Meet your 2023 General Practice Award Winners

Last week, the 2023 General Practice Awards were held at the Novotel London West. We welcomed over 500 guests from across primary care and the community as well as the healthcare industry for a fantastic night celebrating the very best in patient care.

The 2023 General Practice Awards highlighted the innovation, dedication, and passion of teams and individuals working across the UK.

Group Editor at Cogora, Gemma Collins, gave the opening presentation at the 2023 General Practice Awards:

“We may say every year how truly valuable it is to have a night like tonight where we recognise those who have gone above and beyond, but I think in the current climate, these words have never been more appropriate.  I was lucky enough to be one of the judges on the panel for the Extended Team of the Year category which seeks to recognise those outside of the traditional role in general practice. Whether it be a social prescribing link worker or a community care coordinator, I came across so many individuals playing a major part in improving patient care.

I was impressed to read about the leadership and innovation but what struck me the most was what fantastic collaboration is going on across multi-professional teams within general practice.

From reading some of the shortlist entries across all the categories I can see how much general practice is evolving and that collaboration is key. From those within the practice to those leading PCNs who are working together with public health, secondary care, councils and third sector organisations.  

Everyone is working in unison with one united aim - to deliver the best care possible for their patients.”

Without further ado, here are the winners from the 2023 General Practice Awards:

Practice Manager of the Year
WINNER: Caitlin Clarke, Business Manager – Castle Partnership; Managing Partner – Fleggburgh Surgery
Sponsored by X-on Health
Responsible for overhauling the practice’s appointment system, Caitlin introduced an urgent care team model that utilised the skills of a multi-disciplinary team for signposting, support and supervision. A particular success of the new system saw telephone queues decrease from 30 minutes to 4 minutes. Staff wellbeing improved due to Cailtin’s efforts including the introduction of a free staff gym. She introduced flexible working and protected learning time.

Reception Team of the Year
WINNER: Richmond Road Medical Centre Reception Team
Sponsored by THINK Healthcare
Richmond Road Medical Centre’s Receptionist Team played a pivotal role in transforming the practice into a centre of health, wellbeing, opportunity and belonging for patients. Developing new reception roles to enhance efficiencies, the practice has one of the lowest utilisations of A&E/111 across London and the highest levels of patient satisfaction across the borough. Initiatives they have set up include Peppa Pig Flu Clinics and Teddy Bear GP Clinics.

HCP Programme Provider of the Year
WINNER: Staffordshire Training Hub
Staffordshire Training Hub commissions training courses for 147 Practices across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, addressing two key issues - transgender patients and patients with hearing loss. They commissioned local Charity, Deaflinks, to deliver courses and encouraged practices to advertise that they were ‘deaf-aware’.
Transgender patients are also affected by health inequality, so STH delivered clinically and non-clinical courses, addressing not just the hormonal treatment options, but also the increased mental health problems within the transgender community.

Clinical Improvement Award: Long Term Conditions
WINNER: The Greenhouse Practice and Driving for Change Teams
This initiative uniquely addresses the complex, long-term healthcare needs of individuals experiencing homelessness in Hackney. This innovative model centres on personalised care delivered via refurbished London buses. It prioritises proactive health screenings and check-ups, facilitating better management of long-term conditions and over-reliance on crisis services.

Clinical Improvement Award: Long Term Conditions
WINNER: Virtual Multi-disciplinary Team (vMDT) platform & pathway implementation for heart failure in Lincolnshire ICB
This process was introduced for heart failure patients needing optimisation of treatment and specialist input within the PCN. The virtual MDT enables the team to document discussions and create actions for individual team members that are visible and transparent ensuring rapid completion relating to patient care plans. Data from the virtual MDT platform helped to plan for wider transformation.

Clinical Improvement Award: Mental Health
WINNER: Stort Valley and Villages PCN waiting well with suspected Autism Pathway - Stort Valley and Villages PCN Children and Young People Social Prescribing and Occupational Therapy team
Stort Valley and Villages PCN set out to address the needs of children presenting with autistic traits and their families. Led by an Occupational Therapist with a specialist mental health background, the service is supported by the wider social prescribing and care coordination team. Resulting in relieved workload for the wider team and an improved success rate in onward referrals being accepted. The service has changed lives by intervening earlier in the process of assessment.

