The Only National Awards For Non-Medical / Non-Clinical NHS Staff & Volunteers

Unsung Hero Awards visits Royal Bolton Hospital

9th October 2018

The Unsung Hero Awards continued our ‘Trust Tour’ by visiting the Royal Bolton Hospital to continue to promote 2019 Nominations.

This Trust has an international reputation and we found that the Staff and Volunteers were warm, friendly and professional.

We chatted with  patients and staff who were keen to find out more about our organisation. The Unsung Hero Awards have a good history with Royal Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, as we named our 2016 ‘Volunteer of the year’ Winner as Enid Dunn.

After her treatment at Royal Bolton NHS Foundation Trust Enid recognised the need for a most stylish-looking bag to carry the drain that many breast patients are fitted with when they are discharged from hospital. Using her dressmaking skills, she designed and produced fashionable bags for breast Cancer patients out of her own pocket – and continues to do so to this day.

Enid Dunn with her UHA 2016 Trophy. 

We got to see Enid’s work first hand and also met Jennifer Cairns, Clerical Officer in the Breast Screening Unit, who happily modelled one of Enid’s caring creations.

Enid told us: “Bolton Hospital is wonderful, all departments that I have visited as a patient I couldn’t fault. There are kind and considerate staff in all departments. I can’t sing their praises enough.”

Our visit to Royal Bolton NHS FT resulted in many members of staff supporting our initiative and patients showing a great interest in voting for the Patients Choice Award Category. It was clearly visible how busy a Trust Royal Bolton NHS FT is and we appreciated the time that staff and patients took to engage with us.

Susan East, a Health Care Cleaning Assistant hard at work throughout the day.

As our visit drew to a close, the team reflected on how many different departments we had reached out to and how many Non-Medical/Non-Clinical Staff members and Volunteers had gone about performing their duties in front of us.

Whether it was the Volunteer Staff cheerily directing members of the public to their respective destinations, Porters carefully guiding patients past us, or Susan East, a Health Care Cleaning Assistant who cleaned diligently around us. These individuals represented just a fraction of the Non-Medical/Non-Clinical Staff whose daily work is absolutely vital to the safe and effective running of a Trust.

Another positive that stood out was how much Royal Bolton NHS FT recognises and celebrates its own staff. Not only did many individuals that we met on our visit talk about their in-house Awards, we also saw clearly displayed in the main corridor large posters recognising Staff and Volunteers for going the extra mile and who are the definition of true Unsung Heroes!

Written by Laura Tomlinson, Relationship Manager at the Unsung Hero Awards.