Awards / Prizes

Publications & Projects

Awards

RCGP Bright Ideas Award

Winner of the RCGP Bright Ideas award - Pioneer

Congratulations to West Green Surgery who have won a ‘Bright Ideas’ award from the Royal College of GPs, in the following category: Pioneer - to recognise and celebrate cutting edge ideas pushing the boundaries of general practice".

The practice created an app called Proactive GP Virtual Clinic. The app sends clinical blood test values (HbA1c, cholesterol, BP, QRisk, vitamin D, ferritin etc) and ultrasound scan results to the patient with simple, understandable explanations and links to online patient information leaflets.

The app will also, if needed, send hospital appointments made by eRS securely to patients by email. Emails are password protected, and patients receive the password via SMS, making it much more convenient for them and reducing the need for them to come and collect their appointment letter from the surgery.

QIC Diabetes Team of the Year

Winner, Diabetes Team of the Year in the national QIC Diabetes awards

West Green Surgery were winners of the Diabetes Team of the Year awarded by the prestigious national QIC Diabetes awards. They were shortlisted because they were able to show innovation and improvement in clinical outcomes by using a Windows app they created that would SMS patients with diabetes their health values. Patients were better informed regarding their diabetes, had better concordance with their medication and had better health comes as a result

Judges' comments:

"West Green Surgery have demonstrated a very impressive project which brought together a multidisciplinary team with patients. This programme took the familiar SMS notification concept and turned it into a highly innovative and impactful service, resulting in significantly lower levels of DNAs, as well as improvements in Hba1c and blood pressure. The fact that the software is shareable, scalable and flexible makes this an excellent candidate for national uptake, with evidence of its cost effectiveness beyond question."

Dr Peter Christian, Haringey CCG Chair said: “It gives me great pleasure to see West Green Surgery win this award. This is a marvellous use of technology to inform, educate and support our patients to manage their conditions well and maintain good health. I want to congratulate Muhammed, Nazmul and their team for this very well deserved recognition and their contribution to primary care development in Haringey.”

NHS Sustainability Awards

Winner for Innovation domain in the NHS Sustainability awards

Finaiist for Clinical Care domain in the NHS Sustainability awards

West green surgery have been shortlisted and finalists for 2 domains for the NHS sustainability awards for 2018. They were successful under the domain of innovation for their work around informing patients of their long term conditions via different modes of communication.

The General Practice Awards

Winner for Clinical team for the Year for Respiratory conditions

Finalists for Clinical team for the Year for Paediatrics

In 2016 they were nominated for Clinical Team of the Year for Paediatrics & Clinical team of the Year for Respiratory conditions for their work on creating live popups that alert the clinician of how many antibiotics a child may have received in one year. This has helped reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing significantly whilst improving clinical safety in the practice. On the day they were announced as winners within the domain of respiratory team of the year and finalist for the other domain

Finalists for Clinical team for the Year for Respiratory conditions

In 2015 they have also been nominated for Clinical Team of the Year for Respiratory conditions for their work on creating new respiratory pathways amalgamating latest guidelines for clinicians as well digital patient focused care plans for Asthma and COPD for elderly patients. They have helped improve patient understanding and concordance of their medication and designed to reduce hospital admissions. The care plans were later commissioned across the East of Haringey across 20+ practices to help improve clinical outcomes.

Finalists for Clinical team for the Long Term conditions

In 2014 they have been nominated for Clinical Team of the Year for Long Term Conditions. The Award recognises and highlights the great work being carried out by the healthcare professionals at the practice for managing chronic disease such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and heart failure. The practice has managed to increase prevalence of their chronic disease whilst also improving health outcomes. The practice successfully used SMSs to inform patients about their and blood tests and signposted them to self help management in order to improve health care outcomes

The BMJ Awards

Finalist & Highly Recommended for primary care of the year for BMJ awards 2018

West green surgery were finalist as well as highly recommended under the domain of primary care team of the year for 2018. Their project revolved around creating a software that would send patients bespoke personalised SMSs care plans with their health data i.e. latest BP, cholesterol and HbA1c. This helped better control their Diabetes and Hypertension.

