Dedicated to Excellence Programme 2025

• The Alder Hey/Liverpool Women’s Childrens and Neonatal Genomics Network

This project was set up in late 2021 with a view to embedding genomics in Alder Hey and across paediatric and neonatal services regionally. There is already strong links internally with the fetal medicine and maternal medicine networks as well as presence on NICU for a regular ward round.

• Sarah Maguire/Cancer Team: Mainstreaming Prostate Cancer Genomics Testing

As more treatment options have been approved for prostate cancer the ideal pathways for genomic testing were identified and this involved testing through oncology in all local services. The cancer team have worked on several mainstreaming projects with this being the latest and in some ways more complex, as genomics testing involved tumour testing and germline testing.

• Transforming Care Pathways for Families with Rare Diseases

Katya Bennett and colleagues have secured funding from the Genomic Medicine Service Alliance to develop a Gene Discovery Clinic for families affected by undiagnosed rare diseases.

• EPAU

The Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit Team for their constant drive, dedication and enthusiasm to improve patient care, experience and embracing the challenge of relocating the Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit away from the Gynaecology Emergency Department.

• Cancer Admin Team

Led by Evelyn Rogansky and Yvette Byrne, the Cancer Admin Team has been instrumental in streamlining the cancer pathway. Through exceptional coordination and tracking, they have managed record-high referrals while achieving a record-low PTL size, ensuring efficient, patient-centred care and outstanding service improvements.

• Donation and Surrogacy Team

The Donation and Surrogacy Team have worked tirelessly to revolutionise the pathways for fertility patients requiring these services, to improve their safety, experience and chance of achieving a family. The introduction of an egg bank, creation of fairer packages for embryo recipients, collaboration with external organisations to improve access to surrogacy, and expanding the sperm donor programme, have drastically reduced the waiting list times, improved safety measures, and raised the standard of care for our patients.

• Claire Butler

Claire’s resilience, reliability, and ability to deliver the best for her team, her department, her wider colleagues and the hospital, day after day, under the most challenging of circumstances, is truly outstanding. This kind of contribution often goes unnoticed, as it’s in the background, keeping the lights on, but its absence is felt hard.

• Help Hub

The Help Hub at main reception is a great support for staff, patients, families and carers at LWH. Members of the PALS Team and representatives from the Brain Charity and Mary Seacole are there to offer support for all. There is also a Happy to Help Poster displayed in many languages.

• Multilingual Volunteers Programme

Multilingual Volunteers programme was officially launched at the beginning of 2024. They provide support and companionship to patients who speak little to no English. The programme has been a great success demonstrated from having over 40 active volunteers providing 25 globally spoken languages, national awards and supportive feedback and testimonies from staff.

• The Maternal Medicine Disciplinary Team

LWH launched as a Maternal Medicine Centre (MMC) in July 2022. Since this time the team has worked tirelessly to develop robust referral pathways that are accessed by our partner providers across Cheshire & Merseyside (C&M), engagement events with partner providers, education days for the entire MDT and establishment of a weekly maternal medicine MDT that has become embedded across C&M.

• Jill Harrison, Kate Navaratnam & Emma McGoldrick

These individuals combined their passion, dedication, and commitment to ensure a terminally ill Mum was safely transferred to LWH to deliver her baby prematurely. They worked collaboratively with other organisations to ensure the Mum continued to receive the appropriate treatment onsite.

• The Multiple Pregnancy Service at LWH

Our nationally leading woman centered twin service, led by the specialist midwifery team, offers innovative approaches to patient care. This includes coffee mornings, twin parent education, cervical length screening (years ahead of NICE guidance) and an appointment structure above NHS standards suitable for such a high-risk population.

• Isheanesu (Ishe) Mutasa and Gx Media: a Sibling Oocyte Study

Ishe has only been with the Hewitt Scientific Team for just over two years, but what he has achieved in research in that short time is unbelievable. He successfully designed the study, gained Liverpool Women’s sponsorship, received IRAS approval, and personally recruited over 125 patients in just 12 months.

•  The Thermoregulation Group (Neonatal)

The Thermoregulation Group have been working towards improving temperature control in babies admitted to the neonatal unit. The group have audited the incidence of hypothermia in neonatal admissions and reviewed and implemented changes to try and improve temperature control in this group. 

• It’s not just Babies we Deliver!: The Research Delivery Team at LWH

We are growing research at LWH with recruitment numbers second only to LUHFT in all of Merseyside. New commercial studies bring in money and we opened our £80,00 NIHR funded research suite.

