Care UK appoints new director of nursing and clinical services

COLCHESTER, U.K. - May 19, 2014 - PRLog -- Rachael will be the professional lead for nurses and allied health professionals (AHP) working in Care UK’s 21 offender health services and 11 treatment centres as well as its range of urgent and primary care services. These include GP out-of-hours services and the 111 service for people requiring urgent help for non-life-threatening conditions.

As well as leading on infection prevention and control and ensuring the safeguarding of all patients, Rachael will work alongside Care UK’s clinicians to further embed their quality improvement framework.

Rachael said: “I am delighted to be joining Care UK at such an exciting time in healthcare development. I have previously only worked in the NHS but I am convinced that independent healthcare providers can add value to the work done in the public sector.

“Care UK is a great organisation to work for and I can see a time when we will be seen as one of the leaders in the way that healthcare is provided in the future, maximising our ability to fully integrate physical and mental health with social care.”

Rachael is convinced that nurses and allied health professionals will have a key role to play in developing Care UK’s services and part of her remit is to design and implement a career framework that will mean Care UK is the employer of choice for the best of the nurses and AHPs across the country. Within this framework there will be a career structure that encourages nurses and AHPs to study, train and progress within the company.

She said: “I am very keen that we become visible at universities and recruitment fairs. We want the brightest to come and work for us and I think we can attract the very best because no other service can offer the accessibility to so many pathways – from urgent care to acute secondary care through to offender healthcare and everything in between.

“Nurses can have an exceptional career within Care UK and I hope to be able to show those at the start of their careers, as well as those who want to push their specialisms to new levels, that there is a challenging and rewarding home for them in our nationwide services.”

Rachael holds an MSc in Nursing Research & Practice Innovation and another in Wound Healing & Tissue Repair. She joins Care UK from Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust where she was an associate chief nurse with professional responsibility for 1,500 nurses working in community healthcare, acute and emergency medicine, medicine for older people, cardiovascular services and specialist medicine.

Jim Easton, managing director of Care UK’s healthcare division, said: “Rachael has a clear passion for nursing and a vision of how well-trained and motivated professionals can improve the service we offer.

“I know she will help us create a structure that not only ensures clinical excellence and an enhanced patient experience but also attracts committed and ambitious nurses to join us in our partnerships with the NHS and local authorities across the length and breadth of the country.”