Clinical Improvement Award: Mental Health
WINNER: NHS Practitioner Health
Over the past 15 years, this service has treated more than 25,000 practitioners and is the largest publicly funded provider of its kind globally. Led by general practitioners, and supported by psychiatrists, mental health professionals and administrators, the service offers assessments, pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, case management and support to return to work or training. 95% of patients have demonstrated significant improvement and 75% of patients return to work after treatment.

Clinical Improvement Award: Public Health & Prevention
WINNER: Vulnerable Adult Service at The Inclusion Health Hub in Norwich
The patients supported by the vulnerable adult service are often homeless or living in hostels; the hub also has an outreach asylum seeker health care team. Aiming to share their learnings more widely across the UK, the team impressed our judges with their work on providing safe places for vulnerable adults to receive healthcare and support in order to get their lives back on track. The service targeted the most deprived 20% of the population in their area, identified individuals with poorer-than-average health access experience and dedicated time to those in the maternity system. Outcomes include reduced early deaths, prevention of avoidable deaths, prevention of patients falling through the cracks, reducing unnecessary A&E attendance.

Digital Solutions Provider of the Year
WINNER: LocumDeck by NASGP

Since 2020, NASGP has provided exceptional support, guidance, and service to BOB Integrated Care Board, addressing their challenges in recruiting and retaining GP locums. Thier innovative
platform, LocumDeck, has enabled seamless communication and booking processes between practices and GP locums, resulting in cost savings, improved patient access, better patient outcomes,
and enhanced peer support among GP locums.

GP Trainee/Rising Star Award
WINNER: Dr Ratan Singh Randhawa GP Trainee, East Twickenham PCN, Committee Member, Hounslow Healthwatch
With a work ethic built on advocating for patients, supporting colleagues and promoting excellence in clinical practice, Dr Randhawa greatly impressed the judges. His compliance work has been escalated to the ICB and EMIS as a potential national issue. He has created a website for his VTS scheme and peers to improve their experience on the teaching programme as well as running a session on how to pass the RCA.

Pharmacist/Pharmacy Team of the Year
WINNER: Gareth Evans MRPharmS, BPharm(hons) - Community Pharmacist Wansford Pharmacy
Focusing on the evidence that sleep apnoea is a vastly undervalued condition to screen for and treat, the team established a patient-funded sleep apnoea screening and testing service. They collaborated with patients’ GPs to fast-track patients to appropriate treatment. A hugely positive impact was seen both in terms of the pharmacy-GP relationship but also for patients and their quality of life, morbidity and health risk reduction. Staff have been trained to initialise conversations on sleep issues and the service has received rave reviews bolstering staff morale in challenging times.

Medical Supplier of the Year
WINNER: Dene Healthcare
Due to the current climate putting financial constraints on GP practices, Dene Healthcare have re-worked their systems and focus, to collaborate specifically with individual Practices on a case-by-case basis, creating real tangible and lasting savings in the procurement process as a whole!  Their methodology and procedures are now redefined, to represent the value of the entire procurement process.

Extended Practice Team Member of the Year
WINNER: Farida Laeeq – Care Coordinator for Asylum, Refugee & BAME community
Farida has gone above and beyond to support her patients, ensuring they receive the care and support they need to integrate safely into the community. The judges were impressed with her work creating a dedicated clinic to support asylum seekers and refugees coming to the city. The service offers a full health assessment and signposts to organisations offering psychosocial support. This has also been offered to the central Liverpool PCN.

Staffing/Recruitment Agency of the Year
WINNER: Integrated Care Specialists Group Ltd
Integrated Care Specialists Group Ltd was formed in January 2022 to do things differently. There are three directors, one is a partner in a Liverpool GP practice and two are the very best time served medical recruitment specialists. In the first 18 months they have grown from a team of three to seven. In that time, they have helped over 250 clients and over 200 locums to improve access and outcomes for patients covering over 9000 days of clinical expertise within Primary Care.

