Marie Loizides, a physiotherapist by background, is our new Associate Director of Performance Analytics. She’s excited to use her clinical background to help make those numbers more meaningful.

It’s Learning Disability Week (Monday 14 to Sunday 20 June), so we spoke to Tim Buck, our lead nurse for learning disabilities (LD) and autism, and interim named nurse for safeguarding adults.

Tim, who joined our team just after the first wave of the pandemic, spoke about how the role of his team is to reduce the health inequalities faced by people with LD. 

This week we spoke to Yasmin Ali, our Head of Education Transformation and Workforce Development. She started her career as a radiographer before discovering her passion for education and combining the two.

Our Chief Operating Officer (COO), Shelagh Smith, retires on Friday 12 March after a 47-year career in healthcare, 42 of those in the NHS. She helped steer our Trust during our most challenging time, the Covid-19 pandemic, which also played a factor in her decision to retire. So we couldn’t let her get away without sitting her down for an In Conversation With interview.

All our teams are continuing to work extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid-19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

All our teams are currently working extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid-19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

All our teams are currently working extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid-19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

All our teams are currently working extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid-19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

This week we spoke to Maria Benedetti, our Lead Midwife for Multi-Ethnic Empowerment, a role she took up in January and the first of its kind in our Trust. It’s there provide better support our BAME pregnant women.

All our teams are currently working extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid-19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

All our teams are currently working extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid -19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

All our teams are currently working extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid-19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

Daniela Capasso is our named midwife for safeguarding, she’s also the lead on our child death process and harmful practices. She tells us more about why safeguarding is the hidden element of patient care which is more important than ever right now.

All our teams are currently working extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid -19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

All our teams are currently working extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid -19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

 

All our teams are currently working extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid-19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our weekly In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

This week we spoke to Karen Hughes, lead nurse for heart failure services at our Trust. Karen retires this month after over 45 years at our Trust, the majority of those in the area she’s most passionate about, caring for patients with heart failure.

Age: 63

Lives: In Romford with husband Peter, 64.

And: Karen loves the NHS and it shows – most of her family work at our Trust too, including her two daughters, Laura and Kelly, as does Kelly’s partner Freddy (who has already been an In Conversation With subject), and Laura’s husband George!

As we gear up to celebrate the national Healthcare Science Week, which starts this Friday (6 March), we spoke to one of our own healthcare scientists, Keeley Thwaites. Keeley is our Lead Biomedical Scientist for Immunohistochemistry and Molecular Diagnostics.

She’s also one of four female scientists from our Trust to secure places on a prestigious leadership programme, run by the Office of the Chief Scientific Officer and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).

This week we spoke to Ziena Abdullah, a locum consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at our Trust. Dedicated Ziena loves what she does so much she even wrote a book during her maternity leave, which would help colleagues prepare for their entrance exam into the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

This week we spoke to Katie Winstanley, one of six NHS graduate management trainees currently based within our Trust. Katie is working with our Women and Child Health division, and is also proud of her role as deputy chair of our LGBT+ staff network.

This week we spoke to Jodie Hampel, senior clinical scientist in radiation protection and imaging physics. Jodie is one of four colleagues at our Trust who have secured places on a prestigious leadership programme aimed at female healthcare scientists. 

To kick off the New Year, we spoke to our children’s oncology clinical nurse specialist (CNS), Laura May. She told us about the job she loves, from the good parts; fun with her young patients and getting to know their families; to how she deals with the emotional side when children die.

It’s a very special festive edition of In Conversation With this week, after we sat down with our Trust’s very own ‘Mrs Christmas’. Christine Pethers, admin support for our ophthalmology team, lives and breathes Christmas for the whole of December, from coaxing her colleagues to help create a Christmas chimney, to having a festive outfit for every day of the month!

Ahead of our next death Café, which will be held at King George Hospital next Tuesday (10 December) from 11.30am to 12.30pm, we spoke to Bridget D'Aliessio, a palliative care clinical nurse specialist (CNS) at our Trust.  Death Cafes, which are held monthly at our Trust, led by Gemma Norburn from our Mortuary team, are an open forum for people to discuss death while enjoying a cup of tea and a slice of cake. They aim to help people become more comfortable talking about dying. Anyone is welcome to come along.

