Ondine and Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust shortlisted for Excellence in Healthcare Partnership Award for Reducing Surgical Site Infections with Nasal Photodisinfection

Second national award shortlist recognises successful partnership addressing the NHS priority of reducing surgical site infections and antimicrobial resistance.

Ondine Biomedical Inc and Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust (Mid Yorks) are finalists for the ‘Partnership Working to Address National Healthcare Priorities (Local Projects)’ category at the prestigious 2026 Excellence in Healthcare Partnership (EHP) Awards.

This shortlisting recognises the successful collaboration between Ondine and Mid Yorks to address one of the NHS’s most pressing challenges: reducing surgical site infections (SSIs) while limiting reliance on antibiotics. It follows the Trust’s introduction of Ondine’s Steriwave^® nasal photodisinfection technology into orthopaedic surgery pathways at its Pontefract and Pinderfields hospitals.

This is the partnership’s second recent selection for a national awards shortlist, underscoring nasal photodisinfection as an important infection-prevention and cost-saving approach for the NHS which can help address wait lists, currently exceeding six million patients. This recognition comes on the heels of being named a finalist for the HSJ Partnership Award in the category of ‘Most Impactful Use of Technology on Clinical Practice’.  

Implemented for patients undergoing hip and knee replacement surgery at Mid Yorks’ Pontefract and Pinderfields hospitals, the Steriwave intervention was associated with a 71% reduction in post-surgical infections in hip surgery over six months, with no SSIs observed in knee surgery during the evaluation period. In addition to improving patient outcomes, the initiative delivered meaningful cost savings by reducing avoidable complications and associated hospital resource use.

The EHP Awards specifically celebrate collaborations that align with national healthcare priorities, including patient safety, antimicrobial stewardship and system efficiency. The Ondine–Mid Yorks partnership demonstrates how clinically integrated innovation can deliver measurable benefits at a local level while supporting broader NHS goals.

Since the initial pilot, Steriwave is now being used or evaluated by several major hospitals across England in a range of surgical specialties, as well as in intensive care, where immunocompromised patients are particularly vulnerable to infection. Adoption has been driven in part by growing concern over mupirocin resistance and poor patient compliance, which limit the effectiveness of antibiotic-based nasal decolonisation.

Unlike antibiotics, photodisinfection rapidly destroys bacteria, viruses and fungi without generating resistance, offering an effective, non-antibiotic approach to infection prevention.

Carolyn Cross, CEO of Ondine, commented:

“This second recent shortlisting for a national award serves as a powerful endorsement, highlighting the recognition of tangible solutions for reducing surgical site infections. It clearly demonstrates what is possible when NHS clinicians and industry partners collaborate to bring innovative approaches to the real-world challenges facing our overstretched healthcare system. Preventing surgical site infections is absolutely vital—not only for patient safety, but also for driving hospital efficiency and supporting antimicrobial stewardship.”

Dr Stuart Bond, Consultant Antimicrobial Pharmacist and Director of Innovation at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, added:

“Being shortlisted again reflects both the strength of this collaboration and the value of introducing new approaches that genuinely improve patient care. Patient safety is at the heart of everything we do, and we are proud to be recognised again at a national level for the introduction of photodisinfection.”