Annual ReportContent

Introduction................................................................................3

Velindre NHS TrustAnnual Report

2015/16

Transforming Services during 2015-2016...................................5

Transforming Services by Expanding our Services:.....................5

Transforming Services through Advances in Technology:..........7

Transforming Services by Building Excellence: helping each other to be great:......................................................................14

Transforming Services by celebrating our Staff and their Achievements...........................................................................23

Introduction

This annual report for 2015-2016 details Velindre NHS Trust’s achievements and exciting developments, which have helped to transform the services we provide to our patients and donors. As you read through this report, we hope you will gain

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an understanding of the work of the Trust and see that our main priority is to provide our patients, donors and their loved ones with the best possible services, treatment and care.

2015/16 has been a productive year for the Trust, and alongside our day-to-day work we have also worked towards developing and future-proofing our services. We have been working towards introducing a National Blood Service for Wales in 2016, as directed by Welsh Government, to ensure the long term security of collection, processing, testing, and supply of blood in Wales is maintained.

Furthermore, since the Trust announced its plans to transform cancer services by reshaping and rebuilding, talking about the plans and listening to the views of its patients, carers, staff and other NHS organisations has been vital work for the Transforming Cancer Services (TCS) Programme. The Programme’s progress is still rapid and a business case for the entire Programme will go to Welsh Government in 2016.

It is with delight we are able to report that 2015/16 has been another incredibly successful year for our charity ‘Velindre NHS Trust Charitable Funds’. The generous donations from our supporters, both individual and corporate, enabled us to raise £4.5 million. This has allowed the Trust to further invest in the patient and donor care environment and our research capability and capacity.

We are immensely proud of our dedicated staff, who strive for excellence and work hard to improve on every aspect of what we do. There is a lot on the horizon to keep us all busy in the coming year, with many opportunities that will enable us to build on our successes. Primarily our focus, as always, is on delivering excellent care to patients and donors across the Trust and, wherever developments take us, our objective is to enhance the experiences and outcomes we offer every day, experiences which continue to bring us excellent feedback from our patients and donors.

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Our focus on excellence has seen us continue to improve the high quality services we provide to our patients and donors. We hope that this report, together with its companion documents demonstrate that we are maintaining and improving our performance in a range of vital areas, and we are confident the examples illustrated here will help assure you that our staff, members, volunteers, fundraisers and partners are firmly committed to delivering ‘Quality, Care and Excellence’ through continually transforming and improving the services we deliver.

Professor Rosemary KennedyChair

Mr Steve HamChief Executive

Transforming Services during 2015-2016

The subject for our Annual General Meeting in September 2016 is “Enablers for Transforming Services” and, to further demonstrate the improvements we have

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made in this area, we have themed the following sections of this report as follows:

1. Transforming Services through expansion2. Transforming Services through Advances in Technology3. Transforming Services by Building Excellence: helping each other to be

great:4. Transforming Services by celebrating our Staff and their Achievements

Transforming Services through expansion:

Working Towards a National Blood Service for Wales:

It is almost four years since the then Minister for Health and Social Services announced the intention to establish a National Blood Service for Wales by 2016. As 2015/16 draws to a close, momentum within the service has gathered considerable pace, and our commitment to turn that intent into a reality is reaffirmed.

We have continued to work closely with a range of key stakeholders to support a smooth transition, including Welsh Government and our colleagues in both NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB).

This represents a major programme for the service that will see the Welsh Blood Service (WBS) extend its geographic coverage by over one third, increase the provision of our services to an additional 676k citizens, and incorporate blood services to the largest University Health Board in Wales. It will also see us process around 25% additional units of blood at our Talbot Green Headquarters in the coming years The new service will go live in May 2016, and we continue to look forward to extending our services to North Wales.

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Working Together to Transform Cancer Services in South East Wales

The Transforming Cancer Services in South East Wales Programme is currently developing plans to improve the entire cancer picture for the population of South East Wales. The Programme aims to improve cancer outcomes, and puts patients at the centre of the service. The £210 million scheme will include a new Cancer Centre for the region and much more, and abusiness case for the entire Programme will go to Welsh Government in 2016.

