Our Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU) on Harvest A ward at Queen’s Hospital has become the latest to achieve silver in our ward accreditation scheme.

Ward accreditation is part of our ongoing efforts to improve and standardise the quality of care given to patients at our hospitals and sees wards assessed by corporate nurses and subject matter experts.

They provide a report that tells the ward what they're doing well and what needs to be better to reach the next level. This covers things like patient experience, safety, how staff are feeling, how efficiently the ward runs, and how well they're doing on equality, diversity and inclusion.

HASU saw a whopping improvement, rising from 67 to 86 per cent to earn silver.

Ward Manager Rukhsana Hanif praised her colleagues for all their effort.

She said: "It's overwhelming, but I believe the hard work paid off. It wouldn't be possible without the team and I'm grateful to everyone for their support."

Jiji Philip, Stroke Matron, added: "Getting silver is great and it means that we are providing safe care to our patients. We just need to maintain and continue this and now we are aiming for gold!"

We currently have one gold ward, 15 silver and 22 bronze.