Congratulations to Sue Norman, a Southern Health frailty clinician who has become the first person in the UK to win NHS England’s Greener Allied Health Professionals award after introducing a purpose-built, electric falls and frailty car in the North Hampshire Urgent Community Response (UCR) team.
with new Greener AHP badge
Sue was presented with the award and special badge by NHS Englands Chief Allied Health Professions Officer following her work leading a service improvement project which launched a bespoke community response vehicle.
Over the first 12 months of using the falls car service, 95% of patients were being reached in 0-2 hours. A total of 635 patients were seen of which 82% remained at home, using the falls car reduced the environmental impact of 521 emergency ambulance journeys, as well as the need for other community services to be involved.
Sue was delighted to have received the award and said:
“I'm so honoured to be the first person to receive the new AHP greener badge with this award, and glad to be raising awareness of how we can contribute to net zero, although it's a small van it's making a big difference!”
Suzanne Rastrick, National AHP Lead, presented Sue Norman with the Greener AHP Award for her work to develop sustainable healthcare alternatives through this innovative project. They were joined by Southern Health’s chief AHP officers and senior members of the team, when asked about the award Suzanne expressed her passion about sustainable practices and said: “It’s great to be with the current chief AHP officers and AHP of the year Sue Norman in Southern health to celebrate the launch of the second greener AHP week.”
Naomi Purdie, Sue Norman, Suzanne Rastrick,
Susanna Preedy, and Annie Cripps
Alongside the award Sue also became the first recipient of a special new badge dedicated to those whose work has significant impact on the NHS’s green ambitions. Presenting the badge, Suzanne Rastrick added:“We are launching a new Greener AHP pin badge, which is being presented to AHP's who championed the sustainability agenda and Sue is the first recipient.”
Sue’s work started life as part of her Master’s degree but it’s real world application with Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has made a groundbreaking contribution to the NHS net zero commitment. The role of the frailty car is to carry adaptive equipment to support and facilitate therapeutic interventions and assessments to treat patients in their own homes.