Feedback - November 2015:

Welsh Government Finance and Government Business Minister Jane Hutt visited Velindre Cancer Centre to meet the project team responsible for delivering the Trust’s programme to transform the delivery of cancer care services. The plans will see the building of a new Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff and the provision of enhanced services closer to home. ( Link to full article )

Click here to view our summary leaflet of plans for transforming cancer services in South East Wales

Transforming Services through Advances in Technology:

Blood Establishment Computer System (BECS)

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2015 was a big year for the Welsh Blood Service following the successful implementation of our new Blood Establishment Computer System (BECS) ePROGESA. In the early hours of Tuesday 5th May the formal Release Certificate for ePROGESA was signed. This marks the culmination of years of meticulous hard work and planning where dedication, determination and perseverance were paramount.

The system is already used by blood transfusion services worldwide, and has a solid track record in improving the blood management process from donor to collections right through to patient transfusion.

The introduction of the new computer software is about ensuring we continue to serve our current and future generations of donors as well as our customer hospitals.

On the frontline – the service will lead the way by introducing easy-to-use touch-screens for donors to complete their health questionnaire

An extra measure of safety – automatically alerts staff to appropriate risk factors identified on the health questionnaire

Best of all, the new computer system is fully integrated in the service and will be continuously improved, so we can expect to see further benefits in years to come.

Replacing one blood computer system with another is a large and complex exercise. It has involved the whole organisation and represents a considerable achievement for the service. Indeed, the implementation of ePROGESA is a significant step forward for the WBS and will enable us to be at the forefront of future technological advances to support Blood Transfusion practice.

This is an exciting time for all involved and will enable staff to develop new skills, integrate key departments and provide a modern look and feel to the service, ensuring the Welsh Blood Service has Information Technology systems fit for the future.

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ChemoCare Upgrade:

Over the last year, the Information Management & Technology Project and Pharmacy departments have been working on upgrading Velindre Cancer Centre’s prescribing system, ChemoCare. Velindre’s version of ChemoCare was nearing the end of support and an upgraded version was required to continue prescribing electronically.

Although on the surface the changes are small, a huge amount of work has been done behind the scenes to increase the resilience, availability and stability of the system.

ChemoCare will now be hosted locally at Velindre NHS Trust on new, state of the art Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure.

There will be a direct feed of blood results from the All Wales Pathology System (Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS))

Enhanced reporting outputs, including the ability to easily extract all Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) dataset items

Separate Testing and Training systems Data to and from Canisc will now be transmitted via national standard, Health

Level-7 (HL7) data Interfaces

The upgrade went live on the 18th January 2016.Velindre Cancer Centre (VCC) Radiotherapy Developments

VCC has begun using stereotactic radiosurgery, meaning patients who previously had to travel to Sheffield can now receive treatment in Wales. Stereotactic treatment is a modern, more

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precise way of delivering radiotherapy. It it sends high doses of radiation to tumours and causes less damage to surrounding healthy issue than conventional radiotherapy.

In August 2015, the Welsh Government announced it will invest £4.8m to fund a new linear accelerator at VCC. The new state-of-the-art machine will be a replacement for the oldest of the Cancer Centre’s seven machines. It will offer advanced radiotherapy, as well as the standard functions, and will double Velindre’s capacity to deliver stereotactic treatment.

Social Media

At Velindre Cancer Centre, social media channels are used to share good news stories, up to date information about our services and highlight the incredible support we receive from our community.

Dedicated Facebook and Twitter pages, managed by Velindre Fundraising, focus on inspirational stories from passionate fundraisers and showcase current campaigns and events. Real-time interaction with our supporters helps build strong relationships and gives us the opportunity to express our gratitude for their commitment to Velindre.

The Velindre Cancer Centre Facebook and Twitter pages focus on delivering key information about our services and sharing good news stories that are relevant to our audience, as well as working closely with our fundraising colleagues to amplify appeal messages and demonstrate how money raised has been put to excellent use to improve patient experience.