National Clinical Audit Week ran from Monday 25 to Friday 29 November, so we thought it was be the perfect time to get our Clinical Audit and Effectiveness Manager, Jonathan Sharman, in the hot seat for an In Conversation With interview!

This week we spoke to Sam King, our Emergency Department (ED) research nurse, to find out more about a recent pilot he was involved in, using artificial intelligence (AI) in our ED.

Sam completes our first husband and wife In Conversation With interview set, after we interviewed Laura earlier this year!

This week, we’re celebrating members old and new by relaunching our LGBT+ staff network. Activities are taking place all week and our event on Monday (11 November), included guest speakers Dr Michael Brady, National Advisor for LGBT Health, and NHS Regional Director for London, David Sloman. For In Conversation With, we spoke to one of the newer members, Oliver Sawyer, for whom our successful network was actually one of the reasons he came to work here!

To celebrate this week’s national Occupational Therapy Week, we spoke to Aman Davegun, an occupational therapist (OT) by background who recently took on a new role as practice development facilitator – the first time we’ve had this role in our Therapies team. 

This week we spoke to Julie Prior, our KPO (Kaizen Promotion Office) Lead. A big part of the work of Julie and her team is embedding The Pride Way across our hospitals and in August this year she completed her training to become a ‘Lean Certification Trainer.’ She tells us more about what that means for our Trust later.

This week we spoke to one of our midwives, Rhiannon Young, who recently appeared on TV for the first time! Rhiannon, along with other colleagues in our Maternity team, was caught on camera for the MTV show, Young and Pregnant UK. One of the young mums, Alisha, gave birth at Queen’s Hospital, and Rhiannon was her midwife! The episode aired on MTV earlier this month.

Rhiannon, who only qualified last year, tells us all about what it was like appearing on camera, and dealing with the family drama which the crew were keen to catch on film.

Monday (14 October) was the national Allied Health Professions (AHPs) Day, and our celebrations are running all week! So we spoke to one of our many AHPs, Marilyn Hodges.

We know there are lots of very interesting people in our Trust, whether through your work, your interests or your hobbies outside work. We want to get to know you and share your story.

As we’re relaunching Schwartz Rounds at our Trust, we spoke to our Lead Nurse for Critical Care, Ruth Dando. Ruth, who is on our Schwartz Round steering group, is passionate about the benefits of these rounds for healthcare colleagues. They’re a forum where members of staff can talk about the emotional aspects of their roles and share experiences. They are open to all our staff.

It’s a very special In Conversation With this week, we spoke to one of our more musical volunteers, Patricia Ashford. You may have heard her play the piano beautifully in our atrium at Queen’s Hospital every Friday, but did you know Patricia was also once a nurse at King George Hospital?

We know there are lots of very interesting people in our Trust, whether through your work, your interests or your hobbies outside work. We want to get to know you and share your story.

During #AskAboutAsthma week, we spoke to Laura King, who joined our Trust three months ago as a children’s asthma clinical nurse specialist. She’s working with teams across our Trust to improve asthma care for our young patients.

This week spoke to Fawad Hussain, a dermatology consultant who recently took on a new role in our Trust, as Site Medical Director at King George Hospital.

Age: 40

Lives: In Hornchurch with his wife and two sons aged six and two-months-old.

And: Medicine was certainly in his genes – his father and three older siblings all went into medicine before him. And his wife is a GP.

This week we’re marking the national Organ Donation Week, so we spoke to Maurice Smith, a consultant geriatrician at our Trust, who also chairs our Organ Donation Committee. We even quizzed him about his famous white coat!

We know there are lots of very interesting people in our Trust, whether through your work, your interests or your hobbies outside work. We want to get to know you and share your story.

This week we spoke to Elizabeth Obisesan, senior sister and manager of our Ambulatory Care Unit.

Lives: In Chafford Hundred with her husband and three children, Mary, Emmanuel and Abigail.

And: Before joining the NHS, Elizabeth had a glamorous career as a TV presenter at home in Nigeria – including being picked up by a driver to take her to work each day!

This week we spoke to Paul Thorp, an occupational therapist by background who’s now one of our Red2Green Transformation Leads.

Age: 33

Lives: In Saffron Walden with wife Helen, 32, and kids Isabella, two, and 10-month-old Leo

And:  It was when Paul’s college tutor suggested he get an office job which didn’t need a degree that spurred him onto a career in healthcare.

