KGH Chris shortlisted for top award following his death from cancer

Work by an information governance expert at Kettering General Hospital was shortlisted for a national award following his death earlier this year.

Chris Waller, former head of information governance at Kettering General Hospital, was shortlisted for Information Governance Professional of the Year posthumously after he died of cancer in May of this year.

The entry – put forward by a colleague – was one of a handful shortlisted for the National Health and Social Care Strategic Information Governance Network Awards 2022.

Chris was nominated for the award by Sally Berrill, the head of data security and protection at the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group (the organisation that runs KGH and NGH).

She said: “Chris sadly died in May this year, after a cancer diagnosis in June 2021.

"Despite his condition, Chris continued to work as-long-as possible to ensure that information governance at KGH was maintained, handing over his significant knowledge and experience to his deputy.

“Chris was determined that he would leave the hospital in an excellent place with first-rate foundations for data security and protection embedded into practice.

“Chris remained upbeat and positive throughout his illness, and even when we visited him in his last stages of life, he was keen to hear how new processes and on-going issues were being managed.

“Chris had an unwavering integrity, he could always take a view of the effect of an individual and the appropriate use of their data to ensure that they always had a voice in the room.

“He changed information governance from being a complicated subject that everyone avoided to becoming an open and transparent topic of conversation, Chris changed the culture of IG to be at the forefront of people’s minds.

“He had values and morals that have been adopted by everyone who had the opportunity to work with him.

"He was calm, kind, approachable and always had his door open to help anyone that needed him. He was a true IG professional that we are proud to have worked with.”

Information governance describes the way hospitals share and protect the information of patients and staff and ensure it is only used appropriately.

In addition a staff member and team at Northampton General Hospital also won an award or were shortlisted for two more.

Sally Berrill won the information sharing champion of the year award in the National Health and Social Care Strategic Information Governance Network Awards.

Sally is the head of data security and protection for the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire.

She was also shortlisted in a second category of the awards - information governance professional of the year – for the way she has supported her team and promoted the importance of information sharing with partner organisations.

And Northampton General Hospital’s Subject Access Team was shortlisted for information governance team of the year for the way it rose to the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.