As the main users of our service, the thoughts and opinions of our patients and their families are hugely important to drive service improvements and truly patient-centered transformation. Our social channels offer another opportunity for us to listen to, and learn from, what our patients are telling us. The newest

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element of our social media portfolio, this work is still in its infancy with exciting future plans to develop meaningful conversations in this online space.

The Welsh Blood Service uses social media sites, Twitter and Facebook, primarily to interact with donors, engage in conversation and to raise awareness to potential new donors for whole blood, platelets and bone marrow.

We engage with donors on a daily basis by answering general enquiries aboutwhere to donate, together with medical and eligibility queries. This facilitates a two-way conversation, which provides donors with an easy way to engage with us and enables us to give them a quick and timely response. This all helps with recruiting new donors and retaining existing donors.

As the demographic age of our social media followers are mainly young people, we’re communicating with them in a way that is comfortable, familiar and part of their everyday life.

Social media also enables us to instantly share messages with the public. If we’re short of a particular blood type, or need to promote a donation clinic, we post an appeal onto the different platforms. The online community spirit of our followers means that messages are shared instantly, and this has proven a successful way in which to boost our blood donations.

Our family of online followers is increasing daily and, in the future, we plan to communicate with donors in new and creative ways by using new technologies.Research & Development (R&D)

Velindre Cancer CentreThere have been a number of exciting developments in the management of prostate cancer, led by Velindre Researchers, strengthening our position as a leader in research within Wales. The results of three studies, led at VCC by

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Professor Malcolm Mason and Dr John Staffurth, are considered some of the most significant advancements in the management and treatment of prostate cancer.

STAMPEDE: The results of this trial identified a change in drug treatment (Docetaxel) that will improve outcomes with a recommendation to change standard of care

PR07: The results of this trial reported benefit in survival and firmly establishes the role of radiotherapy in the treatment of men with locally advanced prostate cancer

CHHiP: Largest ever study of prostate radiotherapy. Results have shown a significant improvement in outcomes, through the halving of toxicity and relapse rates, which have a significant impact on patient outcomes and well being. Professor Malcolm Mason, Cancer Research UK’s prostate cancer expert, said: "These results are great news for men. From a logistical and patient convenience point of view, being able to treat patients over a shorter period of time has been a goal for specialists, but the question has always been whether it was safe to do so. This study shows that it is safe and effective, and there should be no reason why this cannot be implemented immediately”

Dr Tom Crosby successfully secured £1.5 million charitable donation from the Moondance Foundation, which was then matched by the Velindre NHS Trust Charity. The money will be used to support a multi-professional team to undertake research and development (R&D), focus on service improvement, and establish new treatments and therapies. It is anticipated that the funding will innovate radiotherapy treatment to provide the highest quality care to our patients.

The R&D team supports our Investigators to achieve 100% of the Welsh Government Key Performance Indicator: provide NHS permission to open to recruitment within 40 days of submission. Collaborative work is ongoing to continuously improve process and working practice to ensure that an efficient, effective, high quality service is provided. Examples include working

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collaboratively with R&D offices across South East Wales to provide swifter access to studies for Health Board patients

The R&D strategy for Velindre Cancer Centre was approved by the Board in December 2015. The strategy focuses on strengthening the position of the cancer centre as a leading research centre, supporting patients to access the latest cutting edge interventions that would not otherwise be available to them.

Welsh Blood ServiceThe Welsh Blood Service is uniquely placed to support research into a broad range of science, clinical and sociological research, as well as technical development, service development and innovation. Current activity levels are low, but following the appointment of a Research and Development Facilitator in 2015, work has now commenced to develop a strategy and programme of work to explore the following themes:

Cellular rejuvenation Development, innovation and service improvement Blood usage by hospitals

Societal aspects of blood donation in the community; and how we can establish links with Higher Education Institutions, industry and commercial enterprise.

