Record breaking flu vaccinations and a genuine commitment to protecting her colleagues and the NHS during winter is why Community Mental Health Nurse, Diane Quinn, won the Harm Free Care Award in our staff Make a Difference awards, which celebrates our winners from 2019-2020.

As we began our response to COVID-19, we had to cancel our awards ceremony in March – but we didn’t let the pandemic stop us celebrating our amazing colleagues. Including Diane, who has worked in the NHS for more than 26 years supporting adults and elderly people as a mental health nurse.

Although we couldn’t come together for our celebrations in the same way this year, we decided to mark Diane’s amazing achievements a little differently with a surprise visit from our Chief Executive, Professor Oliver Shanley OBE, and Chair, Joe Fielder.

With some of her team gathered together for a secret meeting at Barking Hospital, Diane was thoroughly surprised when Oliver announced her as the winner of our Harm Free Care Award in recognition of her hard work to protect staff from the flu every year – even breaking a NELFT record!

Oliver Shanley, Chief Executive, said: “I'm delighted to be part of presenting the award for Harm Free Care to Diane. What a wonderful recognition for the work she's done around vaccinations, particularly flu vaccinations where she vaccinated over 128 colleagues. That is simply amazing and perhaps, now more than ever we will appreciate how important that work is."

Joe Fielder, Chair, said: “We're here to celebrate Diane and her success as a record breaker. She managed to do 128 vaccinations for flu for her colleagues in the Trust. I'm always pleased to see any record broken and Diane has done that.

"She's not only done it with volume but she's done it using empathy, encouragement and persuasion to carry the message to colleagues that being vaccinated, protecting our selves as a workforce and protecting our communities, through being protected is so vitally important." 

Her colleague who nominated her said: “Diane has been a flu vaccinator for Barking, Dagenham and Barnet for several years and during this time she has provided a great service to her colleagues as they have been able to have the flu vaccination locally at a mutually convenient time.

“As a result of her extraordinary efforts last year, she vaccinated 128 staff members, breaking the record number of staff vaccinated by a NELFT flu vaccinator!

“Diane jokingly set herself a target to vaccinate 100 staff members, but her calm, knowledgeable and helpful approach encouraged a number of staff who weren’t sure about getting the vaccine to talk through their concerns and have the flu jab, resulting in her exceeding her own ambitious target by 28!”

Diane said: “It’s absolutely amazing to win this award and a total surprise. It’s a real privilege to be part of the staff flu vaccine team ever year. I really appreciate all the support from my team who have enabled me to achieve this award.”

Every year our Make a Difference Awards recognise staff who go above and beyond to deliver great care for our patients and support each other, and Diane – who was selected as a winner before the pandemic – is an example of a true NHS hero.

Meet all our Make a Difference winners

• NELFT Nurse Award: Rose Mitchell, Community Staff Nurse
• Care and Compassion Award: Rose Mitchell, Community Staff Nurse
• Team/Department Award: Acute Crisis and Assessment Team (ACAT)
• Leadership Award: Debbie Feetham, Assistant Director Immediate Care
• Outstanding Achievement Award: Salim Danyen, Integrated Care Assistant
• Improvement to Services Award: Karen Mills, Deputy Ward Manager
• Working in Partnership Award: Jennifer Iheanetu, School Nurse
• Chair’s Special Recognition Award: Justine Reed, Respiratory Nurse
• Harm Free Care Award: Diane Quinn, Community Mental Health Nurse