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Deborah first joined the Royal Free Hospital as a trainee nurse in August 1983. She and her fellow trainees would board the specially laid on coach from their accommodation in Gray’s Inn Road to the Pond Street hospital.
“I remember I was really excited to be in such a new hospital. It had only opened seven years earlier,” she said. “Us trainees were a huge part of the workforce. You had 28 bed wards with two qualified nurses and the rest were all students, and as a first-year student you would be given eight patients to look after.”
However, Deborah recalls the acuity and complexity of patients being much less and lengths of stays being much longer.
She said: “Complex drug regimens didn’t exist then; nurses didn’t deliver intravenous drugs and there were no computers on wards. We’d wait for the end of the day for the blood tests to arrive on paper and if it was urgent someone would ring us. It was a different pace. Back then there were no nurse specialists or the breadth or depth of career opportunities we have today.”
When Deborah qualified and became a staff nurse, she decided she would make it her mission to change the world in elderly care nursing which she described that then it was seen as a ‘Cinderella’ service: undervalued and often ignored.
Sadly, she felt her voice was not being heard and at the age of 21 she took a step back from nursing spending two years working as a project worker in a homeless charity.
Luckily for the NHS Deborah missed nursing and returned, first on a surgical ward at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and then returning to the Royal Free Hospital to work on ITU which had just seven beds, compared to the 50 critical care beds it has today.
This was followed by a spell at the cardio thoracic ITU at the former London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green. In 1994 Deborah rejoined the Royal Free Hospital’s ITU remaining there for the next 12 years, eventually becoming matron.
She said: “When I was younger I can recall that all I ever aspired to be was a Band 7 ITU nurse. I remember watching them and thinking I would never have their clinical expertise and their leadership qualities.”
Over the years, Deborah consolidated her clinical experience with a degree in health studies, followed by a masters in healthcare governance. She admits that her initial worry that she might be ‘caught out’ not knowing the answer to a clinical question was superseded by understanding the necessity of good leadership and true multi-disciplinary team working.
Reflecting on the qualities needed for aspiring NHS leaders she said: “Strive to be a compassionate leader, listen with care to what your colleagues and teams are telling you and act on it.
"Keep patients at the forefront of everything you do and be prepared to be vulnerable. As a leader you want to get things right all the time, but it’s important to also own your mistakes and apologise.”
In 2006 Deborah became directorate nurse manager for surgery and associated services and then three years later became divisional nurse director. That same year she became director of nursing at the Royal Free Hospital.
During the next ten years the trust underwent a huge amount of change – all of which Deborah was directly involved in. The Royal Free London became a foundation trust, Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital joined the trust and the group model was launched.
Then, at the start of 2020, Deborah was group chief nurse and covering the chief executive role at BH when the biggest challenge in her career reared its head.
“Without a doubt COVID was my biggest challenge but my colleagues were just amazing. I might have been covering two jobs, and I was the director of infection prevention and control but at that point there really was just one all-consuming job.”
But despite the challenges of the pandemic, when the role of BH chief executive became available in 2020 Deborah knew who might be a good fit for the role.
“I thought, hang on a minute I think I’d like that job thank you very much! So I applied and I’m so glad I did. Barnet Hospital has really got into my heart. I’m so proud of the staff and the brilliant care they give.
"My favourite time of the month is when the new patient experience quotes come out – they’re such a testament to the staff here. I also love that the hospital is such an important part of the community.”
Deborah says her greatest joy at work are the people she has worked with.
She said: “Some of my closest friends are people I met when I first started out. I feel really proud of my career in the NHS. It is not perfect but I think it is a wonderful institution.
"I want the Royal Free London to be the best organisation in the NHS and a blueprint for how group models should work, and I would like Barnet Hospital to lead the way in how we integrate services for patients. I would really love for the hospital to be a beacon of how neighbourhood working can really work.
"I also want Barnet Hospital to be the place where people really want to come to work and to be a leader in research into older people.
“When I look back on what I’ve achieved I hope my passion for elderly care and the ambitions we have at Barnet in this area going forward fulfil the promise I made to myself at the start of my career as a nurse.”
Palmer Winstanley, chief executive of Chase Farm Hospital and group clinical services, has taken on the role of interim chief executive at Barnet Hospital.