Finalist for primary care of the year for BMJ awards 2017

West green surgery were finalist under the domain of primary care team of the year for 2017. This was around their work at reducing inappropriate antibiotic prescribing down by improved education of patients using care plans and videos, clinical popup for doctors as well as clinical templates.

Zenith Global Health Awards

Winner for General Medical Practice for Zenith Global Health Awards 2018

West green surgery were declared winners for the Zenith Global health awards that recognises healthcare and Allied Healthcare Professionals go beyond the call of duty to ensure delivery and sustenance of quality care for patients globally. They were reported to have excelled in their area of specialty through Management, Patient Care, Education, Research, and Innovation

Caradoc GP Practice of the Year award

Winner of the Caradoc GP Practice of the Year

West Green surgery were announced as the winners of the national Caradoc GP Practice of the Year award. The prize recognises the innovative ways of working within the practice to tackle the number of pressures in primary care such as an ageing population with growing co-morbidities. The practice have successfully created personalised chronic disease care plans (such as diabetes) that help improve the patient's understanding and promote self care.

West Green Surgery awarded CQC outstanding rating

Awarded Outstanding rating by Care Quality Commissioning

West Green Surgery in Tottenham received an outstanding rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following their recent inspection visit in March 2019. The CQC found the practice to be providing an overall outstanding service, particularly in the responsive and well-led domains that it assesses despite being located in one of the more deprived areas of Haringey. At the time (2019), west green surgery were the only practice in North Central London (across 5 CCGs) to receive the award.

Dr Peter Christian, Chair of Haringey Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “This is fantastic news for everyone at the surgery and for all of its patients. As a GP myself, I understand the sheer hard work from every single person in the practice that will have contributed to this success, and I want to congratulate Muhammed, Nazmul and their team for this very well deserved recognition from the Care Quality Commission. To have the first ‘outstanding’ practice in the whole of North Central London in our borough is really exciting.

“As a CCG, our aim is that everyone who lives in Haringey is able to access the best quality primary care and we are currently supporting our practices to work together in networks so that they can offer more services to patients and share best practice between them.”

The Head of inspection for primary medical services in London, Antony Hall said: “I am delighted that West Green Surgery has been rated as ‘outstanding’ overall. Its use of technology to treat patients is both innovative and impressive. It has now leapt from good to outstanding and I congratulate everybody that has worked hard to achieve this splendid rating.”

National HSJ value awards

Finalists in the National HSJ value awards

West green surgery has been successfully shortlisted for the extremely competitive and respected national HSJ value awards under two domains. They are finalists for the domain of communication by showing evidence of improving communication with patients by using innovative approaches to communicating with ‘hard to reach’ groups, developing a series of clear messages, and tailoring them for different stakeholder groups as well as using a variety of communication methods, based on the needs of target audiences. They went on win second place at the prestigious awards - highly recommended.


They were also the finalists in domain West green surgery of pharmacy and medicine optimisation. They had shown evidence of supporting to help patients better understand their medications, and how best to take them, effective use of IT to support better value in pharmacy and medicines as well as demonstrable improvements in value through pharmacy or medicines optimisation

Patient Safety Congress Awards

Finalists in 2 domains in Patient Safety Congress awards

West green surgery were also the finalist in two domains for the Patient Safety Congress Awards. This is in recognition of their work in clinical safety in long term conditions as well as Improving Safety in Medicines Management. They were able to show innovative approaches towards clinical and patient centred care as well as medical prescribing that would result in improved clinical outcomes as well as safe prescribing of medication for patients.

Health Business Awards

Commended in Health Business Awards

The practice also were commended for the Healthcare IT award for 2016. The Awards have an established reputation for showcasing the success stories in the health care sector. The Health Business Awards recognised the significant contribution made by west green surgery as well as individuals within the practice in the domain of innovations in IT. It acknowledge the implementation of an excellent IT project that demonstrated clear cost benefits to the wider NHS.

NHS Haringey CCG innovation awards

Haringey CCG Innovative Clinical Care & productivity: First Prize

Congratulations to the staff at West Green surgery for achieving first prize in the Haringey CCG innovation awards 2015 under the domains of innovative clinical care & Productivity for their work in creating a patient focused digital care plan to reduce unplanned admissions into hospital. The project digitalised the care plan on the GP practice's IT system permitting it to be easily shared with the patient and with community services. It permits the care plan to be rapidly updated with ease with the patient's most uptodate medical problems, medications and allergies saving the clinician time and reducing the chance of clerical errors. Due to its success it has been rolled across all 42 practices in Haringey.

