Being a “highly enthusiastic leader” and completely committed were the qualities which gained Renee Comerford the top award in this category.

As head of the Frailty Team, the service has gone from strength-to-strength, and with the introduction of KPIs and a frailty dashboard we are already seeing the benefits this has for patients.

She is one of a few people in the country to undertake a scholarship at Kings in London and now has completed a Masters-level course in care for older people.  She is also now a Fellow of Kings after successfully completing this course.

Never one to sit back, she is striving to further develop the service beyond the medical division. She has recently written a full business case to expand the service into the surgical and community divisions as well as having the long-term vision to think about other health care professionals who link into this service.

Renee has given up many hours of her own home life to make this service work. She has worked many sets of days off just to make sure the service is covered and that frail elderly patients get the best care possible.

Renee’s leadership, determination and passion for care of the frail older patient has delivered great success for the frailty team. Renee has extremely high standards of care and has developed the frailty team to become a very much sought-after resource with an ED and medical team that can’t do without them.

Without Renee this service would not be where it is today and we would have many more frail elderly patients admitted into hospital unnecessarily.

Judges’ comments included: “ A very special person, not ordinary but extraordinary.”

Other finalists were: AniAjit Kumar Diabetes Team, Clare Vickers Rapid Access Arrythmia Clinic.