A social media campaign highlighting pioneering research and a bid to raise awareness of sepsis have bagged one of the region's hospital two spots on an awards shortlist.
James Paget University Hospital (JPUH), in Gorleston, has been recognised for both the #WhyWeDoResearch and Kissing Goodbye to Sepsis campaigns in the shortlist for the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards 2017.
The former has taken off worldwide after being launched by a senior research nurse Claire Whitehouse.
What started as a local initiative to highlight the importance of medical research quickly grew to achieve global success – with 50 million page impressions in the first year and thousands of Twitter users in the research community adopting it to share ideas and to raise awareness of their work and opportunities for patients and the wider public to get involved.
The latter aims to raise awareness of this life-threatening condition to help identify and treat it quickly – which can be crucial to patient care and recovery.
Sepsis occurs when the body's response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs. It can lead to shock, multiple organ failure and death if it not recognised early and treated promptly. Sepsis is one of the biggest killers. Every year there are 150,000 cases of Sepsis in the UK resulting in a staggering 44,000 deaths - more than bowel, breast and prostate cancer combined.
Nurse Joan Pons-Laplana is leading the drive, with others, to help staff identify patients with sepsis quickly, as administering antibiotics within 60 minutes can save lives.
He said: 'It's amazing to be shortlisted for an award. It has been the hard work of staff at the hospital that has made the James Paget one of the best and most improved in the country.
'There's nothing better than knowing this work is saving lives and we're now sharing this good practice with other trusts. By treating quickly we're also reducing the length of patient stays in the hospital which has benefits for everyone.'
Elsewhere in the county, Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust (NCHC) were shortlisted in the workforce category for the talent management programme roll out.
Talent management is a programme which aims to develop staff and managers, either to prepare them for future positions within the trust or to enhance performance in their current roles, all with the aim to improve patient care.
With the potential of a number of people retiring over the next few years this programme has initially been rolled out to leaders across NCHC to ensure there is sufficient preparation and planning for these positions. This allows existing staff to move into leadership positions, saving money on recruitment and interim contractors.
Paul Cracknell, NCHC director of strategy and transformation said: 'We are delighted to have been recognised for our Talent Management Programme. We have seen an increase in development opportunities, resulting from secondments, leading to posts being filled. This ultimately impacts on the service we provide and improved patient care.'
To complete the trio of organisations from the county featured in the shortlist, Norwich Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was shortlisted in the CCG of the year category.
The winners of all the awards will be announced at a ceremony at Intercontinental O2, London, on November 22, 2017.
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