After welcoming our new intake of junior doctors last week (all 236 of them!), we thought we’d speak to someone who’s been there and got the T-shirt, Dan Sommer, a geriatric medicine registrar, who’s keen to be a friendly face and support our new arrivals.

This week we spoke to Sally Kelsey, our lead nurse for sexual health and contraception.

Age: 55

Lives: In Hornchurch with husband Paul, 59, with whom she has two daughters aged 30 and 27.

And:  In her spare time Sally loves performing – she’s been everything from a nun to a witch and often pops up in panto (oh yes she does!)

This week we spoke to Grace Abosede Matanmi (known as Grace), who, after completing her nursing associate training, is now aiming to realise her dream of becoming a nurse.

It could have been very different – growing up Grace wanted to be an accountant after developing a love of figures thanks to her accountant uncle. She did the job for several before becoming bored – and a chance happening when lunching with a friend set her on the path to nursing.

This week we spoke to Victoria Miles-Gale, our Head of Patient Experience. Victoria is also the chair of our LGBT+ network, which recently oversaw the launch of rainbow NHS badges at our Trust and a special event to mark Pride month.

This week we spoke to Michael Magbagbeola, senior people and organisational development (OD) business partner. Michael, who runs his own charity, Save the King, has organised an event to raise awareness about knife crime, at Queen’s Hospital on Saturday 20 July.

This week we spoke to Andy Reeve, Matron for General Surgery, about his feelings on being a male nurse (and why there aren’t more), his former career as a postman and his interesting hobby creating everything from clocks to toy kitchens from wooden palettes!

This week we spoke to Eleanor Buck, reception supervisor from our Outpatients team.

Before our Trust she had a glamorous career in fashion – travelling the world and meeting celebrities including Kylie Minogue and actress Eva Mendes. Her claim to fame is when she was mentioned by Chris Evans on his BBC Radio 2 Show after a grateful patient praised Eleanor for being so helpful.

Liz Phillips is our diabetic specialist midwife, and was named midwife of the year in our recent AHP (Allied Health Professional), Nursing and Midwifery Conference. She was nominated after receiving great feedback from her patients.

Liz, who has worked in our Trust for her entire career, had the best form of positive feedback as a newly qualified midwife when she helped to deliver a baby on her own for the first time – the new parents were so impressed they named the baby after her!

Did you know that we have 334 colleagues in our hospitals from the Philippines?

So it was important that we marked Philippines Independence Day this week. We had colourful stalls offering local food with staff in traditional dress at our hospitals. And we also spoke to one of our long-serving Filipino nurses, Rizza Javier for this week’s In Conversation With interview.

Rizza, who joined us in 2012, is our senior sister on Fern ward at King George Hospital. She tells us what inspired her to be a nurse and why she moved to the UK in 2005.

It’s Volunteers’ Week (1-7 June), which we’re marking with a range of events and activities to celebrate and thank our wonderful volunteers.

We spoke to one of our dedicated volunteers, wayfinder Charlie Richardson, for this week’s In Conversation With. Charlie, who is also a patient partner for our Outpatients team, has volunteered at our Trust for two years, starting out as a way to say thank you for the great care his wife received when she was treated at our Trust for breast cancer 15 years ago.

We know there are lots of very interesting people in our Trust, whether through thie work, their interests or their hobbies outside work. We want to get to know them and share their story. So here is the next instalment of our series: In Conversation With…Lynn Griffiths, admissions officer for our Endoscopy team, who retires from our Trust this month after 46 years!

As it’s Dementia Action Week (20 to 26 May), we spoke to Alina Stevens, a nursing associate from our Dementia team. She’s wanted to work with dementia patients since she was just 11 when she was taken to the care home where her step-mum worked as punishment for misbehaving at school!

Our senior sister Nicola Loncke, has worked at our Trust for her entire career, starting her training with us in 1996. She’s spent most of her time on our neuro intensive care unit, and it was here that she recently made a difficult time that bit easier for a patient’s family, shortly before they died.

Read on to find out why Nicola was one of our You Made a Difference award winners.

If Nicola’s story inspires you to nominate someone from our team who has helped make a difference for you, you can find a nomination form here.

Several members of our team completed the recent London Marathon, so we thought we’d speak to one of them for this week’s In Conversation With interview.