There is a strong desire to embed research into the culture of the Welsh Blood Service, creating a centre of scientific excellence through investment in our workforce.

A workshop attended by a broad range of stakeholders has helped kicked start our journey to scope our aspirations for R&D, identify the drivers, barriers and opportunities we face, together with a road map for our potential short, medium and longer term goals.

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Transforming Services by Building Excellence: helping each other to be great:

Equality Diversity & Human Rights

During 2015-16 the Trust undertook staff and public engagement to develop the Trust Strategic Objectives for the next four years. These objectives were published in March 2016 andset out how the Trust will meet its duties under the Equality Act 2010, building on its commitment to improve the lives of both its staff and service users, and setting out actions to promote equality in health services.

The Trust aims to be a supportive place to work as well as ensuring that the services it provides does not in any way have a negative impact or discriminate against staff, patients, donors or visitors. To do this the Trust conducted 42 Equality Impact Assessments (EQIA’s) during 2015-16 on new policies, procedures, guidance, business plans, schemes and proposed changes to services. This will ensure that any negative or indirect discrimination, which could be an outcome of the policy etc. is identified and risk assessed, with any need for specialist support being put in place highlighted and actioned.

The Trust is committed to equal opportunities and the elimination of unfair discrimination in employment. The Trust has an Equality & Diversity Policy, which recognises and welcomes the benefits of a committed and diverse workforce, broadly representative of the community it serves. This policy establishes the Trust’s approach towards equal opportunities and the key factors in ensuring that all staff and potential employees are treated fairly.

To further promote Equality and Diversity, the Trust joined the Stonewall Diversity Champions programme and is now part of this good practice employers' forum on sexual orientation and gender identity. Stonewall currently works with

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over 700 of the UK’s leading organisations to create fully inclusive workplace environments by sharing best practice with its members. The tools available to members of the Diversity Champions programme, and skills developed, can be applied to staff that fall within any of the protected characteristics and provide a platform by which the Trust can grow its visible commitment to Equality, Diversity and Human Rights. Through this membership, the Trust strives to make the workplace the best it can be for all staff, patients, donors, visitors and stakeholders, =learning from others and clearly signaling the importance of an inclusive culture.

The Trust published its Equality Monitoring data Annual report in March 2016. The report contains analysis of employee data, looking at patterns and potential areas for development and support for staff, to ensure the Trust workforce is representative of the communities it serves. An action plan supports the report, identifying ways in which to improve the data and meet our Equality duties under the Equality Act 2010. This action plan is monitored via the Trust Quality and Safety Committee, Workforce and Organisational Development Committee and the Trust Board.

On the May 5th 2015, inspired by experiences of families struggling to talk to their children about their cancer journey, the Trust launched a children’s book, ‘Caring for my family with Cancer’. Concerned about the lack of available resources to support newly diagnosed cancer patients in talking to their children about cancer and its impact on their family, particularly resources suited to the diversity of modern-day families the idea for a series of fully diverse, accessible and fit for purpose books was developed . The book is given to the, family accompanied . Thanks to kind donations to support the book project, 68 copies have been given to families since its launch, each one accompanied by a large and a small cuddly lion.

Two little boys who attended the Children’s Bereavement Group following their mother’s death, brought their memory boxes with them containing the cuddly lion she had given to them when she used the book a few months earlier,

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demonstrating the value of the book in supporting the family, not just at time of diagnosis and treatment, but also in helping maintain those positive links and memories of that special person.

Several versions of the book are now available with the series continuing to grow as needs are identified. The British Sign Language (BSL) and an audio version will be launched later this year.

In December 2015, the Trust celebrated the first Sensory Loss Awareness month, holding several awareness sessions including BSL classes held in both English and Welsh, deaf cultural awareness and visual impairment awareness. The feedback was very positive and the Trust is planning to hold more sessions over the upcoming months.

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Velindre NHS Trust’s Organisational Development Strategy

The Trust’s Organisational Development Strategy will define the culture we should create to enable delivery of our ambitious Integrated Medium Term Plan (IMTP) and transformational service change plans.

