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Bupa Foundation awards its annual foundation awards

11 November 2003

The award-winning work of doctors around the country now means that:

• people are receiving quicker treatment for orthopaedic problems
• those at risk of coronary heart disease could live longer simply by changing their diet
• old people are less in danger of fainting and falling
• patients are more likely to recover if their doctor is a good communicator

Six projects have received awards from the Bupa Foundation which recognises excellence in various areas of medicine - care, clinical excellence, communication, epidemiology, health at work and research. The Bupa Foundation is an independent charity that supports research projects that help to advance medical knowledge and improve treatments. It has awarded grants in excess of £8 million.

Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen, Bupa medical director and governor of the Bupa Foundation said: "All six of the awards we have made this year are for outstanding examples of best practice and teamwork. The benefits to both patients and the NHS speak for themselves. Developments such as these are why Bupa is delighted to award nearly £1.5m in grants each year to the Bupa Foundation. This is one of the ways in which Bupa contributes to the health and care of everyone in the UK."

A Southampton NHS service which has reduced the 18-month wait for an appointment to six weeks and reduced costs by two thirds has won the 2003 Bupa Foundation award for clinical excellence in recognition of its work. The new service, which is the first of its kind in the UK, has been so successful that the local NHS hospital Trust has achieved all its waiting time targets for the last three years.

The award for excellence in epidemiology has been made to researchers at the NHS Royal Free & University College Medical School in London for their work showing that a simple change of diet could reduce the 125,000 UK deaths each year from coronary heart disease by a quarter. The research team examined how changes in cholesterol and blood pressure compared with drug treatment in tackling the disease which is the nation's biggest killer. In the care category, a specialist NHS unit in Newcastle has received the award for its work looking at why old people faint and fall for no apparent reason, which has saved the health service around £2.5 million each year - the cost of running an entire ward.

A team at the Sheffield Children's NHS Trust has won the award for excellence in communication for their work to measure and improve how doctors communicate with patients, showing that good communication can be as important as clinical ability and can impact how quickly patients recover.

A study showing that a naturally-occurring hormone controls hunger has won the 2003 Bupa Foundation Award for medical research. A doctor from the NHS' University College London found that the hormone PYY3-36 suppresses food intake, meaning that boosting levels in obese people could help with weight loss. Treating the effects of obesity costs the NHS at least £500 million a year.

The award for health at work award goes to a team who worked together to write a new set of rules to improve health and safety for those who live and work at sea.