Diane Sarkar, currently Interim Director of Nursing, has been appointed substantively, following a formal selection process.
Diane came to the hospital on secondment from Southend Hospital during the early summer and stepped up to be interim Director, when Maggie Rogers took up her new post in London at the beginning of September.
Trust Chairman, Michael Large, chaired the appointment panel and is delighted that Diane was the unanimous choice. “Diane has already begun to deliver on a number of agendas including changing the nursing directorate to a directorate of quality, innovation and patient safety, looking at the Nursing and Midwifery structure and starting to put in place a new strategy for the future, “ he said. “She has been highly visible around the Trust since she has been here and has spent a deal of time building relations with managers, clinicians, governors and board members, as well as external stakeholders like the CQC, Monitor and NHS South West Essex, our commissioners. Her appointment means she is now in a position to finish what she has started!”
Diane’s experience spans the NHS and private healthcare. She trained and worked in a number of London’s large acute hospitals and progressed through a several operational and corporate management positions, culminating in being the Practice Development Nurse at King’s. She spent time in the private sector at the Wellington Hospital, setting up new governance frameworks for the HCA Group’s four hospitals and achieving King’s Fund accreditation.
Having completed a Masters degree, Diane returned to the NHS in 2001 at Southend Hospital, as Deputy Associate Director of Operations for Medicine and then Associate Director of Nursing. Her focus has been particularly around customer service and she greatly improved interactions with patients, as well as leading on a number of corporate agendas, including quality improvement, the patient safety agenda, complaints and infection control.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed working for the last nine years at Southend, but my first few months on secondment at Basildon convinced me that I wanted to stay. Staff and fellow Board members have been so welcoming that I immediately felt this was where I belonged”, said Diane.
“My career has been led by my passion to enhance and improve patient safety and the patient/carer experience. I will be concentrating on raising the bar on quality and putting the patient at the heart of everything we do. I’m very open to new ideas and want to hear from staff, patients and visitors with your suggestions for improvements that I can support and champion.”
Diane is married with two young children and lives near Rettendon, where she enjoys horse riding and walking.