Mike Exford, 29, has been at our Trust since 2013 working as a physiotherapist and found he really enjoyed supporting our patients who’d had amputations. Last year, he joined our Red 2 Green team, which works to make each day in hospital count for our patients so they can get home quicker.

This was his second London Marathon and both times he’s completed it, he’s raised money for a worthy cause close to his heart – this time for a horse riding charity which works with disabled people, and has helped his niece Ellamay, 13. Mike also started karate when he was six because he wanted to be a Power Ranger – and he’s even got a red Power Ranger morph suit in his wardrobe!

Our deputy Divisional Manager for Anaesthetics, Lucy Gladman, had an interesting career route to the NHS – she wanted to be a lollipop lady by day and a pub singer by night! When she left school she went to interior design school but quickly decided that wasn’t for her, so after a foray into being a travel agent, she found her true calling in the NHS!

Sue Rogers, senior operating department practitioner. Working in our theatres was an interesting career choice for Sue, given that when she first started out she couldn’t stand the sight of blood!

Freddy Young is our service manager for specialist medicine – he’s also dad to nine-month-old twins, a part-time DJ, and crams so much into his days that he often goes to the gym in the early hours of the morning!

He had planned to run his own mechanics business one day, until a knee injury put paid to that. The NHS started out as a ‘stop-gap’ job, until he discovered just how much he loved it. It’s not too surprising he’s so good in the NHS – his whole family pretty much works here too!

Ljiljana worked her way up from a nurse on our children’s ward to our Interim Head of Quality and Safety in ten years at our Trust – which is amazing considering after she moved to the UK from Croatia at just 17, married her childhood sweetheart and had her two children, she thought her dream of becoming a nurse may never happen!

For this week’s In Conversation With interview we spoke to Shawn Bacchus, from our Clinic Prep team. She recently took part in our first The PRIDE Way 3P event, looking at ways to improve our Outpatients service and redesign services for the future, Shawn shares her view on it.

Our intensive care consultant Edmond Smithers has been at our Trust for 20 years. He became a doctor as it took less years to train for that than to be an architect, although his earliest dream was to be an astronaut!

He’s happily married to Dutch wife Karin, despite the fact they married in her Netherlands homeland in a stately home called Huis de Voorst (pronounced house divorced!)

And when he’s not caring for our patients he’s doing his other job, being a part-time taxi driver for his two children.

In a special edition of In Conversation With, we spoke to Pat Becker, who isn’t a member of staff at our Trust - she’s a champion of our pain management programme, run by our chronic pain service, after it transformed her life!

The 80-year-old grandmother of five and soon to be great-grandmother of six, first began to experience back pain when she was just 16 following a motorbike accident on her first date with her husband-to-be.

She hasn’t let her pain get in the way of holding down a job over the years, spending a few years working in a gun factory before taking on a more sedate role in a newsagent where she stayed for almost three decades!

Diane Webber has been a nurse in our Trust for 50 years, and what’s kept her doing the job she loves for so long is the people – our patients and staff!

She’s so passionate about what she does that she inspired her son Simon to follow her into nursing.

She recently helped organise a reunion of 13 nurses who all started their training together at Oldchurch Hospital in 1969. They reminisced over how things have changed over the last five decades in the NHS – and how they would sneak in through the window of their nurses’ quarters if coming back after curfew!

For this week’s In Conversation With, we caught up with our GP Liaison Manager, Janet Bartlett.

Janet spends a lot of time out and about visiting local GP practices and primary care services, as she is the link between them and our Trust across our three boroughs.

Before a career in the NHS, Janet wanted to be a nursery nurse, and has also spent some time working in Portugal!

Maisie may only be 23, but she has worked for our Trust for five years, working her way up from pharmacy assistant to pharmacy technician. She was amazed at the opportunities offered here, joining us from McDonald’s, where she once thought she may be stuck forever!

Despite loving her job at our Trust much more than at the golden arches, she is grateful for everything her former employer taught her as in her own words, ‘in both roles I am assembling an order, whether food or medicine.’ She credits her experience there for equipping her to deal with a busy and high pressured environment.

She’s also been recognised for her hard work by being named Pharmacy Professional of the Month for her quick thinking when she spotted that a patient was on double the dose of lithium than she should have been.

