A Bradford hospital team has won a national award for its pioneering nurse advice line which is offering a faster and more efficient service to its patients.
The Rheumatology team – based at St Luke’s Hospital which is part of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – in conjunction with IT partners, DrDoctor and the Trust’s Transformation Team, scooped the ‘Best Contribution to Improving the Efficiency of NHS services’ at the recent 2025 Health Service Journal (HSJ) Independent Healthcare Providers Awards and the HSJ Partnership Awards.
Judges praised the “strong partnership between solution provider and clinical team” at Bradford Teaching Hospitals and highlighted the “clear patient benefits and reduced call times” to the Trust’s revamped Rheumatology Nurse Advice Line.
Consultant Rheumatologist, Dr Kavitha Nadesalingam, said: “This award recognises the collaborative work with our Transformation team and DrDoctor to improve our call back times to patients through our rheumatology advice line.
“We reduced our call back times from an average of two weeks to five days by redirecting inappropriate calls from our nursing team, thereby improving patient care.
“The digital advice line also enabled us to empower patients as we educated them on self-assessment and self-management. This proved really successful as it allowed patients to take more control of their own care and gives them better access to helpful resources.”
The awards attracted a total of 217 entries and 28 award categories spanned both ceremonies, with the evening highlighting the dedication and innovation driving improvements in patient care.
From left, Lead CNS Rheumatology Catherine Short, Rheumatology Consultant, Kavitha Nadesalingam, Matron for MSK and therapies CSU, Karis Reeve.
The winning Bradford team – which included Dr Nadesalingam, Lead Rheumatology Clinical Nurse Specialist, Catherine Short, with Andrew Mullen and Amy Precious from the Trust’s Transformation team – partnered with DrDoctor to transform the existing patient pathway with a view to reducing waiting times for clinical queries through efficient call redirection, enabling nurses to focus on urgent clinical queries.
Dr Nadesalingam continued: “The transformation work saw us introduce a digital form for patients, guiding them to the appropriate booking services or self-examination tools, empowering patients to take an active role in self-management.”
The awards are judged by senior NHS figures, including many NHS trust chief executives.
The awards ceremony took place on 20 March at Battersea Evolution in London.
The Rheumatology team were also shortlisted in the “Most effective contribution to improving care for those with long-term conditions” prize.
The Trust’s Responsive Emergency Assessment and Community Team (REACT) service which provides an Acute Palliative Care Virtual Ward with daily Emergency Department in-reach were ‘highly commended in the ‘Best contribution to the improvement of urgent and emergency care’ award.
This work which sees the hospital team working alongside colleagues from Marie Curie Bradford, aims to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions in the last year of life and ensure patients are cared for in the community and in their own homes, which is where they tell the service they want to be treated.