Health team wins award

The BBC News Online health team receive the award from Alan Milburn

The BBC News Online health team has been honoured for its coverage of nursing issues.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn presented the team with the Nursing in the Media Award at the Nursing Standard Nurse 2001 Awards at a ceremony in London on Tuesday.

The citation praised BBC News Online's "strong commitment to raising the profile of nursing".

It continued: "With over 10 million page views to the website every day, the News Online team has ensured that issues such as nurses' pay, staff shortages and their impact on patient care have reached, not just across the UK, but also to a global audience."

Linda Thomas, editor-in-chief of Nursing Standard, described the team's coverage as "formidable".

Mike Smartt, editor-in-chief of New Media at BBC News, said: "The fact that this award was open to all media - not just online news - is a tribute to our outstanding health team, who continue to provide the best specialist news of its kind there is."

Specialist health news was launched on the site in June 1998.