International Day of Conscience WHD Awards

On Monday 5th April, the World Humanitarian Drive (WHD) ran an online event, co-hosted by WHD patron, Croydon Mayor Maddie Hanson to celebrate and commend the efforts of the international community to promote peace, tolerance, inclusion, understanding and solidarity. Guests including Anthony Carmona, the fifth President of Trinidad and Tobago, and Mandla Mandela MP.

The event marked the International Day of Conscience. The day aims to promote a culture of peace, based on a set of values, attitudes and behaviours inspired by the principles of freedom, justice, democracy, human rights, tolerance, and solidarity. Over 6,000 people from over 12 countries watched the ceremony live online.

The president launched and presented the Grand Saviours Award to Croydon NHS as well as Croydon Metropolitan Police for being compassionate in risking their own lives to save others. Croydon Health Services NHS Trust is at the heart of their community – in their hospitals, clinics and in people’s homes – and every day their dedicated teams are striving to provide excellent care for all. Providing consistently excellent and high-quality care to everyone that uses their services.

Dr Agnelo Fernandes MBE FRCGP was honoured to receive the distinguished Regal British Award, the chair of NHS Croydon and NHS SW London for his exceptional leadership, service as a GP of over 30 years, lifelong commitment to protect and save lives that inspired others from around the world. Website link.

The WHD is an international non-governmental organisation founded by Croydon-based peace activist, Dr Abdul Basit Syed with operations in 12 countries.

Dr Abdul Basit Syed strongly believes children are the torchbearers for a harmonious society and continuously initiates similar WHD events and programs to further enforce that.

Dr Agnelo Fernandes MBE FRCGP BSc (Hons) AKC MBBS (Lon) DRCOG DCCH (Edin)

Agnelo Fernandes was born in Goa, went to school in Wandsworth, South London and attended King’s College, London and Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School. His interests include minor surgery, dermatology, teaching and quality improvement of health services through innovation and transformation. A GP at Parchmore Medical Centre in Thornton Heath, Croydon for 30 years he is also a GP Trainer, member of the South London RCGP Faculty (8yrs) and a Governor at Royal Russell School, Croydon (16yrs). He was previously an Educational Supervisor of GP Trainees out of hours (20 yrs) having initially set up the scheme, a GP appraiser (15yrs), a member of the Croydon Local Medical Committee (2002-2017),

He was awarded the MBE for “services to Medicine and Healthcare” by Her Majesty the Queen (2004) becoming the first Croydon GP to have received this honour, and Fellowship of the Royal College of General Practitioners (2006). His leadership has helped his GP practice and team members to be innovative and progressive, and was the first Croydon GP Practice to attain the Royal College of General Practitioners “Quality Practice Award” (2010) and numerous other national awards since 1999 as noted in the Appendix below. He was a nominated finalist in the national “Healthcare Leader of the Year” category in the General Practice Awards 2019, and the first GP to be a nominated finalist in the national “Clinical Leader of the Year” category in the HSJ Awards 2019.

He has been the Clinical Chair of NHS Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) from 1st July 2017, having been the Assistant Clinical Chair previously (2012-2017) and a member of the CCG Governing Body; he has Chaired a number of work streams e.g. the Croydon A&E Delivery Board, Strategic Transformation Board, Prevention, Self Care & Shared Decision Making Board, Croydon Urgent Care Alliance contract review group, and is the Deputy Chair of Croydon’s Health & Wellbeing Board and attends the Overview & Scrutiny Health Committee of Croydon Council.

During his time on the Croydon CCG Governing Body and as Chair, the CCG has returned to financial balance from a deficit position, with cumulative efficiency savings of over £90million over six years through service transformation rather than cuts; the One Croydon Alliance has been formed with local stakeholders including the CCG, Croydon Health Services Trust, Croydon Council, Age UK, GP Collaborative and the Mental Health Trust. He has led the closer integration between the CCG & the Croydon University hospital Trust though better strategic relationships, to improve the quality of care for patients and to make best use of the Croydon pound. As a national first this alignment has seen the appointment of joint executive posts and a place based leader to support integrated care development in Croydon.