Haringey CCG Innovative GP access: Runner Up

They also achieved runner-up for the domain of innovation in primary care access for their work on contacting patients by SMS with their abnormal results and offering immediate health advice to reduce unnecessary appointments. The practice created proactively contacted patient's via SMS of the results of the blood tests whilst signposting them to online literature on self care management. Where further investigations was needed patients were informed to collect further blood tests from the practice prior to seeing the doctor so that all relevant investigations have been conducted, saving valuable appointments and patient's time. The awards recognise the excellent work being done by all the staff at the practice.

The National Primary Care Awards

Commendation for the National Primary Care Awards

West green surgery received a commendation in the domain of pathway innovation of the year for 2016 for their work in managing chronic diseases in the primary care. They have done some great work in improving outcomes with their patients with long term conditions particularly in diabetes and asthma. They created care plans that auto-populated with the patient’s most uptodate clinical records (medical problems, allergies, blood tests, BMI, smoking status) providing a live record. Since this is automated, this saves significantly the health professional’s time from writing out such information and reduce risk of errors.

BMA Medical books awards

Commended & Highly commended BMA book awards

The Doctors at west green surgery have been recently awarded highly commended in the British Medical Association (BMA) medical book award 2013 under the category of Medicine for their book.

Their book 'Clinical Skills Explained from Basics to OSCEs' designed for medical students and junior doctors was also highly commended at the BMA book awards

Other books that received highly commendation include the 'Easy guide for OSCES for Specialities' as well as commended for 'Easy guide for OSCEs for final year medical students'

They have in total written 6 medical text books for junior GPs registrars to help them pass their MRCGP CSA exams called 'MRCGP CSA Cases: Practice CSA cases and communication skills'. They have also written a further CSA book called the 'MRCGP CSA symptom solver.'

GP First5 Enterprise Awards

Finalist for the First5 GP Enterprise Awards

Nazmul Akunjee was a finalist for the Royal College of General Practice (RCGP) GP enterprise First5 awards in 2014. The award was for demonstrating a positive and innovative impact upon the National Health Service (NHS) and working to improve clinical care & patient services or healthcare systems. He has been helping GP registrars through medical education pass their MRCGP exit exams whilst also working for Haringey CCG to improving health outcomes across the borough. He had led on work to improve early identification of hypertension and ischaemic heart disease in Haringey as well as help create locally formed dashboards of clinical data to identify and share good practice across the borough

PHCSG John Perry Early Career award

Winner of the PHCSG Early Career award

Nazmul Akunjee was the winner of the PHCSG (Primary Health Care Specialist Group of the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT) John Perry Early Career award. It recognises innovation and excellence in Primary Care Computing. It was awarded for making an outstanding contribution to the subject and his paper on the benefits of integrating chronic disease care plans and clinical templates with GP IT systems

RCGP GP Registrar Roche award

Winner of the GP Registrar Roche award

Muhammed Akunjee was the winner of the Royal College of General Practice (RCGP) GP registrar award in 2006. It was awarded for his insightful paper on the use of medical jargon in Ophthalmologic Correspondence with GPs which was later published in the Journal of Quality in Primary Care. Dr Akunjee identified the use of medical jargon used in ophthalmologist-GP correspondence that led towards confusion and potentially clinical errors. The research paper identified that health professionals should avoid using acronyms in their correspondence and should be replaced with full procedural detail of the term and that GPs should continue to keep abreast of all ophthalmology terms through self directed or continued medical education

London NHS Digital Pioneer

Nazmul Akunjee appears twice in the list of DigitalHealth.London’s Digital Pioneers list: once in the Innovation category, and once as a Pioneer for Sustainability through Digital.

Through his practice, Nazmul developed 7 “digital colour care plans”. These care plans aim to improve chronic care patients’ understanding of their health, and reduce avoidable A&E attendances or hospital admissions. Each plan is automatically updated with the patient’s clinical records, and can be easily shared electronically with other local community services. The clinical templates offer evidence-based diagnostic and management guidelines and permit standardisation of care between clinicians.

