University Hospital’s Dorset staff win big in this year’s Dorset Heroes Awards 2022

Staff from across UHD have been nominated by members of the public or colleagues in this year’s Dorset Heroes Awards.

A huge congratulations to our research team for winning the Healthcare Team of the year category, for their work on experimental medicines during the pandemic, their contribution to swabbing patients and developing vaccines. They have continued to follow up the vaccine trials by now learning about the long-term side effects of Covid-19.

Winner of the Fundraiser Award is Dr Andrew Vaughton who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease last year. With a group of friends, including many local GPs, medical and anaesthetic colleagues, who also work at UHD, he plays beach touch rugby regularly, under the team name 'Sandbaggers'.  They have raised money for Motor Neurone Disease charities (MND association and myname5doddie) they have just broken the world record for the longest beach touch rugby match.

Winner of the Individual Healthcare Worker Award was Maria Salamon-Betlej, a healthcare support worker from Poole Hospital. She was nominated or her professionalism, compassion and kindness in her role. After returning to work recently after beating breast cancer, her team describes her as an excellent team player and dedicated to her work.

Dania Moussalli has won the Mental Health Care Award for her work at Forest Holme. As part of the counselling team, she proves one to one sessions with individuals, couples, children and families before and after bereavement.

We would also like to congratulate the other nominations in other various categories. Our Bournemouth dementia and delirium team were nominated for their excellent and empathetic care to their patients and the families they work with.

The neonatal unit at St Mary’s hospital were also nominated for providing efficient, compassionate care to babies and their families in their care.

Physiotherapist Elena Whale was nominated by a member of the public for her care during their sessions. By being kind and patient, she helped a patient through her anxiety and made a lasting impression.

We would like to say a huge congratulations to this year's Dorset Hero Award nominees and a big thank you to those who nominated them. We are so proud of our teams and individuals, and all the hard work they do every day to take care of our patients.