He is currently the Chair of the pan-London Integrated Urgent Care Governance group (8 yrs), which oversees the quality and governance of NHS 111, the Clinical Assessment Service and the integrated working with GP out of Hours services and the London Ambulance Service across London. He is also currently the Chair of the National Intercollegiate Clinical Governance group for NHS Pathways for the RCGP (8yrs), involving representatives of all the UK Royal Medical Colleges, UK Ambulance services, other stakeholders and NHS England. He has been a member of the NHS England’s National Integrated Urgent Care steering Group and is currently on the national NHSE working group developing new standards for Urgent & Emergency Care A&E performance.

He was previously the UK Clinical Champion for Urgent & Emergency Care for the Royal College of General Practitioners (2012 – 2017), and a member of the National Care Quality Commission (CQC) Urgent Care Advisory Group (2017-8). He is also a member of the Clinical Leadership Groups for Croydon, South West London and London and the Clinical Quality Review Group for the London Ambulance Service. He was previously a member of the London Modernisation Board, the Chair of the SW London Urgent & Emergency Care Network, and a member London CCG Chair’s group.

He has contributed to numerous national committees and reviews and he led the RCGP development and publication of the “Out of Hours Clinical Audit Toolkit” (2007) to improve the quality of care of GP out of hours services across the UK , the “Guidance and Competences for a Practitioner with Special Interest in Urgent and Emergency Care” (2008), and the “Urgent and Emergency Care Clinical Audit Toolkit” (2011) now used routinely by most urgent care services in the UK, and he was the author of the RCGP “Guidance for Commissioning Integrated Urgent and Emergency Care – a ‘whole system’ approach” (2011), and he continues to be a judge on the national panel for the RCGP “Research Paper of the Year since 2016.

Previously he was the Medical Director NHS Direct SW London (1999-2006), Medical Director NHS Direct London (2006-2008), National Medical Adviser to NHS Direct (2008-2012), the senior clinical adviser to the “Care Quality Commission(CQC) investigation into out of hours services” (2009-2010), and he led the review of commissioning and provision of out of hours services across thirteen Primary Care Trusts in the “East of England Out of Hours Visits Programme” (2011). He was the Clinical Medical Director of Croydon’s GP Out of Hours services CROYDOC (1995-2010), member of the Professional Executive Committee (PEC), NHS Croydon Primary Care Trust (2006-2009), Chairman of the Croydon Federation (2008-10), Chairman of Croydon Healthcare Consortium Commissioning Pathfinder (2010-2011) and Chairman of the London Ambulance Commissioning Board (2013-14).

Appendix:

Parchmore Medical Centre Team and individual Awards 1999-2019

General Practice Awards 2019 “Healthcare Leader of the Year” (2019) – FINALIST
HSJ Awards 2019 “Clinical Leader of the Year” – FINALIST
BMJ Awards, Primary Care Category – FINALIST (2019) (‘Rapid General Practice Transformation’)
NHS Parliamentary Award 2019 – London Region-Primary Care-WINNER – Emily Symington
Healthcare Transformation Awards 2019 – HIGHLY COMMENDED FINALIST
Investors in People Award (2019) – SILVER AWARD
General Practice Awards 2018 – Managing Workload & Improving Access – WINNER
General Practice Awards 2018 – Practice Manager of the Year – WINNER (Teresa Chapman)
HSJ Awards 2018 – HIGHLY COMMENDED FINALIST (Primary Care Innovation’)
NHS 70 Parliamentary Award 2018 – London Region-Primary Care-WINNER (Brian Dickens)
RCGP “Quality Practice Award (QPA)” (RCGP) 2010
Health & Social Care Awards 2009 – FINALIST – Primary Care & Community Services
HSJ Awards 2009 – FINALIST – with Croydon Federation, “Improving Patient Access”
HSJ Award 2008 – WINNER – with Croydon Federation, “Primary Care Innovation”
Doctor Awards 2002 – FINALIST – Primary Care Innovation
Doctor Awards 2000 – FINALIST – Coronary Heart Disease improvement
NHS Beacon Service Award – Secretary of State for Health
Doctor Awards 1999 – WINNER – Primary Care Management