Norfolk's community healthcare trust has been recognised as a world leader in IT, winning a global award for best small service desk 2018

The service desk as Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust (NCHC) won the Service Desk Institute (SDI) global award - announced last week - which follows their achievement earlier in 2017 in becoming the first service desk team in Norfolk to be awarded the customer-led certification by the Service Desk Institute (SDI).

Following an audit, which included satisfying 104 criteria over 400 domains and providing evidence in over 400 questions through customer questionnaires and interviews, the NCHC team were awarded the globally-recognised accreditation.

Terry Newman, head of information management and technology at NCHC, said: 'When we entered for this award last year, we were delighted to make it to the final three organisations, following an interview where we delivered a presentation followed by a question and answer session to a panel of industry expert judges. We demonstrated how our service delivers to the NCHC values of community, compassion and creativity and helps our clinical staff deliver and improve care to our patients.

'We told the panel about our journey from a largely voicemail system a few years ago to the efficient service we deliver today. We explained how the department as a whole had worked together proactively and reactively to protect the trust against last May's global cyber-attack. We gave examples of our passion for continually improving our services.'

Rosin Fallon-Williams, chief executive of NCHC, said: 'I am very proud to see our service desk not only performing well and continuing to push for further improvements but also attracting interest externally to share our best practice. I'm sure our patients and staff and healthcare partners in Norfolk will join me in congratulating them for winning such a prestigious award, that shows our service desk is a world leader in improving services.'