Our Chief Operating Officer (COO), Shelagh Smith, retires on Friday 12 March after a 47-year career in healthcare, 42 of those in the NHS. She helped steer our Trust during our most challenging time, the Covid-19 pandemic, which also played a factor in her decision to retire. So we couldn’t let her get away without sitting her down for an In Conversation With interview.Age: 63

Lives: In Brentwood with husband Graham, 64. They have sons Tom, 38, head physiotherapist at the West Ham Academy, and Alex, 35, who works for a pharmaceutical company. They also have two grandchildren, Oscar, nine, and seven-year-old Sienna, who helped keep Shelagh going during the pandemic, sending drawings they’d coloured, flowers, and a lovely poem to lift her spirits (pictured below).

And: During her time in private sector, teaching staff how to use CT scanners, Shelagh once found herself in Scotland, scanning a poorly sheep!

Why retire now?

The pandemic really put things into perspective for me. I’ve seen so many people get sick and become incapacitated, it made me realise there are things I want to do while I’m still able, like travel (when we’re allowed!), and spend more time with my family.

The last year has been something else and like so many of us, I’ve been here constantly and hardly seen my family. It’s been fulfilling, but I’ve realised there are things I want to do that I can’t while doing this role.

Tell us more about your experience during the pandemic

I certainly didn’t expect it to turn out the way it did. Like the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) pandemic in 2002/3, I thought it would mainly happen away from here and would then disappear.

Then more and more people started to get it and it became almost overwhelming. Within two weeks of the first case our beds were full of patients with Covid.

I remember coming in with no idea how we would manage, colleagues were affected and having to isolate, so low staff numbers were also a challenge. However, every step of the way there was someone who just knew what to do. Whether it was a clinician, porter; or our Finance team, which helped manage the front door.

The camaraderie and ‘we’ve got this’ attitude was amazing. It made such a difference when things were really tough. I came in to see the night shift staff one morning and found them in tears, it was so emotional. We were seeing lots of deaths and people were really pushed to their limits. It was humbling to see how everybody pulled together.

I’ve never seen anything like it. I was working at the Royal Marsden when the 7/7 bombings happened, we were taking patients from other hospitals. It was devastating, but it was short-term. This pandemic has been going on for a year, people’s resilience has amazed me.

You started your career in radiography, why did you choose that?

I’ve wanted to do that since I had an X-ray when I was 10. I was fascinated that I could see inside my body.

I started as a diagnostic radiographer at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and it was very different then. There was no scanning, no CT or MRI. It was all hard-film X-rays. It’s been really interesting to see the technology develop throughout my career. It’s become completely digitalised. I was privileged to work on one of the first CT scanners in London during my time at Bart’s.

I first worked at our Trust between 1987 and 1995, across Harold Wood and Oldchurch hospitals. Then I went to the Royal Free Hospital where I led the development of new, faster ‘helical’ CT scanner imaging, teaching teams to use the digital technology to improve and speed up diagnosis of cancer. I enjoyed playing an integral part in developing advanced imaging techniques during my time there.

As I liked teaching, I went to the private sector, working for a company which sold CT scanners. My role was to travel the country to set up the scanners, teaching teams how to use them. This was when I found myself scanning a sheep!

I was in Stornoway, Scotland, where there aren’t quite as many people as here, but there are a lot of sheep. When I’d teach teams to use scanners, I’d want them to get as much experience as possible. On that day, there were no people to scan and one of the radiographers got a call from her husband about a sick sheep. They asked me if we could scan it, so we did!

After that I set up and ran the imaging department for a private oncology unit in Harley Street, however, by this point I realised my heart was with the NHS and I wanted to get back to it.

The perfect role of radiology business manager and principal radiographer came up at The Royal Marsden – combining my love of cancer imaging and growing interest in business management. It was here that I gained my management knowledge and in 2007, was seconded to our Trust to support our Radiology department. I’m still here 14 years later!

During my time here I’ve lead many services, working my way up through divisional management to Director of Operations at King George Hospital, onto my role now.

What are you most proud to have achieved in your career?

Being one of the first radiographers to use a CT scanner is among them. Before the pandemic I would have said my greatest achievement was becoming our COO. It makes me proud to have achieved this in a trust I’m really passionate about, and which serves my friends and family, and also because of the opportunity to be a role model for my profession. Few radiographers, or AHPs in general, follow this career route.

I never had ambitions to be a board director, but if you live for what you’re doing and see where it takes you, there’s no ceiling. Never assume there are limits on your career.

Given the year we’ve had, I think I’m most proud of how we’ve got through the pandemic. Our population had the biggest prevalence of Covid-19, despite that, we’ve worked hard to continue to give the best care we could.

What are you planning to do in retirement?

I want to spend more time with my family, my grandchildren in particular. And my husband and I plan to travel when we can – we’d love to go to New Zealand, Canada and Australia. We also want to go to Brazil, where my son Alex’s partner is from, so I want to learn Portuguese for that.

And I will work part-time as a radiographer, most likely at a hospital closer to home. It’s a nice way to come full circle, back to where my career started.

Anything you’d like to add before leaving our Trust?

It’s been really sad saying goodbye. I’d like to wish everyone luck in the future, and say a huge thank you. Not just for their hard work during the last year, but for all the years which came before that. I’ve had great opportunities and worked with great teams at our Trust, and am hugely grateful for that.

And of course, take care and stay safe.

 

Pictured below are a poem and pictures coloured in for Shelagh by her grandchildren.