Staff from NHS Hastings and Rother are celebrating after their work was recognised at the South East Coast region’s Best of Health Awards 2010, meaning they now have a chance to win a national honour.
The Best of Health Awards - the regional heat of the national Health and Social Care Awards - celebrates the innovative and inspirational achievements of teams and individuals working in the region.
NHS South East Coast - the strategic health authority for Kent, Surrey and Sussex - which organises the annual celebration, received more than 160 nominations all vying for one of the eight awards on offer - five national categories (with the winners going forward to represent the region in the national awards) and three regional categories.
A team from NHS Hastings and Rother won the Success in Partnership Working Award for their work with Scansol.
Over the past 30 years, the incidence of melanoma skin cancer has increased more than any other common cancer in the UK and rates are expected to double every decade.
Working with the private sector, NHS Hastings and Rother was able to provide a new skin cancer diagnostic service in the community using TeleDerm - a hand-held device to view skin structure.
The service was piloted in September 2008 to March 2009 with GP practices in the area.
It resulted in 600 patients being assessed. Seven patients had melanomas confirmed of which four would have been incorrectly diagnosed by GPs had the Telederm service not been available.
Emma Cuppini, Practice Based Commissioning Project Officer, NHS Hastings and Rother said:
"Working with Scansol has been a rewarding new experience, and is a great example of the kind of partnership working, between the NHS, the private sector, and groups of local GPs, which we are likely to be seeing much more of in the future."
The team will now go forward to the national Health and Social Care Awards in November.
NHS South East Coast Chairman, Kate Lampard and Chief Executive, Candy Morris announced the winners and presented the Best of Health Awards at a ceremony in Brighton.
Kate Lampard, Chairman, NHS South East Coast said:
"The Health and Social Care Awards are a great way to celebrate our champions and ambassadors who relish the challenges they face and have the desire to do things better.
Showcasing the very best of what we do helps to inspire others to do the same.
"It’s a great achievement to be singled out as delivering one of the best services in the region.
The standard of applications this year was extremely high, and the judging panel found it hard to select the finalists, let alone the winners."
NHS South East Coast, Chief Executive, Candy Morris, commented:
"In line with our regional vision Healthier people, excellent care - which is about improving quality and innovating to release savings to reinvest in services - the winners had to demonstrate improved quality, innovation, increased efficiency or work to prevent health problems."
