Sydney Excellence Awards
About the awards
The Sydney Excellence Awards encourage healthcare innovation and excellence, recognising the outstanding contributions of staff and volunteers across the district.
The Awards are an opportunity to come together and celebrate our people and the extraordinary work they do each and every day to deliver on our vision of ‘Excellence in health and healthcare for all’.
Key dates
| Nominations open: | Monday 14 April |
|---|---|
| Nominations close: | Monday 2 June |
| Review & Judging: | June 2025 |
| Finalists announced: | Late June 2025 |
| Awards ceremony: | Wednesday 30 July 2025 |
Categories, criteria and nominations
There are a total of 14 award categories, covering program, project and individual awards.
Award criteria
Keeping our community healthy is one of our key priorities. This includes raising awareness of healthy choices and improving overall health and wellbeing. Some 38 per cent of burden of disease is preventable and due to modifiable risk factors, such as tobacco use, being overweight or obese, high blood pressure or poor diet (AIHW, 2019).
This team award recognises clinical interventions that address preventable and modifiable risk factors and:
- embed evidence-based prevention in clinical service
- embed prevention approaches within clinical services (such as enhancing access to screening services, adjusting referral pathways and reviewing models of care)
- improve lifestyles by targeting public health priorities (such as childhood obesity, physical activity, smoking cessation, diabetes prevention, immunisation, drug and alcohol use, infectious diseases and oral health)
- close the gap in Aboriginal health outcomes by prioritising care and programs for Aboriginal people
- identify and improve health outcomes for at-risk groups, e.g. children, youth, older people, workers and disadvantaged groups
- collaborate with partner agencies and organisations to address social determinants of health
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
Award criteria
We have a shared vision that patient safety is everyone's responsibility. Better patient safety relies on the ongoing commitment from patients, families, carers and all staff to work collaboratively through trust, openness and mutual accountability.
This team award recognises interventions that demonstrate putting patient safety first every day, such as:
- quality improvement initiatives to ensure safer patient care
- engaging patients in approaches to improve patient safety
- demonstrating leadership or role modelling behaviour that puts patient safety first
- delivering safe, high-quality reliable care for patients in hospital and other settings
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
Award criteria
We are committed to ensuring that our District and the services we provide are inclusive of all people in our community and that everyone is accepted, welcomed and valued.
This team award recognises patient- and family-centered interventions:
- that address barriers to achieve better health in a defined group or population
- are codesigned with those with lived-experience
- demonstrate positive health impact and significant contribution to health equity
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
- NSW Health Health Equity Award
- NSW Health Excellence in Aboriginal Healthcare Award
- NSW Health Excellence in Multicultural Healthcare Award
- NSW Premier's Highest Quality Healthcare Award
Award criteria
Mental Health is a priority area for the NSW Government, with more than two in five Australians aged 16-85 experiencing a mental illness at some time in their life (ABS, 2022).
This team award recognises services which improve the quality and safety of mental health patient care and demonstrate:
- positive mental health and wellbeing through consumer and carer participation
- consumer-focused services strengthening prevention and early intervention
- community-based care practices that improve the continuity of care between hospitals and the community
- integration with other providers (including justice and human services)
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
- NSW Health Excellence in the Provision of Mental Health Services Award
- NSW Premier's Highest Quality Healthcare Award
Award criteria
Our people are essential for delivering excellence in healthcare for all, and the way we work directly impacts patient experience and outcomes, as well as staff performance and experience.
This team award recognises projects that support our workforce to deliver safe, reliable, person-centred care and the best outcomes and experience for patients and staff, which demonstrate:
- working collaboratively within the NSW Health system to improve health outcomes, including financial, IT, productivity, and workforce projects, initiatives or programs
- hiring and developing the right people to grow and support our skilled workforce
- building positive work environments that bring out the best in everyone (including wellbeing programs and initiatives)
- strengthening diversity in our workforce and decision-making
- support for long-term behaviour change to strengthen the staff health safety culture
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
Award criteria
Clinical service delivery continues to transform through health and medical research, digital technologies, and data analytics.
This category recognises research as defined by the National Health and Medical Research Council. Quality assurance projects and systematic reviews that do not have an associated component of empirical data gathering are not eligible for this category.
This team award recognises research and innovation projects which demonstrate outstanding achievements in one or more of the following:
- using both existing and emerging research evidence to deliver safe and dependable care
- creating research partnerships or collaborations which have resulted in exceptional instances of research that influenced policy or practice
- leveraging eHealth, health information, and data analytics to support and utilise health and medical research
- enabling and enhancing the use of precision medicine in mainstream clinical care
- using data analytics as a predictive tool to target and shape service delivery
- delivering new models of healthcare using new secure, seamless and accessible technologies or devices which enable virtual care and other digitally enabled models
- enabling patient access to personalised information that drives more self-management and lifts their health literacy to make informed care choices
- promoting innovation and co-design to further streamline and integrate a patient's journey
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
Award criteria
Our patients are at the centre of everything we do in our District. Every patient experience is an opportunity to deliver on our shared vision of excellence in health and healthcare for all.
