Sarah Bloomfield – Director of Nursing and Quality
The Director of Nursing and Quality at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH) is to leave her post in April 2017.
Sarah Bloomfield, who has worked at the Trust which runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, said the decision had been a hard one to make.
Sarah said: “The years I have spent here have been amongst the best in my career and I have been in awe many times at the sheer commitment and dedication of our staff in providing the best care possible, often in difficult circumstances.
“Whilst this was a very hard decision to make, I feel that I want to prioritise myself and my family for a while. I have had some health problems this year and my father also recently died after being diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year. These things have made me realise that I need to take some time to spend with family and friends next year and to fully recover my health.
“Whilst I have not yet got a firm plan of what I will do after April, I am very sure that whatever it is will be in nursing. The reasons I became a nurse are still drivers for me to stay in nursing and I would certainly like to spend more time in clinical practice in the future as I do miss spending as much time delivering patient care as I used to.
“We have achieved great improvements in patient care over the last five years and I have been so proud to be the Director of Nursing and Quality of an organisation whose staff work so hard to make care better every day. We have safer nurse staffing levels, better patient experience and fewer harms from falls and pressure ulcers than ever before, and this is down to the team effort of everyone.
“I have had a great time here and will miss SaTH dreadfully, but I hope that everyone will understand that this is the right decision for me at this time. I will always consider myself incredibly fortunate to have worked with such a totally amazing bunch of people.
“There are a lot of important and exciting things ahead for the Trust in the coming years and I will be following progress with great interest.”
Chief Executive Simon Wright said: “I would like to thank Sarah for her excellent service and contribution to the Trust. In her time with the organisation Sarah has achieved a huge amount and we will miss her.
“I know from talking to Sarah that she is looking forward to spending more time with her family, and I wish her all the very best in the future.
“Replacing Sarah will be a difficult and the Board and I will take our time to make sure we get the very best person for our organisation going forward.”