• Laine Rogers

Laine says she has found her calling since becoming a volunteer. She’s been an amazing help to the volunteers and volunteer manager, by buddying new volunteers in the meet and greet role and helping them settle and grow in confidence, she has helped volunteers complete their mandatory training and has provided admin support to the volunteer manager. She has also been helping the Hewitt Fertility Centre with basic administration; they say Laine is their ‘Little ray of sunshine’.

• Asma Alrakma

Asma speaks Arabic and often puts this skill to use when communicating with patients who speak the same language. The Security Team, highly commended her for the support she gave a patient and a midwife, who was struggling to communicate important, non-clinical, information to the patient who was going home. By doing so, the patient became calm and gratefully accepted the information relayed on to her from the midwife.

• Saidat Olayiwola

Is a Health Care Assistant at LUHFT, but also volunteers in her spare time at LWH. Saidat is dedicated to ensuring patients have a positive experience, she will speak candidly about shortfalls in patient experience. Her feedback has helped Services make improvements to ensure the patients have a better experience.

• Fardus Muse

Outpatients approached the volunteer service for support with a Somalian speaking patient, who’s appointments hadn’t gone to plan because of issues with the interpreting service. Fortunately, our records identified Fardus, as speaking Somalian, and when we asked her to help, she worked flexibly and at short notice to join the patient at their next appointment.

• Paula Brennan

Paula has worked with suppliers to get free Wifi and Televisions for our Neonatal flats on Chancellor Court. Paula wants to do the best for our families and provide a better experience for them whilst staying in the flats.

• Dr Emily Hoyle

Emily has championed feeding our families on the Neonatal unit and worked with Sophies Legacy Charity and LWH Charity to make this happen. The result has been a proven pilot project that has ensured future food provision for families.

• Claire Starkey

Claire bravely volunteered to take part in the Skydive this year. She showed leadership and bravery in volunteering for this event and its was completely out of her comfort zone. She raised a huge amount of funds and is a fantastic supporter of LWH Charity.

• Louise Smith

Louise, Operational Support Manager, has quickly become a rising star within the Gynaecology Division. New to her role, she has expertly coordinated critical changes, bringing innovative ideas, proactive solutions, and seamless collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, driving significant improvements in patient care and pathway efficiency.

• Gemma Birkett

Gemma Birkett was a band 6 midwife on delivery suite but has been temporary Clinical Lead of the Midwifery Led Unit since the start of 2024, she also runs the Birth Choices Clinic alongside Consultant Midwife Jane Wilson. Since coming into this new post Gemma has been dedicated to making positive changes to the MLU, with service user and staff satisfaction at the forefront consistently.

•  Harry Vlasman

It is with great enthusiasm that we nominate Harry for this award, recognising his fabulous contribution to the Trust and wider system working in the last 12 months. Harry demonstrates exceptional communication skills and an unwavering commitment to excellence.

• James Corbett

It is with great enthusiasm that we nominate James for this award, recognising his fabulous contribution to his learning and development which is adding direct value to our services through better financial management and the ability to creatively support our services to deliver the best services they can within the resources we have available to us.

• Jontai Smith

Jontai has expedited her journey to becoming ward manager within the Hewitt Fertility Centre, Knutsford. Within 2 years, she has gained qualifications and become competent in performing embryo transfers and fertility ultrasound scanning.

• Helen Chainey

Helen has been highly successful in completing her MBA - receiving a distinction, after achieving consistently high grades throughout. She has set the bar for academic achievement and used her study as an opportunity to work across different teams in the Trust and focus on safety culture.

• Emma Silker

Emma is a massive asset to the Gynaeoncology team and also a superb patient advocate for women with gynae malignancy. Emma possesses all the qualities of a great mentor. She is a motivator and driver of excellent quality of care on the ward and receives great feedback.

• Adel Soltan

As a mentor, Adel fosters an environment of learning and growth, helping others reach their full potential. His dedication to developing talent, sharing expertise, and offering encouragement has made a significant impact on his colleagues and the wider team.

• Dee Pearson

Since taking on the lead role for education within the neonatal department Dee has supported the neonatal nursing education team to develop a robust strategy for training across the LNP plus supported nurses, ANNPs and resident doctors across the department in developing their own knowledge and skills in neonatal care.

This category consists of Employee of the Month winners for 2023-24 and 2024-25 (up until December 2024). This is because there was no awards event in 2024.

