A team at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals has won a national award for their work in supporting colleagues and volunteers during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Clinical Applications Training & Support Department won the Best Covid-19 Training Solution category in the prestigious Health Tech Digital Awards 2020 for their work to develop online training resources as social distancing measures were introduced in spring.
Suhail Patel, Clinical Applications Engagement Manager at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“This is a huge achievement for us as it’s a national award and we were competing with trusts up and down the country. The work that we did to quickly introduce a comprehensive programme of easily accessible training resources was welcomed by staff at the Trust and helped to equip them to provide the best care possible for Covid patients.”
As the pandemic began, the team brought forward future plans to introduce a virtual learning service, making digital resources available to staff around the clock, in a matter of days.
Introduction of the new digital service was essential to ensure that staff working on hospital sites, those shielding at home and hundreds of new Covid-19 volunteers were able to access the training remotely and at any time.
Developments included supporting the introduction of video conferencing software, development of online learning materials including video tutorials and the long-standing 24-hour on-call support service. More than 1,000 Trust staff members have undergone training using the new service since lockdown restrictions were introduced in March.
The team also worked to improve patient experience by assisting the introduction of virtual clinics and video-call patient visiting.
Jonathan Wood, Deputy Chief Executive, Finance Director and Executive Lead for IT at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“I am really proud of the team for their quick thinking in developing these online training resources for our staff in what is an extremely challenging time. Their hard work and dedication means that all of our staff are even better equipped to provide the highest possible standards of care, both to Covid and non-Covid patients. This award is a fantastic achievement and shows we are ahead of the curve in developing high quality digital solutions. Well done everyone!”
