Services nominated for excellence in care awards
26 May 2006
Two innovative ideas to improve care for patients at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital were nominated for the prestigious Patients Association Awards 2006.
Two innovative ideas to improve care for patients at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital were nominated for the prestigious Patients Association Awards 2006.
The awards recognise good practice and reward excellent patient care.
Helen Brown, Lead Nurse for Support Worker Development, and Reverend Steven Smith were nominated for their privacy and dignity charter. The charter sets out the key principles of privacy and dignity that staff should promote in their daily working lives.
The charter spells out the FRESH values that can help safeguard the privacy and dignity of patients - fairness, respect, empowerment, sharing and honesty.
The charter is also part of a much broader programme of initiatives at the Trust to promote dignity and privacy including staff training sessions and an assessment tool for clinical areas to benchmark their practices.
Roz Wallis, Senior Infection Control Nurse, was also nominated for the introduction of a silver alloy urinary catheter to the Trust which helps to reduce the spread of healthcare associated infections.
Chelsea and Westminster was one of the first trusts in the country to use this revolutionary new BARDEX® I.C. Foley catheter.
Nationally more than 20% of all healthcare associated infections develop in the urinary tract. They cost the NHS thousands of pounds but, most importantly, they cause patients a lot of discomfort.
The new catheter is a unique combination of silver alloy and a hydrogel coating to provide an extended, slow release of silver ions, which reduces the ability of bacteria to bond to the catheter surface. This helps to reduce the risk of the bacteria moving into the bladder and causing an infection.
This week Roz Wallis also presented details of how the new catheter is helping to improve infection control at Chelsea and Westminster to MPs and peers who form the All Party Parliamentary Group on Medical Technologies.
Heather Lawrence, Chief Executive of the Trust, said: “The fact that these initiatives were shortlisted for the Patients Association Awards is a tribute to our staff and demonstrates their commitment to improving our patient care.”