King’s Occupational Health team scoops top award

09 December 2021 - On Tuesday 7 December 2021, the Occupational Health team at King’s won the Occupational Health (OH) Team Award at the SOM Awards.

The prestigious Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM) Awards celebrate the outstanding work that occupational health professionals undertake every day.

At King’s, our multi-disciplinary OH team has been a key pillar in our response to COVID-19 and supports staff and teams across the organisation in a range of integral ways. In 2021, the Occupational Health Team provided over 31,000 appointments. Of which 10% were for COVID/Long COVID health needs.

Helping to keep our staff safe and healthy at work, our OH team has delivered on a number of key projects, including bespoke wellbeing support sessions to individual teams. The OH team also deliver Long COVID vocational rehabilitation services, which provides specialist treatment, support and advice about a condition that we continue to learn more about.

Alongside this, the team helped to develop key national training materials to be used by healthcare professionals to learn more about Long COVID. The materials were developed alongside contributions from GPs, frontline staff and individuals with lived experience of Long COVID.

Up against some incredibly strong entries, our team came out on top at the awards as the judges felt the quality of the entry and the work that the team has undertaken really stood out.

The team has continued to step up to contribute to the national picture, with members co-chairing NHS England and Improvement’s task and finish groups to help shape how staff across the NHS respond to the challenges of the pandemic.

As well as providing vital care, the team has embraced learning and development, provided high-quality professional training, and offered student placements to future OH professional.

On the award win, Dr Lisa Curran, Consultant Physician in Occupational Health and Wellbeing, commented, “With the ongoing challenges Covid presents, we aim to continue providing the very best occupational health service to our colleagues at King’s. We are all absolutely delighted to receive this award – it acknowledges the team’s dedication and gives us all renewed strength to move forward into 2022.”

Winners were announced at the SOM Christmas Drinks Reception on Tuesday 7th December 6-9.30pm at the Royal College of Physicians, London.

The Society of Occupational Medicine is the UK organisation for all healthcare professionals working in or with an interest in occupational health.