Urgent care team at University Hospital of Hartlepool wins regional NHS70 award

The service has been recognised with the regional Excellence in Urgent and Emergency Care Award in the NHS70 Parliamentary Awards.

The service, which also operates at University Hospital of North Tees, was nominated by town MP Mike Hill, as well as MP for Stockton North Alex Cunningham and Paul Williams MP, who represents Stockton South.

It opened in April last year with centres at both the University Hospital of North Tees and the University Hospital of Hartlepool.

The service is available to patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and brings together GP out-of-hours service and minor injuries.

Chief executive (interim) of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust Julie Gillon said: “We are extremely proud of the high quality care we provide as part of our integrated urgent care service.

“The innovative alliance model we have with the regional ambulance service and the local GP federation has proved to be a huge success.

“Over the last year we have consistently been one of the top performing health trusts in the country for emergency care.

“This is in no small part down to the success of our urgent care service.

“Patients are being cared for in the right place at the right time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“There is so much truly fantastic work going on across our trust as well as across the whole NHS - we are proud to have been recognised and supported by our local MPs.”

The 10 individuals and teams chosen as regional champions will now vie with other regional winners from across England for a national award to be presented at a special ceremony in the Palace of Westminster in July.

The NHS70 Parliamentary Awards recognise the massive contribution made by the individuals who work in and alongside the NHS.

Launched in February, it asked the region’s MPs to nominate those they thought have made the biggest improvements to health services in their constituencies across 10 categories.

From 217 entries, senior experts have chosen ten outstanding nominations, which exemplify the best of what the NHS and its partners do day in, day out.

NHS England Regional Medical Director, Dr Mike Prentice said: “Picking champions from the dozens of high quality nominations we received from local MPs was incredibly difficult, so all of those going forward to the national ceremony should be extremely proud of their achievement.”