MANAGERS took a back seat when hospital staff were asked for ideas on how to spend £1m donated by London North West Healthcare Charity.

From an original 1,300 ideas, staff voted for four winning entries which will share the money.

“The competition really caught people’s imagination and we were overwhelmed with suggestions,” said Charity Director David Jenkins.

“It empowered staff and gave them a voice about what they think is important and want to see the money spent on.”

The winning projects, which will implemented at hospitals including Ealing, are:

  • A greenspace transformation programme, including an NHS nature recovery ranger on hospital sites
  • A post-discharge medication support plan for patients prescribed antibiotics, steroids and opioids, to help reduce re-admissions
  • Additional translation devices to to better communicate with patients whose first language is not English
  • A breast cancer verification system, allowing surgical teams to identify the border of normal tissue surrounding a tumour without samples having to be sent out of theatre.

The schemes will be introduced later this year.

James Foss, leading the green space transformation programme, said: “Access to nature has been shown to make a huge difference to staff and patient wellbeing.”