Dr Manjeet Shehmar, Chief Medical Officer at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, has announced she is to leave the Trust to join Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) as Medical Director.
A Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr Shehmar graduated from Imperial College School of Medicine in 1998. Prior to joining Walsall Healthcare Trust in 2019 as Deputy Medical Director, Dr Shehmar worked at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust where she was Clinical Director for Gynaecology, Theatres and Fertility.
She said: “We have achieved so much I am proud of during my two and a half years at Walsall. I moved to Walsall as I wanted to commit to a career in Medical Leadership where I could make a difference. When I started the Trust was under special measures and there was a lot of work to do.
“I can now proudly say the culture at the Trust has vastly improved. Our most recent staff survey results show the fantastic achievements we have made and how our staff are thriving in a better environment.
“I am leaving the Trust with a strong medical leadership team, a desire for clinicians to step up and lead with competitive recruitment at all leadership levels. There is also a real feeling that we are a clinically led organisation where improvement and change is possible.
“I will miss working with my executive and clinical colleagues and hope to share and build on the foundations I have learnt at Walsall.
“I would personally like to thank our Chief Executive Professor David Loughton for his tremendous support and guidance, and I will take his values with me.”
Professor David Loughton CBE, Group Chief Executive, paid tribute to Dr Shehmar’s work at the Trust.
He said: “Manjeet has been instrumental in leading our journey of improvement at Walsall; her passionate contribution has undoubtedly made a significant difference to the lives of many of our patients. Thanks to Manjeet we have built an educationally safe and impactful environment in Acute Medicine, attracting high calibre consultants. This has also been acknowledged nationally.
“She has also supported in recruiting and building a resilient medical workforce, reducing the Trust’s spend on agency staff, something I am very proud of.
“I want to thank her for all of this fantastic work and more. I will miss working with her and wish her all the very best of luck in her new role at Nottingham.”
Dr Shehmar will leave the Trust on 30 June and the process to search for her successor is underway.