April's employee of the month goes to Sarah Lowe, District Nurse at Dovecot Family Health Centre. 

Sarah was nominated by Kelleigh Hoy for Continuous Emprovement after receiving feedback from an internal staff member, whose Father had passed away and was looked after by the district nurses.

"I just want to drop you an email to say thank you for the support your team gave me and my family at such a difficult time. You came into our lives quite quickly and for such a short period but made such an impact. My Dad had deteriorated quite quickly. The two nurses I distinctly remember are Sarah Lowe and ***. But just wanted to bring to your attention their kindness, support, and professionalism. Sarah called to my parents and visited my dad and talked through what she would be doing, was happy to answer any questions I had, and nothing was too much bother. She went on to make a prescription out for us to collect later but this proved difficult to get at a few Chemists. My niece called Sarah (number was on prescription) and basically Sarah had already finished her shift but came and met my niece in her own time to re-write the prescription.

This was above and beyond expectations and I can’t thank her enough for this. We did have other nurses who came that weekend, but I didn’t get their names and the staff who also attended and got him changed before he left the house, they were all so professional, caring and truly dedicated to their jobs. Myself and my family can’t thank them enough. I don’t think I have manged to put into words how thankful we’ve been for their support, and it has taken me some time to email, so apologies for that. But you have a wonderful, caring, professional and dedicated team that is an absolute credit to the organisation and I can’t thank you enough for the time they spent with us looking after my dad, please pass on our thanks."

This ensured a positive experience for this family at a very difficult time. It demonstrates Sarah's high professional standards and drive and passion."

April's team of the month goes to Estates and Facilities - Corporate Services Division

The team were nominated by Elaine Darbyshire for their support.

"During a serious incident this week at the Mersey Care Whalley site, the estates and facilities team all gave their time, expertise, and professionalism to keep the service users and staff safe and comfortable in a what could have been a serious health and safety situation. Specifically, they: liaised with all key stakeholders both internally and externally to ensure that people were kept safe, organised temporary heating and food supplies to ensure that patients and staff were comfortable, risk assessed and commissioned repairs to the site in dangerous conditions, and worked both day and night to ensure that the site didn't close to staff, patients, or visitors. They all gave of themselves to keep people safe and able to stay in their accommodation and their professionalism and knowledge meant that repairs and reablement were quickly and cost-effectively put in place to avoid a site closure and major incident.

Their interventions have: kept people safe and comfortable in very challenging and fast-moving circumstances, ensured that the Trust complied with all its safety and security obligations and requirements, avoided a major incident for the trust, avoided the disruption that a site closure would have caused for our service users and staff, and above all, ensured that patients and staff were safe and comfortable throughout. They were all exceptional and worked together as a professional and dedicated team to keep everyone safe. We are lucky to have such a talented group of people at the Trust."