A CELEBRITY guest dished out the awards at a hospital trust’s annual awards ceremony for staffing excellence.

Adam Astill, who stars as Dr Dan Hamilton in BBC One’s popular hospital drama Holby City, presented a host of prizes at the West Herts Hospitals Trust’s (WHHT) Going for Gold Awards for Staff Excellence.

Held at Watford Football Club, the awards celebrated the hard work and commitment of hospital staff and volunteers in St Albans, Watford and Hemel Hempstead.

Hundreds of nominations were received from staff and patients, which were then whittled down to a shortlist for the judges to deliberate.

Professor Thomas Hanahoe, chairman of WHHT, said: “I and my fellow judges had some very difficult decisions to make to find winners from the hundreds of impressive nominations we received, many of them from patients with heart-warming stories to tell.”

The Day Surgery Unit at St Albans City Hospital, which treats around 800 patients a month, scooped the coveted Team of the Year award after receiving a huge number of nominations from patients.

The judges were particularly impressed with the exceptional comments submitted by those who had experienced the care provided by the team.

Another big winner on the evening was Jacky Jones, hotel services manager for St Albans, who took the accolade for Employee of the Year.

Jacky is responsible for site management at both St Albans City and Hemel Hempstead hospitals and was significantly involved in the recent refurbishment of the main entrance at St Albans.

Her colleagues described how she had worked tirelessly to ensure that the minimum amount of disruption was caused to patient services during the work.

Prof Hanahoe continued: “Our staff and volunteers are the heartbeat of the organisation and it is such a pleasure to be able to recognise special groups of people, such as the Day Surgery Unit and Jacky, who go above and beyond the call of duty.”

He added: “We were especially delighted that Adam Astill was able to join us this year to help us celebrate the fantastic staff we have across our three hospital sites.”