Tracey's proud of united voice
A five-year reflection - A moment with Tracey Johnston, Deputy Chief Medical Officer at our Women’s Hospital
With the exciting arrival of our Trust’s fifth-year anniversary, we caught up with Dr Tracey Johnston, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Consultant in Maternal and Fetal Medicine at our Women’s Hospital on her five-year reflection following the launch of BWC on February 1, 2017.
Dr Johnston said: “It has brought more financial stability to allow our hospital to advance further. It has been very positive and you can’t ignore the advances seen in genetics, the technology and the mainstreaming of genetics that impacts every aspect of medicine. The smooth transition between pre-implantation, pre-natal diagnosis, and the input of genetics has had a positive impact on delivering personalised treatment, going from strength to strength.”
With the added financial stability brought on by the new trust, Dr Johnston reflects that her personal highlight from additional funding has been the new influx of staff members across the board.
Dr Johnston said: “The new staff we’ve had join across obstetrics, gynaecology, genetics, maternity and our neonatal services has been my personal highlight. We’ve got some really strong consultants, nursing and midwifery staff.”
It has been an incredible five years, building new bonds and developing our profile across the West Midlands and on a national scale despite the challenges over the last two years with the pandemic. By combining our Women’s Hospital research with the Children’s Hospital, we have been able to advance further into supporting the care of complex patient cases.
Dr Johnston shares, “We should all be very proud of how the research profile has increased since the merging of our Trusts.
“I think that the future’s actually quite exciting – we've been through an incredibly challenging two years but our staff have worked so hard and it has to be recognised how they have given so much of themselves and their time. We’ve got really great colleagues that will be able to take our Trust forward and that’s a lot to be excited about.
“As a united Trust, we have got far more of a voice than we would have as separate organisation to support the care of our patients.”
Echoing Tracey’s words, we’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ to the collaboration and support seen across the merging of our two hospitals. All health partners throughout the West Midlands are benefitting from the extensive research and development propelled by the combining of our Trusts.