NHS Celebrating Success Awards are open for nominations

The NHS Awards continue the search for this year’s local healthcare heroes from Edinburgh and the Lothians to honour an individual or team that has gone above and beyond to provide outstanding patient care.

This year, there are 13 categories for the public to nominate for their NHS hero.

These include the Team of The Year Award for those that have demonstrated an excellent performance and high-quality service delivered from a team as a whole. And The Global Citizenship Award, which recognises an outstanding, committed, globally-minded individual or team who improves the health and well-being of people living in countries or areas with high levels of poverty and inequality.

Last year, this award was won by Detect Cancer Early Team, at Astley Ainsley Hospital, who received this accolade for their development and delivery of cervical screening clinics for NHS Lothian’s staff, leading to an incredibly successful programme that supported hundreds of women to book screening appointments.

Team of the Year Winners- Cancer Early Detection Team

In this category, the judges said: “We were looking for a team that has demonstrated an excellent performance throughout the year, where there has been key engagement between managers and clinical staff, evidence of improved outcomes for patients and evidence of patient involvement influencing performance.”

Detect Cancer Early Team (led by Alison Milne, Strategic Manager, Screening and Early Detection Team), said: “We are all delighted and very proud that someone took the time to nominate us and recognise the hard work and dedication of everyone in the team.

“We are here to help make a difference. Our team's aim is to detect cancer as early as possible – that means reaching a lot of people to recognise the signs, empower them to get checked early and attend screening programmes when they are invited.”

Mhairi Collie, a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at the Western General Hospital, won last year's Global Citizenship Award. She was recognised for her tremendous efforts setting up a charity in Uganda for women who have suffered childbirth injuries.

Global Citizenship Winner- Mhairi Collie

Mhairi Collie said: "I was really delighted and so grateful to receive the Global Citizenship Award.

“It means so much to have my efforts, and those of my team, working in Africa over the years recognised as valuable to the NHS in Scotland.

“The publicity around the awards has also been really helpful in consolidating some of our funding and in promoting the work of our charity to people in general. I am proud of the award, and thankful to the generosity of the judges in awarding it!”

Voting is open to the public until July 1.