A number of companies and individuals are celebrating after picking up prestigious awards at the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) annual awards dinner, held at the Tower Hotel in London.
The BHTA represents over 450 company members, many of which are the largest and most influential in the healthcare industry. The evening was compared by Angela Rippon and over 250 of the leading figures in the healthcare industry attended the event, which saw awards being presented in recognition of outstanding product design, customer service and team performance.
Ray Hodgkinson, Director General of the BHTA congratulated all the winners saying: "The awards we present each year are given only after a rigorous process involving a panel of judges and the winners represent excellence in what is an important and growing marketplace. This is one of the fastest growing and most important market sectors and one in which excellence in product design and customer service really does mean a great deal to the customers, many of whom rely on our member companies to maintain their independence.”
The Independent Living Design Awards, now in their sixteenth year saw twice the number of entries this year, with a number of innovative products being assessed by a judging panel that evaluated the products against stringent criteria.
The judging panel was chaired by Bob Empson, and comprised Chris Shaw, from the Disabled Living Foundation, Maggie Winchcombe from Years Ahead, Paul Gambrell from Ricability and Geoff Seal, last year's Lifetime Service Award winner.
Bob is White Maple Consulting founder and Principal Consultant. He has advised over 170 UK and international organisations across the commercial, public and not-for-profit sectors. The panel had to evaluate every single product against six stringent criteria and happily the number of entries this year made the judges' task even harder.
In recognition of the quality of the entries, the judges decided that four products were worthy of recognition.
Highly Commended was the Comfizz Stoma Support Wear from Comfizz Ltd (pictured left). Thousands of people will have had their lives improved by this wide range of carefully designed products, which make good use of the latest textile technologies. The Comfizz Stoma Support Wear range can not only provide the support and compression needed and reduce discomfort, but can also help to encourage personal confidence because of their aesthetics and simplicity. The judges were also particularly impressed with the range of products designed especially for children, even taking into account that bizarre fashion for low rise trousers!
Also Highly Commended by the judging panel was the All Star Hockey Sledge by RGK Wheelchairs Ltd. Ice sledge hockey is one of the official sports in the Winter Paralympics and RGK has worked with the British Sledge Hockey Association to produce a sensibly priced and innovative sledge that makes this exciting sport accessible to more people. It complies with the sport's regulations and innovations include its adjustability for both ice rinks and hard courts and for people of many shapes and sizes.
The runner-up was the Mountain Trike. With its innovative drive system and unique wheel layout, it enables people to go places and do so many things that previously might have been impossible or very challenging. A very clever and innovative design, that looks cool too.
There was a lot about this year's product winner, which really impressed the judges. It scored highly against all the awards criteria! It is an easy to use positioning system, for use during day and night. It can significantly improve quality of life and enable independent living by, for example helping individuals with movement difficulties to protect their body shape to leaf fuller and healthier lives. The materials used give many benefits including softness, wicking away of moisture, quietness and easy of cleaning. It is competitively priced so, overall, then, innovative, simple, and effective. The winner was The Simple Stuff Works Positioning System and Anna Waugh from Simple Stuff Works accepted the award (pictured right)
The process for this year's BHTA Excellence awards was radically changed with companies being invited to self-nominate. The judges then evaluated all the submissions against seven comprehensive criteria.
Excellence Awards - Rehabilitation.
The judges made two awards. The first was for Highly Commended and went to Hearing Care Centre Ltd (pictured left). This business, operating across Suffolk, has grown successfully over 13 years because of its distinctive focus on customer care rather than sales. The judges noted its financial strength and, most importantly, its investment in staff training.
The winner's entry was supported by a range of evidence, which convinced the judges that this would be a worthy winner. This well-established and successful business clearly demonstrated its commitment and performance against all the award's criteria. Noteworthy were its consultative approach to sales, its focus on quality, staff qualifications and its apprenticeship scheme. The winner was Park House Healthcare (pictured right)
A special commendation was awarded as the judges were impressed that a small company had made a strong submission and because of its "no problem” attitude to providing a personal and very responsive customer service. The Special Commendation award went to 1st Call Mobility (pictured left).
