The Jean Bishop Integrated Care Centre (ICC) has won the best Community/Primary Care Service Redesign in the North, Midlands and East at last night’s Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards – recognising the outstanding contribution the ICC team has made to improving the lives of frail, older people in the city.

The HSJ judging panel, made up of a diverse range of influential figures within the healthcare community, chose Hull’s ICC as the winner, beating incredible competition from across the country.

A fully re-designed community frailty pathway at the ICC led by local geriatricians has seen GPs, advanced nurse practitioners, social workers, pharmacists and other specialists working for the first time as a single system. The ICC was opened in 2018 by older peoples champion fundraiser Jean Bishop BEM, and more than 2500 patients have received a comprehensive geriatric assessment in its first year.

The clinical teams within the centre are provided by City Health Care Partnership CIC, the social care teams by Hull City Council and Humberside Fire and Rescue Service support rehabilitation. Development partners Citycare oversaw the construction of the award-winning ICC health care building.

NHS Hull Clinical Commissioning Group Chief Officer, Emma Latimer, said: “It’s amazing to have received this award. The Jean Bishop ICC provides extremely vulnerable, frail people with a really different experience of care.

“It’s not about medicalisation; it’s about understanding a patient’s needs and addressing them as a team. At the ICC, everyone wears different badges, they work for different organisations but you’d never know because the only focus is on the patient in front of them. I’m so proud to be part of the team and well done to all who have been involved.”

Andrew Burnell, Chief Executive of City Health Care Partnership CIC, said: It’s great that all the hard work and dedication of our colleagues to improving care for our elderly populations within our communities in Hull has been recognised at the highest level with this award.

“A great example of forward thinking, integration and the can do spirt that our colleagues have and it was nice to be invited to share in the excitement of the evening with them all”

Emma Latimer added: “I also want to pay tribute to Paul Jackson, one of our lay board members who was instrumental in helping us achieve this dream for Hull and our patients, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Jean Bishop BEM has been an inspiration in her selfless fundraising for older, frail people in Hull and beyond. This award is for both of them as well.”

Also celebrating on the evening was Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, which was named Mental Health Provider of the Year. The team tweeted: “We are Mental Health Provider of the year. To all our staff, patients, service users, carers and partners, today and every day, this is for you.”

Modality Partnership & Healthy.io also took home an award on the evening for Primary Care Innovation of the Year for their smartphone enabled home albumin screening for people with diabetes. Modality provides GP services across several sites in Hull.