Christmas Cheer at Chelsea and Westminster
Awards for outstanding hospital staff
Doctors, nurses and other staff at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital were recognised for their outstanding contribution to patient care at the hospital's Christmas Cheer Awards, held on December 17.
These annual awards aim to recognise staff who bring a cheerful, positive attitude to their work and this year they attracted a record number of nominations—398 in all—with 144 individual staff and four teams being nominated by members of the public.
The hospital's team of rheumatology nurses won the Team Award after being nominated by a number of grateful rheumatoid arthritis patients, one of whom said: "These nurses are excellent and always available—they are my lifeline. They instigated a rheumatoid arthritis support group which is still going strong after four years."
This is not the first award won by the team—Clinical Nurse Specialists Sarah Collis, Antonia Greeves, Bridget Ryan and Ashlynne Van Vuuren, and Clerical Assistant Asma Istwani.
Last year they were named as 'Healthcare Champions in Inflammatory Arthritis' by the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society after being nominated by patient Sheila Smith.
Individual staff winners of the Christmas Cheer Awards included nurse Cheryl Paul, Team Leader in the hospital's Discharge Team, who received no less than 78 nominations.
Colleague Angela Honan said: "Without Cheryl's help every day we would never get our patients home. No job is too small and she is always still smiling at the end of the day."
Hospital Directors all made a monetary contribution to help buy prizes for the winners of the Christmas Cheer Awards.
December 23, 2009