Work started on the Strategy in April 2015, and used a wide range of staff feedback engagement opportunities as the foundation to establish clarity about what is already brilliant about Velindre NHS Trust, and what aspects are frustrating/de-motivating. Analysis of more than 1300 comments from staff across the Trust, Board members, Independent Members and Senior Management Team members, combined with the 250 Staff Pulse Survey responses received during July 2015, enabled creation of four clear organisational Values:

Accountable Bold Caring Dynamic=

These were tested through a series of engagement events, and finally approved by the Trust Board in September 2015. Work is now progressing to establish a wide-reaching communication and engagement plan to enable us to cascade these Values to every member of staff in our organisation.

Coaching & Mentoring

The Coaching & mentoring scheme supports personal and professional development opportunities available free to Velindre NHS Trust staff. Both focus on supporting and developing the skills to address

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development need. This can enhance job satisfaction, morale, motivation, personal effectiveness and productivity.

The Coaching & mentoring scheme supports a structured approach which allows people to analyse, reflect and take action. This enables them to positively influence important areas of their life or work.

Coaching and mentoring are two-way relationships with both the organisation and the employee gaining significant benefits.

"The coaching session was certainly motivational, enabled a different 'thinking' approach & focused the mind on addressing the issues”

Improving Quality Together (IQT) - Service Improvement Skills

‘Improving Quality Together’ (IQT) is new framework of core skills which has been developed for NHS Wales staff and its contractors. The framework provides a common and consistent approach to improving the quality of services in organisations across Wales. The IQT project is designed to meet the aims of the Welsh Government’s ‘Quality Delivery Plan’, being delivered by NHS Wales, and is supported by 1000 Lives Plus.

The structure of the IQT defines four levels of training which raise awareness and develop skills of staff working at all levels in the organisation:

Examples of how IQT led to change at Velindre Cancer centre:

1 - Improving the quality of data being collected from Early Phase Clinical Trials at Velindre Cancer Centre

The clinical trials early phase team at VCC had problems with the quality of data that was collected, leading to delays for the trial sponsor, and impacting on the

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progress of a study. This could ultimately lead to concerns regarding the outcome of a trial impacting on patient care.

The data manager led an IQT service improvement looking at ways to improve data collection. As a result, the nursing treatment sheet was amended and, together with changes to the completion of the assessment effective change and was adopted for continuous use within the team.

2 - Improving the Patient Experience: Finding a Permanent Clinic Room for the Follow-Up of Radiotherapy Research Patients. The radiotherapy research team at VCC had ongoing issues with room availability for outpatient sessions for radiotherapy trials. This caused delays and the potential for added anxiety for patients on the day of their appointment.There was also a negative impact on the smooth running of the clinic, causing inefficiencies for the team.

Using the Model for Improvement, the research team was able to identify a dedicated room for patient consultations, thereby improving the running of the clinic on a daily basis. This change proved successful and data was collected to identify the number of times there was a room available/ unavailable for a patient consultation. Using ‘Plan, Do, Study, Act’ (PDSA) methodology, the IQT process helped to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the change and the need for continuous improvement in all aspects of healthcare.

3 -To improve the process around Acute Oncology Support (AOS) activity and ensure appropriate patient discussions at the acute oncology weekly multi disciplinary meeting .

As a team, the issue around being unable to capture the Acute Oncology (AO) team activity with numbers of patients discussed/reviewed, was highlighted as a problem because it meant there was an inconsistent approach to decision making regarding patients to be added to the Friday Multi Disciplinary Team (MDT) list.

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The team brain stormed ideas and ways to agree this issue, noting the use of manual books and transfer to an electronic MDT module by an administrator. An ease/benefit matrix was used to identify a solution, which would give the biggest impact with the least problems.

The IQT methodology has highlighted the importance of clearly identifying processes within new services, with all team stakeholders/members being involved. With AO as a new evolving service, a number of processes are assumed and not actually discussed or agreed. Involvement and team ownership of issues is crucial and, in this instance, played a big part in implementing this quality improvement change.

