The Trust’s Homeless & Vulnerable Outreach Team have received the national Excellence in Primary Care and Community Award at the annual NHS Parliamentary Awards.
The ceremony was held in Westminster on July 6.
The team had been named London regional champions in June, which automatically qualified them as finalists for the national awards.
Health and care teams gather from all over the country for the prestigious award ceremony once a year which recognises outstanding care for a range of categories including Excellence in Mental Health, Nursing and Midwifery, Urgent and Emergency Care and a Special Lifetime Achievement Award. .
MPs put forward NHS services or teams from their constituencies they feel deserve to be recognised for outstanding work.
Dame Meg Hillier, MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, nominated the Outreach team for the Primary and Community Care Award back in April.
In her nomination, Dame Meg Hillier described how the team successfully managed to connect and build relationships with historically non-engaging patients or patients not registered with The Greenhouse Practice in Hackney, while providing health-related interventions, improving quality of life, and making access easier.
The Outreach Team also provides the same care across Newham and Tower Hamlets, with the team operating from the Newham Transitional Practice (Newham), and Health E1 (Tower Hamlets).
The team looks after asylum seekers across the three boroughs and refugees under the Afghan resettlement scheme in the City of London.
The Homeless and Vulnerable Person Outreach Team started life in May 2020, in response to the government ‘Everyone In’ policy.
The GLA and local authorities placed many people who had been rough sleeping into temporary accommodation. The service responded quickly to try to support these people across City & Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets.
This gave the team a unique opportunity to further develop their out and in-reach health care strategy – and a vital opportunity to build up trust with a cohort of patients traditionally seen as difficult to engage.
This work then developed into caring for Asylum Seekers placed in temporary hotel accommodation, which further evolved into looking after refugees as part of the Afghan resettlement scheme.
They also provide in-reach care to local hospitals to support patients, at all times focusing upon supporting positive housing outcomes for when they transfer back into the community.
The service’s work to improve people’s health and housing aligns with one of ELFT’s long-term strategic aims – to improve whole population health through partnership working.
On receiving the award, ELFT GP and Clinical Lead for the team Dr Stefan Struebind said:
“We are all extremely proud to receive this award.
“Without many other colleagues, nurses, doctors, HCA’s, admin staff and the management of ELFT we would not have obtained this great achievement.
“We also would like to include all three ELFT homeless practice teams who made it possible for the outreach project to come to life. Their work means we are now able to offer support and healthcare to so many vulnerable people.”
Dame Meg Hiller said:
“I’m delighted The Homeless and Vulnerable Person Outreach Team have won The Excellence in Primary Care and Community Care Award in this year’s NHS Parliamentary Awards.
I applaud the team’s hard work and gumption in building on the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a true reflection of the Hackney spirit, which ensures that everyone – from the homeless to asylum seekers to refugees – gets the support they need and never misses out just because of who they are.”
Dr Mohit Venkataram, ELFT’s Executive Director Lead for Primary Care said:
“The fact that the team are recognised as outstanding practitioners nationally is phenomenal, but knowing them, I'm not surprised. They deserve to be recognised.
"They consistently demonstrate an unflagging commitment to the people they care for, to the highest of standards and a can-do attitude towards partnership working.
“A massive well done and thank you to the whole team.”
ELFT CEO Paul Calaminus said:
“This is really great news.
“To receive recognition like this, from our national representatives in Westminster, really does reflect the excellent work of the team with this group of people.
“I’m immensely proud of the whole team, for all this work with this vulnerable group.”
Full details of the awards can be found on the NHS Parliamentary Awards website.