KGH nominated for national award for virtual visiting system
Kettering General Hospital has been included in a nomination for a national award for the way it has introduced a virtual visiting system for patients during the Covid-19 pandemic.
KGH, London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH), St Mark's Hospital Foundation and digital services company Made Tech have been shortlisted for the Acute Sector Innovation of the Year at the 2020 HSJ Awards.
Together the three Trusts and Made Tech worked to introduce the NHS Book a virtual visit system in hospital. This is a digital service which enables patients, using a computer tablet, to book, see and speak to their relatives over a video link.
The NHS Book a virtual visit system– made by Made Tech - was shortlisted despite tough competition from over 1000 entries.
To date, Book a virtual visit has enabled over 10,000 virtual visits in wards across the five NHS trusts.
For NHS staff, the service enhances patient care and provides significant time savings for staff tasked with keeping families updated so that they can spend more time caring for patients.
Ian Roddis, Director of Digital at KGH, said: “While the pressures of this year have been extremely challenging, we, and our colleagues across London North West University Hospitals and St Mark's Hospital Foundation have never lost sight of the importance of keeping our patients connected to their loved ones when physical visits had to end.
“Working together with Made Tech we have built a solution that meets our rapidly evolving user needs in an open, safe and interoperable way.”
The award ceremony is due to be held in March 2021 and the judging panel will be made up of a diverse range of highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community.
Now in its 40th year, the HSJ Awards is the largest annual benchmarking and recognition programme for healthcare. Through a rigorous, fair and transparent judging process the awards produce a roll call of the best organisations, teams and people in the NHS and the wider health sector.
The full list of finalists for the 2020 HSJ Awards can be found on https://awards.hsj.co.uk/2020-shortlist.