Staff accolades

NHS staff who have dedicated their careers to helping patients have been celebrated for their long service and commitment to caring for others.  

Staff across the Trust received awards for 25, 35 and 45 years' contribution to the NHS at ceremonies held at Royal Derby Hospital (RDH) and Queen's Hospital Burton (QHB) commending a combined 2,265 years of service.  

UHDB Chief Executive, Stephen Posey, presented the awards and thanked colleagues for their commitment and dedication. He said: "It is an absolute privilege to be part of these special evenings and on behalf of the Board, I want to thank everyone who works to serve our local communities across Derbyshire and Staffordshire. With years' service comes invaluable experience and we are proud that colleagues have chosen to share their talents here at UHDB." 

The Long Service Awards were reinstated last year in response to feedback from staff with the Derby & Burton Hospitals Charity funding the events. This year, they took place in March and 79 colleagues attended the ceremonies which are just one of the ways UHDB recognise the care and commitment shown by colleagues.

(Aklak at the Long Service Awards evening)

Aklak Choudhury, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, who was awarded 25 years long service said: "It's really good to see so many colleagues being recognised for 25 years, and I can't even think about 45 years, it's amazing. It makes me reflect how much talent and dedication people have, it's just astounding and inspiring."  

UHDB colleagues who were awarded with the longest certificates of the evenings for 45 years' service, reflected on their achievements after working at QHB and RDH for the majority of their careers. 

(Deb and Pat at the QHB Long Service Awards evening)

Deborah Broughton, Senior Registered Nurse at QHB who has dedicated her working life to the NHS and helped to educate and provide support to junior colleagues and the future workforces of the NHS said: "For me it's been more of vocation than a career. I started at a relatively small hospital [Queen's Hospital Burton] but had opportunities to go to big teaching hospitals for further training, which was quite overwhelming to start with, but we passed with flying colours."  

QHB Clinical Nurse Specialist Patricia Holland who has a deep commitment to providing high quality patient care and brings an exceptional amount of knowledge to her role  said : "The last 40 years I've worked in haematology with a fabulous team, to get that closeness with a group of people - that only enhances patient care."  

Reflecting on their proudest moments of their careers, Patricia explained that for her, it was when she was a Macmillan nurse: "A patient nominated me to do a video that went viral and then they got me to go on Loose Women! There were four patients who took their Macmillan nurses to say thank you, but we didn't know it was happening - it was lovely." 

Reflecting on her proudest moment, Deborah said: "I was on a long-haul flight to New York and someone collapsed and I helped. About three months later I was asked to see the CEO [at the time] at work and I was a little worried but it turned out that American Airlines had written to the hospital to congratulate and thank me! Never off shift!"