A 40-years’ service award, a thank you to the man who vaccinated more than 400 staff this winter, and several retirement celebrations, were just some of the highlights at this year’s Derbyshire Rewards and Recognition event.
The awards afternoon was held at Makeney Hall, near Belper, on Friday and saw dozens of A&E, Urgent and PTS colleagues treated to afternoon tea and recognised for their dedication to the service.
Many of the awards handed out on the day were for long service, totalling an incredible 385 years in the NHS across both our emergency and non-emergency ambulances.
Among those accepting their medals was Adrian Walker, who received his 40-year long service award. Adrian began his career with Derbyshire Ambulance Service in 1977, became one of the first paramedics in the service, and has been based at Chesterfield Ambulance Station ever since. He now works on our Patient Transport Service.
Medals for 30-years’ service were presented to Adrian Jobling, an Emergency Care Practitioner from Raynesway, as well as PTS Care Assistants Susan Ward and Ian Towndrow.
Awards to mark 20 years’ service were received by Angela Christ, Diane Jones, Duncan Hadley, Ian North, Richard Byrne, Scott Richards from our A&E service, as well as Baljit Kang, Catherine McGrath and Maxine Tivey from our PTS service.
Martin Sullivan, based at Buxton Ambulance Station, received his retirement award at the event, and he revealed that he has never delivered a baby in his 36 years with the ambulance service.
A retirement award was also presented to PTS Care Assistant Keith Pass, who recently retired and returned.
Aside from celebrating long service and retirements, the Rewards and Recognition event gave the division the opportunity to thank staff who have gone above and beyond in their line of duty.
Therefore, a divisional recognition award for outstanding contribution was presented to Rob ‘The Vaccinator’ Guyler for going to extreme lengths to ensure 100% of staff were offered the flu jab. His efforts saw the vaccination uptake rate increase by over 6% to 79.7%. Rob personally vaccinated 425 staff.
Outstanding contribution awards were also given to Ricky Harrison, from Swadlincote station; Tim Burrows, from Raynesway; Tracey Ashmore, from Buxton; and the Raynesway Urgent Care Team.
A huge thank you must go to Wendy Thomas and Samantha Westwell for arranging the event.
