Hospital’s in the running for awards

The RUH Bath NHS Foundation Trust has been shortlisted for two national patient safety awards for its work in caring for patients with sepsis and acute kidney injury.

The hospital is a finalist in two categories in the national Patient Safety Awards 2020, which recognise and reward outstanding practice within the NHS and independent healthcare organisations.

Dr Lesley Jordan, RUH consultant anaesthetist and patient safety lead, said: “Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection, when a person’s immune system overreacts and starts to damage the body’s tissues and organs. Acute kidney injury is when a person’s kidneys suddenly stop working properly, usually as complication of an acute illness, and this can range from minor loss of kidney function to complete kidney failure. These can have serious consequences and early detection of both conditions is really important to improve outcomes for patients. We’ve focused on identifying the conditions as early as possible, introducing process and tools to enable our frontline staff to implement treatment promptly and improve the care we deliver. We’ve also established a new senior nursing support team, the Sepsis and Kidney Injury Prevention (SKIP) team, to continue to drive this work.”

RUH medical director Dr Bernie Marden said being shortlisted highlighted the “dedication and sheer hard work of our staff”.

The RUH Trust is shortlisted for: Improving Patient Outcomes from Sepsis and Acute Kidney Injury in the Deteriorating Patients & Rapid Response Systems Award category. It is also shortlisted for: The Sepsis and Kidney Injury Prevention (SKIP) team improving outcomes for patients in the Patient Safety Team of the Year category.

The winners will be named in November.