Creating the First Foundation Trust in South Central

Ann became Chief Executive in 2004 following a period of significant upheaval in senior management. She inherited a £10m deficit, a one star quality rating and a demoralised staff. Having worked at every level in the Trust - beginning as a nurse 35 years earlier - she possessed key insight that would assist her in successfully transforming Royal Berkshire.

Within 6 months of her appointment in 2004, Ann had increased the quality star rating to three and completed the final phase of the beleaguered transition of Battle Hospital services to the main site, on time and on budget. Royal Berkshire has illustrated in clear terms the focus on the local community that can be achieved from Foundation Trust status

Royal Berkshire was the first hospital in South Central to become a Foundation Trust. Ann’s focus, as it has been for over three decades, is improving patient care and nursing standards. The direction she led at Royal Berkshire has illustrated in clear terms the focus on the local community that can be achieved from Foundation Trust status. Examples include innovative projects, such as the partnership for cancer services in Bracknell, providing cutting-edge care closer to the local community, and the introduction of a specialist robot to enable less invasive urology procedures.

During her time, Ann built a reputation for leading from the front. Daily seen walking the wards, she has been one of the NHS’s most hands-on Chief Executives in recent years, much loved by staff, local people and the media. It is little surprise that even at the end of her stewardship, the Trust won the prestigious CHKS Quality of Care Award 2010, which independently assesses the top NHS hospitals for excellence.

The Chairman, Colin Maclean said at her departure: “No-one can achieve what she has done by always being popular – assertive, strident and dictatorial have been used to describe her but with the acknowledgment that they were necessary to get things done. She has created the Royal Berkshire family and your nurses and your team want to say it has been a great privilege to work alongside you. I just want to say I am losing my friend, my colleague and sometimes my mentor. The Trust owes you a very big debt. Its success today is largely down to your leadership. Bless you, I will miss you.”