Excellence Awards - Mobility
A Highly Commended award was presented to a company that submitted a very high quality entry. Particularly notable were the strong performance regarding customer satisfaction and the low level of complaints. And about 80% of the workforce has some form of disability. The Highly Commended award went to Tremorvah industries (pictured left).
The winner of the award in the mobility section impressed the judges with a strongcommitment to customer service, activities to promote high standards in the industry, the confidence displayed by suppliers and by the staff development initiatives.
The Excellence Award for 2011 went to Simplyhealth (pictured right)
Excellence Awards - Orthotics
The first was a Highly Commended award for Trulife (pictured left). The very strong and well-structured entry impressed the judges with its overall quality. The company had maintained very high standards, having been a previous winner. Particularly impressive were all the initiatives and commitment regarding staff and training and development.
The winning company has supplied footwear and orthotic products to the NHS for 40 years and was able to demonstrate the excellent service it provides not only to the NHS but also the trade and the general public. The Excellence Award 2011 went to Chaneco (pictured right)
Other awards
The inaugural Assistive Technology Practitioner Society's Practitioner of the Year award.
The Society has been established to encourage and promote competencies and recognise standards of those working in AT alongside healthcare professionals. The Society's patron is Baroness Thornton of Manningham and she presented the award to a man familiar with collecting awards! In 2007 he was the BHTA Individual of the Year. Four years on, he was the ATP Society Practitioner of The Year. The winner was Brian Porter (pictured left).
Outstanding achievement awards
Two of the BHTA Sections had chosen to give awards this year to acknowledge outstanding achievements in their particular fields. Both recipients received their trophies from Lord Rennard, who recently joined the BHTA as Director of Communications.
The first was from the eCAT (Electronic Communication Assistive Technology)section. The winner of this award is a quiet and self-effacing person, whose tireless work over a thirty year period has changed Augmentative and Alternative Communication for the benefit of all.
Trained as an engineer, he established Cambridge Adaptive Communication in 1987. An early client was Stephen Hawking. As for many others, he gave the gift of speech to Stephen when his natural voice failed him.
In June 2001, he joined Toby Churchill Ltd to supervise the R&D department that designed Lightwriters. When Toby sold the company in 2007, the new owner had no hesitation in appointing him as Managing Director. In this role, he has been of invaluable assistance to the owner, has had the enthusiastic support of his staff and has the respect of all in the Assistive Technology industry. In his new non-executive role, his vision and blue-sky thinking continues to benefit not only TCL, but academic partners and, most importantly, users.
The winner of the eCAT Achievement Award 2011 was David Mason (pictured left).
The next award was from the First Aid and Medical Equipment (FAME) section and is awarded to a person who started business from a North London garage in 1975 to help out with family finances. Soon, first aid and allied products were being supplied up and down the country. No order was too small or difficult to source. If it was needed, it was found and delivered!
In the early nineties, several big bad debts conspired to put the business under severe financial pressure and refusing to go in to liquidation, our winner battled on and got the business back on track. So after 36 years of building a successful business, you might imagine that it was time to let her sixty strong staff and excellent management team get on with it. No way! Not a day goes by without her wanting to know the latest sales figures.
The winner of the First Aid Industry Lifetime Achievement award is Barbara Froomberg (pictured left).
Barbara was bowled over with her award and said: "Thank you, lovely Angela, for your kind introduction - It feels just like the Oscars and like the Oscars, everybody thanks everybody, so why should I be different? 37 years ago, my dear late Mother lent me a few hundred pounds to buy an almost defunct safety first aid company. She said everyone needs first aid and she was right. Neither she nor I could have imagined that our business would become one of the major players in the UK Health and Safety market."
