This International Women’s Day (Tuesday 8 March), we’re celebrating the huge contribution women make to our Trust, and the wider NHS. Women like Anushka Aubeelack (above), our new Associate Medical Director (AMD) for Deteriorating and Critically Ill Patients.

Anushka, an anaesthetist, joined our Trust in 2013 as a junior doctor, during a break in her medical training. She loved it so much, she stayed and is now a specialty doctor.

She said: “I love working in anaesthetics, both in our main theatres and on Labour ward. In obstetric anaesthetics, I enjoy helping women and their babies through what can be a very precarious time.

“We also have some very sick patients at our hospitals and our teams are very good at getting them better. I love the teamwork at our Trust and think it’s in those big emergency moments that we’re at our peak – what our teams do is phenomenal.”

She credits her parents, who came over separately from Mauritius in NHS recruitment drives and met in the UK, for inspiring her career.

She added: “I was lucky to have incredible parents. I was brought being told I could do anything and had really inspiring role models. They told me if I worked hard, I could be anything I wanted and that had a profound effect on me.

“Women are still told they can’t do things because of the expectations on them. Even today, they are told they can’t work in certain professions, medical or otherwise, if they want to marry or have a family. I believe opinions from the outside don’t matter, the only person stopping you from achieving something is yourself. I was fortunate my parents gave me self-belief and confidence to seek out opportunities, and I’d like to spread that to as many women as I can and encourage them.”

During her time at our Trust, Anushka has become a passionate advocate for good end of life care and advance care planning (ACP). ACP is where patients make timely decisions about the care they’d like to receive in advance of coming to the end of their lives, ensuring their loved ones and healthcare professionals are aware of their wishes.

Anushka, a clinical ambassador and board member of the charity, Compassion in Dying, said: “I take pride in having those difficult conversations with patients to ensure when they’re in their last days we can make them as comfortable and lucid as they want to be.

“If we avoid these conversations and decisions, we’re robbing them of quality time at the end of their lives and we need to remember it’s their time – not ours.”

Her AMD role, a newly created post in our Chief Medical Officer’s team, will allow her to pursue her passion, ensuring we’re providing high-quality care for deteriorating and critically ill patients.

She’ll be working closely with Ahmed Soliman, our Deputy Medical Director for Professional Standards, as well as Muhammad Saleem, AMD for Learning from Deaths.

She said: “It’s very new and there’s lots to learn. I’ll be looking at how we escalate deteriorating patients, and if we recognise when we need to look at altering our priorities from curative to focusing on making a patient more comfortable.

“Together, these new AMD roles will help improve care and ensure we get the best outcomes for our patients.”

Besides this new portfolio and her clinical duties, Anushka also works with our Medical Education team, as a tutor for specialty and locally employed doctors, helping to improve their overall experience and opportunities at our Trust.