UCLH NEWS - University College London Hospitals

Trust Matters
CHIEF NURSE RETIRES
Christine Mackenzie patient governor interviews Louise Boden Chief Nurse upon her retirement
after 40 years in the NHS.
How did you feel when it was first announced that patients were to be included on the
Governing Body? The view of the Executive Board was, oh goodness we’ve got to start doing
things in a different way - a journey to learn how to embrace this new scenario and not completely
certain how it would all pan out. Personally, anything that got closer to giving us a rounded view
of patient experience was bound to be better, whatever the lumps and bumps in the road, it would
be an improvement. I think Governors have undoubtedly
had a positive effect.
What will change? I think it’s really important that
nurses are degree level educated, they need to compare
with other health professionals. The current philosophy is
that everything is going to be community led with hospitals
shedding jobs. There will always be hospital based care, no
matter how advanced and sophisticated the community
services are. Currently services are set to benefit the
system and the staff rather than patients – we have a long
way to go!.
What is your greatest achievement? ‘Growing’ the future is the
most terrific thing I have been involved in. It’s been a great pleasure to ‘grow’ Ward Sisters
successfully. It’s a result of team work. We also ‘grow’ the people at deputy level to become Chief
Nurses elsewhere. My job description said “This person has to be an inspiration to the nurses
and have a sense of humour”, That was a grand job description. I’ve just been extraordinarily
fortunate. I was extremely surprised to make Ward Sister, so to arrive at a Chief Nurse role was
quite an astonishment tome, and I’ve been blessed to have the best job in the country.
Louise finished by saying “I don’t think anyone could have had a finer career” .
New Landmark for Integrated Medicine 16 September marked a new landmark for
Integrated Medicine in the history of the Royal London Homoeopathic
Hospital as its name officially changed to better reflect the range of
services it provides, which includes complementary cancer care,
allergy service, acupuncture, rheumatology service to name but a few!
The hospital is now known as the Royal London Hospital for
Integrated Medicine – the
RLHIM.
Dr Peter Fisher, RLHIM
clinical director, said the name
change was a milestone in the
history of complementary
medicine in the NHS.
New signage at the RLHIM
Integrated medicine brings
together conventional
medicine with safe and effective, high quality
complementary medicine and the RLHIM is the largest
public sector centre for integrated medicine in Europe.
Louise Boden (R) with
Christine Mackenzie (L)
Some members of the Senior team at RLHIM
Dates for your diary The Trust’s forward plan will be the subject of the next MembersMeet on
Tuesday 8 February 2011, 10am - 12noon, Education Centre, 250 Euston Rd, London. Book your
place via the membership office: email foundation.trust@uclh.nhs.uk or call 020 7380 9290
For further information on events visit the Governing Body pages on the Trust’s website.
UCLH News Issue 19
Membership office - tel: 020 7380 9290
email: foundation.trust@uclh.nhs.uk www.uclh.nhs.uk 6