Chief Nursing Officer, Ruth May, praises teams during UHDB visit
Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for NHS England and Improvement, has met colleagues across UHDB to hear first-hand about the work of our nurses.
Executive Chief Nurse, Cathy Winfield welcomed Ruth to Royal Derby Hospital where she met some of the highly skilled nurses and nursing staff who work at UHDB.
Ruth toured our Medical Assessment Unit where she met Senior Sisters Sarah Guy and Amy Frost, who spoke to her about how our Redi Rooms have helped teams across our hospitals whilst working throughout the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Ruth also visited staff on Ward 206 accompanied by Hilary Ford, Divisional Nursing Director. Staff spoke to Ruth about our Every Day Counts Accreditation which recognises wards for best practice in helping patients not spend any longer in hospital than needed.
After visiting Ward 206 and our Medical Assessment Unit, Ruth then met with Matrons and Senior Nursing Staff from across UHDB at a Listening and Celebration Event where they shared experiences and learnings from the past 22 months, working throughout a pandemic.
At this Celebration Event, Ruth was on-hand to present the prestigious Chief Nursing Officer Award to Maggie Kumari, Senior Sister on Ward 305.
Upon presenting the award, which was a complete surprise to Maggie, Ruth said: “These awards are my opportunity to say a very personal thank you. My thank you to you all, but particularly to one person in this room, because they have gone consistently above and beyond”
Cathy Winfield, Executive Chief Nurse, said: “Maggie has shown exemplary leadership over a number of years and no matter what she does, she carries out her role with complete professionalism, compassion and discipline. She always puts patients and staff first, has done phenomenal work throughout the pandemic, establishing one of the first wards that supported Covid-19 patients.
“She has worked exceptionally hard throughout her whole career in her speciality and has really developed services for young people with eating disorders, working really closely with our gastro consultants.”
Maggie, who has worked in the NHS for over 30 years, said: “This is a complete shock and totally unexpected, when Ruth was talking about the individual who was going to be awarded, I certainly didn’t expect it to be me! It’s a total privilege and I am incredibly proud of myself.”
After the Celebration and Listening Event, Ruth attended the Tissue Viability Conference for “Stop The Pressure Day” and visited colleagues working in the Emergency Department.
