The coronavirus pandemic has been the largest public health crisis in the UK since the inception of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948. The NHS staff have been put under extreme physical and mental pressure, while our public hospitals had to adapt quickly to ensure the safety of patients and workers is maintained.
As the joint CEO of two NHS Trusts, Northamptonshire (NHFT) and Leicestershire (LPT), Angela Hillery has always prioritised her staff’s wellbeing as part of her leadership style. This emphasis on employee wellbeing and communication through stakeholders has been widely praised and Angela has recently been included in the Health Service Journal’s (HSJ) top 80 most influential people in the English NHS.
Her Trusts provide also two specific services that have been greatly affected by the ongoing pandemic, mental health and community healthcare. These new challenges posed by Covid-19 require innovative solutions, so Angela and her team have utilised new technologies, including ChatHealth, to ensure her vital services can still run as efficiently as possible.
As we continue our series on building strong institutions through effective leadership, Pro Vice-Chancellor Sustainability and Dean of Health and Life Sciences, Professor Simon Oldroyd will host a 60-minute interview and Q&A session with Angela, exploring how her experiences have influenced her leadership style and the pressures of managing staff and patient expectations throughout the coronavirus pandemic. A post-event drinks reception will follow.
This event will be open to the general public and delivered in front of an audience, as well as live-streamed on the university’s YouTube page.
There will be an opportunity to ask Angela questions after her initial conversation with Professor Simon Oldroyd. Any questions are encouraged to be submitted to eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk by Thursday 12 May to ensure the smooth running of the event.
DMU is Britain’s only higher education institution to be named as a global hub for the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals initiative. As such, we feel it is imperative to host meaningful conversations that will benefit the community as we further engage with the city through wider public debates.
Bookings will close one hour before the designated start time.
Angela Hillery
Angela has been working in the NHS for more than 30 years and has a clinical background as a speech and language therapist, having obtained her BSc here at DMU before going to the University of Birmingham to complete her Master’s degree.
Her commitment to upholding the values of the NHS and ensuring patient quality care has seen her promoted to the Chief Executive of NHFT, a position she has held since 2013. She joined LPT as Chief Executive in 2019 and NHFT provided a buddy Trust to support them. Angela has been named as a finalist for the renowned ‘Chief Executive of the Year’ award at the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards and in 2018, she was listed 15th in the HSJ’s top-rated chief executives across the UK.
Alongside other CEOs, Angela is part of a pioneering East Midlands Alliance for mental health and learning disabilities, working together to improve the quality and effectiveness of services. Joint work so far includes collaborative learning events around transforming care, BAME and Restraint, demand, and capacity modelling, NCMs and creating jointly shared approaches to Covid-19 demands.
In July 2019 Angela was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Northampton for her leadership contribution.