Governors

Margaret worked in the NHS as a nurse, midwife and senior manager for a total of 43 years before retiring in 2011.  She gained invaluable experience in the delivery of healthcare and in seeking and responding to the views of staff, patients and their families/carers and in working with a range of people from many different organisations. 

Since her election to the position of Governor in October 2012, she has worked with her Governor colleagues to ensure that the Trust continues to hold the patient at the centre of all it does.  In April 2014, Margaret was elected Lead Governor by her colleagues. 

By attending meetings and being involved in various committees and groups she has been able to see how the Directors and Non-executive Directors fulfil their roles and how strategic plans are developed and put into action. 

Following re-election, Margaret has welcomed the opportunity to develop and take forward the role of both Governor and Lead Governor in the Trust representing members and the community.  She ensures that the views of patients and their families/carers continue to be sought, considered and taken account of when discussing services. She is fully committed to the role of Governor working with the Trust and its staff, willing to both congratulate and challenge the Trust on actions being considered or taken when delivering healthcare. 

Robert believes in holding people to account and that frontline staff should have a voice with regards to how services are delivered, but most importantly, he believes that patients and their families should be at the heart of everything the Trust does. 

Robert feels that as a Governor he offers the Trust, fellow members and patients:

·         His whole hearted commitment to ensuring the Trust delivers safe, effective and high quality care

·         His belief in effective and robust governance and the importance of ‘speaking truth to power’

·         His professional knowledge of what great leadership in the NHS looks like

Robert is a York resident with a young family who has much to thank the NHS for – in particular the health and wellbeing of him and his loved ones (3 children born at York, numerous A & E visits and surgical procedures etc) and his career in leadership selection (he works for NHS Leadership Academy which is like a business school aimed at developing new leadership behaviours in the NHS).

He believes his career experience of questioning and assessing NHS executives and senior leaders means as a Governor he is comfortable challenging the Board at York to assure patients, families and staff that they are doing all they can to provide first class, safe and value for money services. 

From the age of 18 until retirement, Helen’s career has been firmly rooted in the NHS.  A registered nurse, nurse teacher with a master’s degree in education, she spent many years working in a clinical and teaching capacity For thirteen years she worked as a Senior Civil Servant in the Department of Health and was responsible for over 40 staff and a multi-million pound budget. 

Helen is very familiar with the work required of a Governor having sat on the Board of the UK Sector Skills Council for Health and she was subsequently appointed as a Director of Strategy and Planning with the same body.  It is these skills plus those of communication that she brings to the position..

Helen’s links with York Teaching Hospital are predominantly through patient experience both personally (following a mild stroke) and also through caring for her elderly mum who has since passed away.   

Helen believes that giving time and commitment to the role of Governor can bring real benefits to promoting excellence in patient care. She believes the Governor community is highly valued and able to draw on a variety of experience and contributions.

In 1980 John joined the worlds largest service organisation that of Lions Clubs International as a member of York Lions Club.  He was appointed Club President in 1985, Lions District Governor for Yorkshire and Derbyshire 1990/91 followed by the National Drug Awareness and Life Skills Officer for three years.

John was a Board Member of the Charity TACADE (The Advisory Council for Alcohol and Drug Education) from 1993-2003. Tacade produced Educational and Life Skills material for Primary and Secondary Schools.  John has been a School Governor and Pupil Mentor at Lowfield School, Acomb, and York.

 John Cooke

Michael holds a degree and doctorate in science. His career has focused on the development of e-learning and training technology to improve job performance and safety, including projects in the medical field. He has managed large projects, budgets, and supervised multidisciplinary professionals from a variety of nationalities. Michael has good leadership, listening and communication skills, and a record of creative, cost-effective solutions. He can see the big picture and both sides of an issue. Michael states he is detail-oriented, organized and motivated and has led community organizations, and has experience of focus groups and feedback surveys.

Michael brings a unique global experience of healthcare services, having lived, worked and received medical treatment in the UK, USA, and Middle East. He has experience of patient feedback committees. As well as seeking feedback from Trust members, he has friends who work in the NHS who can help him gain insight into issues and priorities.

Michael states that with his experience, skills, perseverance and dedication, he is confident that he can effectively represent members of York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, hold the non-executive directors to account, and help guide the development and delivery of safe, cost-effective, and sustainable healthcare in York.

Clive worked in the service and distribution industry for many years in a number of diverse roles, latterly at Board level.  In the final part of his career, he worked for the Department of Health, initially in policy areas including the National Tariff.  He then moved to a Senior Business Manager role in one of the largest directorates within the department and his responsibilities included forward planning, governance, human resources and finance. 

Since moving to the area he has become involved in the community through the Village Sports Association and the Bowls Club, both of which he chairs.  He is also a member of Bridlington U3A, having served as vice chair for 3 years. 

His background in the private sector and in central government, together with an enquiring, open mind and a determined commitment help to serve the community in the role of Public Governor for the Bridlington area.

