HOSPITAL staff are celebrating being in the running for a healthcare excellence award.

The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt (RJAH) Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) has been shortlisted in the Trust of the Year category of the prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards for the second year running.

Pete Gallacher, consultant orthopaedic knee surgeon, said: “It’s really pleasing that for the second year running we’ve been shortlisted for Trust of the Year. I’m delighted that our incredible PROMS results have contributed to this, as these results really emphasise the high quality of care we deliver at RJAH.”

The HSJ Awards recognise and promoteg the finest achievements in the NHS, and showcase them to the service’s most influential leaders.

The recognition for the Oswestry-based hospital comes for its continuous work around ‘Caring for Patients, Caring for Staff, Caring for Finances’.

Highlights from the past year at RJAH include Patient Recorded Outcome Measures (PROMs), showing the Trust to be delivering greater health gains for hip and knee replacement patients than any other specialist orthopaedic provider; maintaining low infection rates - with no MRSA bacteraemia since 2006 and low surgical site infection rates - as well as launching a £1.5 million fundraising campaign to build the UK’s first dedicated Veterans’ Orthopaedic Centre.

Lee Osborne, transformation lead and project manager for the Veterans’ Orthopaedic Centre Appeal, said to be shortlisted for the second year was a “fantastic achievement”.

He added: “As project manager for the Veterans’ Orthopaedic Centre Appeal, it feels particularly good that the launch of our fundraising campaign has been highlighted as one of our key milestones over the past 12 months.

The trust also performed more hip and knee replacements than any other specialist provider in the last year.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on November 21.

The HSJ said this year there was a “staggering increase” in entries from all over the NHS and wider healthcare industry – totalling more than 1,500.

Sue Sayles, an infection prevention and control nurse at RJAH, said: “Our low infection rates provide reassurance to our patients and relatives that they are receiving high standards of care in a clean, safe environment from all staff across the trust.”

Bev Tabernacle, director of nursing and deputy chief executive at RJAH, said: “I’m absolutely delighted that all our hard work has been recognised by the HSJ’s shortlisting panel.

“In the last few months we’ve had some fantastic patient feedback, including us being named as one of the best hospitals in the country for overall patient experience in the CQC’s Adult Inpatient Survey.

“We aren’t complacent though, and are currently working to improve some of our processes, including developing our STAR (Sustaining Quality Through Assessment and Review) process, which is the assessment we use at RJAH to test the quality of patient care but also management structures and innovation.

“I am immensely proud to call myself director of nursing and deputy chief executive at this special trust, and hope the judging panel agree.”