• February 23: Jane Calveley, Operational Support Officer, CSS

Upon learning from serious incidents, Jane began building robust booking and scheduling processes, has validated the entire imaging non-obstetric waiting list, and has supported our longest waiters in sourcing an appointment. Jane's commitment to learning from our mistakes and keeping our patients at the heart of our improvement perfectly embodies the values of LWH.

• March 23: Rebecca Kennedy, Sonographer, Imaging

Rebecca is a fantastic member of the sonography team and is always so adaptable and flexible in her approach to her duties. Her communication skills with patients is brilliant and gets regular compliments for how caring and empathetic she is in her interactions. 

• April, 23: Ellie McGrath, Communications Assistant

Ellie arrived within the team during a busy period. We had a reduced team at the time and Ellie took on a huge amount of the admin and organising responsibilities for Dedicated to Excellence. All this was achieved within her first month of starting at LWH and has resulted in her feeling like a well-established and respected member of the team.

• May 23: Jodie Hollywood, Young Person’s Nurse

Jodie has taken on the task of early help. This was not part of her children and young person’s nurse role but she identified that no one in the Trust was taking the lead and children and families were not always receiving appropriate early help referrals in to social care.

• June 23: Lauren Boileau, Pharmacy Technician

Lauren has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to learn and to grow in her new role as a Medicines Management Technician. She consistently goes the extra mile to support her colleagues and to ensure patient safety.

• July 23: Gillian Smith, Consultant Nurse

Gill has been a tremendous help to all of the Gynae Secretaries both before during and after digiCare. She has spent a considerable amount of time helping and supporting us in the transition so much so that we feel more able and confident to move forward. 

• August 23: Jahnaya Duke, Antenatal Booking Clerk

Jahnaya has worked in the Antenatal Clinic completing the digital outcomes for an extremely busy Diabetic Clinic. She has been an enormous asset to the clinic and the staff have been full of praise for her. She is very professional and extremely helpful in everything she does.

• September 2023: Katie Lowe, Midwife, MAU

Katie is one of the most amazing midwives I have worked with. She is hardworking and one of the loveliest people you will meet. Her tissue viability qualification helps us as ACP’s to review patients with wound issues that attend MAU.

• October 23: Matthew Newhall, Deputy Divisional Manager, Gynaecology

Matthew is always respectful and welcoming with an open door policy. He rolls his sleeves up and works extremely hard as he believes in the core NHS and LWH values. No amount of work is too much bother.

• November 2023: Andrea Stafford, Shiftleader, Neonatal

Andrea has stepped up as shiftleader on a number of challenging shifts. Regardless of the challenges she has supported each member of staff on shift physically and emotionally while ensuring that we felt supported regardless of the circumstances.

• December 2023: Thomas Austin, Learning & Development Administrator

Thomas is a Band 2 L&D administrator. Front of house at Blair Bell reception. The first thing you notice about Thomas is his smile because Thomas always smiles. Professional in how he looks and conducts himself. A person who absolutely role models Trust values and behaviours.

• January 24: Margaret McKeown, Housekeeper (HFC)

Margaret has worked extremely hard during 2023 but especially in December. HFC routinely stop activity for 2 weeks during December to carry out essential maintenance work that cannot be done during the year.

• February 2024: Anna Jones, Community Midwife

Anna always goes above and beyond for women and families in her care, she is a dedicated member of the team, is sensitive to others feelings/needs and isn't afraid to reach out and help.

• March 2024: Emma Evans, Clinical Consultant Psychologist

Emma leads on facilitating the Staff Support Service, which offers valuable psychotherapeutic input to staff across the Trust to deal with both work and personal life stressors. She does so in a humble, moral way, often looking to meet the needs of referrals to the service with only a small service reach.

• April 2024: Carolyn Blaney, Switchboard Operator

Carolyn goes above and beyond in her current role as switchboard operative. Carolyn runs the switchboard on a day-to-day basis without fuss, without her security (switchboard) and switchboard would not run effectively. Carolyn deserves this recognition for the continued efforts to the trust and continually going above and beyond in her job role.

• May 2024: Cheryl Lamb, Home Birth Midwife

Cheryl has gone above and beyond in the care of a patient and her family during a challenging clinical case of care outside of guidance. Cheryl attended appointments with her, liaised carefully with all members of the team involved to ensure that patient choice could be facilitated. 

