Notts services shortlisted in three categories for prestigious HSJ awards
Nottinghamshire Healthcare is thrilled to have colleagues shortlisted in three categories of the prestigious HSJ Awards.
Nottinghamshire Healthcare's East Midlands Cancer Alliance Centre for Psychosocial Health (EMCA CPH) service is a finalist in two categories. The team have been shortlisted in the categories of 'Digitising Patient Care' and as part of a partnership for 'Provider Collaboration of the Year'.
The Nottingham City Placed Based Partnership has been shortlisted in the HSJ Awards for the second year running, this year in the 'Integrated Care Initiative of the Year' category, for its groundbreaking work to improve how services in Nottingham work together to help people experiencing severe and multiple disadvantage. Severe Multiple Disadvantage (SMD) refers to the experience of having two or more complex and interconnected social issues, such as homelessness, mental health problems, substance misuse, and involvement with the criminal justice system. Nottinghamshire Healthcare is integral to the work underway to bring together efforts and resources across our region so that people receive joined up and accessible care and support to improve their lives and reduce long-term reliance on reactive and emergency interventions across our system.
The prestigious 2025 HSJ Awards has been recognising and celebrating healthcare excellence for 40 years. This year's awards attracted more than 1,250 entries from across the health sector. With only 245 projects and individuals making it through to the final shortlist, the competition demonstrates the impressive scale of talent, commitment, and impact across the NHS and wider healthcare landscape.
Becky Sutton, Chief Operating Officer at Nottinghamshire Healthcare said:
We are thrilled that our East Midlands Cancer Alliance Centre for Psychosocial Health (EMCA CPH) service has been shortlisted in two categories for the prestigious HSJ Awards.
It is also fantastic to see other colleagues shortlisted as part of the Nottingham City Place Based Partnership work.
All colleagues involved are dedicated to supporting patients and improving care through collaborative partnership working, and this is highlighted further by this national recognition. We're incredibly proud of everyone involved and wish them every success in the next stage.
The EMCA CPH service is up for the Digitising Patient Care award for their work in providing high quality training to cancer care professionals, mental health support for those living with and beyond cancer, and leads on research and evaluation, to ensure patients continue to be provided with the best possible support. This is delivered digitally across five counties in the East Midlands region and has achieved exceptional recovery rates for common mental health problems in cancer patients and made use of multiple digital innovations to increase access, reduce dropout, and improve outcomes for the population it serves.
Dr Sam Malins, EMCA CPH Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Service Lead said:
We are thrilled that our work, developed over several years, has been recognised in this way. In particular, I have valued the openness and willingness to try new ways of working shown by all team members and collaborators in other services. This has helped develop a range of innovations that are having tangible, real-world benefits for patients and staff in cancer care. We couldn't be prouder to be part of something that is having such an impact. Our hope is that this recognition can help share beneficial approaches, so they can be used by any service aiming to improve outcomes by improving psychological care.
For the Provider Collaborative of the Year award, the service has been shortlisted as part of The East Midlands Prehabilitation Project which comprises of the EMCA CPH service at Nottinghamshire Healthcare, University Hospitals Leicester and Nottingham University Hospitals. The project helps patients to prepare for cancer surgery with exercise, mental health support and diet. This collaborative approach helps patients prepare and recover from surgery more effectively, both mentally and physically.
Dr Felicity Gibbons, EMCA CPH Principal Clinical Psychologist at Nottinghamshire Healthcare said:
We are truly honoured that the 'East Midlands Prehabilitation Project' has been shortlisted for the HSJ 'Provider Collaboration of the Year' award. It recognises how our collaborative approach and partnerships have had a huge impact on patient care, and we are so pleased that cancer patients in the East Midlands have been able to receive high quality multidisciplinary support in preparation for surgery.
With this project, we wanted to demonstrate how a holistic approach that considers the psychological, physical, and nutritional needs of patients preparing for surgery can improve outcomes and reduce treatment costs for the NHS. We knew the only way to achieve this was to work closely with highly skilled clinicians across services and disciplines and we are fortunate to benefit from great working relationships across the three NHS Trusts involved, as well as the partner organisations in education and the third sector who have supported the project. We hope this work and the national recognition lays the foundation for other teams and organisations hoping to improve patient care through prehabilitation work and collaborative working now and in the future.
Abi Burrows, Pre-op and Prehab Matron, Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust, said:
"Being shortlisted for this award just reinforces the importance of collaboration and partnership in order to provide our patients with the highest quality, effective support during what is, for many of our patients, the hardest of times. By working with other providers and across borders we have been able to achieve specialist, timely access to psychological support for those patients who need it."
Heather Mackinnon, Fit4Surgery Prehabilitation Clinical Service Lead, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said:
"This service has made a massive positive impact on the holistic health of patients preparing for major cancer treatment and has meant they are able to access effective support in a meaningful timeframe. The training that the team have delivered to the wider cancer care workforce has also made a tremendous difference as we now feel able to deliver first line emotional support and it has taught us self-care skills that are helping us to stay focussed and positive at work.
The Trust is proud of our involvement in the Nottingham City Placed Based Partnership work and our place as a finalist in the category of 'Integrated Care Initiative of the Year' recognises the important progress being made to improve collaboration between the Trust and partners to empower us all to make a difference.
People who experience SMD are amongst the most vulnerable people in our population in their exposure to chronic health problems, shortened healthy life expectancy and premature death.
They face significant barriers to accessing healthcare (e.g. due to exclusions, inflexible appointments, fear and mistrust) and lack of alignment with the other help they need to improve their lives (e.g. housing and substance use treatment). This leads to poor experiences and outcomes for vulnerable people,system pressures caused by long-term and repeated use of intensive and emergency services, and additional demands on colleagues and staff working to keep up engagement and attend to wider challenges beyond their control.
People experiencing SMD often have more than one long term physical health condition. Many could be treated or managed through engagement with primary care, but without support, people experiencing SMD often do not seek the help they need. Conditions go untreated, often leading to avoidable deterioration in mental and physical health and an increase in hospitalisations and premature mortality.
Because services are predominantly set up to focus on specific disease or issues, this unintentionally segments the responsibilities for the care of people experiencing SMD across multiple organisations. Our partnership model brings together the key partners to work around people's needs, not the other way around; and by working together, we can realise better outcomes for people and help to manage the stresses that we feel across our system.
The award ceremony will take place on Thursday 20 November when winners will be announced.
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