We held our annual Long Service and PRIDE Awards at Orsett Hall on Thursday (16 November).

These awards are a chance to recognise the dedication and hard work of many of our colleagues.

Among them were those awarded for an amazing 2,670 years’ service! This included ten volunteers with a decade behind them at our Trust, 82 staff who have worked with us for 20 years, 31 who have been here for 30 years and one who has completed a record 40 years!

The winner of the Hospital Hero award, nominated by a member of the public, was our fabulous Maternity team. The team was nominated by a grandmother who praised the great care her daughter-in-law received on the birth of her second child – she was amazed by the fantastic turnaround after a not so positive experience six year ago.

Sue Lovell, our Interim Head of Midwifery, said: “We were delighted to win this award, particularly as we were put forward by a patient.

“We’ve worked hard in the last few years to improve the experience of our patients. We’ve increased the number of midwives and introduced nursery nurses who can support mums with sick babies, freeing up midwife time to care for other women. Most importantly, we’ve been using feedback from our patients to implement the changes they want, which is why we now allow dads to stay on the ward with new mums for those all-important first few nights of parenthood.”

Pictured above is our Maternity team picking up their award.

See below for a full list of winners.

PRIDE Awards

Charity Award

Fundraisers Lesley and Pam

Most Improved Corporate Service

Antoinette Webber - Voluntary Services

Most Improved Patient Service

Erica ward, elderly care ward

Improvement and Innovation Award

Dean Taylor, consultant clinical scientist (nominated for his work during the cyber-attack)

Inspirational Leadership Award

Suzanne Harris and Graham Thwaites

Hospital Hero Award (nominated by colleagues)

Anatomical Pathology Technologists and Louise Nicholas

Learning and Development Champion

Gosia Bal from our Anaesthetics team

Volunteer of the Year

Beryl Tolley

Hospital Hero Award (nominated by a member of the public)

Maternity

Long Service Awards

20 years’ service by division

Acute Medicine

John Delander

Alison Leadsham

Susan Penson and

Linda Slisz

Anaesthetics

Glenda Bellot

Gopinathan Chitra

Andrew Clark

Uttam Kakshepti

Devina Ramchum

Kanthi Raveendran

Beverley Sampson-Thomas and

Anne Springate

Cancer and Clinical Support

Andrew Attack

Noeline Boudville

Susan Clamp

Kevin Norwood

Baljit Sahota

Valerie Schwar and

Gillian Vickery

Specialist Medicine

Anne Basye

Jaswinder Channa

Miriam Hawkins

Jill Hayfield

Zoe James

Ayyakannu Kumar

Tracey Monerville

Magda Smith

Surgery colleagues

Jayanta Barua

Yvonne Connelly

Janet Convery

Carla Darby

Linda Fage

Miriam Hanooman and

Jacqueline Webber

Theatres

Chiew Lau

Carly Killer

Women and Child Health

Fiona Bennett

Wendy Higginson

Sangeeta Koonjal

Julie Nathaniel

Edel O’Donnell

Adetayo Owoaje

Suzy Palmer

Corporate

Lynn Barnes

Caroline Curtin

Collette Douglas

Karen Robinson and

Julie Walker

30 years’ service

Anaesthetics

Philippa Gladwin

Carol Wilkes

Cancer and Clinical Support

Jonathan Gower

Gihad Khan and

Julia Owen

Specialist Medicine

Susan Hawkes

Janice Leahy

Wendy Smith and Kim Teece

Theatres

Leigh Wyatt

Nancy Wu

Women and Child Health

Marie Brown

Margaret Coyston

Deborah Draper

Diane Foord

Lorraine Imber

Anne Moore and

Linda Pridmore

Corporate

Hillary Fossett

Julie Lee and

Kim O’Connor

Volunteers with 10 years’ service

Jennifer Heinink

Penelope White