• Jun 2024: Helen Brothwood, Lead Resuscitation Officer

Helen has reshaped the Resus Training Department, she has fostered and generated a positive working environment in which we as her team feel valued and respected. Helen is helping make the trust a safer environment for our patients with her setting up the AIM course which will help staff to recognise deteriorating patients.

• July 2024: Emily Newton, Embryologist

Emily has been accepted for the NHS Scientist Training Program - over 400 people applied for 8 positions, so we are really really proud of her for being accepted.

• August 2024: Gina Barr, Volunteer Services Manager

Gina - just does it. Gina is a visionary, affiliative, and adaptive in her leadership style that supports our volunteers in being the best that they can. Gina works closely with clinical/department managers to help make a difference in their areas.  A credit to the Trust who always upholds Trust values and behaviours and ensures that our volunteers do to.

• September 2024: Jessica Harron, Neonatal Nurse

Jess demonstrated outstanding care towards a family who made the heartbreaking decision to move to palliative care for their incredibly sick baby girl. Jess is an asset to the Neonatal Unit at Liverpool Women's Hospital and she should be incredibly proud of the care she provides to our families. 

• October 2024: Emma Silker, Oncology CNS Nurse

Emma is enthusiastic about sharing knowledge and is focused on ensuring knowledge is disseminated as much as possible. This helps the staff to gain evidence based practise thus improving patient outcomes. 

• November 2024, Maureen Swale, Ward Clerk, GED

Maureen works as a ward clerk in the busy GED. Maureen has a calm, compassionate and friendly demeanour. I observed Maureen during a busy period in GED when a number of patients were waiting to book into the department. Maureen upholds/demonstrates Trust values and behaviours.

• December 2024, Paul Mallanaphy, Andrologist, HFC

We are extremely proud of Paul for his exceptional commitment to sustainability, having cycled and run over 4,600km in 2024 to save over a tonne of CO2, and being a part of HFC's Green IVF initiative! Paul is always striving to challenge himself and this is a great achievement, and very inspiring for the rest of the Hewitt Fertility Centre and wider Trust.

This category consists of Team of the Month winners for 2023-24 and 2024-25 (up until December 2024). This is because there was no awards event in 2024.

• February 2023: NICU

December and January were exceptionally busy months on NICU.  We had a lot of babies receiving end of life care and this takes a huge emotional toll on the staff.  However busy we have been, all the staff have continued to make sure every family is cared for and has the best possible experience.

• March 2023: Gynaecology Ward

This is a dedicated team I'm proud to be a part of. We have been delt a few rough years with minimal stability, but we have come out the other end better than ever. Each team member shows care and compassion not only to our patients but to each other.

• April 2023: ACP Midwives

The girls have all just passed their MSC to become fully qualified after 3.5 years. They have worked so very hard and totally deserve their success and will be a huge benefit to the staff and patients on the MAU.

• May 2023: HFC Knutsford

A patient became unwell following a procedure, was intubated and had to be transferred to the local AED, staff dealt with the emergency in a calm, professional manner whilst ensuring the patient was safe. They supported her partner showing care and empathy towards him, keeping him updated.

• June 2023: Theatre Education Team

The Theatres Education Team have been providing exceptional support to a high volume of new starters this year, with induction and preceptorship packages, clinical competency documents.

• July 2023: Maternity Base

After a challenging few months in relation to staffing levels as always Maternity Ward staff continue to go above and beyond. Recently a night shift involved a patient delivering unexpectedly an extremely premature baby on the ward. Every single member of staff that night displayed all the trust values.

• August 2023: Ultrasound Team

This team has pulled together over the summer, already short staffed and dealing with sickness and holidays. The admin team have managed week after week to co-ordinate lists and the clinical staff have often gone without breaks to cover emergency patients.

• September 2023: Research Midwives

This year, the research midwifery team have gone above and beyond to recruit women to research projects across the maternity portfolio. The team have worked together to overcome many barriers to recruitment, including engaging with staff, women and their families to improve outcomes for participants across the board.

• October 2023: Cancer Services Team

Cancer Services have been under enormous pressure and scrutiny over the last few months. The whole team have worked so hard to reduce waiting times for our suspected cancer patients, tracked patients throughout their whole journey and pushed treatment dates. 

• November 2023: Estates & Facilities

They provide an excellent service across the Trust to ensure electricity is working, plumbing is functional, and the hospital is always looking it's best. I don't feel like they get enough appreciation for the work they do.

• December 2024: GED

Activity in GED has been exceptionally high and we have had an increase in staff sickness. All staff have moved shifts, picked up extra shifts and gone above and beyond to ensure the safety of the department and our patients.

