The NHS is the largest employer in Europe. It is a vast organisation that spans all of healthcare including GP surgeries and hospitals. Keeping communication links between the GPs and the hospital is crucial. Dottie Tipton is that link.
Dottie, from Staffordshire, is Primary Care Liaison Manager at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.
She said: “I work with GP practices keeping them informed of things happening in the trust. Practices can contact me if they are having problems with things at the Trust. I help organise education events for GPs and work with the rest of the Strategy team on long term plans with teams in the Trust.”
Dottie has had quite a few highlights in her career at the Trust. She commented: “I read a patient story out to 300 primary care staff in the patient’s own words and I have helped the diabetes team change the way they work so now they deliver care in local GP practices alongside GPs and practice nurses.”
When asked what drives her at work, Dottie said: “Working with talented people to make services the best they can be for everyone. I work within a small team in the Trust, mostly on strategic pieces of work. Outside of this team I work with hundreds of people in and outside the Trust. I have just been involved in moving diabetes services. Our current team project is developing the Trust’s vision for the year 2020.”
The perks of the job for Dottie are meeting people and getting the job done, something she gets to do a lot in her role.
Away from work, Dottie enjoys a range of activities as well as spending time with her family.
She said: “I like to read, travel, occasionally I do amateur dramatics and I, with a team of local volunteers, organise a biannual music festival in the village I live in.
Dottie also likes to spend time with her family and friends. Her children Oli, 21, and Abbie, 18, are both at or heading off to university. Oli is studying maths at in Manchester and is Abbie waiting for her A level results and she hopes to follow her brother to Manchester but to study history.
To get away from it all Dottie likes to travel to Croyde in Devon. As well as being an NHS Hero, Dottie has her own hero. She said: “My hero is a gentleman who is no longer with us called Mr Whitehouse. He lived in our village into his 80’s and fostered along with his wife over 30 children, six of whom they adopted.
“When I met him in his late 70’s he was volunteering at school listening to year 2 pupils read, both my children read to him. He was the kindest most thoughtful person I have ever met.”
