Some 66 Covid heroes have been recognised in a special virtual awards staged by the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT).

The trust, which also serves Rutland, on Friday celebrated the outstanding achievements of staff, teams and volunteers from healthcare services across the trust.

LPT's Covid Heroes awards aim to highlight and celebrate 'ordinary people doing extraordinary things' - examples of commitment and dedication from across the Trust, and to recognise the huge contribution made by staff and volunteers to ensure the highest standards of care throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

220 nominations were received for the awards, from members of staff, service users and the wider public from which 66 were shortlisted and invited to attend the ceremony. The winners were selected by a judging panel of directors, staff representatives, partners and service users.

Chief executive, Angela Hillery said: "The last year has been like no other, and all of our staff and volunteers have gone above and beyond to Step up to Great. You are all heroes and I am so proud to be your chief executive.

"Tonight is our opportunity to recognise some of those outstanding examples. And a chance to say thank you to everyone for your outstanding commitment to our patients and service users, to our Trust, and to the NHS throughout the Covid pandemic. You are shining examples of our Trust values of compassion, integrity, trust and respect."

Over 200 guests were invited to attend the sponsored ceremony, held on a virtual awards platform, to celebrate the fantastic achievements of the 66 shortlisted nominees.

Winners from across a range of LPT's services included:

Community health services

Hinckley North and East Ward

The team faced Covid-19 head on as a Red Ward, working together to deliver a high standard of care for Covid positive patients.

Respiratory and Heart Failure Team

The service used technology to create a 'virtual ward' enabling Covid-19 patients to be cared for in their own home.

Community Therapy Leadership Team

The team redesigned service delivery to enable patients to access therapy remotely, and implemented support for shielding colleagues.

Sara Lowe, transformation lead

Sara has taken on numerous leadership roles to support clinical services, for example by setting up Covid-19 surge wards and Covid-19 antibody testing for staff.

Susannah Ashton, operational and transformational lead

Susannah took on the additional responsibility of developing the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland system discharge hub, a single point of contact to support patients to be discharged as quickly and safely as possible.

Mental health services

Beaumont Ward

The team went through many changes as a Covid isolation ward and continued to provide safe patient care and high standards of infection prevention and control.

Crisis Team

The team continued to deliver 24/7 care despite many challenges, including the pandemic, a service redesign, and a new patient record system.

Gwendolen Ward

The ward team looked after elderly Covid positive patients, implementing pathways at short notice to ensure patients receive optimal care.

Ian Randall

Ian worked as a consultant on an inpatients red zone, to develop necessary pathways ensuring the safety of patient's mental and physical health, and to support colleagues with compassion.

Sinead Adcock

Sinead created a personal wellbeing workbook for the emotional wellbeing and recovery of Heather Ward patients and is described as 'an asset to the team'.

Zayad Saumtally

Zayad has implemented significant pathway changes in response to national guidance and has supported staff across mental health services for older people (MHSOP) wards to continue to provide high standards of care.

Families, young people and children's services

Diana Service

The service continued to deliver all essential services throughout Covid, despite other challenges such as moving base, increased referrals, personal protective equipment (PPE) challenges, staff redeployment, and personal difficulties.

Home Enteral Nutrition Service (HENS)

The service implemented a wide range of innovations to streamline processes, promote staff confidence and make the most of skills within the team.

Mairead Reddin

Mairead stepped forward to provide nutritional care to Hinckley red ward patients, to maximise recovery and wellbeing, even once patients were discharged from the ward.

Asha Day

Asha has led the Area 1 health visiting team, offering her clinical expertise and supporting their safety and wellbeing, as well as coordinating the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff network.

Bernie Harrison

Bernie was redeployed twice, including to the urgent mental health hub, and has taken on a new clinical area - adapting quickly and learning new skills to deliver patient care.

Learning disabilities services

Covid-19 Specialist Vaccination Clinics

The team supported the delivery of the vaccination programme at the Peepul Centre, by facilitating weekly specialist sessions for people with a learning disability and/or autism.

Enabling services

Leicestershire Health Informatics Service

The service worked hard to keep all IT operational across the system during the pandemic, supporting remote working to keep teams and patients safe.

Infection Prevention and Control Team

The team constantly reviewed guidance from Public Health England and provided support, advice and guidance for LPT's incident response, through infection prevention and control guidelines, action cards and communications for staff.

Sarah Wright, chaplain

Sarah has worked tirelessly to support patients and staff across the mental health services based at the Glenfield site by producing faith boxes and providing mindfulness sessions.

Other awards

Volunteer(s) of the Year: Voluntary Transport Drivers

Our Volunteer Drivers continued to volunteer through the pandemic delivering medication to our patients, sandwiches for our nurses plus lots more.

Patient Involvement Award: Mett Centre, Leicester

The Mett Centre team members were redeployed and despite this, the team set up on-going support for service users who attend the Mett Centre.

Special Recognition Award: Dr. Peter Felix, consultant paediatrician

Dr Peter Felix joined LPT as Clinical Director just as Covid struck. He has constantly collaborated with all clinicians and admin staff and been instrumental in implementing successful pathways.