Lucy takes silver in the social care Oscars

Lucy Wheeler, who works at the Crosfield House care home in Rhayader, was presented with the silver award in the category for Excellence in Palliative and End of Life Care, sponsored this year by Hallmark Care Homes, at the Wales Care Awards.

Hosted by popular tenor Wynne Evans and sponsored by healthcare products company Ontex UK, the glittering ceremony took place at City Hall in Cardiff.

Lucy has been the lead clinician at Crosfield House, which is part of the Caron Group, for just over four years.

Currently on maternity leave following the recent birth of her daughter Charlotte, Lucy said she had been delighted at the news of her nomination.

"It means a lot because my job means a lot to me and it's nice someone else has thought I do a good job too."

Lucy, who plans to return to work after Christmas, does all the clinical audits, supervises all the nurses and conducts meetings with other health care professions at the 64-bed care home when they are required.

Nominating Lucy for the award, Wayne Rees, the registered manager at Crosfield House said he had been impressed by her approach, the clinical knowledge and most importantly her determination for the best level of care to be delivered to the residents.

He added that during the Covid-19 pandemic, Lucy ensured staff were doing everything possible to keep residents safe and keep the virus out of the home.

"Being a 64 bed care home with over 100 staff, maintaining high levels of infection control to protect everyone has been so difficult - it impacted on staff morale having to gown up in multiple layers of personal protective equipment daily during really hot days," he said.

"Lucy managed to maintain exemplary standards despite this and kept staff's spirits up and, although it was such a team effort, I feel that Lucy played such a big part in this and keeping everyone safe and healthy."

Mario Kreft, chairman of Care Forum Wales, said the ceremony was all the more poignant because of the Covid pandemic and what frontline staff had endured.

He said: “I would like to pay a heartfelt tribute to all the wonderful people who work in social care after they rose magnificently and courageously to meet the unprecedented challenges they have faced over the past couple of years.

“We have always recognised their true value and hopefully now the rest of Wales is also aware of how lucky we are as a nation to have them providing care and safeguarding our most vulnerable people."