4 - Reduce length of time patients wait in department for scanThe radiotherapy planning team identified that patients were waiting too long for their scan appointment. IQT methodology was used to collect meaningful data to enable the team to identify the real problem and look at ways to improve the process.

Improvement tools were successfully used by the team. A barrier and aids diagram helped early on to identify what needed to be addressed and also the positive aspects of the current service which would help the change to succeed.

A driver diagram was collated to tell the story of what interventions were needed to manage changes to make a positive improvement to the patient experience, thereby reducing waiting times on the day.

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Welsh Blood Service

The Welsh Blood Service hosts and manages the UK National Quality Assessment Service for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. This provides a comprehensive range of External Quality Assessment (EQA) services to over 300 transplant laboratories worldwide, helping them to identify improvements to their testing processes and, therefore, the quality of their results.

Unfortunately, not all laboratories respond with this information, indicating that potentially problems have not been identified or corrected, increasing the risk of incorrect patient results being reported.

Workshops with staff identified several possible ideas for increasing the response rate, with the preferred option being to introduce a standard incident form. This form was designed to guide labs through the considerations when investigating incorrect results, and to help make the response content easier to complete, more standardised and ultimately more useful, in terms of learning from the audits.

The impact of the change was both immediate and extremely positive, increasing the average response rate by almost 30%, which continues to be sustained.

Velindre NHS Trust Improvement Small Grant Scheme

In November 2015, the Velindre NHS Trust Charitable Funds Committee supported a business case for a Service Improvement Small Grant Scheme.

Velindre recognises the importance of developing a service improvement (SI) culture, whereby the capacity, skills and workforce are supported in taking forward initiatives, projects or ideas to improve services for our patients and their carers, and for donors. Doing so will establish a culture whereby staff can do their job, in the best possible way.

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This philosophy supports the ambitions and aims of the Welsh Blood Service, and the Transforming Cancer Services in South East Wales programme, and links closely to the work being undertaken to advance the learning environment and research culture within the Cancer Centre.

This proposal outlines a competitive scheme to support the practical application of the knowledge and skills in Service Improvement, acquired by staff through participation in the national Silver Improving Quality Together (IQT) programme and the Velindre NHS Trust Leadership Development programme.

Those staff completing either an IQT Silver project, or completing the Leadership Development programme, will be eligible to apply for a maximum of £10,000 to support the continued development and implementation of their acquired knowledge. Funding can be used to support staff time, back-fill, consumables etc, and projects must be completed within a 12 month period.

It is anticipated that, if successful, the scheme will continue to be supported on an annual basis, and support extended to help the embedding of Service Improvement into daily working practices.

Investing in our Staff

Velindre NHS Trust is an Investors in People organisation for a further three years until March 2018.

Having carried out the review process rigorously, and in accordance with the quality assurance guidelines monitored by Investors in People Wales, the IIP Reviewers concluded that Velindre NHS Trust should continue to be accredited an Investors in People organisation, congratulating the Trust for being at the leading edge of the best people management practice in the United Kingdom.

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The Reviewers were also complimentary about the open, constructive approach of the staff that they met, and for sharing with them their experiences of working for the different divisions within Velindre NHS Trust.

Investing in our Staff Health & Wellbeing

Velindre NHS Trust is committed to staff health and wellbeing, and it is currently progressing new and existing health and wellbeing related resources for all employees.

A new strategy is being developed which will introduce some exciting initiatives for all

employees. This will include quarterly focus groups to offer a wide range of health & wellbeing topics such as mental health, physical health and general wellbeing; as well as pulse surveys, promotion of the Occupational Health Service, Employee Assistance Programme and Complementary Therapies, which will highlight Velindre NHS Trust as a Mindful Employer.

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Transforming Services by celebrating our Staff and their Achievements

Training Team Award

Velindre Cancer Centre’s Dr John Staffurth, Dr Alison Brewster, Emma Harrett, Rhiannon Jenkins and Angela Voyle-Smith, were awarded an ‘Excellence Award for Best Undergraduate Team’ by the School of Medicine at Cardiff University. The Award is in recognition of the excellent support they provided to Year 3 students.