Nurse/Nursing Team of the Year Award
WINNER: Birley Health Centre – Nursing and Health Care Team/ Superheroes
This group of nursing superheroes really do go the extra mile. Running extra covid clinics for their patients and those of other practices struggling with capacity and using a council bus to arrange for patients to get to practice; they have had their best ever year at QOF, smashing all their targets. The team is led by Nurse Lead Dawn, a local legend. Dawn hosts wellbeing chats, organises schedules to fit the person and the business, and stands out due to her community work.

The General Practitioner of the Year
WINNER: Dr Mohammed Jiva MBE, General Practitioner, CEO Rochdale and Bury Local Medical Committee, CEO Rochdale Health Alliance, GP Federation, Clinical Director, Middleton Primary Care Network
Sponsored by Medical Defense Society
As the CEO of Rochdale and Bury LMC for the past 15 years, Dr Jiva is an asset across the boroughs. He had a major impact through the COVID-19 pandemic converting national policies into diagrammatic form to support practices. He has supported PCNs and implemented pathways and policies resulting in over 60 ARRS staff employed. He opened the first PCN venue offering patient services in a shopping centre which brings sexual health and HIV testing to the public.

PCN of the Year
WINNER: Cheltenham Central PCN
Sponsored by Hill Dickinson
This PCN transformed 6 individual practices working in silo into a mature PCN with collaborative working and innovative practice. New services were introduced via an advanced pharmacy team, social prescribing link workers, care coordinators, paramedics, trainee nurse associates and a mental health practitioner. The introduction of a novel PCN Lead Nurse role to support nurses across the practices enabled more peer networking, standardised protocols and training. The PCN co-developed a be-friending scheme using community volunteers and work with local schools to identify children and young people at risk of future negative consequences. The team are passionate about sustainability and are supporting practices to reach net zero.

Telecoms Provider of the Year
WINNER: Voice Connect Ltd
Patient Partner is a unique and innovative offering from Voice Connect Ltd that allows direct appointment booking, review, and cancellation into the clinical system. Its integration sets it apart from other market offerings, ensuring a seamless user experience. The service has the ability to handle dictated medication queries via email, contributing to increased efficiency in managing patient inquiries and aligning with the NHS's emphasis on leveraging technology to enhance efficiency and deliver better patient outcomes.

Vaccination Service of the Year
WINNER: Healthy Hyde PCN
Working beyond PCN borders and collaborating with local voluntary organisations, Healthy Hyde PCN covers 77,000 people, over 60% of whom live in the most deprived postcodes in England. The team developed a drive-thru vaccination centre to provide vaccines at scale in a safe and effective way. They delivered the most vaccinations per day in Greater Manchester. They also offer co-administration of flu and covid vaccination. The team run PCN-led English lessons for asylum seekers and refugees at food banks – a complex care nurse attended sessions with a translator and delivered 70 vaccines in the autumn/winter programme. They ran educational sessions on using healthcare, vaccines and BLS training.

Professional Services Provider of the Year
WINNER: Menlo Park Recruitment
General Practice continues to face a huge range of challenges but there’s no bigger ongoing challenge than being able to attract GPs, Nurses and Allied Health to work in primary care. Menlo Park have worked with nearly 1,000 practices in the past year in order to ease their recruitment pain, because when a practice doesn’t have clinicians the whole service stops. They work proactively with practices, using our network, to attract candidates that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to engage themselves.

GP Team of the Year
WINNER: Urban Village Medical Practice
Sponsored by Prescribing Care Direct
A unique GP practice serving 12,000 patients across Ancoats, Manchester and specialist care to 1,000 people in the city who are experiencing homelessness. Working with kindness and compassion the team always go the extra mile. During the pandemic the partners obtained a loan to purchase a van and converted it into a mobile consulting room to deliver services to the hardest to reach patients.

The General Practice Awards will be back in 2024 with new categories, a new host, and lots of opportunities for you and your team to shine! To stay updated, click here to sign up to our mailing list.