• January 2024: Multiple Pregnancy Team

This team specialises in managing women with twin pregnancies. These pregnancies represent some of the highest risk pregnancies at LWH. The specialist team of midwives and doctors has continued to develop the care model to be nationally leading with bespoke twin midwife care, dedicated monochorionic and dichorionic scan and medical lists.

• February 2024: EPAU

The EPAU Department moved to its own unit in November 2023. The aim for the move was to offer patients better care and management of their early pregnancy and miscarriages. The EPAU team have since taken further roles to provide patients with continuous care during a patient’s miscarriage journey by introducing the nurse sonographers to complete consent and provide medical management.

• March 2024: Practice Educators

Provided empathy and compassion as healthcare professionals and was not afraid to go back to clinical grounds to assist a member of staff in need. The assistance and recommendations they provided during this incident has now helped us provide this care and learning moving forward.

• April 2024: PROMPT Team

The PROMPT programme officially launched at LWH in April, after many months of planning. The Multidisciplinary Maternity Education Team has worked closely together to ensure that this was appropriately resourced and planned, leading to maximum success.

• May 2024: Urogynae PTNS Team

The Urogynae PTNS Team have recently been informed they are a considered a centre for excellence for PTNS and asked to train nurses from as far as Hong Kong. The PTNS service at the Liverpool Women's is something to be truly proud of, who have significantly reduced waiting times.

• June 2024: Imaging Screening Sonography Team

The team underwent an in depth external inspection in which they produced a fantastic outcome for the trust by collaborative working to ensure the highest standards for our patients and their screening tests. 

• July 2024: CSS Operations Team

During a period of short staffing the Operations Team have stepped up to support the CSS Division and provided the best possible support to all of the specialisms within CSS.

• August 2024: Patient Experience Team

Our PALs team are a direct point of contact for our patients and service users. they are contacted via email, phone or directly when they are manning the Help and Advice Hub. They support clinical staff with PALS plus, informal/formal complaints always having the patient at the heart of what they do.

• September 2024: Community Midwifery Managers

Community Midwifery Leadership Team are always on hand to give a helping hand to women. During periods of increased acuity and demand in the Maternity unit the team work beyond their rostered hours to provide care to pregnant women, and to mothers and their newborn babies.

• October 2024: NICU Room 1

The staff in NICU room 1 have been dedicated to providing compassionate care during an incredibly difficult situation. They displayed medical expertise and profound empathy and care.

• November 2024: GOPD

All staff went above and beyond helping to move all equipment from GOPD to - urogynaecology, gynae ward and theatres for the Ambulatory build. Working to ensure minimal disruption and without stepping down clinics the staff have worked tirelessly over the last few weeks and have now successfully moved out of the ambulatory corridor completely.

• December 2024: Gynae-Oncology Team

We are nominating the Gynae-oncology team following receipt of a complementary letter for all the care and compassion given to a patient and her family receiving End of Life care on the Gynae ward.

• Linda Watkins, Consultant Obstetrician

Over the past 6 years she has supported me and my family through a number of miscarriages, the pregnancy of my son Jacob, the loss of my little boy Noah and then pregnancy of my son Joshua. This is where she particularly went above and beyond. After the loss of my little boy Noah who I delivered at 24 weeks. She worked so hard to help us find out what had gone wrong and how we could try and have a successful pregnancy. We came up with a plan but the pregnancy again was very hard. She supported me throughout particularly in the earlier stages.

• Marie McPartlin, Patient Advice and Liaison Officer

After an incident in which Marie helped a lady suffering with her mental health in Liverpool City Centre, she received this feedback from the lady’s husband: “I honestly and truly believe Marie was a blessing that day. The kindness she shown to my wife, a stranger was amazing and without her sheer kindness and compassion, it pains me to say, I don't believe my wife would be here today. In my eyes, she saved her life. Marie is a credit to your hospital, and I would really love this message of thanks to reach her, so she knows the impact she has had on us as a family without even realising it. A little bit of kindness goes a long way. My boys still have their Mum and I still have my wife to love and she has played a massive part in that.”

• Jessica Harron, Neonatal Nurse

We lived in Liverpool Women’s Hospital for 12 days after giving birth to our beautiful daughter Pippa. Jess was a huge part of the joy we experienced with our little girl over those days. She went above and beyond to care for Pippa, all while supporting us in the most difficult time of our lives. She helped us make beautiful memories and lovely keepsakes that we will cherish forever.