Retrieve wins second national award

The Retrieve Adult Critical Care Transfer Service (ACCTS), hosted by University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, has won its second national award. 

The South West’s ACCTS, commissioned by NHS England South West, scooped the ‘Impact Award’ at the Intensive Care Society Awards 2022, in recognition of its contribution to critical care both regionally and nationally. 

Retrieve, one of the first ACCTS commissioned in England, launched in November 2020 following a successful pilot in April 2020 during the first COVID-19 surge in the Severn region.

The team is responsible for transferring critically ill and injured patients who are already in hospitals across the region to specialist centres for treatment and specialist intensive care. They also repatriate patients to a hospital closer to home when they no longer need specialist care.

Since its launch in November 2020, the service has received over 2,500 referrals and transferred 1,600 patients. Retrieve has visited over 80 hospitals across England and Wales and travelled more than eight times around the world.

Dr Scott Grier, clinical lead for the service, said: “Winning these awards recognises the enormous amount of work that every member of our team puts in to make Retrieve successful and have such a positive impact on the patients we transfer.

“I am incredibly proud of them all and the work we are doing to continually improve the care of every patient that requires critical care transfer.”

Retrieve has helped shape the national service specification, led the way in the establishment of many regional processes that have been widely adopted by other services and continues to play a key role in shaping national strategy and national training programmes. 

The service was named winners of the ‘Critical Care Team of the Year’ in the BMJ Awards 2021, making Retrieve the only ACCTS that has been recognised in both of these prestigious national awards programmes. 

More information about the service can be found on the Retrieve website.