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All change at Guy’s & St Thomas' as chairman Patricia Moberly hands over to Sir Hugh Taylor

London SE1 website team

"Patricia Moberly has changed the face of a big public institution," said Kate Hoey MP when she congratulated her for chairing Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust for more than a decade.

Sir Hugh Taylor and Patricia Moberly
Sir Hugh Taylor and Patricia Moberly at South Bank Forum this week

The South Bank Forum at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre on Thursday evening heard Patricia Moberly speak about her task just days after stepping down from her demanding post.

"St Thomas' is the local hospital although the service is specialist and of international importance," said the outgoing chairman who in 2004 led the hospital to become one of the first foundation trusts in the UK.

"I am not complacent about the hospital and I know that there are things that are not right," she added.

"One of my jobs has been to weld two hospitals together," she said when recalling her task of bringing Guy's Hospital in Southwark and St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth together under one administration.

"We have tried to develop local employment initiatives and we employ staff from 112 different nationalities. We are wholly dependant on that international workforce. We are proud of our mix and our diversity."

"For me the great change in the history of St Thomas' in the ten years has been the building of the [Evelina] children's hospital. I forsee it becoming a much greater hospital than Great Ormond Street for the south of England and I say that not in any criticism for, unlike Great Ormond Street, it is a local hospital as well as an international one. You can move from the children's hospital to adult services."

Introducing her successor Sir Hugh Taylor she said: "The hospital will change and Sir Hugh is up for change. He is committed to coming to the South Bank Forum and listening to you."

Sir Hugh Taylor, who lives in the hospitals' catchment area, was permanent secretary at the Department of Health until last summer.

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