We are delighted that our Integrated Urgent Care (IUC) call centres have been shortlisted as finalists for four prestigious awards at the European Contact Centre & Customer Service Awards 2020 (ECCCSA 2020).
“Following the substantial COVID-19 first wave response, we were able to demonstrate innovation and change in finding new ways of working to enhance our vital role in supporting the NHS. We made five category submissions to the ECCCSA 2020 as a first-ever entry to hopefully be able to gain the recognition our people deserve.
“I am delighted that we have been shortlisted as finalists for four out of the five. The hard work of the bid team and my teams’ input to putting into words just some of what we did, has helped us get this far, which in itself is a great achievement.”
Kevin Brown, our National IUC Director
The four categories the IUC call centres have been shortlisted for are:
- Responding in a Crisis – Supporting Customers
Teams nominated: 111 Teams across 4 Contact Centres, Business Systems, COVID-19 Call Coordinator Response Team Bristol
- Responding in a Crisis – Supporting Colleagues
Teams nominated: Clinical Bridge, Bristol COVID-19 Call Coordinator Team, Training Team
- Responding in a Crisis – Providing Leadership
Teams nominated: Leadership Team / Emergency Planning Team / Clinical and Operational Bridge
- Responding in a Crisis – Best Partnership Solution
Teams nominated: Business Systems Team, Change and Continuous Improvement Team (CIT) and Strategic Leadership Team
Kevin explained what these awards signify for the IUC centres and Practice Plus Group:
“They don’t just recognise the tremendous work that our people from across the business did, but they showcase at a high level in the contact centre environment that we are innovative, care driven, passionate about what we do and here to support and deliver excellence of care for the NHS.”
Kevin Brown, our National IUC Director
Here are some of the ways the IUC centres responded to the COVID-19 call:
- Over 800,000 111 calls answered, over 87,000 COVID-19 calls answered, over 83,500 telephone and video triage calls conducted in Out of Hours (OOH)
- We received over 5,500 applications for 111 roles and after careful selection and a rigorous training programme we appointed 333 111 health advisers, 183 clinicians, 51 support staff for OOH, 50 COVID call coordinators, and 53 voluntary redeployments to support IUC
- All arrival processes changed to keep patients and staff safe, new hygiene and safe working environments implemented, 111 training centres moved with local community support, risk assessments for all staff seeing patients, COVID-19 testing made available for all colleagues, 160 clinician and support teams moved to home working, 81 111 advisers supported with home working
- 5 OOH bases moved to support NHS bed readiness, innovative home visiting services for COVID-19 positive patients, 5 full NHS Pathway upgrades and 19 workarounds completed, plus 52 technical system improvements made to better support IUC and patients.
“We chose to enter,” Kevin continued, “because we feel the work we did as an integrated urgent care provider, and much wider, was something that benefitted so many people and involved so many, was done at pace because of the situation and with huge energy and determination by all involved to help as many people and support our great NHS.”
Kevin Brown, our National IUC Director
The next stage of the awards process is for the IUC team to present their nomination to a panel of expert judges, this will be done virtually in late October and into November when final judging will take place.
The team are fully preparing themselves for the presentation to give them the best chance of winning. Something Kevin has said the team will do with gusto!