Dr Kate Granger MBE
Kate Miriam Granger MBE FRCP Edin (31 October 1981 – 23 July 2016).
Consultant in Medicine for the Older Person, Pinderfields Hospital.
Nominated by Dr Catherine Labinjoh, Consultant Cardiologist, Forth Valley Royal Hospital.
How does the nominee inspire you?
She was, in some ways, a "difficult patient", who complained about her care, was vocal when we weren't good enough and who started a social movement around the fact that staff routinely failed to extend to her the common courtesy of introducing themselves. Not only did she struggle in adversity to complete her medical training and take up her consultant post, she continued her campaigning and her fund raising whilst struggling with what was ultimately a terminal illness.
Contribution to medical practice and impact on care
Launched in 2014 and presented annually at the Health and Innovation Expo, the Kate Granger Compassionate Care Awards are a lasting legacy to the inspirational #hellomynameis campaign that she and her husband started.
Kate was passionate about quality improvement and she used her experiences and observations as a patient to raise awareness and drive up the standard of care delivered by the NHS.
The #hellomynameis campaign, launched in 2013 by Kate and her husband Chris Pointon, came as a result of staff failing to introduce themselves when they were caring for her.
Kate jokingly said she thought the campaign would “amount to one or two tweets and then fizzle out”. Instead it became a national campaign, winning the support of over 130 organisations, including NHS Trusts across Scotland, England, and Wales, before becoming a global phenomenon – with #hellomynameis receiving more than 1.8billion Twitter impressions.
Kate, who wrote books as well as posting tweets and blogged regularly about her experiences of illness, also raised over £250,000 with her husband which was donated to the Yorkshire Cancer Centre. Since Kate's passing Chris has continued to talk at events across the world and is currently in the middle of a 12 month global tour as well as taking the fundraising total to over £340,000 and has set a new target of £500,000 by the end of this year.