Associate chief operating officer for adult, diagnostic and specialist services

“I started working at Queen Mary’s as a student nurse back in 1983 before qualifying as a staff nurse in 1986 and working on R Ward under Sister Sibthorp. I went on to work for Johnson and Johnson Orthopaedics and Kings College Hospital for a few years, but as soon as the opportunity to come back in 1995 arose, there was no stopping me.

“Now I am responsible for most of the services based at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton including radiology, rehabilitation and urgent care, and for some specialist services provided in the community like dentistry. I am also responsible for all the Queen Mary’s service level agreements and business management.

“I have always been really keen to learn and develop so that I can do the best job possible for my patients. Whilst I have always been happy to take on extra responsibility, I certainly never set out to become the man that people look to for answers. Over the years I have developed a skill set that fits this job and have not been afraid to tackle the challenges head on.

“I don’t get to treat patients any more, but my job now means that I can influence and improve services for more patients than I could have ever seen as a nurse. Last year the services I am responsible for treated 175,000 patients, so I still get to go home and feel proud at the end of the day.

“The demand for services that have traditionally been delivered in bigger hospitals like St George’s and Kingston to be provided closer to patients’ homes means we will see more of these services come to Queen Mary’s to serve people from Roehampton, Putney and Richmond.

“We already have a state of the art day case unit and rapid access diagnostic unit, and since integrating last year we have started to treat patients with more complex needs.

“We are also working with local GPs to provide primary care services from the Minor Injuries Unit and to look at other areas we can develop further.”

You can read more about Stuart in the November 2011 edition of the gazette.