Kettering and Northampton hospital staff celebrated for long service with combined total of 6,315 years

A total of 214 staff eligible for long service awards (colleagues with more than 25 years of service) have together served at Kettering or Northampton general hospitals for a combined total of 6,315 years.

Celebration of service awards events were held last week to mark the career milestones.

Two members of staff at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) were recognised for their 50 year plus service alongside and two at NGH and two Kettering General Hospital (KGH) who have served for 45 years. Other staff include 17 celebrating 40 years and 181 celebrating 25 years or more.

Laura Churchward The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire Chief Executive that manages NGH and KGH, said: “It was a great pleasure to be able to honour the many years of service our colleagues have dedicated to Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals, and to the NHS.

“Each and every colleague makes a difference to the care and services we provide in our hospitals and it is very important for us to remind our communities that we have staff members who literally dedicate their lives to healthcare.

“We are proud and delighted to have been able to, once again, give out so many long service awards to our amazing colleagues.”

Maureen Lavin started her 45-year journey at KGH in the maternity department in April 1979 as a weekend ward clerk.

Two years later she moved to Corby Diagnostic Centre working part time while her two children grew up. And then she went full time until her retirement in 2019, but then immediately carried on as a clerical administrator at Corby Outpatients Centre.

She said: “Things have changed a lot in administration over the last 45 years. When I started everything was hand-written on appointment cards which were then stamped with a franking machine. We kept the records in big red ledgers before the move to computerisation.

“Now everything is on the computer and we have gone paperless. I love the job because I am a people person and it is nice to support customers in the hospital environment rather than working in industry.”

David Knight has been a biomedical scientist specialising in haematology at Kettering General Hospital for the last 45 years.

But the 80-year-old, from Kettering, has been in the job itself for even longer than that. He started in Plymouth hospitals in 1965 and after 12 years went to work in a hospital in Saudi Arabia for two years.

He joined KGH on March 13, 1979, and has worked there ever since, although he is now doing two days a week.

David said: “Science is a subject I have always been interested in and I like to keep up with the changes. The discipline of haematology is the study of blood disorders and I find this fascinating. I have been lucky to work with some very good colleagues and I love the comradery of continuing to work.”

The trust’s longest-serving colleague Elizabeth Summers is lead cancer nurse at Northampton General Hospital, who celebrated 51 years of continuous service.

Elizabeth began her NHS journey in 1974 at the age of 16 as a pre-nursing student at NGH. She has devoted her entire career to NGH except for a brief stint at the Royal Marsden for specialist cancer training.

Elizabeth has witnessed first hand the transformation of hospital care over the decades.

She said: “One of the greatest changes that we have seen is that we advocate for patients and we listen to them.

“There’s nothing like the feeling of making a difference. Whether it’s easing someone’s pain or just being there to listen, it’s what gets you out of bed in the morning.”

Over the years Elizabeth has been instrumental in helping to develop NGH as a cancer centre with a specialist oncology ward, teams of specialist nurses and allied health professionals, along with the development of end of life and palliative care teams.

In July 2023 Elizabeth became the first member of NGH staff ever to win the Chief Nursing Officer for England Gold Award for her outstanding services to cancer care and was presented with it by the Chief Nurse herself, Dame Ruth May.

Staff Nurse Mandy Lovell joined Northampton General Hospital at the age of 16 as a pre-nursing student and has served 50 years of continuous service.

She started out in what was then called George and Elizabeth Ward which became the hospital’s first dedicated elderly care ward. Since then she has worked in many wards including Compton, Rowan and Allebone.

She added: “A lot has changed over the last 50 years. The hospital was much smaller when I arrived and based around the Billing Road entrance. Since then there has been a huge expansion of what I call the new hospital.

“Another big change has been the way nurses are trained. It used to be nursing students who worked on the wards and learned on the job. Now it is more classroom based in universities so is somewhat more detached.

“Technology has also been a big change. The advent of CT and MRI means doctors don’t have to rely so much on physical examination and a certain amount of guesswork anymore.”

Mandy, now 66, plans to retire after being presented with her 50 years of service.