A GRASSCROFT man is part of a team of eight NHS staff who have won a prestigious national healthcare award.
Alastair Leslie-Dakers works as a radiotherapy service improvement lead at The Christie, one of the leading international cancer centres.
He has helped The Christie win The Chief Allied Health Professions Officer’s award for the ‘creative provision of placements’.
The winning project involved The Christie redesigning the way it delivers clinical practice placements to trainee therapeutic radiographers gaining experience of a specialist form of radiotherapy called proton beam therapy.
The Christie opened the first NHS high energy proton beam therapy service in 2018.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Christie had to reduce the number of trainees and students at the cancer centre, to minimise the risk of infection to other staff and patients.
Alastair was part of a team at The Christie that changed the way trainee therapeutic radiographers learned about and experienced the proton beam therapy service at The Christie.
Most of the learning took place through interactive online sessions followed by a two-week placement at The Christie.
Alastair said: “I’m thrilled the work I’ve been involved with to ensure that professional education for trainee therapeutic radiographers was able to go ahead safely during the pandemic has been recognised at a national level.
“The Chief Allied Health Professions Officer’s Award is one of the most prestigious awards for Allied Health Professions.”
The need to increase the number of therapeutic radiographers has been identified by Health Education England at a national level, with 18 percent more people needing to enter the profession to meet the national cancer workforce plan.
The team has also been given some national funding to develop two new projects for nurses and therapeutic radiographers.
