Radar Healthcare’s Hero Awards – and the winners are…
10 December 2020
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Heading to the end of a rollercoaster year, we know that saying thank you to our healthcare professionals is the very least we can do.
So, we set out to share some sparkle by setting up Radar Healthcare’s first Hero Awards, and we asked you to nominate your healthcare heroes to help us do just that.
The result?
We were absolutely overwhelmed with the sea of fantastic nominations you sent us – full of heartfelt stories of great people doing great things. What a brilliant way to end the year!
In fact, we received so many nominations we added on an extra award category (Team of the Year) and lots of honourable mentions!
A huge thank you to everyone who nominated, and to all the amazing nominees for your great work this year.
Without further ado, we’re pleased to announce the winners of Radar Healthcare’s Hero Awards 2020…
Care hero of the year
Winner – Adam David Purnell (nominated 8 times)
A shining light in a national darkness…
“While there are various carers I could nominate in my late father’s care home, I would like to nominate Adam-David Purnell. Adam is manager of a home in Lancashire and has been a shining light in terms of providing ongoing visiting for his residents and families during Covid. This would normally just be important for his own home; but Adam is also part of John’s Campaign and so has spoken out nationally on many occasions; challenging the government to allow visits; working as part of the Lancashire County Council team to make good policy. He has been willing to work with other managers nationally to help with their policies. When Lancs Co Council ordered a ban on Christmas decorations in homes he had this overturned. This has been a dark year for Care Homes but Adam has stood out as a light in that national darkness.”
Dedicated his working life to helping others…
“At 73 years young, Richard is our oldest but one of the most wonderful carers we have. Richard has dedicated pretty much all of his working life to helping others in care based roles. Richard is always willing to help out at short notice, he is a firm favourite of many of our service users and is well liked by everyone he works with. During Richard’s time at A & B Healthcare, he has multiple letters of thanks from our service users, he has won carer of the week/month numerous times and his smile is enough to light a room! Richard is an asset to our company!”
Not your average gardener…
Tracey has been the gardener at Oaktree Court Care Home now for over two years and has become part of an incredible family of staff and residents. She is not your average gardener and she works on many projects with staff and residents in the home. The garden is a very important part of Oaktree Court and has become even more important in recent months as outings have been restricted and visitations at times have been limited to the gardens for safety reasons. Moreover, when it was unclear how the supply of groceries and food would be affected by the pandemic the garden also became a source a fresh produce for the home.
Tracey’s pride and joy is the Veggie Village. This is a project she has worked on and developed during the pandemic alongside the staff and residents in the home. The local community offered her raised beds made from old water tanks and with this the Veggie Village was born. The original idea was to provide the sight, touch and taste of good old-fashioned vegetable gardening for the residents – many of whom had wonderful vegetable gardens of their own at home. The raised beds are a perfect height for our wheelchair users to access.
A lot of the growing knowledge came from the residents directly, many of whom had their own vegetable gardens and allotments in the past and were more than happy to share their experience and knowledge.
This project has given both staff and residents something to focus on during the pandemic. It had ensured residents are getting exercise and fresh air as well as giving them a purpose and a way to contribute to mitigating the effects of the pandemic.”
NHS hero of the year
Winner – Dave Chorlton, Alvanley Family Practice
Changing the face of the way we work…
“Dave is a volunteer who has supported Alvanley Family Practice. He coordinates a group of volunteers that have changed the face of the way that we work. Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, commented: “I have seen the future of General Practice and its Alvanley”. Dave has worked with the practice to ensure we have capacity and alternatives to medical care. He leads on our allotment project and designed a wellbeing prescription that is the first way that any clinician can refer to a non-medical solution.”
A shining example of a great leader…
“Nicki returned from maternity leave very early to support her colleagues during the pandemic. Nicki has embraced new technologies during this time to ensure all urgent care service continued to provide excellent patient care; this included all clinicians having access to video consultations and implementing EPS. This was done very quickly and she developed SOP’s and manuals to provide training and ongoing support to the clinicians. Nicki helped to safely mobilise a COVID management service; literally overnight; and implemented an audit program to ensure the patient were being managed appropriately as this was a remote service. She has engaged with a plethora of other healthcare providers to work cohesively throughout the pandemic to ensure patient received the care they deserve. In the midst of all this, she has also implemented a robust audit program to ensure the clinical working in urgent care services are the best of the best. Nicki works tirelessly to provide support, encouragement and engagement with clinicians. She is a shining example of a great leader.”
Best use of digital technology in 2020
Winner – Beccy Incledon, Parkhaven Trust
Truly a digital champion…
“Beccy has gone above and beyond to support Parkhaven Trust in our use and development of the newest technologies to support our service users. In November 2019, Parkhaven Trust opened The Beeches – a new residential and nursing service for people with dementia in Merseyside. Four years in the making; the team wanted to have both residential and nursing in the same building to support residents as their dementia progressed.
At the heart of The Beeches was a desire to use technology to provide the highest quality environment to cater for the needs of people with dementia. Following good practice from the Dementia Design Centre at Stirling University; tools such as circadian lighting; acoustic monitoring and electronic care planning ensure that people are cared for using the latest technology. Acoustic monitoring Traditionally Parkhaven Trust would do hourly checks on residents during the night. By opening the door and light coming in; residents could be disturbed. Now staff use sound detecting technology; called acoustic monitoring; which listens to sleeping residents. The technology knows what is normal for the individual and will trigger an alert for staff if anything changes. For example; if someone usually snores at night and they stop; it will alert staff who can go in and check on the resident. It means we’re not disturbing people unnecessarily; but we can keep people safe.
The team at Parkhaven Trust are already seeing the benefits of implementing the technology. Already we’ve seen falls reduce by half; which is making a huge impact. It gives peace of mind to staff; residents and their families. Technology doesn’t replace great care; but it does give us extra support. Beccy has been instrumental in the introduction and training of staff to use these new digital methods of caring. She has also been sharing these successes and sharing the learning with other care providers from other care facilities across the UK; through dedicated webinar sessions. She is truly a Digital Champion.”
Creating great opportunities for residents
“Naomi has only been working as a support worker for just under a year and has already made a huge difference in the lives of those she works with. Naomi has used her knowledge of technology to create some great opportunities for residents. Naomi has canvassed people online seeking donations for the vulnerable women she works with and was able to use Facebook as a tool to garner support for her ideas for activities.
Naomi has received donated art supplies; food; clothing and household goods for the women. Naomi has used the donations to create fun activities for the women to keep them busy and occupied during lockdown. This included fashion photoshoots; art classes; poetry classes; women’s empowerment sessions; cooking lessons and even a red carpet awards ceremony which she hosted during the summer.
Naomi has started a newsletter for the women in her service. Each month residents contribute art poetry; quotes interviews etc for the publication. They also get the chance to enter competitions via the newsletter to win donated prizes. The women here are all complex with issues ranging from mental health to drug and alcohol abuse. Being able to experience the simple pleasures of life is something not often experienced by the women in the service. Naomi works hard to help them to feel like women; to feel happiness and to feel part of society.”
Healthcare team of the year
Winner – Alvanley Family Practice
Breaking down barriers…
“We have changed the way that we communicate with our patients over the pandemic; we send a weekly text message to our patients which is very well received; the patients tell us that they feel remembered and included in the practice activities and decisions. We also know that patients are feeling isolated, so we have set up regular “Experts by Experience events” live on Facebook where we talk about particular conditions or patient groups. We also talk about things like women’s health and have had an amazing response.”
