Lynne Witham – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Admin & Clerical

Individual or Team Nomination?

Individual

Qualifying Qualities

In these challenging times, nominators were asked to show how the nominee had demonstrated the following qualities:

Exceptional work ethic - going above and beyond their job description, especially in the past 12 months.
Outstanding achievement/s in work or outside of the organisation where relevant.
Drive for innovation and proactive leadership in these challenging times.
High level of interpersonal skills, such as kindness, empathy, loyalty and thoughtfulness to staff and patients.
A resilience considering Covid to their role and to the health and wellbeing of their colleagues.

Nominators Answer

Nominee's story :

I have seen Lynne work far above her job description and pay band throughout in my time at the Trust. During COVID she was instrumental in the Letters for Loved Ones initiative at Epsom Hospital and literally put herself at risk daily by visiting patients on site to read to them and help them communicate with family. Lynne is a Respect Champion, and last year was a Culture Champion too. She never says no to helping someone. She is genuinely contactable 24/7 to all volunteers and routinely works on her days off. She provides a myriad of other services in addition to hr job description eg finds wheelchairs and pushes patients to their appointments; escorts patients to their appointments who are anxious and nervous, calming them down on the way. Last week a man was in ED all night and came to her office early in the morning to see if she had a charger as his phone was dead and he only had apple pay (no cash) to use on the bus. She gave the man his bus fare and wished him well. The man came back this week with his parents to thank her and repay her saying that she had restored their faith in humanity. Lynne receives excellent feedback from volunteers, members of the public and colleagues. Lynne is also an unpaid carer of her elderly parents and visits them each day after work to do their meals, washing, ironing, finances etc before going home to her own family Lynne has driven the launch of a recruitment campaign in the most spoken languages of the local population. The student volunteers accompany Lynne as she engages with discussion with faith groups and local community groups. Lynne also collaborates with the leads from the following teams: Equality Diversity and Inclusion; Chaplaincy; and Surrey Downs Learning Disabilities to ensure that everyone has the same opportunities, and open access, to becoming a volunteer and even to future employment. Lynne is expanding work experience in the Trust. ESTH now offers placements in many areas including Physiotherapy, Nursing, IT, Medical Engineering, Pharmacy, the Library and Catering. With the support of NHSEi and the National Council of Voluntary Organisations Lynne has is building the foundation of partnership working with voluntary agencies and support networks to create a ‘Back to Health Framework’. This bridges the gap when patients are ready to be discharged and in the weeks that follow. This also helps ESTH gain insight into our community’s inequalities, and helps link the appropriate voluntary organisations to those that need support. For instance, if a package of care is not formally indicated for an individual, yet they are not strong enough to do their shopping, cooking and medication collection, there are voluntary organisations in the community that can help. This ensures that the person has help until their strength has been restored with one outcome being that the risk of hospital readmission is avoided.