Janet has been a nurse for over 40 years since developing a love of first aid when she was a little girl. She’s been at our Trust for more than 30 years.

Her favourite thing about being a nurse? Besides her patients and her colleagues, she loves that no two days are ever the same. We’re just grateful she stuck it out after being set up with a bed pan on one of her first shifts! Read on to find out more…

Olivia Sanders is our lead interventional radiographer, whose impulsive nature has led her down some interesting paths – from deciding on a whim to be a radiographer (after she had an x-ray aged 16 when she broke her elbow falling over in her new shoes!), and deciding to become a local councillor.

As well as her role at our Trust, and responsibilities to her constituents, she also helps run her family’s wedding business. Oh, and she looked after a cat for a colleague for what was meant to be six weeks, but Mr Kitty still lives with her!

For our next instalment of our series In Conversation With… we spoke to Veer Gupta, Senior House Officer in our Paediatics and Neonatology department. 

Gill Kingsnorth, clinical research assistant, retires this month after 42 years at our Trust.

She started out as a cardiographer, before moving into research when she had her eldest child. The best thing about working in clinical research? ‘To see it make a difference to our patients – they become a different person’.

Lucky Gill plans to spend her retirement travelling the globe!

Here is the next instalment of our series: In Conversation With…introducing Karen Peters, one of our Red2Green Transformation leads.

Karen followed in her mother’s footsteps in becoming a nurse but it wasn’t in her original plan – she’d intended to be a maths teacher! Despite that Karen has had a hugely eventful career in nursing, including spending 14 years solely working night shifts. She’s been our bed manager, our bed and site manager and now, as part of our Red2Green team, she’s helping to ensure we make each day in hospital count for our patients.

Christella Matoko is a project support officer, who spends her days supporting our trainee nursing associates and helping them with their learning.

The lover of dance and acting got into project management completely by accident after suffering an injury when preparing for a show meant she had to have a rethink, and plan a show for someone else. She loved it so much she got a qualification in project management and hasn’t looked back since.

English is her third language as Christella was born in the Republic of the Congo, then lived in Belgium for a year, moving to the UK when she was three. She’s very proud of her African heritage and extremely close to her family – she has an older brother and three younger sisters.

We spoke to award winning nurse Caroline Moore for In Conversation With… this week. Caroline, who is our Director of Nursing for Specialist Medicine, recently won the Lifetime Achievement in our PRIDE Awards after 27 years at our Trust.

Proud Caroline was nominated for the award by her own team, which shows how much they value her.

She also once got to meet the Dalai Lama in Mumbai, which she said was spectacular!

For our next instalment of our In Conversation with…series, we spoke to Alix Holmes, our Macmillan Cancer Information Manager who recently was presented with a long service award after 30 years at our Trust.

Before taking on her current role six years ago, Alix was a nurse in our Oncology department, and was one of the first nurses to be trained to give chemotherapy to patients, early in her career.

Here is the next instalment of our series: In Conversation With… introducing Lucy Pain, palliative care consultant and our clinical lead for end of life care.

Lucy is passionate about her role at our Trust, and providing good end of life care to every patient.

She also had an intellectual start to life – her mum returned to work as a university lecturer just six weeks after having her and when she didn’t like the nursery, kept Lucy in a drawer in her office until she found a suitable childminder!

Mary Kinsella is our local counter fraud specialist - here to detect and prevent fraud across our hospitals. She worked in lots of government departments before joining our Trust, including in the counter terrorism team.

She also loves to get involved in her local community, she volunteers for Macmillan and the Guide Dogs, and loves bell-ringing at her local church!

It’s a special edition of In Conversation With… this week! As part of our recognition for our wonderful volunteers, we spoke to Edie Lay, the winner of our Lifetime Achievement award.

She was presented with her award by our interim Chief Executive, Chris Bown, at a thank you event for all of our volunteers on Monday (19 November). Edie has volunteered at our Trust for a huge 28 years!

Our latest In Conversation With… interview is with Laura Parker, our neurosciences research nurse.

Laura joined our Trust in 2009 and has followed in the footsteps of her mum Karen, who is also one of our nurses. While Karen tried to talk Laura out of becoming a nurse because of the pressures involved, she’s hugely proud of her and tells everyone what she does!

