MSE HEALTH AND CARE PARTNERSHIP WINS NHS COMMUNICATE AWARD
The Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership won the NHS Communicate Award for its Essex Vax Van initiative. The campaign promoted diversity and inclusion as it brought communities in Essex together to deliver the largest vaccination drive in its history.
The NHS Communicate Awards opened to NHS staff this year to celebrate the remarkable work of public health teams in the face of challenges presented by Covid-19. MSE Health and Care Partnership won the award for ‘Promoting diversity and inclusion in communications' with its Essex Vax Van initiative which set out to reach diverse communities in the UK and encourage them to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
More than 1.5 million doses of the vaccine have been given to people across mid and south Essex. Despite a positive uptake in vaccinations, some groups and communities still face barriers accessing the vaccine.
In partnership with car manufacturer, Ford, the Essex Vax Van was created by specialist vehicle builders, Venari Group and included medical grade refrigeration, WIFI monitoring and an integrated tablet for accessing and updating health and vaccination records.
Over 20 months the MSE Health and Care Partnership worked to reach a diverse population of ethnicities and support them by providing clear information to address vaccination hesitancy.
Discussing the campaign, Claire Hankey, director of communications and engagement for Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership says, “It recognises how partners and organisations working together can have a positive impact on addressing health inequalities among our communities and generate positives when times are tough for us all in our communities and workplaces.”
The Essex Vax Van worked on several levels to perform outreach vaccinations with African and Chinese communities, visit traveller sites to vaccinate families and run vaccination clinics in the heart of communities such as local mosques.
Alongside winning the award for promoting diversity and inclusion, the MSE Health and Care Partnership also won a highly commended for its #MSEBigThankYou campaign in the 'internal communications and staff engagement' category.
“I’m very proud the hard work of the communications team has been rightly recognised for two excellent initiatives and all devised in-house reflecting the breadth of talent working across the NHS,” adds Hankey.
The NHS Communicate Awards are delivered by NHS Confederation and NHS Providers in association with the Centre of Health Communications Research.
