Prize-winning opportunity for tomorrow's future NHS leaders

The patient participation group at Askern Medical Practice has re-launched its NHS Future Leaders Awards competition for the first time since the pandemic targeting children of local comprehensives and academies in Rotherham and Doncaster who aspire to a medical career.

Practice director Vicky Jacques said: “The future of our NHS lies in the hands of our younger generation, and the practice is keen to involve our local comprehensive schools in developing healthcare leaders.

“We ran the awards before Covid but it was a single award on one subject.

“Two winners were picked as it was so difficult to decide, so moving forward, at our recent PPG meeting, we decided to introduce two categories for the re-launch.

“One is the James Batty Award – he was a military veteran and our first PPG chair – and the second, following his death, is the John Booth Award for his service to the community over the years.

“The first focuses on the future of the NHS – how do they see it?

“And secondly, how does the NHS care for our elderly patients?”

The practice has contacted schools – including Wath, Swinton, and DeWarren Academies – to invite students to get involved by supplying their essays via their school for submission to the PPG by the end of July.

One of the practice doctors, Prof Vijay Kumar, said: “The top two will be awarded a £100 voucher and it means students wanting to be nurses, paramedics, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and so on can include their essay win on their CVs.

“We felt it would be a good start for post-16 students going for interviews for universities or for NHS careers.

“The idea is to get them early into the NHS here in South Yorkshire.

“Often youngsters go away to work in the leafy suburbs of Harrogate or Surrey.

“They don't return to our ex-mining communities – and we are missing out on home-grown NHS talent.”