We’ve recently welcomed two new colleagues to our leadership team at Queen’s Hospital. Clara Oliver is our Clinical Director for Frailty, Acute and Emergency Services, while Andres Martin is our Site Medical Director.

Clara and Andres are emergency department (ED) consultants by background; and were both at North Middlesex University Hospitals NHS Trust for several years before joining us.

Read more about them below.

Clara Oliver

Clara is passionate about making improvements and is looking forward to building closer relationships between our frailty, acute and ED teams.

She said: “I really like building and developing a team and working together to find ways to make things better. I’ll be looking at how we utilise our staff, our processes and pathways, ensuring we’re identifying the right patients for the right pathways.

“I want to streamline patient care from front door to discharge and to do that we need good working relationships and to support each other. The strikes have shown us how important cross-speciality relationships are. And the focus needs to remain on our patients at the heart of it.”

Clara has already been building great relationships since joining our Trust working closely with Ruth Green, our newly appointed clinical group director of nursing for the division, and Jo Barrett, clinical group director of operations.

She added: “The three of us work really well together. At North Mid I found the people hardest to leave as I had really good relationships, but I can already see it will be the same here.

“Having a happy workforce is really important and will be something I’ll focus on. We need a happy workforce to create a sustainable one.”

Among her first tasks will be continuing to embed SDEC, building on the huge improvements it has already helped us make. Increasing its pathways will help prevent admissions and reduce length of stay.

A key way Clara will be able to see the impact of improvements, and what works well, will be by continuing to work on the shop floor.

She said: “I’m still be doing clinical shifts. I think it’s really important for the team and for the work I want to do. You get to see changes first hand, something you can’t do from an office.

“People ask why I chose medicine, and I don’t really know, I always say I fall into things and if I feels right, I’ll go with it. I really enjoy speaking to people and treating them. That’s one thing I love about working in ED, the interaction with patients, listening to them and being able to make them feel better.”

Andres Martin

Andres sees his role as our Site Medical Director as a support to our clinical groups, helping staff to do their jobs, as well as acting as a facilitator to bring teams closer together to benefit our patients.

He said: “So far, I’ve been really keen to meet people and look, listen and not jump to conclusions. I want to understand how I can best support our Trust, and help our leads.

“Winter will be the first challenge and we need to be as prepared as possible. There will be lots of pressure on our front door, so that is what I’ll be focusing on in my first few months.”

Having been an ED consultant for 22 years, Andres thrives on variety, quick-decision making under pressure and working closely as a team while depending on each other– things which are all in plentiful supply at our Trust.

And like Clara, he’s continuing to work clinical shifts in our ED, so he can see first-hand the challenges facing our teams.

He added: “This job is very different to my last one, where I was more operational, this is an overarching, broader role and I’m excited by what I’ve seen and the things I want to try.

“I moved into leadership not long after I became a consultant as I enjoy trying new things to change and improve services. It can be challenging, so I enjoy my clinical work, seeing patients is my relaxing time. I knew very early on I wanted to specialise in ED, I love it, the variety, the pressure, which is much more challenging now.”

We’re lucky to have Andres in the NHS, as he was nearly a vet. His love of science and biology meant he knew he would be a doctor or vet, luckily, he chose to care for people. Now his daughter followed his alternative path to become a vet, while his other daughter plans to become a teacher.