National achievements

Congratulations to the Parkinson's Rapid Advisory and Intervention Therapy Service (PRAIS) for winning the Deteriorating Patients and Rapid Response Initiative of the Year category at the 2025 HSJ Patient Safety Awards, in recognition of their incredible work to deliver high quality and safe care to vulnerable patients across our Trust and communities.

PRAIS provides quick access to specialist support to patients at high risk of their condition worsening in both hospital and community settings. The service prioritises patients facing longer length of stay in hospital or at high risk of readmission for those in the community - these referrals are responded to within 72 hours. 

The service was set up two years ago with support from national charity Parkinson's UK, and consists of Occupational Therapist Sophie Voyce and Physiotherapist Beth Denney who operate in the community, Florence Nightingale Community Hospital and Royal Derby Hospital. 

Beth and Sophie jointly shared a statement on their win, "We are grateful to have been given this opportunity, supported by Parkinson's UK, our leadership team, the Parkinson's Multi-disciplinary team and the Trust. We have been very fortunate to work collaboratively with such a vast number of fantastic therapy teams over the last two years, across acute and community services. This has enabled us to achieve our shared goal of providing patients with Parkinson's with the best possible standards of care. We are ecstatic to have won the HSJ award, we hope this recognition will support other Trusts to consider adopting this model and continue to improve outcomes for people living with this Parkinson's."

PRAIS were shortlisted alongside two other teams from UHDB, including the Dermatology department and Maternity Electronic Patient Record team. You can read more about each team and their nominated work to improve patient safety and quality >.

Executive Chief Medical Officer, Gis Robinson, commented, "I'm delighted to see our teams shortlisted and recognised nationally for their incredible work to improve quality, safety and experiences for our patients. The PRAIS team are playing an important role to deliver quick, responsive care to our most vulnerable patients at their greatest hour of need - supporting them to stay well and manage their symptoms outside of hospital with specialist care. The service was launched around two years ago and is relatively new - so it is incredible to see the impact they have delivered in a short space of time. It was also really inspirational and encouraging to hear the HSJ judges commend the PRAIS model, suggesting that it should be introduced nationally - congratulations Sophie and Beth for this win, it is really well-deserved."

The HSJ Patient Safety Awards recognise outstanding and exemplary practice in patient safety services and improved outcomes for populations. View all the winning teams for this year's HSJ Patient Safety Awards here > and if you haven't already, read more about our teams shortlisted for the annual HSJ Awards in November >.