KGH team leader attended Buckingham Palace celebration hosted by the King

A man who leads a pioneering team of staff that looks after some of the most vulnerable patients in hospital has been to Buckingham Palace for a celebration hosted by King Charles III.

Binoy Kanjookkaran Chakkappan, from Kettering General Hospital, was at a national reception for outstanding nurses and midwives at Buckingham Palace yesterday, November 14, for King Charles’ 75th birthday.

Binoy is the manager of KGH’s Enhanced Care Team – a new concept in supporting patients with particularly challenging needs because they have things like dementia, learning difficulties or mental health needs.

The team, established by Binoy two years ago, is one of the first in the country to provide one-to-one care for these kinds of patients 24 hours a day seven-days-a-week.

He said: “I was extremely excited when the letter from Buckingham Palace arrived and I found I was invited to the reception.

“At the event I was surrounded by about 250 nurses from all over England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.

“King Charles came and walked around and spoke to as many people as possible. I had a chance to wish him a happy birthday and tell him I had come down from Kettering General Hospital in Northamptonshire.

“I think the event was fantastic and it was a great honour to be invited. It was also great recognition of what I, and my 25-strong team of enhanced care assistants, do at the hospital every day.

“We give one-to-one care for our patients to help them settle into hospital – which can be very frightening for them – and then help them to be as safe, reassured, and comfortable as possible during their stay.

“My team members start by collecting information about the patient from them and their family so that we know their likes and dislikes, what they did during their life, and what things they enjoy doing.

“They then stay with the patient throughout their stay which can involve chatting with them, playing games with them, taking them for walks and visits outside, and being a reassuring presence that they get to know, sometimes over quite a long period of time.

“Families love to see this kind of one-to-one support and my team is specially trained on how best to help if a patient becomes angry, agitated or disruptive.

“I think we provide a great service and one that is very much appreciated and I am delighted that we have received this kind of recognition for what we do.”

The team carry out almost 3,000 shifts with individual patients each year and get great feedback from families.

This has included:

"The Enhanced Care Team was absolutely marvellous with my husband. Without question this team is an asset to the hospital and should be congratulated on their ability to deal with dementia patients.

"The team members go way beyond what would be expected of them and they make sure a loved one receives the best care.”

KGH’s Nursing and Quality Programme Lead, Vigi Arun, said: “Binoy is an extremely dedicated leader who has created a very strong and compassionate team that provides some outstanding care for our patients.

“We have had hospitals from across the country coming to us to find out more about how we are delivering this kind of individualised one-to-one care for some of our most vulnerable patients.”

Associate Director for Safeguarding, Nhamo Paz, said: “Binoy has created a strong and committed team who work extremely hard, are very innovative, and provide some outstanding care for patients. I am delighted to see he is getting some of the recognition that he deserves.”

Binoy is married to Jili, who works at KGH as clinical duty manager, and they have three children, Daniel, Isabel, and Joel. Before arriving at KGH his career path was unusual.

He qualified as an accountant in Kerala, South India, before emigrating to the UK in 2006 where he started his career working in sterile services. Then he worked as a healthcare assistant in a mental health unit and fell in love with delivering compassionate care to patients which he found very rewarding.

He started at KGH in 2011 as a healthcare assistant, studied for a nursing degree with the University of Northampton, and worked as a nurse across a number of KGH wards before taking on the new enhanced care team manager role in October 2021.

Kettering General Hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer, Jayne Skippen, who nominated Binoy for the Buckingham Palace reception, said: “Binoy and his team have done an amazing job over the last two years developing a way of caring for the vulnerable that is now attracting interest from other NHS organisations.

“He and his team embody the core values of this hospital in an exemplary way and I am delighted he was chosen to attend this very special gathering for some of the most outstanding nurses and midwives in England.”