Don’t miss your chance to choose your hospital hero in our Trust’s annual Celebratory Awards as voting for the Public Recognition Award closes today (Wednesday 2 November).

We teamed up with the Shropshire Star for this category of the awards. It recognises teams or individuals who have provided outstanding care and an exceptional level of service above and beyond the call of duty.

Members of the public were asked to nominate their hospital heroes for the award and three finalists have been shortlisted. You can find out all the details on the finalists and cast your vote online at  trustawards.co.uk/shropshirestar/.

Thank you to all those who took the time to nominate my colleagues for the award and please do have your say on the winner.

All three finalists are truly outstanding in their roles, providing excellent care for our communities. Here’s a reminder of the three finalists:

Lorna McQuaid, a Bank Healthcare Assistant at the Princess Royal Hospital. She has worked across a range of hospital services, including the Emergency Department, Acute Medical Unit (AMU) and Delivery Suite.

Guy Calcott, Consultant, and the Early Pregnancy Team. The Early Pregnancy Team provides care to families suffering from complications of early pregnancy, such as miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. It is made up of one consultant, seven nurses, one support worker, three support assistants, as well as 21 midwife sonographers.

Maria Brownfield, a Midwife at The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, is the third finalist. She said for the past two years she has been working in my dream job as a continuity midwife in Shrewsbury.

Our Trust is actively involved in the National Reconditioning Games, which launched this week. We are all aiming to recondition the nation as we encourage patients, visitors and staff to keep active to stay healthy and prevent muscle wastage.

Due to the effects of lockdowns, we are now seeing our patients coming into hospital much frailer as they haven’t been as active as they previously would have been.

We are encouraging colleagues, patients and visitors to get involved in the games with a ribbon cutting ceremony taking place yesterday to launch the games, medals up for grabs and various taster sessions at both our hospitals.

The games will run for a minimum of six months so watch this space for more ideas and fun in the coming months.

Finally, have you recently attended an outpatient service (a short appointment not requiring an overnight stay) in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin? If you have, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System would like to invite you to an online event to share your experience and views and help us improve services.

The event will take place over MS Teams on Wednesday 16 November from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

You will have the opportunity to hear from Dr Andy Elves, Clinical Lead, and the wider Outpatient Transformation Programme Team, about the reasons why we need to improve services, our ideas for making things better, and share your own experiences and views.

To register, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/outpatient-services-public-engagement-session-tickets-440238754967