Leeds Hospital Heroes Announced
29 July 2019
Leeds Teaching Hospitals invited patients, their family and friends to get behind its staff awards by nominating their hospital hero for an award! Giving patients, their families and the community of Leeds the opportunity to nominate a member of staff has been extremely successful with the Trust receiving hundreds of nominations for staff across its seven hospitals.
The generous support of event sponsors Altodigital and Sovereign Health Care enabled this prestigious event for staff to go ahead. Design and print partner FDP also provided free web, design and print support and were responsible for the great branding and online judging platform for the awards.
Leeds Hospital Heroes 2019 were announced at the awards event held at The Royal Armouries New Dock Hall. Lauren Bond, a domestic at Leeds Children’s Hospital became Hospital Hero this year for her support of a young patient following heart surgery.
Ward C3 at Chapel Allerton Hospital and Dr Andrew Barr received an Unsung Hero award for their support of the Trust during a busy winter period. In the Support category, Linda Baddeley, ward clerk on J44 received an award for going above and beyond her job role, as well as raising over £2,500 for our hospital charity.
Adrian Nibbs, a security officer at St James’s Hospital won the Behind the Scenes award. He saved the life of a very distressed and vulnerable person and talked to them on his own for 45 minutes. He was described by colleagues as “a credit to himself, the department, the Trust and the NHS”.
A special award named in memory of the late Dr Kate Granger was presented to the Critical Care Team for making a positive difference to the patient experience - this was presented by Kate’s husband Chris Pointon. The team won for their work which has seen them rated as Outstanding by the CQC as well as the addition of Maggie the PAT dog on our intensive care wards. Maggie makes people smile during some really dark times and is now truly part of the team! 
There were also awards sponsored by Leeds Cares for some of our fantastic hospital fundraisers. Christine Barber, Gynae Nurse-Specialist was named Charitable Ambassador of the Year for her cake sale called “Buns, boobs and bits” reminding people to check their bodies for lumps. In less than five years, Christine has raised an impressive £9,000 to benefit staff, patients and their families at Leeds Cancer Centre. Gina Finlayson and the radiotherapy team were also named Fundraising Team of the Year for raising over £20,000 for the MR Sim Appeal through regular coffee mornings to benefit patients at Leeds Cancer Centre. 
The Sustainable Efficiencies award, sponsored by Ansell, was presented to the teams who work on the HIV Antiretroviral Therapy Generic Switching Strategy. This has ensured the safe implementation of generic switches for three products used in HIV care and is predicted to save over £3m per year, which can be reinvested into patient care.
Chief Executive, Julian Hartley said: “Leeds Teaching Hospitals’ Time to Shine Awards aim recognise and celebrate the achievements of both clinical and support staff and provide a platform for sharing good practice. I would like to thank our patients and their families for nominating their hospital heroes - we received some really heart-warming stories. I am extremely proud of our staff whose dedication and commitment enables Leeds Teaching Hospitals to deliver patient centred services to over 1 million patients each year.”
