VIDEO: Health team is praised at 'Oscars' (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Sexual health service staff from the Trinity Centre highlighted at Trust’s annual awards

9:25pm Tuesday 22nd September 2009 in Local Video By Claire Lomax

Bradford’s sexual health service team has been crowned innovative hospital team of the year this evening.

The competition, sponsored by Sovereign Health Care and with prize money of £10,000, aims to bring to the fore excellent work in the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which is seldom highlighted.

The award is open to any team of staff across the trust who can demonstrate improvement to the quality of patient care, responded to the changing face of the NHS, contributed to service provision and shown great teamwork.

The team from the Trinity Centre sexual health service in Trinity Road were one of seven teams to put their case before a panel of judges at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

The judges heard how in 2005 only 50 per cent of patients needing an appointment with the sexual health team were seen within 48 hours.

In 2006 the Department of Health set a target that all patients needing an appointment should be seen within 48 hours. The Trinity Centre’s response was rapid and by changing the layout of the clinic, nurses working practice and the appointment system, 100 per cent of patients are now seen within 48 hours.

Lead consultant of the service, Dr Sophie Brady, told the judges this had been achieved despite a huge rise in the number of sexually transmitted diseases and above-average teenage pregnancies, which meant 15,000 patients accessed the service in the previous 12 months.

New ways of working include a walk-in service, evening and early morning sessions for those who work full time and results by text message.

Benefits to patients and the public include a reduction in the onward transmission of infections, improved patient choice and staff satisfaction.

The team plans to use the £5,000 first prize money to further raise the profile of the service within the community and encourage even more attendance and further reduce the burden of sexually transmitted infections on Bradford’s population.

Chief executive of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Miles Scott, paid tribute to the staff.

He said: “The standard of entries this year has been exemplary.

“I would have been happy to award first prize to any of the teams.

“These entries come from not the most glamorous bits of the service or the most widely publicised but they are all so dedicated in what they do.

“They innovate and make life better for the people of Bradford.”

Russ Piper, chief executive of Sovereign Health Care, said: “The standard was very high and it was very difficult to pick a winner.

“All the teams have made a huge difference to the health of the people of Bradford and West Yorkshire, but there has to be a winner and runners-up.”

The second place and £3,000 was awarded to the infection prevention and control team whose work has slashed the number of health care acquired infections such as MRSA and C Diff.

In the first half of this year there have been just four cases of MRSA and 34 cases of CDiff, against a target of 101.

This has been achieved by the introduction of many initiatives including the introduction of single-use tourniquets, disposable blood pressure cuffs and colour-coded stethoscopes into all single side-rooms.

The prize money will be used to further improve the work of the team.

Third place and £2,000 was awarded to the skin cancer team headed by Dr Andrew Wright.

The team’s achievements are numerous.

They include the introduction of the only patient user group in West Yorkshire and the first to appoint a skin cancer nurse specialist, Catherine Wheelhouse, who has championed at the highest level the need for posts similar to her own to be made across the country.

Other teams who made presentations included The Wrose Midwifery Team, the wound healing unit, Pennine Breast Imaging Services and Closing the Gap, a team which works to address the health inequalities faced by people with learning disabilities.