[A] GP team from Carlisle have received national recognition after being announced as winners of an Our Health Heroes Award.
They are winners of the Bronze award in the Workforce Planning Team of the Year category, and will be celebrated at an awards ceremony in November.
The team is made up of clinical and non-clinical staff members from Carlisle Healthcare GP practice, which has just celebrated its first anniversary following the merger of St Pauls Medical Centre, Brunswick House Medical Group and North Carlisle Medical Practice in October 2016.
It serves 36,000 patients over five sites, and the award is for their model of assessing challenges facing them collectively, appreciating common issues and working through joint solutions.
They are amongst 33 Healthcare Workers who provide excellent patient care across the UK that have been announced as finalists and regional winners for Skills for Health’s Our Health Heroes Awards 2017.
The Our Health Heroes Awards, sponsored by Health Education England, were established in 2016 and aim to celebrate the unsung healthcare heroes from across the UK, including those working in the NHS, that go above and beyond in their roles every day.
Dr Robert Westgate, a GP involved in the work, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be the Bronze winner of Workforce Planning Team of the Year, we didn’t even expect to be shortlisted. We’ve worked really hard to get to where we are, so to get some recognition and to be described as Health Heroes is phenomenal.
“I think the award goes some way to acknowledge the creative risks we have taken as a practice to try and grow our workforce in a climate of both austerity and difficulties with GP recruitment. We’re very much looking forward to the ceremony and meeting all the other winners.”
Further information about the awards, and other winners, can be found online at: http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/ohh-2017