For In Conversation With… this week we spoke to Sally Greig, our senior occupational health physiotherapist and one of the key people helping to keep our staff fit and healthy.

She retrained to be a physiotherapist when she was made redundant aged 33 – before that she’d working in banking, as a McDonald’s manager and was the first female special constable to serve in the Honourable Artillery Company.

It’s a special edition of In Conversation With this week. We spoke to Sue Williams just before she retired on Wednesday 31 October following 17 years as our Executive Assistant to our Chair and Chief Executive.

Before joining our Trust Sue had a very varied career – from working in a bank, to first honing her PA skills working for Sir James Goldsmith and even running her own company!

Sue is also an accomplished shooter, scoring 48 out of 50 in her first lesson. And she’s a huge Formula 1 fan!

Here is the next instalment of our In Conversation With… series, introducing Leann Defriend, one of our senior sisters in our Emergency Department.

As a youngster, Leann dreamt of joining the army – but found her calling as a nurse when a medical condition meant she couldn’t sign up.

She loves being a nurse as she makes a difference to her patients’ lives every day – she even gave one terminally ill patient an early Christmas to ensure they got to see their favourite occasion one last time.

And last year, she took a three month sabbatical, visiting 48 of the 50 US states!

To mark our Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) Week, we spoke to Vikki Butler, our divisional manager for anaesthetics and surgery, who started out her career with the NHS as a physiotherapist. 

Tony is one of our lead radiographers. He’s passionate about working for the NHS, however, he’s had a few jobs before he discovered his calling in radiography – he’s worked on a building site, as a lifeguard and a teacher!

Karen looks after our complaints, Patient Advice and Liaison and family liaison services. She's a real lady (she has a title!), and has several claims to fame, from appearing in a film when she was six, to representing her country at judo as a teen and she was once named Miss Harlow Town! 

We know there are lots of very interesting people in our Trust, whether through your work, your interests or your hobbies outside work. We want to get to know you and share your story.

So here is the next instalment of our new series: In Conversation With… introducing Nik Haliasos, consultant neurosurgeon who recently secured a £57,000 grant to bring Artificial Intelligence (AI) to our Trust.

Ernesto Antonio is a charge nurse in our theatres. He’s worked at our Trust for over 30 years and even met his wife Kate when they were both working in one of our hospitals. Oh, and he had a heart transplant 19 years ago and regularly competes (and wins!) in events at the British and European Transplant Games.

As World Breastfeeding Week begins on Thursday 1 August, we spoke to Amy Macatonia, core midwife on our Birth Centre. Not only does she support our new mums with breastfeeding, Amy has also shared her own experiences – proving that being a midwife didn’t make it any easier.

Sylvester Gomes is our Paediatric Emergency Consultant and paediatric sepsis lead. He always wanted to be a doctor - his favourite toy as a child was his doctor’s kit. And he’s a man of many of talents, he’s an advanced Salsa dancer, he also loves to travel and is even challenging himself by undertaking an endurance ‘holiday’ in just a few weeks.

Jackie has worked at our Trust for almost 22 years and it’s her team who ensures all our staff know how to use the main systems in our hospitals. She’s also been a patient herself quite a few times in recent years – thanks to her four knee replacements!

Sue Lovell, our interim Director of Midwifery, wanted to be a midwife since she was a little girl – and she still loves her job after 24 years at our Trust! She was also voted Midwife of the Year for the London region in the Emma’s Diary Mums’ Midwife of the Year awards earlier this year.

 

In the hot seat for our latest edition of In conversation with… is Lynn Neeves, our clinical programme manager for our bowel cancer screening programme. Who, despite over 30 years in the NHS, originally wanted to be an interpreter for the United Nations!

Our clinical lead for speech therapy is the lastest subjest of In conversation with.

This week’s subject of In conversation with is Janet Jugdeese, our speciality manager for cancer.

Here the next installment of our In conversation with.. series, introducing Karen Hampson, a care pathway facilitator who loves animals and teaches body pump in her spare time.

Here’s the next instalment of our new series: In Conversation With…introducing Devesh Sinha, our clinical lead for stroke.

There are lots of very interesting people who work at our Trust – whether through their work at our Trust, or their interests and hobbies outside work. This is the first instalment of our In Conversation With series that features fascinating stories behind our staff members. Here is Gemma Norburn from our Mortuary team!