TWO teams of staff from the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals (RBCH) have been named as NHS Winter Heroes.

Patients and their families or the hospital workers’ colleagues put forward four members of staff and a whole ward team to be commended for making a difference to the people in their care.

During a presentation event, Clare Bent, consultant radiologist, Marcus Blake, orthopaedic technician, Ciaran Dunne, consultant rheumatologist, and Jenny House, senior nurse of orthopaedics, were all treated to a tea with their relatives, friends, and the people who nominated them.

Tony Spotswood, chief executive, and Jane Stichbury, Chairwoman of RBCH, presented the certificates to the worthy winners.

Jane said: “As a Trust, we want to ensure that patients are our number one prority and are at the heart of what we do.

“Patient satisfaction doesn’t come by accident. It is something that the Trust achieves through the hard work, excellence and commitment that staff put in on a daily basis.

“We are delighted to celebrate the stories behind the nominations and thank those patients and relatives who shared their experiences with us.

“We would also like to extend thanks to partners, family and friends of all our staff, because there are often long hours worked and having a supportive, understanding network around them makes a huge difference.”

One example of a nomination was the testimony written to Jenny House.

The colleague who submitted her nomination said: “Our Trust has experienced a challenging winter with emergency admissions. As Senior Nurse of Orthopaedics, Jenny has been instrumental in creating extra medical capacity on our wards.

“A human dynamo of energy and enthusiasm, her personal cont-ribution has been immense.

“Jenny personifies all that is good about the NHS. She is a delight and an inspiration to work with and I am proud to call her a friend.”