Ooh matron... you're tops! (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Ooh matron... you're tops!

SHIPSTON-based Modern Matron Penny Whitesmith joked that she must have paid her staff well after she was named Best Supporting Manager in South Warwickshire Primary Care Trusts' awards earlier this month.

Penny, who lives in Brailes and works at the Ellen Badger Hospital in Shipston, said she was flattered to have won the Recognising Outstanding Service and Contribution Award, for which she was nominated by the people who work with her.

Members of Penny's 75-strong team, which includes all the staff at the hospital and the community staff such as district nurses and health visitors, praised her supportive approach to management and one staff member, who had worked in the NHS for many years, said she was the best manager they had worked for.

"Penny is selfless in her understanding of roles within her team. All levels of clinicians and non-clinical staff at Ellen Badger Hospital are given equal professional commitment, earning her wide respect," said the staff member.

Penny, who has been matron at Shipston for four years, ward manager for two years before that and in 1993 a Shipston-based district nurse, said: "It's a great job, it's different every day and it's nice people to work with. It challenges you and gives you lots of satisfaction," said Penny.