Mark alongside Kim Corbett, Senior Matron for IP, head down to the Nursing Times Headquarters in London. And after successfully making it through to the finals, the team were invited to a prestigious awards ceremony which took place on Thursday night at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
The event was hosted by Naga Munchetty, British presenter, newsreader and journalist with Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for NHS England, also in attendance. The trust was up against eight other organisations for the award, including the Royal College of Nursing and St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
