The BIR Make it Better Service Award.
The award will be given to the group of people who have demonstrated the best improvement in an aspect of service delivery by making it more effective, or have improved patient experience. This might be an innovative design of a piece of kit or changes to a patient pathway that has improved patient comfort or made the pathway less invasive, reduced delays or improved the environment for the patient.
Winners of the 2020 Award

Awarded to Dr Alex Stewart, Helen Minnaar and Ciarna Brookerat the St Luke’s Cancer Centre at the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Hospital for developing the ‘One-Stop Papillon Clinic’, providing advance patient information and enabling radiotherapy on the day of the initial consultation for patients travelling long distances for treatment.
The award was announced at the BIR’s virtual Annual Congress November 2020
Images: Top Dr Alex Stewart, bottom Ms Helen Minnaar
Previous winners and why they won 2015-19
General criteria
- The award is open to groups of people from either an imaging department, radiotherapy department or from a medical physics department who may be either BIR members or non-members.
- Applications MUST demonstrate that the delivery of a particular service or patient experience has improved. This may be by reducing cost, increasing throughput, by improving diagnostic quality leading to better outcomes, better infection control, higher staff or patient satisfaction or has improved comfort, or reduced motion of the patient as examples. This list is not exhaustive but is given as examples.
- The award is in the form of a plaque and sponsorship to attend the BIR Annual Congress of up to £1000.
Application criteria
- Applications must be made via the BIR’s application form and include supporting documentation which MUST include the following:
- Identification of the need
- What was developed
- Resources used
- Evidence of feedback from patients and/or staff
- Evaluation of success of project