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As many of you will know, I love to give credit to those who have either been nominated for awards and of course those who go on and win them. So it gives great pleasure to recognise a pioneering nurse who won a national award for her care and treatment of very sick babies and support for their families. Nikki Farrington, Neonatal Bereavement and Family Support Nurse at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT), was named Neonatal Nurse of the Year by the Neonatal Nurses Association.

An “empathetic” nurse with a heart of gold who baked treats for colleagues is retiring after 48 years in healthcare. Jane Byrne, Senior Staff Nurse, had been with The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust for 26 years, working on Appleby Suite from its opening in April 2010 until her retirement on 31 March. It’s all a far cry from when Jane started her nurse training on January 10, 1975 at Gloucestershire Royal Infirmary, now Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

A Mental Health Nurse has scooped a national award for the work she and her teams are doing to improve support to patients and staff across two Black Country Trusts. Jodie Kirby-Owens won the silver Mental Health Nurse of the Year in the recent British Journal of Nursing (BJN) Awards. Jodie joined Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust in November 2020 and is lead Nurse for Mental Health for its partner organisation The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust too.

Generous-hearted Scouts kept Wolverhampton healthcare workers going during Ramadan by donating hundreds of food packs. Forty members of the 786th Wolverhampton (North District and West Mercia) group distributed packages to staff working at New Cross Hospital, part of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT). The boxed gifts, which came complete with a letter of peace and compassion, were for Iftar, the fast-breaking evening meal in Ramadan and is Muslims’ second meal of the day, eaten after dusk.

During the first ever Greener AHPs Week in England, we have been showcasing the ways our Allied Health Professionals are helping to improve environmental sustainability. Climate change is one of the biggest threats to our health, and the planet. And, with UK health and social care contributing around four per cent of UK emissions, we all need to be part of the solution. 

He’s been the UK’s Cocktail Maker of the Year, managed a string of nightclubs hosting the likes of Gloria Gaynor and become one of Wolverhampton’s better known characters – now he’s putting smiles on people’s faces in hospital. When he’s not wheeling patients or carrying important items around New Cross Hospital, Steve Baxter, Porter at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust – or ‘Magic Steve’ as he’s become known – is a friendly face entertaining younger patients with his tricks

An “inspirational and incredible” nurse who used to arrange for patients to have weekly hair dos and keep them entertained with a pet budgie has retired after nearly half a century in healthcare.Known as “Momma Carol”, Carol Stangroom, Staff Nurse, who worked in the Discharge Lounge at New Cross Hospital, has hung up her uniform after almost 50 years.

“A strong sense of community”, “An opportunity to give thanks”, “A time for togetherness” – just some of the thoughts of staff, patients and visitors celebrating Vaisakhi at two Black Country Trusts. A festival which remembers the founding of the Sikh community in 1699, Vaisakhi was observed on Friday 14 April with events held at Walsall Manor and New Cross Hospitals in the days fhat followed.

A bowel cancer survivor at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) has urged people to carry out bowel cancer screening when called for as it “most definitely saved his life”. Andrew Griffiths, 68, received a free NHS bowel cancer screening kit through the post in January 2022 and if it wasn’t for this, things could have been different now – especially after experiencing no symptoms. Bowel Cancer Screening is available to those who are between 60-74 years old.

A popular programme designed to get people working for the NHS is looking to double its numbers after demand exceeded the number of places by five times. The Steps into Health programme – run by the City of Wolverhampton College in partnership with The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) and Jobcentre Plus – aims to overcome barriers to employment by enabling people to develop a range of skills, get support in applying for jobs, and help with preparing for an interview.

A dedicated Nurse Practitioner has retired after nearly a quarter of a century of service with the NHS, revealing how her father’s death proved a career-changing moment. Lynda Morgans, Sister and Out Of Hours Nurse Practitioner in Medicine at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT), officially hung up her uniform on 31 March 2023 after 24 years’ service with the organisation, all at New Cross Hospital, where she trained.