She added: "This would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of my husband, Derek, and our son, Robert, who joined me in 1987. These days, I do my best to let my excellent management team, headed by MD Dermot Wallace, take the strain – but I can't help interfering occasionally !It is a great compliment to receive such an award, which I graciously accept on behalf of everyone at the Safety First Aid Group, who has worked so hard to build a successful business”.
Last year member companies in the prosthetics section decided to treat their long serving employees to the Dinner as a different way of saying "thank you” for their dedication and contribution to the businesses. It proved such a hit that they decided to do it again this year. "Long-Servers” from Ability Technology, Blatchford and RSL Steeper were recognised.
They are pictured right
Individual of the Year award
When it came to considering the Individual of The Year, there was an outstanding candidate. The winner was commended on no less than ninety customer satisfaction cards and comments included, very polite and courteous prompt and very reliable and am very happy with the service, fantastic service and would recommend to other people, a very good person and very understanding and just lovely and helpful.
The winner was Iain McIntyre from Simplyhealth (pictured left)
Team of the Year
Again, chosen from the customer satisfaction cards, the winners are clearly friendly, supportive, professional, customer-focused and care-driven team. In all, seven team members were mentioned specifically and among the many comments were, very helpful and extremely patient, charming and confident in their knowledge of products and on my disability, very good, and very good at explaining and not pushy and friendly and caring, always very helpful, any queries seen to promptly and very pleasant always.
The winners of the Team of The Year Award 2011 was TGA. Tim Ross is pictured picking up the award
Achievements of an individual within the wider world of healthcare
A new Award was in recognition of the achievements of an individual within the wider world of healthcare.
The winner trained as a Production Engineer before running his own motor vehicle repair business. His first contact with Assistive Technology was in the early 1970s, whilst caring for a family member.
In 1983 he joined the Rehabilitation Equipment Group of the Department of Health and promotion led to his ultimately taking overall responsibility for the provision of wheelchair and seating services to over sixty thousand users in the North West. During this period, he was one of a small group working on compiling the Department of Health's formal training manuals for Rehabilitation Engineers and Technicians.
In 1996, he was appointed Head of the Blackpool Centre of the Medical Devises Agency covering wheelchair and special seating issues, subsequently expanded under the Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to cover all Assistive Technology devices.
Until MHRA withdrew from standards work, he was Chairman of the British, European and International standards groups covering wheelchair and seating standards. During this period many standards were either finalised for first issue or revised and updated and are still the primary standards used within AT. He retired from the MHRA in May and will be missed by all who appreciated his candour and wry sense of humour.
The winner of the award was Alan Lynch.
Lifetime services to the Industry award
Like our Services to the Industry Award winner, the Lifetime Service winner this year started out in the motor trade - in this case working as a mechanic on the blue invalid vehicles. He joined Ward's Mobility, in East Sussex before he and his wife started their own business in Tonbridge, Kent.
A long time supporter of the BHTA and a consistent attendee at Mobility Group meetings over the years, he is regularly mentioned in glowing terms on BHTA customer satisfaction cards. Customers say that he isn't pushy at all, has long experience, is totally caring and helpful.
He's a "nuts and bolts” kind ofguy and has a well-earned reputation for bespoke design modifications and adaptations on wheelchairs.
John Sargeant of Country Lifestyles told us: "He has a secret collection of ancient wheelchairs, some of which are even older than he is! He has always tried to bring common sense to the industry.”
Meanwhile, Harmar Roberts of supplier Roma Medical told us: "He is a strong and solid character who is a straight talker and who calls a spade a spade. He's someone you can work with and with whom you can build a strong relationship. He'll let you know if the product isn't what it should be.”
And Lyn Betteley of Southern Mobility added: "Anyone who knows John will say the same – he wears us out with his energy and knowledge. Dashing here, dashing there – nothing too much trouble for his customers. What John doesn't know about wheelchairs, isn't worth knowing.And he's a lovely chap to boot!"
A valuable source of information, a reliable voice of reason, and someone who has fully embraced the beliefs of the trade association and its Code of Practice, this year's winner - from Kent Mobility was John Payne