WE'VE WON AN NHS70 AWARD FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND!

The NHS in the North has revealed the ten individuals and teams it has chosen as regional champions in a prestigious competition to mark the NHS’s 70th birthday and Healthier Fleetwood is among the winners!

The champions will now vie with other regional winners from across England for a national award to be presented at a special ceremony in the Palace of Westminster in July. The NHS70 Parliamentary Awards, sponsored by IBM and Teva, recognise the massive contribution made by the individuals who work in and alongside the NHS.

Launched in February, it asked the region’s MPs to find and nominate those individuals or teams they thought have made the biggest improvements to health services in their constituencies across ten categories.

Cat Smith, MP for Fleetwood & Lancaster nominated Healthier Fleetwood in the Healthier Communities category saying, “Healthier Fleetwood is an amazing initiative. Its aim was to bring together all parties in our community to share, promote and develop schemes and ideas to aid residents’ health & wellbeing. Now they’ve set up their own projects giving residents the confidence to take control of their lives. They don’t say ‘stop this, give up that’ instead it’s ‘try this, get involved with’ and you’ll see the benefit - and it’s having a huge impact. They are representing the thousands of staff and volunteers who work day in, day out across our area to shape, deliver and support health and care services, and we’ll all be backing them to win the national award.”

All of the champions will now be invited to the national awards ceremony, which will be held on July 4th, the day before the NHS’s 70th birthday. NHS England Regional Medical Director, Dr Mike Prentice said: “Picking champions from the dozens of high quality nominations we received from local MPs was incredibly difficult, so all of those going forward to the national ceremony should be extremely proud of their achievement.”

The regional champions will now go forward to a final stage of judging by a panel including the leaders of Royal Colleges, the Unison trade union, and the Patients Association – collectively representing millions of health and care workers and patients.

NHS Improvement Regional Medical Director, Dr Vincent Connolly said: “I was impressed by the high standard of all the entries we received in the North, the ones we put forward are really the best of the best. I’m sure everyone will be rooting for our regional champions when the national winners are decided.”

Mark Spencer GP and a member of Healthier Fleetwood said: "We are absolutely delighted to have been shortlisted for such a prestigious award. Healthier Fleetwood is all about local residents taking control of their own lives and their own health. Being nationally recognised through these awards is testament to them and can hopefully be replicated in other communities across the nation."

Some of the Healthier Fleetwood team: Across the back, left to right we have Nick who is a great ambassador for the Men Active programme and walking football; Janet from Marine Hall and Thornton Little Theatre helped set up the Harmony & Health singing groups; Jenny is our wellbeing mentor connecting residents with the local groups; residents David, Elaine and Maurice have been with us from the start and play a very active and supportive role; Janet and Mark as local GPs are committed to the working with residents and the community; Derek is also from Fleetwood Flyers Walking Footy and many of you will know his inspirational story of how the sport has changed his life. In the front is Richard who set up the table tennis group, the first local project supported by our Community Fund. Our thanks to you all and the many others who couldn't make the photo call but play an invaluable part in Healthier Fleetwood.