THE work of award-winning speech and language therapists at York Hospital has been praised during a visit from Central York MP Hugh Bayley.

The Giving Voice award, from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy, was given for training provided by the team to medical students at Hull and York Medical School (HYMS).

The training is intended to help up to 80 doctors graduating from HYMS each year to better understand the problems patients with communication and swallowing difficulties face.

Hugh Bayley said: “Speech therapy does much more than help people to speak. Therapists rehabilitate people after a stroke and help patients with swallowing and voice problems, and help support children with disabilities. It is great that the York team have won an award for helping to train doctors in these skills.”

Patricia Henshaw, principal speech and language therapist at York Hospital, said: “Feedback has shown that through this training students develop a deeper understanding of the value of speech and language therapy.

“The training workshops improve communication skills for our doctors when faced with patients with a challenging condition such as a stroke.”