A skin cancer support service has been been crowned 'team of the year' at a national awards ceremony.

The Lincolnshire Skin Cancer Services Improvement and Innovation Programme at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) was a winner at the first prestigious national dermatology awards.

The Lincolnshire programme, which has introduced improved support and care for patients with skin cancer through a dedicated Skin Cancer Support Service, triumphed in the Dermatology Team of the Year category at the 2021 Quality in Care (QiC) Dermatology Awards.

The Lincolnshire programme was launched to improve the quality of care and patient experience, at a time when the number of patients is increasing. This has seen the team:

· Support and advise patients through a new skin cancer and skin surgery nurse service.

· Help almost 100 patients every month through a skin cancer helpline.

· See more than 1,300 patients in community spot clinics since they launched in October 2019. Here patients receive advice around changes to moles and other areas of the skin, with referrals to the hospital team if skin cancer is suspected.

· See more than 4,300 patients in rapid access skin cancer clinics run in Lincoln and Boston hospitals since they launched in September 2019. These are for patients who have been referred with suspicious high risk skin cancers. During these clinics the team will examine the area, make a diagnosis and in the majority of the cases will perform skin surgery so the patients will have their suspicious lesions removed on the same day.

The team continues to develop new ways to develop the programme and has just launched a service to help GPs with their dermatology patient care and referrals.

ULHT's Consultant Dermatologists, Dr Krisztina Scharrer and Dr Julia Schofield, attended the ceremony and were proud to win the award and collect it from celebrity GP, Dr Hilary Jones, on behalf of the team.

Dr Scharrer said: "We could have never imagined to be able to win such a prize when competing with big centres from across the country, but it is possible! It came as a big surprise, but we are enormously proud of the whole team and it just shows what can be achieved by working together. It is great for the team to be recognised, but the best reward of all is seeing the difference that we can make for our patients and their loved ones."

Dr Schofield, who is also the Joint Dermatology Clinical Lead on the National Outpatient Transformation Programme, added: "I am really delighted that the models piloted in Lincolnshire with such success are now included in the new national guidance for innovating the two week wait skin cancer pathway."

Dr Marc Moodley, Medical Head, Sanofi Genzyme UK and Ireland, who were the event's sponsors said: "We have all been working in very challenging times recently so we are extremely proud to support the first Quality in Care Dermatology awards. The brand new awards programme provides a great opportunity to recognise, reward and share the inspirational work that has been done across the country and for us to show how much we value those individuals, teams, Trusts and the partnerships who strive to improve the quality of care and support provided to their patients."