Team and Employee of the Month – July 2019

The Dermatology department is a truly worthy winner of July’s Team of the Month award, marking its remarkable turnaround in performance over the last year.

Dermatology General Manager, Awais Habib, put the team forward for the award, citing the “hard work, goodwill and dedication” of staff in bringing the referral to treatment (RTT) waiting list down from 2,400 patients to 925 patients.

Despite managing consultant and nursing vacancies, the team improved its RTT performance from 75 per cent in October 2018 to 90 in June 2019. It has also improved its cancer performance which has had a positive impact on the Trust’s overall performance – with the two-week cancer wait now sustained at over 93 per cent.

“The team delivered has shown a collective ability to go the extra mile in making sure patients receive a high quality and safe service,” Awais told Let’s Talk. “It’s an incredible team and its hard work over the last 12 months deserves to be recognised.”

Congratulations to the Dermatology for a fantastic achievement!

In an organisation packed full of amazing people who are exceptionally skilled and caring, I’m still in awe of the things that you, our staff, do day in, day out.

And every now and then I hear about someone who quietly carries out their role, a very emotionally challenging role, and makes a very special difference to families’ lives. Our Employee of the Month for July: Play Specialist with the Children’s Community team, Lisa Smith, is just such an example.

Lisa supports children with complex health needs through specialist play and always goes above and beyond to try to make their wishes come true, so they can make lovely memories.

Alaba Driver, Community Children’s Nurse, was one of three colleagues who nominated Lisa for the award. She told Let’s Talk:

“Part of Lisa’s role is ensuring families whose children are terminally ill or have life limiting conditions are able to make lasting memories of their lives together. She contacts families and arranges all aspects of memory making and makes sure that the dying child’s family are able to make memories that offer comfort long after their passing. Lisa often helps make children and families’ wishes come true in her own time and frequently gets involved in the Bradford Hospitals’ Charity to raise funds to make this happen.”

Other nominators, Fiona Aston and Jane Wallington, from Children’s Services, told how recently Lisa contacted a charity to organise a recording session in Craig David’s recording studio where a little girl who has sight problems and other complex health issues, but loves to sing, could record her own CD.

And a young person who needed a scan but had a phobia of hospital procedures and had refused one previously was also helped by Lisa. She visited the boy to gain his trust and asked if he would like to visit her at work.

Lisa made arrangements with the team so that they all wore their own clothing and the boy thought he was meeting her friends: as a result the scan went ahead successfully. Well done, Lisa, you are part of what makes Bradford special.