A TRIO of staff members from Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) have been named as health heroes at an annual awards ceremony.

Around 140 staff, volunteers, governors and fundraisers joined together at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust's (UHMBT) sixth Health Heroes awards.

Winners were announced in nine categories during the ceremony with individual staff members and teams from across the Trust taking home the top awards.

Accolades for WGH: Inclusion and Diversity award, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) network; Bay Health and Care Partners Transformational award, Ruth Keeler, Vicky Lumley and Jodi Slater from the Better Care Together Careers and Engagement Hub and Leader of the Year award, Karen Kyle, associate director of strategy and contracting.

Vicky Lumley, Careers and Engagement Lead for the BCT Careers and Engagement Hub, said: “We were so excited and surprised to find out that we had been nominated for one of the Health Heroes Awards! To win the Transformational Change award means so much to us; it feels amazing to gain recognition for the work that we are doing and to know that it is making a difference.

Winners from across the Trust’s main hospital sites were: Excellence in Patient Safety award, Katherine Mason and Janet Singleton, diabetes specialist nurses; Outstanding Improvement in Patient Experience award, Theatre, Surgery and Critical Care Team; Innovation and Research award, Dr Asim Ijaz, Consultant; Student/Trainee of the Year award, Dr Ryan Metcalfe, foundation year 1 doctor; Going the Extra Mile award, Bay Hospitals Charity FGH Volunteer Team and Star of the Year, Sandi Cronje, Clinical Support Worker.