Healthcare Workers who provide excellent patient care across the UK have been recognised as finalists and regional winners for the Skills for Health’s Our Health Heroes Awards 2017, sponsored by Health Education England.

The Our Health Heroes Awards, established in 2016, aim to celebrate the unsung healthcare heroes from across the UK, including those working in the NHS, that go above and beyond in their roles every day. After a successful debut, the Awards expanded to include three new categories.

Healthcare Professionals were asked to nominate their Integrated Team of the Year, Workforce Planning Team of the Year and Apprentice of the Year, alongside the already established Clinical and Operational Services Support Worker of the Year awards.

After 930 nominations, a total of 33 finalists and regional winners have been revealed across the five categories. Regional winners for Clinical Support Worker of the Year and Operational Services Support Worker of the Year award go forward to a public vote along with three finalists for Apprentice of the Year.

The public vote will determine two national winners for Support Worker of the Year and the gold, silver and bronze placement of the Apprentices. All 33 health heroes are invited to the Awards ceremony in November, with the national support worker and apprentice winners being revealed and celebrated on the day.

John Rogers, Chief Executive at Skills for Health, said: “The calibre of nominations we received this year was sky high. Each and every one demonstrated excellence in patient care and our judges had a really difficult task in selecting a shortlist from such high-quality submissions.

“We’re very much looking forward to meeting all the finalists in November and finding out the national support worker and apprentice winners.”

The Awards ceremony is being hosted by Birds of a Feather actress and regular Loose Women panellist, Linda Robson.

The panel of judges included representatives from Skills for Health and the National Skills Academy for Health as well as headline sponsors Health Education England, media partner National Health Executive and category sponsors NHS England, NHS Improvement, UNISON and The Open University.

Laura Roberts, Regional Director - North, Health Education England, said: “All the entries we read were fantastic and it was incredibly difficult to narrow it down. Every single person that received a nomination should feel very proud of themselves, the UK really is full of Health Heroes!”

The public vote for national winners of Operational Services Support Worker of the Year, Clinical Support Worker of the Year and to place the Apprentices of the Year will be open until Monday 6th November.

Go to http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/ohh-2017  to vote now.