A surgical team that treats patients with colorectal cancer at Watford General Hospital has been awarded a prestigious patient safety award for redesigning and transforming the way cancer patients are treated before, during and after major surgery.
The team were honoured with the 'Surgical Care Safety Initiative of the Year' award at the HSJ Patient Safety Awards 2026 for its digital prehabilitation programme.
The programme combines an online prehabilitation app with medical digital health platform Quest Prehab that gets patients ready physically and mentally for surgery.
The surgery itself uses state of the art robotic technology, making procedures shorter and less invasive.
Patients are then provided recovery from the comfort of their own home via a programme with the Virtual Hospital team, which use a variety of equipment, including wearable technology, to track the condition of a patient remotely.
Mr Vanash Patel, lead for the colorectal cancer surgical team, said: "Surgery does not begin in the operating theatre or end when a patient leaves hospital, so we have redesigned the whole journey around our patients.
"By combining digital prehabilitation, robotic surgery and virtual wards, we help people get fitter before surgery, recover safely afterwards and return home sooner."
Encouraging early results show that this approach is making a significant difference, with patients reporting less anxiety and fatigue, improved physical ability, and a better quality of life after surgery.
Through the benefits of robotic surgery, more than a quarter of patients went home within 24 hours, and the average stay in hospital for patients following surgery fell from over six days to around four days. Complications have also reduced by 33%.
The team was one of nine finalists in the category. The team's success reflects the collaboration of teams across West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, who work together every day to make surgery safer and more comfortable for patients.
Vanash added: "This award belongs to a brilliant multidisciplinary team and to the patients who have helped shape this work every step of the way."