Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust is celebrating a double achievement at the national Patient Safety Awards, winning the Patient Safety in Mental Health Award and received a ‘highly commended’ in the Board Leadership Award.

The Patient Safety Awards, delivered by the Nursing Times and the Health Service Journal, reward innovation and best practice in all areas of patient safety. The winners were announced at the prestigious awards ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.

In winning the award for Patient Safety in Mental Health, the trust submitted evidence from the ‘Year of Patient Safety’; an ambitious trust-wide project to achieve improvement in the safety and reliability of services. This was achieved through improving the culture of safety, promoting professional accountability and targeted work on identified high impact topics including medicines management, clinical risk training and reducing slips, trips and falls.

Chris Butler, Chief Executive at Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our first priority is always to deliver the best possible care which maintains the highest level of safety. It is always good to be recognised for our achievements and I am delighted that this has been recognised by the National Patient Safety Awards. A great deal of hard work and commitment has been shown by staff throughout the trust and it is a truly great achievement that their work has received national recognition.”

Pictured: (l-r) Gina White (Business Manager), Gareth Flanders (Patient Safety Manager), Michele Moran (Director of Service Delivery/Chief Nurse), Dr David Newby (Medical Director) and Sian Wicks, Senior Consultant in Patient Safety, Mental Health Strategies (who presented the award)

The trust was also ‘highly commended’ in the Board Leadership Award which looked for examples of clear and transparent commitment to patient safety, resulting in demonstrable improvements and cultural change throughout the whole of the organisation. The trust was commended on its evidence of personal leadership from both it’s Chief Executive and Chairman, and a rigorous programme of work targeted areas of high risk, systematic work to improve the culture of safety and major financial investments to support safe systems of care.

Ian Hughes, Chairman at Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Winning the award for Patient Safety in Mental Health and being highly commended for the Board Leadership Award is a fantastic achievement for the Trust. Patient safety is a priority for the Board and it's great to see the work of staff recognised publically by these two prestigious awards."

More information about the work in patient safety is featured in the short film:

Excelling in Patient Safety, Leeds PFT - NICE Conference 2009

For more information visit www.leedsmentalhealth.nhs.uk