Publications

BMA book awards 2013 Review

"Clinical Skills Explained is relevant to medical students across all years of study.However, the book was written specifically for medical students in their early years at medical school in response to the increased emphasis on clinical skills, scenarios and concepts now found in many undergraduate medical curricula.

The book covers over 55 of the most common and relevant medical histories, clinical examinations and skills that all competent doctors must be able to demonstrate in their exams as well as in their practical life. The book is divided into three sections: History Taking Skills; Examinations; and Procedures. Each chapter starts by providing a short step-by-step guide, and then describes the basic background knowledge and relevant pathophysiology before moving on to a systematic approach on how to tackle the skill at hand.

One of the key objectives of the book is to unify the presentation and understanding of the most common medical histories, clinical examinations and clinical skills that all competent doctors must be able to demonstrate with the understanding of how and why things are done (this ‘how and why’ element is missing from a number of other clinical skills titles). The authors have written the book to reflect how they would have liked clinical skills information to be presented when they were medical students."

"There are quite a few books addressing the same topic in the current market, but this book does provide current guidelines which is a new aspect. It includes a useful, systematic breakdown of each presenting complaint, examination and practical procedure. The ‘Top Tips’ in the margins are very handy and supplement the textbook well with some ‘real life’ medical experience."

Projects

ProactiveGP | Virtual Clinic

The practice created an app called Proactive GP Virtual Clinic. The app sends clinical blood test values (HbA1c, cholesterol, BP, QRisk, vitamin D, ferritin etc) and ultrasound scan results to the patient with simple, understandable explanations and links to online patient information leaflets.

The app will also send hospital appointments made by eRS securely to patients by email. Emails are password protected, and patients receive the password via SMS, making it much more convenient for them and reducing the need for them to come and collect their appointment letter from the surgery.

It has led to a significant reduction in administration time, with better patient education of their illness or chronic disease with better clinical outcomes, particularly around diabetes and our HbA1c. The practice found that patients would attend their chronic disease appointments fully aware of their blood test results, its context and what they mean. The app has also helped the practice to achieve a number of Haringey's LCS targets including the National Diabetes Audit target of 42%.

75 & over Chronic Disease Care Plans

West green surgery have pioneered the creation of chronic disease care plans for the 75 and over. The care plans are focused on helping patients better understand their chronic disease i.e. asthma, COPD, diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, hypertension and heart failure.

The care plans involving having a detailed discussion with the patient and involving them in their care by setting achievable goals and creating a shared plan for the year of care. The care plans include jargon free explanations about their chronic disease with information of how they can best manage it through self help.

It is also auto-populated with the patient's medical details and latest investigations allowing them to be in the driving seat of their health. It also informs them of symptoms to observe for if their condition were to deteriorate and when to seek medical advice.

The care plans have also been translated into Somali and Turkish and have been disseminated across more than 20 practices in the most deprived part of Haringey by Haringey CCG to improve patient understanding and achieve better health outcomes.

Antibiotic prescribing care plans & GP alerts

With the help of Dr Naveid Arshad, the clinicians at West green surgery were able to create digital antibiotic care plans that inform patients regarding their illnesses, prognosis and red flags symptoms to look out for in order for the patient to be reviewed again. This along with GP IT notification and alerts of frequent antibiotic prescribing reduced the practice antibiotic prescribing significantly. The innovation had won at the Haringey CCG innovation awards.

Federative working in the SE of Haringey

West green surgery helped create a new piloted service for patients in the South East of Haringey. It offered a same day or prebooked telephone appointment with a senior doctor who works within one of the practices in the SE of Haringey covering a patient population of 50,000. The piloted service ran for 6 months until the end of June 2015. Their work helped the surgeries in the south east of Haringey to work in a more federated way to improve clinical care and access to primary care services.

Articles

SMS as a means to contact patients

They have also had a number of articles published on their innovative work improving access for patients in primary care using SMS as a means to contact patients both in GP online and medeconomics.

Going with The Flow

They were interviewed by the primary care publication, Practice Business, around their innovative work improving the safety and quality for patients in primary care using IT as a means to keep a unique record and flow of tasks and referrals. Practice Business.