Leaving the Armed Forces after 4 years service, she moved to the South to continue with her career.  A change in direction led her into community nursing where she completed her conversion to RGN 1^st level, gained a diploma in Professional Practice, and then obtained a Degree Hons in Specialist Practice District Nursing, becoming a district nursing sister and later the manager of a ‘virtual ward’. 

Pat retired and moved North again with her husband and has lived in Bridlington since 2012.  Having time on her hands she decided to seek employment within York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, working at Bridlington Hospital for 18 months on the elective orthopaedic ward. 

Ann wanted to become a governor to make a difference especially since as a family they have had some negative experiences with medical treatment. She decided that instead of doing nothing, she wanted to be part of a change and as a Governor she has been party to some really positive changes. It is hard to summarise in so few words, but she feels that some of the highlights include:

Ann is now on her second term as a governor and continues to be deeply involved with her portfolio. 

Roland is a trustee of a local charity and has also been a Parish Councilor for many years. In the past he has raised funds for British Heart Foundation, Yorkshire Cancer Centre, Macmillan Cancer Support ‘York’, and Ciic Sergeant helping children with Cancer.

For many years He has also supplied historic photographs to the Selby Times and Selby Post and currently gives historical talks to local groups and writes local history books which he donates to local groups.  Because of this voluntary work Roland feels he fully understands the financial commitment in balancing the books.

By attending meetings and various groups Jeanette has been able to see how the Board of Directors make strategic plans and implements them.  The quarterly Council of Governors meeting provides an opportunity to receive reports and to question the Chief Executive and other senior staff. 

Jeanette is a member of the Governors Community Services Group, which reviews the service delivery particularly the new developments. These become ever more significant with the pressing need for collaborative working between Health and Social care.  Jeanette is also a member of the Nominations and Remunerations Committee, which were responsible for appointing the current Trust Chair.

Jeanette chairs the Derwent  Surgery Patient Group meetings in Ryedale and attends the Scarborough & Ryedale CCG Patient Group, where there is an opportunity to present the views and concerns of patients and their families. 

As a Governor she has been invited to sit on various groups enabling her to be involved in the work of the Trust.  She sits on the Derwent Surgery Patient Group which offers feedback to the Trust from various residents in Ryedale, the Transport Group which involves ensuring patients and families know of the various concessions available for long term illnesses and finding ways of helping patients access all our hospitals in a more efficient way.

Sheila has also taken part in PLACE inspections which help to ensure the environment, cleanliness and food offered to patients in all our hospitals is the best possible standard.  Sheila also sits on the Annual Plan Group which comments on the Trust’s strategy.

She monitors any plans for Malton Hospital and the community services in Ryedale.

For the past four years Andrew has served as a public governor at York Teaching Hospitals representing the Selby constituency. He has recently moved to Malton and is looking forward to representing the Ryedale constituency.

During His time as Governor he took a special interest in scrutinising the trust’s finances and annual reports to Parliament. He was the chairman of the Trust’s Constitutional Review Committee, which ensured the trust’s constitution remained compliant with new legislation. He was also a member of the appointment panels for the Trust’s Medical Director and Chairperson.

Over the past four years as a governor he feels one thing has been utterly clear – Our NHS is financially strained and will be for years to come. Governments, commissioners, regulators and NHS England will push to centralise services. It will be down to local Governors to work with the Trust to push back and show that a good NHS is one that invests in local community services to help people avoid unnecessary inpatient stays.

One of the best developments he has seen at the Trust has been the development of moving elective orthopaedic services from Scarborough to Bridlington hospital. By utilizing the Trust’s estate in this way, more bed space is available at Scarborough and Bridlington has a new, high quality service running from it. Andrew will be pushing to see how the Malton Hospital estate could be better used to improve services.

Catherine takes a keen interest in the health services that are provided locally, and would like to be a Governor for York Hospital so that she can influence and support the services to be the best that they can be for the people in this area. In her work she has the privilege of visiting hospitals and healthcare staff across England. She gets to see many different ways of delivering care and supporting patients, and sees what is possible and what can be achieved. She is used to working alongside hospital managers, patients,

carers, and patient organisations and so she feels comfortable challenging and asking questions of others to ensure that decisions are made in the interests of patients.

Richard is retired and now feels he has more time to commit to being a Public Governor. He stated the role is valuable, rewarding and is part of the essential business of providing, effective, sustainable care and even more demanding services for patients within our community.

Totally mindful of complying to NHSI’s criteria, having served over 9 years as a Public Governor to my local Mental Health NHS Trust in the past, he finds it important that comments, feedback and requests from service users in the Constituency are relayed to the Trust to be actioned in a positive manner.

Over 40 years of Local Government involvement, National Park and 15 years with the Ambulance Service has given him a wide experience and knowledge of both clinical and mental health challenges on a day to day basis affecting our vast Constituency/Trust area.

Richard relishes the challenge and opportunity of being a Public Governor at the Trust.

 Richard Thompson

Dr Gerry Richardson is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) at the University of York in the UK. CHE has a leading international reputation, and is one of the world’s largest health economics research centres. 

Gerry has over 20 years’ experience as a health economist concentrating on applied and methodological issues in cost-effectiveness analysis. 