Velindre Volunteers up for awardVelindre Cancer Centre celebrated Volunteers Week in June 2015 which provided us with an opportunity to showcase our commitment to supporting and encouraging volunteering, while also recognising the achievements of our volunteers and the valuable contribution they make.

The Velindre Volunteers were nominated for the ‘Wales Volunteer of the Year Awards 2015’ in the group category. This was a fitting tribute to the hard work and dedication of our exceptional and inspirational volunteers.

Joan’s Royal Award

Royal congratulations to Joan Jones, who has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for Services to Blood Transfusion in Wales and the UK.

Joan, who is Head of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Compliance at WBS, has worked in NHS transfusion services in Wales since 1971, joining the Welsh Blood Service in 2004.

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As well as managing a demanding day job, Joan voluntarily offers her expertise to many groups and organisations. She worked with the Ministry of Defence and was appointed HM Forces Consultant Advisor in Transfusion Medicine, her outstanding contribution helping to deliver a world class service which has saved many lives.

Joan said: “I am thrilled and delighted to have been given this award. Throughout my career I have been involved in creating innovative work programmes to achieve a reduction in issues associated with transfusion.

“In many ways this award is not just for me but for all the people I’ve worked with and those who have supported me over the years.”

Cath O’Brien, Director of the Welsh Blood Service, said: “This is a richly deserved honour as Joan’s expertise, dedication and commitment to service improvement in the UK and worldwide is widely recognised.”

Henry Garnett Award Presented to Helen Tyler

In December, we shared the wonderful news that Helen Tyler, Macmillan Therapies Services Manager at Velindre Cancer Centre, had been awarded a ‘Macmillan Henry Garnett Award’ for her excellent contribution as an inspirational professional supporting people with cancer. Since then, Helen (pictured with her award) has also featured in a Macmillan film talking about her role as part of a team of therapists, and the difference their combined efforts make to the lives of those living with cancer. Her interview can be viewed in full here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPXTrIGrjaQ

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Velindre Wins NHS Wales Award

Our joint work with Aneurin Bevan and Cardiff & Vale University Health Boards, to develop a dedicated service for patients with cancer associated thrombosis, has won the ‘Promoting Clinical Research and Application to Practice Award’.

Sarah Scoops Top Nursing Award

Sarah Beuschel, a member of the Better Blood Transfusion (BBT) Team at WBS, has won the 2015 ‘Innovation in Nursing Award’. Sarah was nominated for the award by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, where she is based in her Better Blood Transfusion Practitioner role.

Sarah received the award for work undertaken with the Coronary Care Unit to reduce inappropriate blood component use and wastage of blood components through a patient-centred strategy. Additionally, her contribution to education and training in blood transfusion for clinical and non-clinical staff is outstanding.

Second Professor honour for Sue

Congratulations to Professor Sue Morgan, who received a second Honorary Professor accolade, this time in ‘Nurse Leadership & Governance’ at the University of South Wales. Sue is also a Professor at Cardiff University.

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Welsh Radiographer of the Year

Velindre Cancer Centre radiographer Kim Brown (centre) was awarded Welsh Radiographer of the Year. It was noted that Kim’s dedication to service and professionalism under ever increasing pressures, and continuous unwavering care, support and development of the whole

radiotherapy staff group is outstanding.

Velindre Team bring home Medical Stretch 2015 Trophy

Congratulations to the Velindre NHS Trust team who won the runners-up trophy in the all Wales 2015 Medical Stretch, led by Army Reserves at the 203 (Welsh) Field Hospital.

Sarah Coppock runner up in NHS Personal Assistant (PA) of the year awards

We are delighted that Sarah Coppock was awarded runner up in the NHS Wales PA of the Year at the recent NHS Wales PA conference. Dr. Mark Taubert from our Palliative Care team entered in a submission that spoke highly of the role Sarah undertakes for the team.

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