NHS Forth Valley healthcare teams' dedication recognised with national awards

Forth Valley Royal Hospital’s Ward 4 earned its Top Team Award for the work of staff, who display exceptional skill to manage both physical and mental health conditions simultaneously of dementia patients who require high levels of care.

Staff were found to not only offer care to their patients, but to also strive to improve patients’ quality of life.

Dr Mark Harrison, consultant old age psychiatrist at FVRH, who nominated Ward 4 for the Top Team award, said: “Huge congratulations to my nursing colleagues on

Ward 4. This award was thoroughly deserved as caring for those with challenging behaviours in advanced dementia is one of the most demanding jobs I can imagine. I

am so glad that the skills, dedication, caring and professionalism of the local staff in Ward 4 has been recognised at a national level.”

NHS Forth Valley’s Audiology Team, meanwhile, won the British Academy of Audiology (BAA) Audiology Team of the Year Award which was presented to staff at the BAA Annual Conference 2023.

The prestigious prize is awarded to a team that has worked together to improve the quality of audiology services in their area, showing innovative and original ideas. In

NHS Forth Valley, a wide range of work has been taken forward to reduce waiting times, improve communication across services and support local patients and their families.

This has included the development of Advanced Audiology roles to help reduce ENT waiting times, the introduction of dedicated continual professional development

sessions and additional training support for staff to enable them to take on new roles and responsibilities.

Several members of the team are also undertaking additional advanced professional qualifications and leadership programmes to further enhance their skills and experience.

Stephanie Doody-Orr, NHS Forth Valley’s Audiology services manager, said: “We were delighted to receive this award which recognises the wide range of work being

taken forward in NHS Forth Valley to reduce waiting times, improve communication across services and support local patients and their families.

“I am very proud of the team who worked tirelessly to keep audiology services running throughout the pandemic and have continued to drive forward a wide range of

service developments and improvements.”