Every year the start of August heralds a huge turnaround for the medical workforce at the Countess as newly-qualified foundation doctors start work at the hospital and we say farewell to the departing second years as they move on to their specialist training.
Mr Ian Harvey’s decision to retire as Medical Director, 24 years after starting as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Chester, only compounded this period of contrasting emotions as he handed the reins over to Dr Susan Gilby this summer, but one of his final acts was to take part in our fifth annual Foundation Doctors Awards.
Dr Ian Benton, Director of Medical Education, kicked off the awards saying: “This ceremony is the highlight of our year. You're all fab and you've done a great job. We've got a great team of trainers and educators and this is also a celebration of everything they do to develop our foundation doctors.”
Awards were handed out to Dr Ffion James and Dr Sam Thomas, named F1 and F2 of the year respectively, with nominees commending both of them for being outstanding team players and providing consistently high quality care.
Dr Ele Woolley scooped the ‘Player’s Player’ award and her popularity was obvious to everyone as a cacophony of whooping cheers greeted the announcement.
The final awards of the day went to Dr Matthew Tanti and Dr Saurabh Shandilya for their efforts in teaching the foundation doctors, before Ian Harvey said his goodbyes and thank you to the foundation doctors.
"Every one of you is an essential part of the Countess and you have all made a great contribution to caring for our patients, thank you," he said.
Ian Benton then presented Ian Harvey with a gift for his retirement, saying: “I'd like to say a special thank you to Ian Harvey. He has been a huge support for all of us in Medical Education. Ian has been one of the most powerful advocates for junior doctors."
:: To see more images from the ceremony, including photos of the individual award winners, click here to view our Facebook gallery.