THE Royal Bolton Hospital’s hard working staff have been recognised at an awards ceremony.

Teams and individual employees were honoured at a special event at the Holiday Inn in Higher Bridge Street, Bolton.

The clinical positive performance team of the year was won by the Stroke Unit, including Dr Gillian Halstead, Suzanne Loma, Kate McKenna, Juliet Atcha and Jo Ellis, after stroke services at the hospital moved into the top 25 per cent in the country.

The Microbiology department, including Maureen Kearon, Christina Tennant, Julia Peers, Ramesh Patel, Laura Jo Latham and Jane Murphy, were named as the non-clinical positive performance team of the year. The group has been working to improve MRSA screening services within the hospital. The head and neck cancer team won an award after staff significantly improved the way they communicated with patients, many of whom lose their ability to speak, by using innovative methods such as text messaging.

Amongst the individual winners was bereavement and donor co-ordinator Fiona Murphy. She was recognised for her work in raising the profile of organ donation, and for dramatically increasing corneal donations. Becky Alihemate, Steve Tyldsley, Denise Convery, Tina Morriss, Dipak Fatania, Khalda Khan, Lynn Kirkman, David Hamer, Alison Lynch, and Aysha Badat also picked up awards.

Chief executive David Fillingham said: “Staff work very hard on behalf of our patients and it was wonderful to see so many outstanding examples of leadership, team work and innovation.”

lucy.ewing@theboltonnews.co.uk