The team demonstrate their care and compassion every day and are totally focused on ensuring the patient, and their families and carers, are at the heart of everything they do. They continually implement improvements and changes to practice to better meet the needs of those they care for. Their innovations have included a sensory and nature garden project; a carers’ support café for discussion, education and sharing of experiences amongst staff, patients and carers; environmental changes to promote perception and orientation including doors painted yellow with red border supporting patients to have more independence in using the toilet; and at tree of light at Christmas for reflection, thoughts and remembrance.
They have also worked hard to ensure that effective pathways and care packages have been developed such as the hospital avoidance service which supports patients and carers outside working hours to deal with a crisis, thus avoiding hospital admission.
The judges for the award said this was a “great example of putting people at the heart of what we do, working closely with service users and carers, delivering real and tangible benefits through excellent service delivery and continuous improvement”.
Cathy Riley, Managing Director, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Care Group, commented “Oak Ward have consistently gone above and beyond and have received national recognition and accreditation for the excellent care they provide”.
Neil Carr, MPFT Chief Executive added “The annual Mission Excellence awards are one way MPFT can recognise and celebrate teams and individuals working together to make life better for our communities. We are really disappointed that due to the restrictions posed by Coronavirus this year we were unable to present the awards at a celebration event, but each winner received a trophy and the Oak Ward team have my personal thanks for their hard work and commitment.”