This team award acknowledges projects that reflect meaningful partnerships with consumers to improve health outcomes, and which demonstrate innovative approaches to:
- empowering patients to take control of their health, be supported in managing their own health conditions, whilst ensuring they are treated with kindness and respect
- shared decision making; recognising that patients, their families and carers are experts in their care, with values and needs that shape their decision making
- enhancing access to patient-centred care for people living with chronic illness
- engaging consumers, carers, and communities in strategic planning and governance processes.
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
Award criteria
This team award recognises our District’s achievements that reduce our environmental footprint, while continuing to deliver excellent healthcare and patient experiences.
Our District has a responsibility to support and promote sustainability and limit the impact of healthcare on the environment by reducing carbon emissions, minimising waste, and managing our resources differently.
The award acknowledges programs, initiatives, and projects which promote:
- sustainable management of energy, water, waste, and other resources
- a focus on value-based healthcare to reduce harms and risks for patients and the carbon costs of low-value care
- strengthening and developing low-carbon models of care
- use of technology to facilitate high quality, low carbon care
- performance measurement and funding models which target outcomes, such as establishing sustainable procurement processes
- educating and engaging staff about environmental sustainability
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
Award criteria
Is there a staff member or a team in our District who has made a real difference to you or one of your loved ones?
If you are a patient, carer or community member who has had a positive experience with our hospitals, services or programs, you can nominate a staff member or team for this Patient and Community Choice category.
This award is about the heartfelt human connection that helped the patient or community group feel safe, respected and included.
You can nominate a person or team in any profession in our District, from nursing, medical and administration staff to patient and family experience officers and staff and teams in support services such as cleaning and security.
It will mean a lot to our staff to know they have made a real difference to you.
Patients and community members can nominate any Sydney Local Health District team or individual District staff member who has demonstrated one or more of the following:
- providing safe, high-quality, well-connected and personalised care
- helping patients navigate the healthcare system
- improving a patient's experience of care
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
Award criteria
Our District volunteers are valuable members of our workforce, essential to the delivery of excellent healthcare. Their effort directly supports and delivers better outcomes for patients, their families and carers, staff and visitors.
This individual award acknowledges a volunteer and/or consumer representative who demonstrates one or more of the following:
- provides excellent support for patients, carers and families
- acts as a role model for volunteering in our District, helping to promote volunteer services and inspire other volunteers
- has used their voice and valued experience as a consumer to contribute towards health system change
- uses new and innovative ways to engage patients, carers and families
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
Award criteria
This individual award recognises young staff members (under the age of 35 as of 1 July 2025) who demonstrate a deep commitment to public health values, leadership potential and examples of the following throughout their work when they:
- go above and beyond their role and have contributed to the success of a project or initiatives
- demonstrate leadership qualities or attributes and inspire direction and purpose in others
- aspire to strengthen their contributions to public health in the future and demonstrate leadership skills which could be applied to future roles or in other teams or agencies
This award is open to staff in both clinical and corporate roles.
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
Award criteria
This individual award recognises employees who have made an exceptional contribution to the services provided by the District through effective collaboration.
This award acknowledges an individual who:
- demonstrates excellence of service to support staff, patients, carers or families
- is a role model for promoting positive cultural change and inspiring other staff
- uses new and innovative ways to collaborate with staff, patients, carers or families
- applies strong corporate and clinical governance and CORE values in all health services
Nominations in this category may also be considered for:
These awards recognise the outstanding contributions of individuals or teams in our District, at the discretion of the Board and Chief Executive.
Rules for nominees, finalists and winners
A project may only be submitted in one category.
The judges will shortlist nominees for finalists of each category. All finalists will be considered for submission in to the NSW Health Awards and Premier’s Awards.
All finalists will be invited to attend the Sydney Excellence Awards ceremony, where the winners will be announced. Finalists are encouraged to bring one friend or family member to the Awards ceremony to share in the celebration. All finalists and guests are required to RSVP to confirm their attendance. The Awards ceremony will be live streamed for those joining from afar.
Finalists and winners may be showcased through print, social and digital media.
Awards contact and support
Our Awards Ambassador is available to assist you in refining your application, answering any questions and guiding you to the most appropriate category for your submission.
Sydney Local Health District Awards Ambassador
Email: SLHD-awards@health.nsw.gov.au