A MAN at the sharp end of health care has won a top award.

Dr Andy Lockey, the clinical director of accident and emergency services at the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, has won the regional NHS Hero award.

He was one of three finalists nominated for work beyond the call of duty at the regional Health and Social Care awards ceremony in Sheffield Town Hall.

He received his award from Health Secretary Alan Johnson.

Dr Lockey had been nominated by road safety campaigners and emergency services for his out-of-hours work promoting wearing seatbelts among teenagers and young people.

The campaign has helped to reduce injuries by nearly a third.

Mr Johnson praised the campaign and said he hoped it could be a model for a national road safety campaign.

The chief executive of NHS Yorkshire and Humberside, Margaret Edwards, said: “Dr Lockey has worked incredibly hard to help reduce accident and injuries in car accidents, as well as showing his dedication everyday in one of our A&E departments. I’d like to congratulate him on being the people’s NHS Hero and thank him for doing so much to help people.”

Dr Lockey, bndy, based at the Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, said: “This is a brilliant. It is an award for the campaign as a whole and I am very proud to have been a part of it.

“In A&E we know only too well the dreadful consequences of not wearing seatbelts and the unnecessary injuries, sometimes fatal.’’

Calderdale Council’s deputy road safety officer, Kate Marsh, who nominated Dr Lockey, him, said: “It was really well deserved. He has made such a difference to our campaign. He won by a landslide, which tells us that the seatbelts message is a very important one.”