Gloucestershire Team wins Regional NHS Parliamentary Award

This year’s competition spans ten categories, including a new award for excellence in education and training.

All winners will now go on to represent the South West in the national awards ceremony, alongside those from other English regions, at the prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster on Monday 14 October.

Elizabeth O’Mahony, Regional Director of NHS England in the South West, said: “Every year, I’m delighted to see our dedicated staff and volunteers across the South West receive this well-deserved recognition.

“Despite the difficulties and day-to-day challenges that we know the NHS faces, our teams continue to deliver outstanding care with unwavering commitment.”

“I’d like to congratulate every one of the winners and thank all the MPs who have taken the time to acknowledge the exceptional work happening in their constituencies.

“I also want to extend my thanks to all the amazing nominees, with a record 79 being put forward this year, some by more than one MP.”

The 2024 regional winners, selected by NHS leaders in the South West, include:

The Excellence in Urgent and Emergency Care Award:

• Mental Health Liaison and Emergency Department team, Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
• Nominated by Alex McIntyre MP

The Mental Health Liaison Team is a team of mental health professionals who jointly work with Emergency Department staff at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital to identify people with mental health needs and provide appropriate support and treatment. Their nomination detailed how they have introduced new ways of identifying people with mental health needs as soon as they attend, so their risk and previous history can be assessed straight away. This has seen waiting times decrease considerably, reducing overcrowding in ED and improving the experience of patients, with better health outcomes and less chance of needing a hospital bed.

The judges comments included:

• “The team addressed the challenge of an increasing number of patients attending emergency departments with mental health problems by streaming differently for early assessment and management from a specialist trained mental health team.”
• “For this group of patients, many of whom were regular attenders, suggesting their mental health needs were not adequately being met, bringing this team in resulted in a more-efficient service and a reduction in waiting times, despite high numbers of people needing to be seen. This, in turn, saw a fall in those leaving before assessment, suggesting better mental health outcomes. They also saw higher patient satisfaction.
• “For the Emergency Department, staff were able to focus on the other patients attending. Overall waiting times fell as did congestion in the waiting rooms. By streaming services in this way, this helped emergency department overall performance and departmental flow.
• “The experience has been shared and organisations in other parts of the country are now also adopting this model.”

Graham Russell, Chair of Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted that the Mental Health Liaison Team has won the regional award. They are a fantastic team doing great work under sometimes difficult circumstances but they always have the best interests of the people they support at heart. Their new and innovative way of working with hospital colleagues is making sure that people receive the best possible care in a timely way and it’s great they are receiving the recognition they richly deserve.”

Original press release from Gloucestershire Health and Care, thank you.