Cheshire and Merseyside Primary Care shines at General Practice Awards 2024

Primary care teams and staff from Cheshire and Merseyside won four categories and were highly commended in another, at a prestigious national awards ceremony.

The General Practice Awards are an annual celebration recognising those working in primary care and general practice in the UK.

The 2024 awards ceremony was held in London on Friday 6 December and was attended by 11 finalists from the Cheshire and Merseyside region.

A judging panel made up of a host of carefully selected experts – each a leader in their field selected winners ahead of the award ceremony. 

Cheshire and Merseyside nominees took home four awards on the night, including PCN of the year – more than any other region in the country.

South Sefton Primary Care Network won PCN of the Year for significantly improving capacity and access for patients, adding over 20,000 appointments into general practice via their South Sefton Access Service, all the while remaining responsive to local priorities, patient needs and patient voice.

The Liverpool Homeless Palliative Care Multidisciplinary Team – formed by the Brownlow Health Homeless Team and Marie Curie Hospice in Liverpool – won General Practice Team of the Year. The collaboration works to ensure that every patient experiencing homelessness is supported as they reach the end of their life, in the place of their choosing, with those that matter most to them.

The Nursing Team at Brownlow Health in Liverpool won Nursing Team of the Year for successfully developing a range of new and innovative roles including homeless in-reach nurses and a nurse-led frailty team. Their range of experience and skills enables the team to provide a quality-driven service that meets the needs of their patients.

Anfield and Everton PCN’s Community Innovation Team won the Clinical Improvement – Public Health and Prevention category for their ‘Be Breast Savvy Liverpool’ campaign. Part of the Health Equity Liverpool Project, the campaign aimed to increase breast cancer screening by alleviating fears and promoting the benefits of screening through creative health education and communications. 

In addition, Gary Groves, Patient Mentor and Support Worker for Brownlow Health and The Whitechapel Centre in Liverpool, was highly commended in the Extended Practice Team Member of the Year category.

Cheshire and Merseyside were also shortlisted for the following:

• Saadia Abbasi, Practice Lead, Senior Staff Development Manager and Freedom to Speak Up Guardian at Churchtown Medical Centre in Southport was a finalist in the Practice Manager of the Year category.
• The Warrington Hypertension Remote Care Team were finalists for the Digital Innovation Award.
• The Greener Brownlow Team at Brownlow Health were finalists in the Sustainability in Practice category.
• Brownlow Health’s Frailty Team and Park Street Surgery in Bootle were both finalists for General Practice Team of the Year.
• The Intimate Examinations and the Learning Disability Patient initiative in Cheshire and Merseyside was shortlisted in the Clinical Improvement – Public Health and Prevention category.

Graham Urwin, Chief Executive of NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, said: 

The full shortlist and list of winners can be found at events.cogora.com/generalpracticeawards.