On Wednesday 10 July, junior doctors from across Hampshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s (HHFT) three sites, Andover War Memorial Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Royal Hampshire County Hospital, were celebrated as the Trust held its annual junior doctors awards ceremony.
Every year, both patients and colleagues can nominate junior doctors across five categories including ‘aspiring leader’ and ‘caring colleague’ awards. The awards are an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the crucial role that the 400+ junior doctors at HHFT play in providing outstanding care to patients every day.
A junior doctor is a doctor who has completed medical school but has not yet become a consultant or GP - some junior doctors are in their first year of working, whilst others have many years of experience.
There were over 90 nominations which were all reviewed and shortlisted into runners up and winners which were announced at an afternoon of celebration hosted simultaneously at Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester and Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, with a live stream set up to connect the two ceremonies virtually. In Winchester, the awards were presented by Rupert Goodman, Deputy Chief People Officer and Fatima El Bakri, Director of Medical Education and in Basingstoke, the awards were presented by Alex Whitfield, Chief Executive and Ruth Williamson, Chief Medical Officer.
Alex Whitfield, Chief Executive for Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “It is fantastic to have this opportunity to celebrate all that our junior doctors do, and we are really grateful that they are here at Hampshire Hospitals.
“Our junior doctors work incredibly hard to deliver outstanding care to our patients, and the nominations we received for this year's awards show just how much their contributions mean to both patients, colleagues and our community. A huge congratulations to our winners and all those nominated.”
Among the winners were Sunyoung Choi and Omar Elhalwagy who both received the patient care award for their work on a joint project creating an algorithm which is now used to recognise areas of inequity in patient care. They liaised with various consultants and the specialist team and went on to present their findings locally and nationally.
Alongside them, Stephen Poole claimed the clinical teacher award, Alex Nowak won the trainee advocate award, Ivan Aganin claimed the award for aspiring leader and Ishita Handa won the caring colleague award.
Ruth Williamson, Chief Medical Officer for Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I was humbled by the extent to which our doctors go above and beyond to improve care for our patients. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners.”
