Martyn Staddon and Howard Straughen-Simpson have been chosen among 10 champions for the Midlands to take part in the NHS Parliamentary Awards, which celebrate outstanding individuals and teams who have made the biggest improvements to health services.
The celebrations will culminate in a special ceremony in the House of Commons on Wednesday 5 July 2023, the day of the NHS’s 75th anniversary.
Martyn, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust’s (ULHT) Patient and Staff Experience Data Insight Manager, has been crowned as the regional winner of The Future NHS Award for his work to create SUPERB – the Single Unified Patient Experience Reporting Board.
His work brings together the Trust’s patient experience data into a single, user-friendly tool, to inform services about feedback so improvements can be made.
Martyn said: “SUPERB is a piece of work that I’m really proud of, and one that I think most importantly helps us to all make better decisions and really give the utmost value to the feedback that our patients have given us. The chance to represent not only the Patient Experience Team, but the whole of the team at ULHT at a national level is a massive privilege.
“When I found out I had been nominated for my work on SUPERB, I was a mix of shocked and honoured, to say the least.”
Martyn was nominated for the award by Victoria Atkins, MP for Louth and Horncastle.
ULHT’s second champion, Howard, is the regional winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Howard has dedicated more than 60 years to supporting patients and colleagues, having joined the NHS as a cadet nurse in 1962 when he was just 17 years old.
Once qualified, Howard worked as a nurse in London and Hull, and a charge nurse in London in trauma. Howard went on to qualify as a mental health nurse, a role which inspired much of his career. He was a nursing lecturer in both London and the midlands, and held roles as a senior nurse tutor and assistant director of nurse education. When most people would be planning their retirement, Howard joined ULHT in 2008 as a Senior Psychotherapist. During the COVID pandemic, Howard spent his time supporting NHS staff on the front line by going to different units and some wards and providing a therapeutic service to staff.
Howard has facilitated several innovative education initiatives in numerous settings, including the establishment of a trailblazing and popular NVQ Level 2 counselling skills course at ULHT, validated by the Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body (CPCAB). Howard is currently working on similar initiatives in mediation and critical incident stress debriefing in his role as ULHT Project Lead.
Howard said: “It is humbling to be nominated for an award and I am proud to be a nurse,” he said. “Having enjoyed my early years caring for patients, I moved my concerns to the staff caring for them, which has been my focus as a counsellor and psychotherapist for the last 30 years.”
Howard was nominated for his award by Dr Caroline Johnson, MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham.
As regional champions, Martyn and Howard will now go head-to-head with other winners from across the country to be judged by a national panel made up of senior leaders representing staff and patients, for the chance to win the prestigious national award. The national winners will be announced at the ceremony on Wednesday 5 July.
Judging panel member and NHS England Chief Nursing Officer, Ruth May, said: “These awards pay tribute to the enormous talent, hard work and commitment of the incredible people who make up the NHS. I’m very proud to be a part of them.
“This year we’ve seen an incredible amount of work going into tackling the NHS backlog and recovering from the impact of COVID. NHS staff have continued to rollout of the biggest and fastest vaccination programme in NHS history, while virtually eliminating two year waits and diagnosing record amounts of cancer patients.
“As we celebrate 75 years of our NHS, it is a perfect time to recognise our staff.”