Physios triumph at patient experience awards

Clinical specialist physio Elizabeth Slee, deputy head of the Locomotor service at Homerton NHS Trust

The physios triumphed at the Patient Experience Network (PEN) national awards, which were presented at a conference in Birmingham this spring.

Two physio teams won awards, while a third was shortlisted as a finalist.

PEN managing director Ruth Evans told Frontline: ‘This is the first year – in six years of event – that physios have done so well.’

The winning teams were the Integrated Care Clinics (TICCS) in the bringing patient experience closer to home category, and Medway Community Healthcare in the turning it around when it goes wrong category.

Emma Chambers, head of physiotherapy service at Medway Community Healthcare, and customer experience co-ordinator Amy Pitcher

The TICCS team was recognised for providing community physiotherapy services to Wyre Forest Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in Worcestershire.

The project began as a 12-month pilot, which placed a clinician in 11 out of 12 surgeries in the CCG and launched patient-specific rehabilitation services, included osteoarthritis community exercise and education.

In addition, the team set up a musculoskeletal community assessment triage (MCAT) service, which delivered a nine per cent cost saving to Wyre Forest over three years.

The team from Medway Community Healthcare was recognised for reducing waiting lists and meeting an increasing demand for physiotherapy.

Tender-writer Kathryn Ishaq and NHS clinical services manager Lisa Jelly, from the Integrated Care Clinics (TICCS)

This was achieved, in part, by investment in a purpose-built facility, with state-of-the-art equipment, additional staffing and a telephone triage system. As a result, the service is now receiving patient satisfaction scores of 99 per cent.

The London-based locomotor service, part of Homerton University Hospital NHS Trust, received praise as a finalist in the strengthening the foundation category of the awards, for its redesign of an integrated community pain service.

The specialist pain service, which helps patients with severe and persistent pain, has saved the trust £50,000 by managing trauma and orthopaedics patients in the community.