Thank You Event 2024: Project of the Year - Winner
Every year we celebrate our amazing staff and their achievements at our Thank You ceremony. Board members will surprise colleagues at their bases and present them with a hamper, balloons and a certificate for being shining examples of our magnificent staff behaviours.
Project of the Year – Winner
Patient Quality and Safety Improvements Partnership: Craig Russo, Operational Lead (Humberside Police Custody), and Custody Nurses: Rebekah Bean, Karina Dunn, Mick Haslam, and Gillian Woodall
There were major issues highlighted with repeated incidents that involved patient safety and quality of care with regards to discharges from A&E into police custody NHS services, and the police also bringing in patients requiring urgent care. Patients were often discharged without a thorough assessment, care plans, records or handovers and the policies, protocols, pathways and records were not fit for purpose. This caused major risks to patients' safety and care and put a strain on all services, increased costs, and impacted the patient journey. It was also identified that due to the lack of holistic assessments when arrested, patients were brought to Police Custody NHS services instead of A&E for appropriate treatment, delaying their often-life-threatening care.
A partnership was created between Hull Trust, Lincolnshire and Goole Trust, LCH and Humberside Police to improve patient care and standards. “We wanted to share knowledge and expertise between organisations, improve pathways and documentation and reduce costs, and serious incidents that can affect all the organisations. Patient care and safety was the focus, but there were other areas to improve including, costs, staff time, patient journeys, and creating bespoke training to do something that hadn’t been done before.”
The project has improved communication and partnership working between three Trusts and the Police. There are new pathways which have been integrated into the care of patients and has improved patient safety and their journey. Discharge safety checklist documentation was introduced that improves accountability, ensures standards are met in care, and gives a handover to the police and all NHS staff. Bespoke training for A&E has been designed, which has been rolled out to Hull NHS Trust and is now part of their corporate induction delivered by LCH staff to upskill staff. It has reduced serious incidents reports and investigations, improved care, reduced wrong area referrals and improved staff knowledge and skill. It has been highly received by all and feedback from patients and staff has been positive. It is now the Gold Standard for Humberside Police and adopted by A&E’s in multiple areas.
The project has garnered attention from other Trusts who have expressed interest in learning from the project and implementing.
Craig Russo, Operational Lead and Kathryn Hardy, Head of Service nominated the project and said, “It has been an amazing project which has been so well received and incorporated massive partnership working. The project has had such an impact that it has been put forward by MP Emma Hardy as her choice for the NHS Parliamentary Awards 2024.”
Brodie Clark CBE, LCH Chair presented the award to the project team at Wetherby health centre and praised they saying, "The police culture is very different from the culture that we are used to in other parts of the NHS and that is not an easy bridge to cross in many instances and in many occasions, so all the more credit for achieving that and delivering that. The final product has been hugely impressive, it's made a massive difference and other Trusts around the country have began to reflect on it and take an interest in it. So, for the project and work you have done so successfully, we would like to say a huge thank you to the whole team."
