TWO speciality doctors from Northumbria Healthcare landed regional prizes earlier this month.

The organisation had two winners at the regional conference and award ceremony to celebrate SAS doctors and dentists across the North East and Cumbria on Friday, March 17, ahead of Northumbria representation at three other awards ceremonies the following week.

The SAS event was hosted by Health Education England North East and organised by SAS tutors from across the region, including Northumbria’s Zoe Robertson.

Hexham Courant: The team collects its prize for the Innovation in Clinical Education at the Bright Ideas in Health AwardsThe team collects its prize for the Innovation in Clinical Education at the Bright Ideas in Health Awards (Image: Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust)

Zoe won the Teaching and Training prize, while anaesthetics colleague Muzzammil Majid won the Outstanding Clinical Skills award.

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The event heard from Charlie Massey, chief executive of the General Medical Council (GMC), who discussed the importance of SAS doctors in the NHS.

Hexham Courant: The SAS Awards The SAS Awards (Image: Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust)

SAS doctors is a term for speciality and specialist grade doctors with at least four years of postgraduate training, two of which are in a relevant speciality.

The trust was successful at the Bright Ideas in Health Awards on Thursday, March 23, landing nominations in five different categories, with two converted into wins.

It landed the top prize in the Innovation in Clinical Education category for its MDT Fetal Wellbeing Education Programme. This scheme was designed to improve maternity care by focusing on a multi-disciplinary approach and providing teams with a safe space to reflect on the way they work.

The Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub won the Contribution to Sustainable Healthcare category in recognition of the ongoing success of the Seaton Delaval-based facility whose origins lie in the Covid-19 pandemic.