IBMS members celebrate CSO Award for Clinical Leadership
Mark Cioni and Catherine Pike were recognised for their team's implementation of a 24/7 service model in the Path Links microbiology laboratory. Mark and Catherine were presented with the Chief Scientific Officer's Award for Clinical Leadership at the Advancing Healthcare awards ceremony in London.
Mark, Catherine and their team were commended for delivering enhanced service provision, benefitting both clinicians and patients, and encouraging an appreciation amongst laboratory staff of the importance of their role.
Outlining the work behind the team's winning entry, Mark described the changes implemented to achieve 24/7 working at Path Links:
"Basically, the change that was implemented that led to the receipt of the award was to implement a system on 24/7/365 shift working under agenda for change terms and conditions, to replace the traditional out of hours on-call system with remuneration by block payments.
Additionally, as on-call was generally performed in addition to contracted hours, the change to 24/7/365 also ensured that, over the life of the rota, staff were working no more than their contracted hours.
This was part of a bigger programme of harmonisation within Path Links to ensure that all disciplines and sites where an out of hours service was required were providing a 24/7/365 service under Agenda for Change Terms and conditions (as different disciplines and different sites within Path Links had different remuneration strategies for out of hours working).
This change required a lot of communication and meetings with staff after consultation had closed to ensure that the system we were going to put in place was as robust as possible.".
Mark was delighted that the team's success has been recognised by the wider healthcare community:
"It is still quite a pleasant surprise to realise that we had won the award. You become so focused on the change and what you need to do to ensure it is implemented smoothly, on top of all the other work that you have to do, that the work you do towards the change just becomes part of the normal day job. Focusing on the detail, especially as implementation loomed, often meant that you forgot to consider the bigger picture. You forgot the impact that this was going to have outside the immediate laboratory environment.
It was an honour to feel that someone who I had never worked with and who heard of the work we were doing felt that the nomination should be submitted. After having the nomination shortlisted, Catherine Pike (Specialist Biomedical Scientist) and I had to give a presentation to a judging panel at Wellington House in London, which went well and I later received good feedback on the presentation we had given
Our award was the penultimate award given at the ceremony. After hearing all of the excellent work that others were doing, I didn’t think that our project was in with a chance. But to hear our names read out as winners of the category was certainly a surreal moment, and everything that happened after that is still a bit of a blur.
To have our work recognised by the Advancing Healthcare Awards team is a fantastic honour. Although difficult at times, all of the lab staff worked together to ensure a seamless introduction of the new pattern of working. Word of our achievement is spreading through NHS Improving Quality (NHS IQ), NHS employers, Trust newsletters and professional press. This will indicate to others that implementation of 24/7/365 shifts in a microbiology lab is possible (even taking into account the incubation times required for bacteria to grow). I have also been answering questions and queries from other labs contemplating introducing similar shift patterns, so I am ensuring that my experience and our best practice is available to be used by others.".
You can find out more about Mark and Catherine's award here.