Confirmation of death

Death is often an emotional ordeal for family and friends of the deceased, as well as for the junior doctor involved, who is often overlooked in this situation. Despite the circumstances, it is important that a thorough examination of the patient is conducted in order to complete relevant documentations, such as the death certificate and cremation forms, and avoid unnecessary delays in funeral preparations which could cause needless and perpetuating grief for the family. International Journal of Clinical Skills (IJOCS) Volume 3, Issue 2, May 2009

Taking a headache history

Headache is the most common neurological symptom to present in general practice. The description and intensity of headaches can vary from patient to patient, making it difficult to differentiate the most urgent cases from those that are benign. Their management may vary from a few tablets of paracetamol, to an urgent craniotomy and clot evacuation. A thorough meticulous history is therefore essential to avoid overlooking more sinister causes. In this article we provide a systematic approach to taking a headache history that can aid medical students and junior doctors in arriving at the correct diagnosis. The International Journal of Clinical Skills (IJOCS), Volume 3, Issue 1, Jan 2009

Peripheral Arterial Disease & Ankle Brachial Pressure Index (ABPI)

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a condition that affects approximately 12-14% of the general population. As many as 75% of affected individuals are asymptomatic and consequently this condition goes largely under diagnosed and untreated. However, once a diagnosis of PAD has been made, regardless of symptoms, patients have a two to three times increased risk of mortality from MI’s and strokes. Due to the association of peripheral vascular disease with coronary and cerebral vascular diseases, early detection of this condition is essential in order to reduce morbidity and mortality. One method in doing this is to calculate the ABPI (Ankle Brachial Pressure Index). Unfortunately, calculating the ABPI using different techniques can produce significantly different results. This paper will attempt to demonstrate how one should obtain an ABPI competently and how one would interpret the results. The International Journal of Clinical Skills (IJOCS) Volume 2, Issue 2, Sept 2008.

Case Report: Acute and severe visual loss due to an olfactory groove meningioma

Case study of a patient of an unusual presentation of loss of smell in a patient with a meningioma. Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology 2009 Oct;44(5):e49-50. doi: 10.3129/i09-165.

The use of common ophthalmologic jargon in correspondence can lead to miscommunication

The usage of abbreviations and acronyms is increasingly becoming accepted as part and parcel of the medical language.1 In recent times we have seen an almost exponential increase in the use of such shortened terms in almost every speciality of medicine,2 with the ophthalmic field being of no exception. Such abbreviations are used almost everyday by hospital clinicians in their correspondence with primary healthcare doctors.

Although acronyms are useful because they simplify and accelerate communication, specialists often take it for granted that certain trade terms are evident or self-explanatory such that they do not bother to define them.

The inappropriate use of jargon can lead to confusion and miscommunication between the ophthalmologists and the GPs; with the patient potentially suffering due to misdiagnosis or maltreatment. British Journal of GP 2006 Dec 1; 56(533): 968–969.

Healthcare under Sanctions in Iraq: An Elective Experience

As a consequence of the 1991 Gulf War and the ensuing UN sanctions, not only was the Iraqi government destroyed, but also the general infrastructure of the country was disrupted, with the civilian population and public services bearing much of the aftermath. Ten years after the war, the health system in Iraq is still in a perilous situation. The effects of sanctions have affected almost every aspect of medical care. There has been a mass exodus of health care professionals, many of whom were foreign nationals. Doctors' salaries fell rapidly to only $30 a month, barely enough to buy the necessities of daily living.

Iraqi hospitals have no access to foreign journals, textbooks or the internet; leading to a generation of out-dated and under-skilled health professionals. Most worrying is the ever-present embargo on many essential medicines. Only one-third of the medicines are available for chemotherapy for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children (UKALL 97 modified 99 protocol). At the Al-Mansour paediatric teaching hospital this shortfall has led to a substantial increase in childhood mortality, with disease-free survival rates falling to 25 per cent compared to 60 per cent in 1988. Journal Medicine, Conflict & Survival 2002 Jul-Sep;18(3):249-57.

Iraq: a health system in crisis

Dr Muhammed Akunjee travelled to Iraq whilst a medical student at GKT medical school. He wrote an article speaking about the state of the hospitals and cancer treatment services in Iraq after the UN sanctions had prevented a large number of drugs to enter the country. Student BMJ Aug 1, 2002.