Clinical Team of the Year
Clinical Team of the Year
These teams of frontline heroes have our patients at the heart of everything they do. They consistently demonstrate good team working and collaboration, deliver an efficient and high-performing service and are always looking to improve the way they work to benefit our patients. Here’s what their colleagues wrote about them in the nominations.
Breast Radiology Team
Faced with an almost overwhelming increase in demand for their services, a substantial shortage of trained breast radiologists in the UK and difficultly recruiting, the Breast Radiology team did not concede defeat. Instead pulled together to reinvent how they delivered their service.
They greatly increased the number of one-stop appointments available to patients, and found new, better ways to work together. They now see more women than previously in the same amount of time.
They made time to train advanced practitioners in-house to take on more challenging roles in breast imaging and diagnostics. And everyone – administrators and clinical staff – works to give their patients the best care and experience.
When faced with what looked like an unsurmountable challenge, this team built an environment that would support a greater skills mix, allow existing staff members to really thrive and to develop their work to the top of their ability.
Integrated Respiratory Service (IRS) Team
The IRS team provides patient-centred respiratory care that is seamless, proactive and coordinated across hospital and community settings.
The readmission rate for Royal Surrey patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is well below the national average and this team’s model of care has attracted recognition from NHS England.
The Integrated Respiratory Service team model is the combination of respiratory specialist consultants, specialist nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists all working together to deliver specialist respiratory care across the whole pathway.
They work seamlessly with other care providers and are continually evaluating and evolving the service to meet the needs of patients and carers.
On our wards, the team supports people admitted with acute exacerbation of respiratory disease and identifies those who may be suitable for early supported discharge, making sure appropriate community follow up is arranged and that high-quality care is standard.
COPD readmission rates at our Trust after 30 days are 9.9 per cent (national average of 24.4 per cent) and 19.2 per cent after 90 days (43.1 per cent nationally).
Neonatal Outreach Team
The Neonatal Outreach service was set up almost two years ago to provide better support for neonatal babies once they have been discharged into the community. The scheme has had a huge impact, reducing both returns to hospital and deaths.
This service, which was set up with £30k Royal Surrey Charity funding, offers a wide range of support to new parents of tiny babies, such as feeding advice, resuscitation training and home phototherapy.
All families discharged from our Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) receive three month post-discharge care, with open access to the children’s ward – so no waiting in the Emergency Department! It’s a personalised approach, with parents receiving between two and six visits.
Before the service was launched, 76 per cent of babies discharged from SCBU returned to the hospital for care, either to be assessed or admitted. Since the outreach service launch, the team has cared for more than 100 babies and the post discharge contact with the hospital is now only 17 per cent.
Radiotherapy and Radiotherapy Physics teams
In the past year, these teams have demonstrated impressive collaboration to make sure that patient care is maintained in the face of significant operational challenges.
Radiotherapy at Royal Surrey is delivered by a fantastic multi-disciplinary group including more than 150 colleagues in the Radiotherapy and Radiotherapy Physics teams. Together they care for more than 200 patients a day through their radiotherapy planning and treatments.
This year, the team replaced two radiotherapy machines at the Redhill satellite centre, which required redistribution of services, excellent team work and communication – resulting in staff regularly working additional hours to support our patients.
They also faced significant operational challenges caused by external IT issues which stopped all radiotherapy planning and treatments for up to one day. Through impressive collaboration across teams and with wider partners within the Trust, they were able to make sure that the impact of this critical incident was kept to an absolute minimum
The response of the team showed relentless flexibility, adaptability and professionalism.
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