Excellence celebrated at UHUK Annual Conference and Awards Ceremony 2024

Held in Bedford at the Wyboston Lakes Resort, the 2024 annual conference and awards ceremony was quite possibly our best yet.  

The conference saw over 120 healthcare professionals come together to explore the topic of how we sustain the NHS through remote, virtual and digital healthcare. Keynote speakers included Prof Julian Redhead, Prof Trish Greenhalgh (pictured above), Prof Durka Dougall, Jack Sansum, Rebecca Seeley Harris, Imogen Levy and Lucy Marsden, Dr Lia Ali, Dr Charlotte Refsum, and Dr Sarah Robinson, supported by panel sessions and case studies.

The highlight of the conference was the Gala Awards Dinner which saw over 200 attendees celebrating excellence in urgent and integrated care.  

Awards were presented across 10 categories showcase the many successes of our social enterprise urgent and integrated healthcare providers who together provide services covering two-thirds of the UK population.

UHUK 2024 Awards

Our UHUK Annual Awards 2024 were this year accredited by Awards Trust Mark from The Independent Awards Standards Council. Our winners are:

Technological Innovation Award, sponsored by Primary Care 24, recognises technical innovation developed or co-designed internally or with a technical partner. The Gold Award goes to Great Manchester Urgent and Primary Care Alliance for their work utilising the Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) to enable cases to be digitally transferred and
updated between different EPR systems in North West Ambulance Service (NWAS)
and Greater Manchester Clinical Assessment Service (CAS). Silver goes to DHU Healthcare, and Bronze goes to North Hampshire Urgent Care.

Workforce Award, sponsored by Hallam Medical, recognises a partnership, team, or individual that has implemented an innovative project to enhance workforce development.  The Gold Award goes to Local Care Direct for their ‘Local Care Direct Way –
our values created with our people’ project. The Silver Award goes to North
Hampshire Urgent Care.

Clinical Quality and Safety Award, sponsored by OneAdvanced, recognises a significant change in clinical safety and quality systems that has led to improvements.  The Gold Award goes to Partnership of East London Co-operatives for the improving patient streaming
project. The Silver Award goes to Dalriada Urgent Care.

General Innovation Award, sponsored by Cleo Systems, recognises an initiative that shows true innovation in its approach, excluding technology-driven solutions. The Gold Award goes to Primary Care 24 for the Primary Care Hub Model and Urgent Care Collaboration project. The Silver Award goes to Dalriada Urgent Care, and the Bronze Award goes to Badger. 

Patient Engagement Award, sponsored by C-Stem, recognises an initiative that showcases the benefits of improved patient engagement or best practice.  The Gold Award goes to Cumbria Health for their Glenridding Medical Practice - Patient Involvement programme. The Silver Award goes to DHU Healthcare and the Bronze Award goes to North Hampshire Urgent Care.

Operational Quality and Safety Award, sponsored by Ummanu Intelligent Healthcare, recognises significant improvements in operational safety and quality systems. The Gold
Award goes to Partnership of East London Co-operatives for their managing operations risks in service delivery project. The Silver Award goes to DHU Healthcare, with the Bronze Award going to Mastercall.

Partnerships Award, sponsored by Hempsons, recognises a new or existing partnership initiative that enhances service delivery integrated systems. The Gold Award goes to LCW UCC for their Visionary Care: Transforming Urgent Eye Care Through Partnership project. The Silver Award goes to Integrated Care 24 and the Bronze Award goes to NEMS CBS.

Health Inequalities Award, sponsored by Credentially, recognises an innovative project that has identified specific patient groups not receiving equitable care. The Gold Award goes to FCMS (NW) Ltd for the Asylum Seeker GP Health Service programme. The Silver Award
goes to Primary Care 24, and the Bronze Award goes to Cumbria Health.

Social Impact Award, sponsored by Loop, recognises an initiative that reflects the organisation's commitment to social impact and is integral to its values. The Gold Award goes to Mastercall.  The Silver Award goes to Cumbria Health.

And finally, the Chairman’s Award, sponsored by Babble, which recognises the highest-scoring runner-up in recognition of their outstanding achievement, goes to DHU Healthcare for the implementation of their cloud-based telephony. 

Commenting after the awards, Conor Burke, CEO of UHUK, said: “On behalf of UHUK I would like to congratulate all our finalists and thank our UHUK members for all their entry submissions. Thanks also to our judging panel, and to our sponsors who help make the
awards evening so special.

"The judges had a tough job this year, such was the quality of all the submissions we received.  Many of our members are leading the way with the local implementation of best practice in urgent and integrated care. They embrace technology and work collaboratively with partners and the community, on behalf of the NHS, to help keep people well, independent and at home, helping to reduce pressure on other critical NHS services.”

In Spring 2025, we will be hosting an awards showcase to share more detail about each of these award-winning initiatives

.