NHS Tameside and Glossop’s Provider Division received a high honour last Thursday as Hilary Garratt and Bev Connolly took up their invitation to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown in recognition of outstanding service for patients. They took the trip down to Downing Street for an event celebrating nursing excellence across the country, with recipients of the Nursing Standard Awards, Nursing Times Awards and Mary Seacole Leadership Award.
The invitation recognised the Provider Division’s recent success at the Nursing Times Awards. The Integrated Service for Children with Disabilities project, managed by Bev Connolly, won the top Child Health award for its work ensuring that NHS, Local Authority and local agency resources were maximised and services centred on the needs of the child and the family. The judges called this: “An excellent project with parents as equal partners in using resources effectively, to the true benefit of children with a disability and their families.”
These awards are the latest in a track record of triumph for NHS Tameside and Glossop Provider Division at the Nursing Times Awards over the years. 2008 saw a nomination for an innovative parenting course for teenage parents, while two years previously a district nurse team won first prize for their work preventing falls in the community.
Other recent awards include a commendation from the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards 2009 for Hyde Community Action, the Lymphoedema Team’s winning the Secretary of State Award at the HSJ Awards at the end of 2008, and the Stroke Rehabilitation Unit winning an Independent Healthcare Award in 2009. These successes continue to demonstrate the hard work of front line staff across NHS Tameside and Glossop, and the excellent quality of our Provider Division.
The Prime Minister and his wife Sarah Brown thanked the assembled guests, and the nation’s nursing staff as a whole for the hard work they put in for patients, while guests including Hilary and Bev went on a full guided tour of No 10 Downing Street after the event.
Hilary Garratt, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of Nursing, said “Receiving an invitation of this kind is a fantastic mark of appreciation , and I am delighted the service has been saluted in this way. This honour was on behalf of all the staff whose magnificent work for children with disabilities continues to be valued by families across Tameside and Glossop.”