NHS75: Read our Staff Stories | News

Our staff are what make the NHS great and we want to celebrate some of the people who have served the organisation for decades.
Below you can read a short selection of the stories of people across different areas of the Partnership and find out what the NHS means to them.
 

Alison Brandon- Deputy Director of Quality Improvement

I went into nursing as I was inspired by a Ward Sister who I met when I went to visit a childhood friend of mine in hospital who suffered severe brain damage following an operation. I observed the care she showed towards all the patients and relatives and knew that was what I would like to do in the future.

The NHS has been such a large part of my life and I have made so many close friends that it is like a family to me. I loved my training at the Nightingale School of Nursing at St Thomas’ Hospital where I gained so much knowledge, skills and understanding of patient care through numerous clinical placements – I can still spot a deteriorating patient now!

I became a Divisional Chief Nurse in Medicine but then, after the death of my mother, I took a secondment to service improvement and really enjoyed the process of change, working with clinical and non-clinical teams to improve pathways and systems. This has developed into Quality Improvement (QI).  In this role I still use my nursing knowledge when working with teams to make improvements and it enables me to understand some of the issues and challenges that staff as I too was once on the frontline.

I love working for the NHS, but I do have some concerns about resources in the future; I wonder what level of care it will be able to offer me as I get older! However, as I look ahead the benefit of the NHS pension is something to look forward to.

Bhameenee Davi Purmessur - Deputy Ward Manager, Iris Ward, St Ann’s

I am the Deputy Ward Manage, Iris Ward, the eating disorder unit at St Ann’s Hospital.
I have always been interested in the caring profession and I chose it as my career, which gives me lots of job satisfaction.

There has been a lot of positive changes and improvements in terms of patients care, rehabilitation and after-care for patients, carers and relatives. Staff are also getting a great deal of help and support by going on courses to increase their knowledge, keeping them up to date with changes and help with progression at work. Staff are also able to do flexible working hours to meet their needs.

Hopes for the future of the NHS are bright and I’m hoping for new developments and scientifically-based treatment and care.

Hazel Fox - Islington Memory and Dementia Navigator Service
 

I wanted to be a nurse since I was five years old, I never wanted to do anything else. I always wanted to work in the caring professions.
I started my State Registered Nurse training in 1976 and loved physical health nursing. I followed in my grandparents footsteps, they met and married working in Friern Hospital or as it was called then Colney Hatch Asylum. I also met my partner working in Friern Hospital.

I think the most significant change has been the digitisation of the entire NHS process. This change has had a very positive impact on communication within the organisation.

Main changes in psychiatric services were hospital closures and the focus on community care. There were no crisis teams in the 1980’s.

There has always been documentation, but this has increased for the better.
Main challenges are issues with IT systems and equipment, so much time is wasted trying to sort this out.

Staff should be valued more, forward planning re recruitment and especially retaining staff and the government should bring back the student nurse bursary, to encourage more nurses to be trained in the profession.

Jane Fellman - Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Administrator Manager & Sexual Problems Administrator

I joined the NHS in the mid 1980s after finishing college, when the fashion was wide shoulder pads and heavy make-up and decent music. I wanted a job that suited my work ethics. I appreciated the hard work of the people I was surrounded by which gave me the motivation to join a team where I felt like I was making a difference to vulnerable or ill people.

When I first started working for the ‘Mental Health Trust’ in the inpatient office, the Admin Team were known as medical secretaries.

British Telecom would clean the phone handsets on a regular basis.  Bates Machines provided and maintained the typewriters, Olivetti, and the Adler, and we had to make copies by using carbon paper, so tried to not to make too many mistakes.  Dictation was done face-to-face, we later progressed to a word processor, which was clumsy and unreliable. Computers were introduced in the 1990s and this really did transform how the office worked.

Patient Data inputting has always been a challenge, Maracis, RiO, Carenotes and then back to RiO, but no day is ever the same and I like to think that I am helping in any some way towards the recovery of clients and helping clinicians.

Lopa Vibhakar, Senior Systemic Couple and Family Psychotherapist

I’m a Systemic Couple & family Psychotherapist in adult mental health and have worked for the NHS for the last 37 years.I work mainly with couples and families that have relatives diagnosed with psychosis and complex emotional needs.

I started working at the East London Foundation Trust and I was there for 16 years, then I moved to South Essex, NELFT and then BEH – been here for since 2013.
I came from India to the UK in 1986, I was 22, as a graduate in psychology and was keen to start working in mental health. During that time, I was advised that this is the best route for me to start in mental health was to work within the NHS hence I am pleased to have made that decision.

I have a strong ethos of giving back to the community with all my knowledge and skills that I have learnt and supporting people to improve their quality of life through therapy.

The single biggest change I’ve seen over the years, is the evolution of the service users involved in the design of the service for example “service user forums”, “being part of the recruitment process”. Creating an infrastructure to create experience led services with “Peer Support workers” across mental health teams. Co-production of services is here to stay and will be invaluable to us in mental health services to get it right.

Another positive change is that we are working very closely with voluntary and charities sector who are supporting us to provide therapeutic services to mental health service users as not everyone would want therapy but other life skills to improve their quality of life.

