Tracy Lees, Occupational Health Nurse Manager at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, has won a national award for helping to gain extra funding by increasing the number of staff vaccinated against flu.
Tracy won the ‘Flu Fighter Champion’ prize at the Flu Fighter Awards, run by NHS Employers.
She has managed to help get 77 per cent of patient facing staff vaccinated against the flu, which beats the government target of 75 per cent, allowing the Trust to be allocated part of a national £250 million grant to help services across the Trust.
This figure makes the Trust the highest performing adult trust in the region.
Tracy said: “I was overwhelmed to receive the NHS Flu Fighter Flu Champion award, especially after being up against such strong competitors.
“It is wonderful to receive national recognition for all the hard work which goes into the flu campaign every year but I must stress that this is a team effort and therefore, the award belongs to us all.”
She was nominated by her colleague Susanna Niblett, Senior Occupational Health Nurse Advisor, on behalf of her colleagues in Occupational Health.
Susanna said: “Every year I see Tracy coordinate the flu programme, which can be a thankless task.
“However, this year especially, she has thrown so much into it and gone above and beyond.
“She has been involved in everything from developing a video to train flu vaccinators to collecting the data of those vaccinated.
“She has even been putting in the hours of her own time, including sewing the flu bugs used in the video.
“She has thought of so many ideas, and is already preparing for next season.”
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