Topics of interest  include optimal skill mix for health professionals, the cost-effectiveness of self-management interventions, and the cost-effectiveness of childhood and parenting interventions. 

Recently he has led public health evaluations that involve decision making across sectors (primarily health and education) and over time. 

Chris has been appointed as a stakeholder governor on behalf of North Yorkshire County Council. 

As part of his Council portfolio, Chris sits on the Care and Independence Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Joint Sub-Committee for Transport, Economy and Environment and Scrutiny of Health Committees together with the Selby Area Committee. 

Chris was appointed as a stakeholder governor in October 2015 and as part of his responsibilities also attends the Trust’s Transport Group. 

Dawn has come on board as an appointed governor representing the hospice movement, specifically St Leonards Hospice in York, and St Catherine’s in Scarborough as the Trust felt it important that End of Life care is represented at governor level.

Dawn is currently Director Of Fundraising at St Leonards Hospice in York, and so has direct experience of the service provided by this sector within the area.  Dawn has been working in the charity sector for 3 years, prior to this she help a number of senior roles at ASDA Head office in Leeds covering both community, brand management and customer experience, and so brings a wealth of experience in these areas acquired in a commercial business environment, as well as operating within a lowest cost to operate environment.

Dawn has held trustee roles in charities, and is an active Dementia Champion – having created 400 Dementia Friends over the last 2 years. Dawn stated that she ‘wanted to do this role for a number of reasons, she lives in York and is a regular user of the services at York District Hospital.  It will also give a deeper insight into how the CCG, NHS and the wider system works together, and hopefully her experience in the private sector will add value as she can bring both a different view and approach to areas such as patient experience, membership etc.  Dawn has said that ‘It is so important that the end of life experience in York and surrounding areas is the best it can be and she wants to be part in making sure that happens’

Helen qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1988 and went onto train as a Midwife, qualifying in 1991.  She has worked in a number of different roles within the maternity services and after almost 20 years, with a passion for governance and a strong interest in the quality and safety agenda she applied for a role within the Governance Team taking on the role of lead for safety and quality.  Her current role following the acquisition with York Hospital Foundation Trust has been as the Head of Patient Safety across the Scarborough and Bridlington sites.  Over the past several years she feels she has contributed and raised the profile of Patient Safety amongst her colleagues. 

Andrew cares passionately about the NHS, the Trust and the services it provides.  Andrew has lived in Scarborough for a number of years and he is extremely proud to work for the NHS Trust that serves this area.  Andrew has worked in the NHS since 2002 and during this time he has worked entirely in a non-clinical support service in Estates and Facilities. 

In his current role in the Capital Projects Department, Andrew is constantly striving to improve the quality, functionality and safety of the Trust’s healthcare facilities for patients, visitors and staff in order to improve the patient experience and health outcomes.  In this role Andrew is used to representing the interests of others selflessly and objectively and he is determined to bring this same approach to representing the staff of Scarborough and Bridlington at the Council of Governors.

The variety, and increasing seniority, of experience Andrew has gained from his involvement in capital projects and maintenance services across the Trust has given him a very good understanding of the diverse issues involved in running a healthcare organisation.  He understands that the key role of Trust Governors is to review, question, challenge and hold the Board to account to ensure that the Trust is running properly and delivering its services effectively.

For Andrew, a key part of being a Staff Governor also means using the opportunity to influence, on behalf of staff members of the Trust based in the Scarborough and Bridlington area, the Trust's approach to shaping the scope and quality of the healthcare it provides for the benefit of the whole community. 

Andrew joined the NHS to make a difference and he is constantly appreciative of the positive impact that the work of Estates and Facilities staff can have on the patient experience and the vital support it can give to the services provided by their clinical and nursing colleagues.

 Andrew Bennett

As a member of staff himself, he feels that we should all be justifiably proud of what the Trust has achieved.  Mick’s role as the fire safety advisor enables him to meet and get to know many people across all staff disciplines; he sees at first hand the professionalism and dedication of staff.  The one thing which is only too apparent, is how focussed they are in putting the welfare and care of the patients first, above all else. 

There is no doubting that as an organisation we are constantly expected to operate under huge financial pressure in order to deliver more for less and it is only right that we should be held to account because of those expectations.  But let us not lose sight of the fact that despite those pressures both from within at a trust level and externally from a national level the one constant we share is our continued commitment to our patients.

Review papers described colleagues re-shaping health and social care and working in partnership with patients. She decided then that she would like to be part of the community team. So, when a position as a Locality Manager for Selby and South York was advertised, she applied and was appointed in January 2015.

Sharon joined the NHS to make a difference and appreciates the impact that her community colleagues have on patients’ lives. When she talks about colleagues she includes those directly and indirectly involved in patient care e.g. therapists, community and specialist nurses, human resource managers/advisors, administrators and colleagues working in estates.

She is committed to patients receiving quality services they require and desire by appropriately trained staff. It is also important that staff are supported by the organisation’s leaders to deliver services in the 21^st Century.

Sharon Hurst