National achievements

Remarkable respiratory colleagues named Team of the Year at national awards

Respiratory team

UHDB’s Respiratory Infection team has been crowned the Respiratory Team of the Year at the 2020 British Medical Journal (BMJ) Awards.

The team has been recognised for their outstanding work in improving the quality of care for patients admitted to hospital with pneumonia, as well as both reducing the length of time patients remain in hospital with the condition and improving support during their recovery.

The work also saw a reduction in readmissions of pneumonia patients, as well as making a substantial difference to patient centred outcomes and experience.

Dr Tom Bewick, Consultant Respiratory Physician at UHDB, leads the team and praised the hard work of his incredible colleagues.

He said: “The whole reason that I put the application in in the first place was for the team because they’re just amazing. The nurses always work really hard to improve outcomes for our patients, who will always be at the centre of everything we do, so it feels great to be recognised for our staff and our patients.”

The Respiratory Infection Team was established in 2016 and has evolved and expanded over time, but continues to look forward to continue developing.

“Developing the skills within our team is important to us,” said Dr Bewick.

“By helping team members improve their prescribing and clinical decision making, we can hopefully expand the service in the future to try to avoid some admissions from A&E and Primary Care, manage patients in the community more proactively, and lead by example to disseminate best practice, both within the Trust and more widely with other Trusts.”

The ImpACT+ Service, which was named Respiratory Care Initiative of the Year at this year’s HSJ Value Awards, was also shortlisted for this category.

ImpACT+ (Improving Adult Respiratory Care Together) has helped patients with long-term lung conditions by bringing different services together to offer comprehensive support to patients throughout all points in their care pathway, both at hospital and in their own homes.

Dr Bewick praised the ImpACT+ Service, who work closely together with the Respiratory Infection Team for their support.

He said: “The respiratory department at the Trust is really forward thinking and we work closely with the ImpACT+ Service to offer a great standard of care to respiratory patients.

“We’ll continue to work with them to develop our support for our patients, so I just want to say a huge thank you to them.”

As well as ImpACT+, Dr Bewick also paid tribute to the wider respiratory team at UHDB for the commitment and compassion treating patients during the Covid-19 pandemic, adding: “They’ve been superstars. It’s been a really busy time during the pandemic but the team has risen to the challenge magnificently.”

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