I feel I must write a tribute to the Ward Manager of the Rotary Ear Nose and throat ward of the William Harvey Hospital, of Ashford, Kent, England, Nursing Sister Caroline Mackenzie.
I am well placed to make such a tribute, being a Laryngectomee of ten years, after developing throat cancer, and being cared for in the Rotary Ward. Caroline was then a Staff Nurse, but every single member of the staff, showed such efficiency, knowledge and compassion, that every patient there knew that they were in a very special ward.
It was run in those days by Nursing Sister Margaret Spurgeon, ably assisted by Nursing Sister Barbara Wagstaff, and those two ladies laid the foundation of training to a high degree, with compassion to patients that became so obvious.
Caroline inherited a position in charge of the ward, highly thought of from patients, and all members of the staff, and being the chair of two cancer clubs, knew the details of all in her care.
She gets involved in seminars run by Macmillan, and helps in their organisation. She has obtained her Masters Degree, from university, but the point of this tribute is that of the three main hospitals, the three smaller hospitals, and the eight drop in minor injuries places, her ward, the Rotary Ward was a runner-up in the 2014 best run ward throughout East Kent, but more importantly, of all the thousands of employees of the Hospital Trust she was named as "The Employee Of The Year".
Well done Caroline.