The winners of this year’s NHS South Central Health and Social Care Awards were announced at a regional awards ceremony hosted by South Central Strategic Health Authority at Oxford Brookes University on Tuesday 19 October. Recognising the best health and social care teams across the South Central region, the awards are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate excellence and innovation and share best practice to improve the lives of patients, service users, carers and staff.

The winners across the six award categories are:

• Acute Care Award: Diabetes In-Patient Prospective Service from Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
• Excellence in Commissioning Award: Primary Care Commissioning Team, NHS Berkshire West
• Mental Health and Wellbeing Award: The Mental Health Community Development Team, NHS Buckinghamshire (Movers and Shakers Project)
• Success in Partnership Working Award: The Mental Health Community Development Team, NHS Buckinghamshire (Wellbeing for Travellers)
• Primary Care and Community Based Integration Award: Teledermatology Group, NHS Hampshire
• Support for Independence Award: Integrated Commissioning Team (Mental Health), NHS Oxfordshire and Oxfordshire County Council.

Successful teams were drawn from health and social care staff working in the NHS, social services, local government, the voluntary, charity and independent sector organisations, patient and carer organisations and prison services from across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The winning projects were shortlisted by an expert panel of judges.

Andrea Young, Chief Executive of South Central Strategic Health Authority, said: “I am enormously impressed by the high calibre and range of projects I have seen this year. All of the projects deserve recognition for the excellent work they are doing. They all share a common goal to provide better care for patients and improve the services offered by the NHS.

“I am pleased to see that staff are using their unique expertise and experiences to develop innovative solutions that are improving the quality of patient care; whilst at the same time helping the NHS to work more efficiently and contributing towards the savings that we need to make.

“What is important is that these new ways of working become every day practice and are adopted across the whole region, so that all patients experience an improved service and a higher quality of care, and more people benefit from the support available to lead healthier lifestyles.”

Projects that were showcased include a dermatology team in Hampshire who are using the latest technology to diagnose digital images of suspicious skin lesions remotely, so patients no longer need to travel to hospital. This has resulted in less anxiety for patients, as they learn their diagnosis earlier and treatment can be offered more quickly. Furthermore, fewer appointments are needed at hospital, which has led to a 70% reduction in referrals and associated annual saving to the local NHS of around £600,000.

The overall winning entry is the Diabetes team at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which has been put forward to the national Health and Social Care Awards. The Diabetes In-Patient Prospective Service reviews all patients with diabetes on a daily basis to improve patient outcomes. This means shorter stays in hospital, fewer patients needing re-admission to hospital and lower incidence of hospital associated infections. The national awards will be held at a high profile event hosted byAndrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health, in Liverpool on Thursday 18 November.

Further information on each of the winning projects is detailed below:

Acute Care Award
Diabetes In-Patient Prospective Service, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust

This service reviews all patients with diabetes on a daily basis to improve their outcomes and experience. This has resulted in reductions in a large number of performance indicators and in particular, length of stay, re-admission rates and hospital-associated infection rates.

Excellence in Commissioning Award
Primary Care Commissioning Team, NHS Berkshire West

The team commissioned primary medical services in central Reading. The Reading Walk-In Centre opened in August 2009 and provides access to GP services from 8.00am to 8.00pm, seven days a week. The Health Centre has attracted over 1,600 patients from Reading to date and 41 per cent of those registered had not been registered with a GP before.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Award
The Mental Health Community Development Team (Movers and Shakers Project), NHS Buckinghamshire

Movers and Shakers (M&S) is a programme to engage isolated and socially disadvantaged communities and encourage them to lead healthy lifestyles. M&S members are volunteers who establish and run weekly sessions, supported by a team of four organisers. Members choose physical, mental and creative activities and healthy lunches are served. The programme has led to a much improved awareness of self help.

Success in Partnership Working Award
The Mental Health Community Development Team (Wellbeing for Travellers) from NHS Buckinghamshire

Women and young girls from a number of traveller sites in south Buckinghamshire were given training to become community health advocates. This raised awareness of the importance of accessing screening, healthy eating and emotional wellbeing. The project is a partnership between One Voice 4 Travellers, Bucks New University and NHS Buckinghamshire and is funded by Buckinghamshire Community Foundation. The project has benefitted 60 families.

Primary Care and Community Based Integration Award
Teledermatology Group, NHS Hampshire

Teledermatology is a service whereby GPs can use technology to send a photograph of a skin condition and associated history to a consultant dermatologist and receive recommendations and treatment advice for the patient electronically. The initiative has led to a decrease in patient waiting time, rapid turnaround time and ease of referral.

Support for Independence Award
Integrated Commissioning Team (Mental Health), NHS Oxfordshire and Oxfordshire County Council

This is a partnership project, governed by a carer-led Board. The team has developed a clear pathway from acute in-patient mental healthcare to full independence. Prevention of admission, recovery and sustainable independent living are key aims. Together with a unified referral system, this allows clients and professionals to easily identify where on the pathway they need to be and how to access services.