A member of staff at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has won a major award for her work to improve patient care for individuals with respiratory complications.Rachael Moses, Consultant Physiotherapist at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, has won a major UK award for her achievement in helping patients get their tracheostomies removed to improve their quality of life.
Rachael has been crowned the winner of the Northern Ireland award for maximising resources for success, part of the prestigious Advancing Healthcare awards programme.
The judges commented: “This was a really innovative project which has the potential to scale up with enormous benefits for patients, making a big impact on their lives.” Increasing numbers of people are being identified who have survived neurological injury and been discharged into the community with the assumption that they will always need a tracheostomy (an opening created at the front of the neck to allow a tube to be inserted into the windpipe to aid breathing). However, with optimal specialist care and review many of these tracheostomies can be removed. In this project, five patients were reassessed and successfully had their tracheostomies removed, saving £450K and improving the patients’ experiences.
Rachael said: “We have seen some wonderful patient stories of individuals regaining speech and being able to eat and drink normally as well as improvements in overall physical function and ability through this work. This initiative is also addressing the need for a more proactive approach to ensure all patients are identified and have their tracheostomy removed wherever clinically appropriate.” “One of the biggest lessons that I have learnt from this project is that by being committed and dedicated, we really can change the lives of patients and challenge current care pathways. I am absolutely delighted to have won this award and am particularly excited about the platform it gives to our nurses and allied health professionals who have an idea that can have a similar impact.” “I would never have achieved any of this without the support of Janet Spallen from NHS England, the Clinical Commissioning Groups across Lancashire and South Cumbria, and my wonderful therapy, nursing and ENT (ear, nose and throat) colleagues across the region.”
The Advancing Healthcare awards programme, which crosses boundaries and fosters partnership working, is open to allied health professionals, healthcare scientists and those who work alongside them in support roles.