We are celebrating another award for our continuing work to improve the safety of patients in our hospitals.

Frimley Health was victorious in the Patient Safety category at the recent Health Business Awards.

It was our third successive year of success at the awards, having received the Outstanding Achievement in Healthcare honour in 2014 and 2015.

The Patient Safety Award recognises hospitals that have made great strides in providing a safe environment for patients and taken action to reduce hospital acquired infections and mortality rates.

It was presented by GP and media personality Dr Sarah Jarvis during a glittering ceremony in London.

The citation praised the “remarkable” turnaround at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough since it was acquired by the trust in 2014, with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) now recognising a strong patient safety culture at the hospital.

The citation added: “Avoidable harm rates have been significantly reduced, a ‘Sign up to Safety’ campaign saw 500 staff make personal pledges to improve safety and formal complaints at Heatherwood and Wexham Park fell by 62% over the last year.”

The CQC inspection report published this year rated Wexham Park as “good”. It had previously been rated “inadequate.”

England’s chief inspector of hospitals hailed it the most impressive example of improvement the CQC had seen under its new approach to inspections.

Announcing the award, Dr Jarvis said the decision taken by Frimley Park and Heatherwood and Wexham Park to come together was a courageous one that had paid off

The certificate was accepted by Wendy Jardine, deputy head of patient safety, and Sophie Porter, lead nurse for patient safety.

Wendy said: “It was an honour for us to accept the award on behalf of the trust and it reflects the huge amount of work that everyone put in to turn around performance at Wexham in particular. After the CQC results earlier this year this latest award has finished 2016 off nicely."

The award is the latest honour for Frimley Health in 2016. We came out top in the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) People Management Awards in September and we were named Best Organisation at the Patient Safety Awards run by the Health Service Journal and the Nursing Times in July.