I don’t see myself retiring. I love what I do, and I am very passionate about what I do. I’m always very excited to come to work and enjoy being able to make a difference in someone’s life. I don’t think I can make a difference in everyone’s life, but If I can make a difference in some peoples quality of life better, that would be very rewarding.

My motivation levels have not changed over the 37 year I’ve worked for the NHS. I love working for the NHS.

Ophelia Mensah - Lead Population Health Nurse

I really love what I do and that is what has kept me working for the NHS for so long. I enjoy seeing the people that I support doing well, going through the recovery process and getting to the other side back where they can turn and remember the support that you've given to them. That’s very satisfying for me. That's what keeps me going, the love of, and the passion that I have, for patient care.  

During my career I have had wide-ranging experience, including being one of the pioneer nurses for rapid tranquilisation. I have also helped deliver a lot of training programmes for nurses and I have really enjoyed helping them develop their careers.

But my favourite job is the one I currently do because I have the flexibility to see patients and also to continue with my management role, and I still train people.

I have seen many changes over the years. Technology has been the biggest and it is great to have digital patient records. I also like the fact that the NHS is much more diverse – we used to have lots of white men as managers but now there are more people from all backgrounds and that has been really good.

Simon Ramage- Associate Director of Commercial Operations and Contracts

My family have all been dedicated public servants, most working for the NHS. My father was a GP for 45 years and a Fellow of the Royal College of GP’s, my mother a Psychiatric Social worker. My sisters were social workers and a senior nurse. Several members of my extended family are also in the NHS. It was in my blood that I would join the NHS and dedicate my life to the institution and did so as early as 1980. I worked as a nurse, a porter, death certification officer, Voluntary Services Organiser, and an NHS accountant before moving into Contracts.

I have been 38 years in the NHS, 35 of those at C&I, and seen many changes during my career, for instance, there were no computers until around 1990 and no emails! If you went on holiday, someone would answer your phone and ask if the person wanted to leave a handwritten message. Patient records were handwritten, and budget reports printed and filed away. I would spend a day happily drawing a grid on A1 analysis paper and hand-write numbers into columns, added up with an adding machine with a till roll where I would clip the receipt to the corner of the paper. That was the precursor to a spreadsheet!

The main challenges have always been that the NHS is a cash limited services with unlimited demand meaning that care has always been rationed through waiting lists. The problem is, with people now living so much longer due to advances in medicine resulting in more acute illnesses, the demand has surged whilst funding has stagnated, leaving evermore vulnerable people at greater risk of harm.

My hopes for the future of the NHS would be that citizens of the UK accept that they must personally pay more to support the NHS to continue meeting its founding principles. I hope that the NHS I started working in back in 1980 will still be around for my daughter and her children for many years ahead.

Jo Carroll- Managing Director for Enfield Division

I joined the NHS in 1982 bright eyed and bushy tailed. Duran Duran’s "Rio" was on the radio and off I went on a lovely August summer's day in Glasgow at 5.15am. I needed three buses to get in for a 7:30am shift and my first wage was £150 for the month. I thought I was rich! My mum's advice was don’t forget to save £10 a month and pay into your pension. That was more than 40 years ago!

I went into mental health as I thought I was scared of blood and was not sure that I was cut out for it…but it turns out I was. We all did the same content for the first 18-month's foundation and learned all the physical health stuff first. So I worked in a mental health ward when I qualified in a General Hospital first off and I met an amazing crazy Australian who encouraged me to go work in the Channel Islands for a while. Doctors and nurses wore white coats and there were lots of male nurses with their jangly keys.

I came back to Scotland to train as a general nurse and this led me into physical disorders and mental health in London, which I loved. You would need to be a staff nurse for five years before a promotion would come up, so I spent a long time learning your craft. In Scotland they used to call it dead mans shoes! Very different now, thank goodness.   

I came through all those amazing years of closing the large institutions which was no mean feat and I remember Louis Appleby coming to talk to us about how “Care in Community” was going to change everything for our patients with CPA being introduced. It did change a lot of people’s lives.  

I spent the next 20 years in Older Adults, Substance Misuse and Learning Disabilities loving each speciality in turn, meeting the most amazing people along the way who taught me so much on how to do things, how to get things done, how to use what I already had and also how to recover when things didn’t go so well. I learned early on about what my responsibilities were in each job role and how I got the best out of staff.

I would say the best bit of advice that an amazing woman called Robyn Doran gave me was on the power of networks. Looking at what neighbouring organisations were doing, staying in touch with people, reading, researching and exploring what was going on elsewhere in the world. She pushed and stretched me and to be honest by then I would have tried anything with the right support. I taught at the local college, I was a visiting lecturer, I went to Mauritius to teach the voluntary sector about project management, supervision systems and harm reduction and prevention strategies.   

I have many friends from home working in the NHS and everyone is aware of our amazing the NHS is across the world. I am so proud and honoured to be part of the NHS Family.  

My ask for all staff starting in our wonderful NHS is to enjoy it, take all the help you can get and try new experiences…and put into your pension! The whole experience has been precious to me.  

Thank you to all our staff members that shared their stories!