“I am a Consultant Anaesthetist, Intensivist and Associate Medical Director for Humber Coast and Vale Operational Delivery Networks.

“I trained as a doctor having grown up in Harrogate and found an interest in medicine through initial resuscitation training as a pool lifeguard whilst doing A-levels.

“I joined the trust in 2014 moving back to my home county of North Yorkshire, having trained in several other trusts around Nottingham and then the South Coast.  I anaesthetise patients - i.e. keep them asleep - for operations at the trust’s Scarborough and Bridlington sites and also look after patients on the Intensive Care Unit at Scarborough.

“When I joined the trust I took over local leadership of the major trauma services at Scarborough.  Both trust main hospital sites at York and Scarborough are designated as trauma units and see major trauma victims with injuries not requiring Major Trauma Centre (MTC) care or those requiring stabilisation prior to transfer to a MTC - something which is often needed in the relative geographical isolation of the Yorkshire Coast.

“From this local role I moved on to become the network lead clinician for the North Yorkshire and Humberside Major Trauma network.  The trauma network leads the development of major trauma services in the area - across two ambulance services, six main hospitals and three acute hospital trusts.  The network has been responsible for building education programmes for staff including the Trauma Immediate Life Support (TILS) course and rehabilitation education days, which between them have now trained around 500 clinical staff in our region.  The network has also facilitated work around the referapatient software, which has improved communication with specialist teams in our region.  I’ve also been involved in developing regional plans to deal with mass casualty incidents and also testing our own local major incident plans at the trust during the LIVEX18 exercises in July this year.

“In the last few weeks I’ve taken on a new job while still keeping my clinical time in Scarborough, providing clinical leadership to several Operational Delivery Networks in the Humber Coast and Vale Region - including major trauma, critical care, rehabilitation, cardiac, plus the local maternity system.  These networks and care systems, some of which are new, will continue to develop care across the whole region, particularly where aspects are delivered centrally at a single site - for instance reopening heart arteries in heart attack patients - ensuring there is equity of access for all patients regardless of where they live.

“The greatest change I’ve seen in the NHS is the realisation that NHS trusts as unique organisations work better together, rather than in direct competition.  This has seen trusts work together to develop care pathways for patients, with care being delivered in the best place for that patient including a shift to both direct access to specialist care but also rapid repatriation for care closer to home.

“I absolutely love the portfolio of work I’ve been able to develop both within and outside the trust.  I live in a beautiful location, get 1:1 patient contact time each week and still get to have a significant role in bigger regional projects that can have a significant impact.

“That brings me back to the best piece of advice I was given which is ‘You don’t have to be on the clinical front line to have a big impact on patient care’.  Everyone in Team NHS I meet has a key role to play, be they nurse, porter, manager, cleaner, midwife or director.  It’s only by getting the very best out of all our staff that the NHS will continue to make advances in joined up care and resulting mortality reduction and quality of life improvements we have seen in the last few decades.”