Goldilocks certainly wouldn’t find the mattresses too hard or too soft in three new cots being trialled at New Cross Hospital. Worth £1,500 each, the new cots, which are being used on Ward A21 Children’s Ward and the Paediatric Assessment Unit (PAU), have been introduced on a six-month trial to give those areas more capacity to cope with winter pressures. Lighter, portable and with large child-friendly images on the ends, they have clear sides that lift up and down to allow easy access to the patient.

Generous golfers clubbed together to raise £4,500 to support the treatment of diabetes patients in Wolverhampton. Members of South Staffordshire Golf Club nominated The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) Charity as their chosen cause for the year in recognition of diabetic colleague Wendy Cotterill. Mum of three Wendy, 64, has been a patient at the Wolverhampton Diabetes Centre at New Cross Hospital for more than 20 years after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 27.

A £400,000 grant has been described as a “gift from the gods” after transforming a simulation suite to allow fully immersive state-of-the-art training for 1,200 medical and clinical staff in Wolverhampton for the next five years. The grant, from Health Education England (now part of NHS England), has enabled the Catheterisation Laboratory on Ward B15 in the Heart and Lung Centre at New Cross Hospital to be converted into the I-Sim Suite, with three simulators, including a full-body mannequin called Leonardo.

A recovering cardiac patient has praised a new digital app that has helped her rehabilitation following her shock diagnosis. Forty-nine-year-old Nikki Hobman suffered a heart attack in November 2022, after what she thought was indigestion. myHeart – a digital app which helps patients to manage their heart conditions for a lifetime - was launched at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) in February 2023 and this has helped Nikki’s recovery at home.

Speech and Language Therapy Services (SLT), which support patients across Wolverhampton’s communities, have taken an innovative approach to ensuring in-demand Specialists join their teams. The services, run by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, encourage new graduates to come and work in the city and support their career development so that they can then become Specialists in this field.

A “fantastic” Consultant at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust is to become responsible for the training of all the surgeons in the West Midlands. Mr Andy Garnham, Vascular Consultant and Clinical Director (CD) for General Surgery based at New Cross Hospital, has been made Head of School of Surgery for NHS England, starting in May 2023. It means Mr Garnham, 57, will be the ‘trainer of the trainers’, responsible for the delivery of all medical and non-medical training across all 10 surgical specialties of some 650 trainee surgeons and Allied Health Professionals in the region.

After a 48-year career, Biomedical Scientist Jim Baughan has hung up his lab coat for good and retired from Black Country Pathology Services (BCPS). Jim started his career as a trainee at what was then the Birmingham Regional Health Authority. “Once qualified I worked at East Birmingham Hospital – now known as Heartlands – but I really wanted to work in Walsall, closer to where I lived,” he said. “After six years I was able to get a job in Walsall and I worked in Haematology in the old Pathology lab. And I have been in Walsall ever since.”

From supporting a mum to be with her critically ill baby until the infant passed away, to implementing sustainability initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and save more than £200,000 – staff at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) have had their efforts officially recognised at an awards event. More than 400 staff were nominated for the Trust’s Royal Awards and more than 200 staff attended the awards, which were established to acknowledge the work of clinical and non-clinical staff that makes a difference to both patients and their own colleagues.

Visitors won’t need to book a slot before they come into New Cross, Cannock Chase and West Park Hospitals from tomorrow (Tuesday 4 April 2023). A maximum of two visitors per patient will be welcomed by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) and they can simply turn up to the wards during the visiting hours applicable. Visiting times will be between 2pm and 8pm for medical wards and surgical wards will be between 1-3pm and 5-7pm.

A new milestone quality plan that will provide the structured approach for nursing and allied health professions across two Black Country NHS Trusts for the next two years has been launched today. Called the Quality Framework, it replaces the Clinical Systems Framework, which ran from 2020-22. It is a shared vision for continuous improvement with the aim of providing safe, effective and high-quality care for all service users at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.

I’m delighted to unveil a new milestone quality plan that will provide the structured approach for nursing and allied health professions across The Royal Wolverhampton (RWT) and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trusts for the next two years. Called the Quality Framework (QF), it replaces the Clinical Systems Framework, which ran from 2020-22. It is a shared vision for continuous improvement with the aim of providing safe, effective and high-quality care for all service users at both organisations.