A Birmingham-based hospice charity has been recognised at a top industry awards ceremony for its dedication to going above and beyond for patients at the end of life.

The Hospice Charity Partnership’s Personal Health Budget Team (PHB) had a great night at this year’s prestigious Nursing Times Awards as they celebrated a big win. The team were rewarded for its fantastic work in bringing personalised social care to end of life patients. They were shortlisted for the ‘HRH The Prince of Wales Award for Integrated Approaches to Care’ in this year’s awards and won at the ceremony on Wednesday evening in London, despite tough competition from 11 other organisations.

The Hospice Charity Partnership provides palliative and end of life care to thousands of people across Birmingham from their two bases in Selly Park and Erdington, and out in the community as well as in people’s homes.

The Personal Health Budget (PHB) is a new way of providing services for people within the last weeks of their life. In partnership with their healthcare team at the hospice, patients develop a personalised care plan and use PHB in a way that best meets their needs. This could mean providing anything from bedding, clothing, and helping with cleaning or dog walking, to creating precious memories, experiences and fulfilling wishes for patients and their families.

Earlier this year, the team arranged for a special video message and phone call from Jack Grealish and Pep Guardiola for a patient who was a huge Aston Villa fan.

Sarah Mimmack, Director of Care Services, said she is absolutely thrilled for the PHB Team and delighted that the team’s hard work has been recognised at a national level.
“I am very proud of the whole team, they all work so hard and to have been recognised in this way, by such a huge organisation in healthcare, means so much,” she said.

“I know the team love helping patients and their families make choices that are right for them during their last months and weeks of life. The team are innovative and completely patient focused and always strive to go above and beyond.
“Thank you so much to The Nursing Times for this honour and thank you to the PHB Team and our colleagues across the whole of The Hospice Charity Partnership for their dedication and passion.”

The Nursing Times Awards judges said this was an innovative, creative, high impact initiative that truly achieves individual care. They felt the success of this initiative was achieved through the strong leadership and wide collaboration within the team and believe this could be adopted as a way forward in improving patient experience and care throughout other trusts.

Steve Ford, editor of Nursing Times, said: “The quality of entries is consistently high each year and to be shortlisted, let alone win a category, is a great achievement that marks out individuals and teams as truly special and ground-breaking in their area of work.
“Our winners are special every year and I hope that our awards can go some small way to recognising the effort and skill shown by nursing staff in providing high quality care, whatever the specialty or setting and despite the enormous challenges they continue to face.”

See the full list of winners here: www.nursingtimes.net/news/leadership-news/winners-of-the-2022-nursing-times-awards-revealed-26-10-2022/

Visit www.birminghamhospice.org.uk to find out more about the charity.