Hospital staff recognised for outstanding achievements

Staff from Oxford University Hospitals donned their finery on 5 December 2018 at a special awards ceremony honouring their achievements over the last year.

The Staff Recognition Awards ceremony at Oxford Town Hall was attended by 265 staff, volunteers, and fundraisers. Winners and finalists were selected from each of the award categories, designed to celebrate the excellent contribution that they had made to patient care and working life at the Trust throughout 2018.

The ceremony - which was generously supported by Oxford Hospitals Charity - was hosted by BBC Oxford's Geraldine Peers. Winners and finalists were picked from over 1,000 nominations by a panel of staff and patients.

Caroline Allman, a Myeloid Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Churchill Hospital, won the Nurse of the Year award. Caroline's nominator said that in their seven years of working for the Trust, they'd never met a more dedicated nurse.

Caroline said: "I'm amazed and absolutely made up by this award. It's really lovely to be recognised by those around you. While I've been singled out for this role, I'm also so proud to be a representative of the wider teams like the haematology medics, the wards, the day unit, the lab, the admin team - everyone! I've had a wonderful night with my colleagues."

The Trust also publicly recognised Trust Chairman Dame Fiona Caldicott, whose term of office comes to an end in March 2019.

Paying tribute, Trust Lead for Psychological Medicine Professor Michael Sharpe said: "Dame Fiona has always brought thoughtfulness, intelligence, humour and humanity to all of her roles. These personal qualities have contributed to the life of the Trust in a hugely important way. Her kind, thoughtful and calm approach are examples to all of us - we'll sorely miss her when she steps down next year."

The Trust's Estates department scooped the Patients' Choice award for their dedication and daily efforts to keep our hospital buildings running smoothly.

Mark Neal, Interim Director of Estates, said: "I'm absolutely thrilled the team have won this award. They're incredibly special - they're behind the scenes every day of the year, at weekends, and overnight. They're the people who keep the lights on, keep the heating going, and work away in the background to keep everything ticking along.

"During last year's snowy weather, the Estates team volunteered to get to work at 4am to shovel snow and ice and make sure the hospitals were accessible for everybody."

Other highlights included a festive opening performance from St Joseph's School Choir.

The evening closed with Chief Executive Dr Bruno Holthof thanking winners and nominators for their hard work, support and dedication - and a reminder that hardworking staff were looking after patients as the ceremony went on.

For a full list of winners and photographs of the ceremony, please visit the awards web page.