Craigavon Radiographers Recognised as Top in UK
17/11/2015
A Radiography Team from Craigavon Area Hospital have not only received the Northern Ireland Team of the Year but have also been recognised as top across the UK.
Janet Eagle, Helena Kinkaid and Audrey Mitchell have received the prestigious UK wide Radiography Team of the Year 2015 by the Society and College of Radiographers at ceremony in the House of Commons. The trio were recognised for their innovation, dedication and intuition in delivering a life changing service to women with fertility problems.
Their service redesign which is the first of its kind in the UK has completely streamlined the way fertility problems are diagnosed and treated, increasing the number of procedures carried out each day, reducing waiting lists and greatly improving the patient experience.
More than 250,000 diagnostic scans and examinations are carried out in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust each year. Congratulating the team, Head of Diagnostics for the Trust Jeanette Robinson said:
“We are absolutely delighted that Janet, Helena and Audrey’s hard work, commitment to service improvement and dedication to their patients has been recognised in this way. This team have truly demonstrated how by transforming services to be much more efficient and effective, we can transform the lives of our patients.
“Diagnosis of infertility is a very intimately invasive, emotionally and psychologically challenging examination. By ensuring that women at the heart of everything they do, this team have created a really patient centred service. They have developed their own skills, reducing the need for radiology and gynaecology support, ensuring continuity of care and privacy and dignity for their patients.
Many women have greatly benefitted from the skill, expertise and compassion of this team and their determination to deliver safe, high quality care.”
The team have diagnosed around 400 women since they began their service in 2013 and from patients has been very positive. Some comments included: “‘I recently attended for a hysterosalpingogram and as you can imagine I was anxious about it. I was relieved when I met the hysteron team and they explained everything extremely well and I felt more at ease in their care” and “I had my hystero x-ray in September- it was a difficult procedure but the team were very kind and patient and gave me extra few minutes in their busy schedule to console me.”
The team are continually improving their service and are currently working with Pharmacy to develop their prescribing skills.