News

Theresa helps local charity to celebrate Healthcare Champion Awards

  • 4 Nov 2011

Theresa May has helped local charity The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) to celebrate its third Healthcare Champion Awards ceremony by presenting the awards at a special reception held in the State Rooms at the Speaker’s House, House of Commons.

Theresa, who is Patron of the Maidenhead-based charity, supported calls for further improvements to be made to the quality of care offered to people living with the autoimmune disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). During the event, Theresa spoke to NRAS Chief Executive, Ailsa Bosworth, about priorities for the sector, including Government proposals to create a Quality Standard for the disease and conduct a new clinical audit to assess how well medical professionals are adhering to best practice.

The biennial NRAS Healthcare Champion Awards provides the opportunity to celebrate the dedication and professionalism of those healthcare professionals that go ‘the extra mile’ to provide the best possible outcomes for the many people coping with the disease. This year NRAS members across the UK were asked to nominate their choices of healthcare professionals for the awards. A wide variety of nominations were received from whole rheumatology units, consultants, specialist nurses and GPs.

Theresa said: “The NRAS Healthcare Champion Awards are a terrific achievement for those working in the rheumatoid arthritis field and I was very pleased to be able to present the awards at the ceremony and to help to raise awareness about this serious autoimmune disease, which is frequently misunderstood by the public. I look forward to working with NRAS to help campaign for further improvements to the quality of care offered to the 580,000 people in England living with rheumatoid arthritis.”

Commenting on the nominations Ailsa Bosworth, Chief Executive of NRAS, said: “Once again I am enormously impressed by the dedication of our health professionals in RA and so proud that for the third year, and in such a special year, we are having the opportunity to celebrate the good work of our Healthcare Champions in RA. I would like to thank all those who wrote in with their nominations and applaud our winners for their professionalism and excellent care.”