The Radiography Awards 2024 will take place on 7 November, celebrating the stand-out individuals, teams and students from across the UK who have made a positive difference.
With the winners in each category now announced, the SoR is taking the time to celebrate runners-up and highly commended teams and people from each region and category.
Team of the Year recognises teams who have used innovative practices to improve service delivery or radiography education, or demonstrated exceptional multi-professional collaboration and are committed to delivering outstanding patient care.
Highly commended
Cleveland Clinic London’s Imaging Team have been highly commended for their “tireless” work to build a solid foundation for a recently established independent hospital which has seen an “incredible” increase in patient numbers since it first opened in 2021.
They established radiology education and learning meetings, giving radiographers the unique opportunity to review studies where inadequate technique has led to patient recall, near misses/good spots, and where escalation of unexpected findings has occurred – all of which has increased their confidence to discuss findings openly.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust’s plain film chest reporting team were highly commended for their work in the Yorkshire and North Trent region, after they implemented a Faster Respiratory Diagnosis pathway, which enabled reporters to request any necessary CT imaging for a patient and pass the results directly to chest physicians.
This work was a collaboration between GPs, ICBs, secondary care cancer services, reporting radiographers and radiologists and chest physicians. The total time for radiology has fallen on average to less than five days, greatly reducing the time that patients have to wait for both their CT scans and the results of the tests.
Focusing on patient care
In the South East region, Whitstable Medical Practice’s X-ray team was highly-commended for the ability to provide “amazing” patient care in an unusual setting – working with a busy and progressive urgent treatment centre as an extension of services including same day emergency care for DVT, PE and pneumonia.
The team has demonstrated inter-professional skills with a close-knit team of advanced practitioners, paramedics, HCAs and receptionists. This inter-professional working allows for patients’ needs to be met on a physical, mental and emotional level, creating a “wonderful” patient journey.
At the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, the radiotherapy department was highly commended in the Scotland region for their organisation, communication skills, observational abilities and attention to patient dignity. Offering a range of cancer treatments, the centre recently reopened with all-new technology, and extra training has helped all team members use these systems effectively.
The Northern Ireland region’s Belfast Health and Social Care Trust CT department was highly commended for their adaptations to ensure maintenance of targeted waiting times with an expanded working week.
Recognising there were bottlenecks for waiting times in some sub-specialities, the CT service collaborated with cancer services to set up a confirmed cancer pathway where patients were given clinical priority, significantly reducing waiting times.
Collaboration and learning
North Bristol NHS Trust’s MRI Safety team were highly commended in the South West region for their high level of organisation and self-directed study to boost their knowledge base. Without the availability of this service, hundreds of patients per year would be denied access to an MRI scan when they really need one.
The team has implemented entirely new systems of work to facilitate scanning this group of patients – improving efficiency and safety, as well as radiographers’ confidence when scanning. Consistent documentation has greatly improved governance, and keeping records of patient numbers helps identify where improvements to the service might be needed.
Betsi Cadwaladar’s Wrexham Maelor Hospital CT/MRI team were highly commended in Wales for their collaborative spirit and fostering strong partnerships to enhance overall patient care, and their culture of continuous learning and improvement.
The team has embraced advanced imaging techniques, AI and machine learning, tele-radiology services, interdisciplinary collaboration and education excellence to elevate patient care and service delivery while positioning the team as leaders in radiological education, preparing students to excel in a rapidly evolving field.
Find out more about the Radiography Awards here.
(Image: Radiography Awards 2023, by Eva Slusarek)