NEAS celebrates colleagues at NEAS Awards 2023

20th October 2023

This week we are kicking off the NEAS Awards 2023: In the spotlight and we are excited to announce the winners across the next few days.

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The annual staff awards are a fantastic way to shine a light on colleagues who have gone above and beyond in their role to achieve positive outcomes for patients, colleagues or the service. This is not only an occasion to celebrate our staff’s achievements from the last year but also to recognise the hard work that takes place each day.

Chief executive Helen Ray said: “It’s fantastic to once again be able to celebrate the incredible work of our colleagues here at NEAS. Every single member of every single team at NEAS contributes to the provision of services to the population of the North East and you should all be immensely proud of that.  I am grateful every day for the work you all do so it is a real privilege to introduce this year’s awards. 

“This week is a celebration of you all and gives colleagues and the people who use our services the chance to say thank you to those who make NEAS a great place to work.

So, I’ll start this week off by saying thank you from myself and our chairman Peter and the whole Board for everything that you all do; 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You are amazing. Enjoy the celebrations!”

In total we have twelve categories and the Chair’s award. Starting from today (23 October), we will be sharing our winners across Workplace, Siren, the NEAS website and social media.

The categories include:

  • Excellence and Innovation: This award recognises an individual or team who have provided examples of excellent or outstanding work, the outcomes of which have enabled us to be at the forefront or specialist responsive care, as a dynamic integrated and outstanding service.
  • Working in Partnership: This award recognises an individual or team who and actively listens, engages and effectively collaborates with colleagues across the service, external stakeholders, organisations or patients, to make positive change and can provide examples of where this has led to an improvement in our services and patient experience. 
  • Outstanding Contribution - Team: Teamwork is essential to the success of our organisation. This award recognises the work of an outstanding team, department or collaborative projects within the Trust, where those involved have shown examples of excellent teamwork, collaboration, open communication, breaking down silos, and building relationships to work together effectively to deliver an excellent project or service. 
  • Outstanding Contributions for Unscheduled Care, Scheduled Care, Support Services and Emergency Centre Operations: This award has been introduced to recognise individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in their role. They are a brilliant role model who live our values and behaviours every day, and pioneer and pave the way for others; while providing an excellent level of support for colleagues, patients and/or their families.
  • Leader of the Year: The leader of the year award recognises individuals who have led their team in an inspiring way; building a positive culture where individuals feel able to trust, share ideas, constructively challenge, and bring their full selves to work.
  • Education and Training: This award recognises a team or individual who have undertaken education or training and how this has positively impacted our patients, their work, their team or the Trust as a whole.
  • Patients’ Choice: This award recognises teams or individuals who have been nominated by a patient, their relatives or friends, for making a difference to them. Those nominated will clearly demonstrated their passion for putting patient care at the heart of everything they do.
  • Compassionate Care: This award recognises individuals or teams who demonstrate a positive and inclusive attitude towards others. They will be someone who displays and positively promotes the Trust values of compassion. 
  • Inclusion and Respect: This award recognises an individual or team who have delivered a specific project or initiative to proactively adopt better ways of working, and changed the way we deliver a service(s) to meet the specific needs of patients, or helped to celebrate our diverse workforce and supported us to foster an inclusive and respectful culture.

Our winners

  • Excellence and Innovation: Nicola Watson
  • Working in Partnership: The Weardale and Bishop Auckland Community Paramedics team
  • Outstanding Contribution - Team: The education team
  • Outstanding Contributions for Unscheduled Care, Scheduled Care, Support Services and Emergency Centre Operations: Andrew Hedison, Margaret Snowdon, Catherine Murtha (O'Neil), Debora Wells
  • Leader of the Year: Elliott Tyler
  • Education and Training: Mark Brockhurst
  • Patients’ Choice: Billy Turnbull, Linda Gibson, Maurice Kitcatt, Emmelia Dunn
  • Compassionate Care: Ray Forsyth
  • Inclusion and Respect: Pauline Hogarth
  • Chairs Award: Chris Chalmers