Honours and awards recognise the efforts of staff

Outstanding work during the pandemic recognised in

New Year and Queen’s Birthday honours Training programme wins national workforce award

Lisa Knight Dr Ganesh Suntharalingam Dr Nuala Lucas Dr Gurjinder Singh Sandhu

Our Chief Nurse, Lisa Knight, was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list for her role during the pandemic. Lisa said: “I’m deeply grateful to have been nominated for this honour. It’s a lovely surprise and one that I want to share with my nurses who continue to be so fantastic during the pandemic. Having trained at Northwick Park Hospital early in my career, it’s meant a lot for me to be working with the Trust during this challenging time.” Three of our consultants were also recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for their outstanding work during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Ganesh Suntharalingam, Clinical Lead for Critical Care, was awarded an OBE. Dr Nuala Lucas, Consultant Obstetric Anaesthetist, and Dr Gurjinder Singh Sandhu, Infectious Diseases Consultant, were both awarded MBEs. Ganesh, who is also the President of the Intensive Care Society, works in intensive care at Northwick Park Hospital. He is part of a team which looks after the most critically ill patients. Ganesh said: “We all met the challenge together and I’m proud to be part of the team. We pulled out all the stops and the response from everyone in our hospitals was phenomenal. “I am involved in national work via the Intensive Care Society but within the Trust it’s a privilege to be part of a rota with a lot of great leadership and collaboration coming from many others. This honour is for my colleagues as much as myself.”

Nuala works in the maternity department where she helps look after women in labour with COVID-19 she said: “It’s a fantastic honour not just for me and my profession but the whole maternity team I work with.”

“We worked out a system where partners could be present at the birth and, luckily, the majority of mums-to-be displayed mild symptoms of the virus with minimal risk of onward transmission to their babies.”

Until recently, Gurjinder worked at Ealing Hospital, where he has played a huge role in training staff before the arrival of the virus in March as well as treating patients. He said: “Hospitals aren’t about one person it was a team effort and I want to thank all my clinical and non-clinical colleagues.” -Gurj has just taken on a clinical lead role at King’s College Hospital, and we wish him the very best of luck. The Trust won the Best Workforce for Learning and Development category at the Nursing Times Workforce Awards 2020.

Throughout the pandemic, our learning and organisational development team have played a key role in supporting the workforce. This includes the transfer and training of staff from other nursing specialisms into critical care along with the redeployment and training of Allied Health Professionals. Thousands of staff benefited from Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) sessions, while more than 400 were given additional training to work in the trust’s hard-pressed critical and intensive care units. Face-to-face training was delivered in PPE and the widespread use of e-learning platforms social media and video conferencing completely modernised how the trust delivered staff training. Sharin Baldwin, Clinical Academic Lead, said: “People’s willingness to get stuck in was extraordinary but we still had a duty to ensure they were trained to help out in areas like critical and intensive care.

“It was a learning curve but with the support of the specialist nurses and practice development nurses we adapted, delivered and improved upon a huge educational programme. This ranged from non-invasive ventilation and testing for FFP3 masks to core training for venepuncture and administration of intravenous drugs.

“Our overarching belief was the importance of a small cog in a big wheel and the fact that everyone has a role to play from cleaning staff to consultants. It was a huge team effort and people should feel rightly proud of that.”

Goretti Dowdican-McAndrew, Head of Multi-professional Development, added: “The award demonstrates how each person plays a vital role in supporting the delivery of safe patient care.”