Operations Team – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Admin & Clerical

Individual or Team Nomination?

Team

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 :

Leeds GP Confederation (LGPC) was formed in 2018, its vision to enable General Practice in Leeds to thrive. One way LGPC does this is by holding contracts to enhance access to healthcare across Leeds. LGPC’s Operations Team’s purpose is to deliver these contracts such as the Enhanced Access (EA) service, that provides extra appointments to Leeds GP Practices on evenings and weekends. The full team can be viewed on LGPC’s website (leedsgpconfederation.org.uk), with roles such as Rota and Administration Co-ordinator, and Operational Team Leader all working to ensure that LGPC’s services are fully staffed and run smoothly, contributing to excellent patient experience. LGPC have been recognised as overall ‘Outstanding’ in CQC’s report published December 2023. The report awarded ‘Outstanding’ in both effective and well-led categories, reporting that the organisation showed a ‘culture of high-quality sustainable care’. This outstanding rating could not have been possible without the dedication and passion of the Operations Team. In 22/23 the team delivered 178,044 EA appointments and 29,414 Same Day Response appointments. In January 2023 the team developed and implemented LGPC’s highly commended Community Ambulatory Paediatric Service (CAPS) in a week, in response to NHS England’s mandate for acute respiratory infection hubs. CQC said that this development showed a ‘strong culture of innovation’ with 7,712 appointments booked between its introduction and 30th Nov 23. The team has worked to build excellent relationships with Leeds’s Primary Care Networks (PCN), working individually with each PCN to develop services to suit the needs of the practices and local population. For example, through the EA service the team completed just under 1,000 cervical screening appointments for a PCN in Leeds with a long cervical smear waiting list and expect that over 1,000 appointments will be completed in the PCN in 23/24. Learning from feedback is a priority for the team, with CQC reporting that there is “an open and transparent culture, there were systems to share information with staff, member PCNs and other stakeholders. All the staff we received feedback from told us they felt able to raise concerns and that they were confident these would be listened to and acted upon.” Due to the teams’ efforts patient feedback is generally positive, but when there was feedback regarding issues with equipment availability the team quickly implemented standardised stock lists in each EA hub, with dedicated leads for checking stock supplies each week. The team go above and beyond every day to ensure that EA staff, from clinicians to receptionists are supported in their roles. The team are compassionate, inclusive and represent the values of the LGPC. CQC reported that the ‘culture of the service was overwhelmingly positive.” This is just a small example of the impact that the Team has on the wider Leeds Health & Care system. They are vital to Primary Care in Leeds and 500 words does not do the work they do justice. Attached are some examples of the well-deserved feedback that the team have received in the past year.