A PATIENT care improvement scheme run across hospitals in south Essex has been shortlisted for a major national award.

The programme, run by the quality improvement team at Mid and South Essex NHS Trust, encourages nurses and healthcare workers to form and then apply ideas that make patient care better.

The success of their efforts across Basildon, Southend and Broomfield hospitals has led to a nomination for the Quality Improvement Initiative of the Year category prize at the HSJ Patient Safety Awards 2024.

This included speedier patient discharge and escalated assistance with food and drink leading to perceived improvements in care.

Linda Lio, head of nursing for the Renal Service, said: "The quality improvement process helped us to identify that we needed more staff for the Acute Dialysis service at Basildon Hospital.

"This quickly enabled us to change how we deployed our teams, meaning we can give safer care to our patients which made a real difference."

Associate clinical director for improvement at the Trust, Carley Gibbens, added: "We are so proud that our ward quality improvement programme has been shortlisted for the HSJ Patient Safety Award.

"What works about this scheme is that it is clinically led, as ward staff know the best way to improve patient care."

Winners will be announced in Manchester this coming September.