Screening team is seeing stars

The purple star award was presented to the West Herts Hospital Trust’s abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) team in recognition of providing good health equality for people with learning disabilities.

The service, which was set up by the trust in June 2013, successfully screens about 60 male patients every day in GP surgeries across Herts.

Since the service was launched, the team has supported more than 20,000 men and provided vital interventions for those found with an aneurysm.

Screening co-ordinator for West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust, Lesley Marks, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this award.

“We’ve been working extremely hard to ensure that our services are accessible to everyone and I’m so pleased that we’ve been recognised for the steps that we’ve taken to ensure that people with learning difficulties are able to access our services.

“As part of our journey towards this award, we’ve invested time in reshaping some of our literature. We’ve also made adjustments to our physical environment, run staff training sessions to improve our practices for people with learning difficulties and provided longer clinic appointment sessions when required.”