HEE Deputy Medical Director awarded MBE and HEE Chief Nurse awarded CBE

Health Education England’s Deputy Medical Director and Health Education England’s Chief Nurse have been honoured in the New Year’s Honours List.

Professor Simon Gregory, has been awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List for services to General Practice, while Professor Mark Radford has been awarded a CBE for services to nursing.

Simon now works as the Deputy Medical Director for Primary and Integrated Care at Health Education England (HEE) as is the organisation’s Freedom to Speak up Guardian.

He trained at Bart’s Medical School before becoming a GP in Northamptonshire. He previously held the role as Postgraduate Dean for the East of England.

In addition to his roles at HEE, Professor Gregory is an honorary professor at Norwich Medical School, a visiting professor at Anglia Ruskin Medical School and a fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge.

Mark is currently the Chief Nurse at Health Education England as well as the Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for England.

He has helped lead the national nursing response to COVID-19, delivery of the national vaccine programme and nursing workforce policy.

Mark qualified as a nurse in 1994 and has previously worked in anaesthetics, pre-operative assessment, perioperative care, critical care and A&E in the UK and Europe. 

He was a Consultant Nurse in Perioperative Emergency Care and expertise developed in a range of areas including perioperative hypothermia, emergency surgery management advanced nursing practice and nurse prescribing.  

He is also a Professor of Nursing at Birmingham City University, and Coventry University, with research covering emergency care models, advanced practice, staffing, risk modelling, clinical decision-making, expertise and sociological issues in healthcare. Mark is currently working with Staffordshire University on research on nurse and paramedic retention.

Simon said: “I am grateful and humbled to be honoured in this way. I would like to thank so many people, my parents and family that have sacrificed so much to support me, so many amazing colleagues in HEE and in my practice and my patients, who, after all are what General Practice is really about. 

“Since 2007 we have increased GP recruitment in England from 2700 to 4000 a year. This has been hard work, but it has been teamwork and the amalgamation of marginal gains. So many people have worked together and so many colleagues have acted as role models sharing their careers and journeys and why they are GPs. Now with our move to 24-months of training in GP we are reforming training to better prepare our doctors for the rapidly changing world in which they work. 

“General Practice is relentless at the moment, with so many impacts of the pandemic, and delivering this massive vaccine programme in a manner that demonstrates just how great General Practice colleagues are. The honour citation says, “for services to General Practice”. For me this is the greatest honour, as General Practice rocks!”

Mark said: “This was a huge surprise and one that I was thrilled to receive. I have loved being a nurse for nearly 30 years - as a clinician, academic and leader it has been the most rewarding career. 

“I’m pleased to see that so many other nurses and other NHS staff have also been recognised in the honours list. A huge congratulations to them and to all the NHS and social care staff who have worked so hard this last year. This pandemic has shone a light on the contribution of nurses and other health professionals and every one of them deserves recognition.  

“Being part of a team has played an important role in my career journey to date in the NHS, universities and HEE. Everybody I have ever worked with has contributed to my development into the nurse I am today, and for this reason, I want this award to also recognise the teams and the people I have worked with over the years.

“Our recent work with DHSC and universities to boost recruitment to nursing is a key achievement against a backdrop of reducing numbers. I am thankful to all our students for their contributions, and welcome new colleagues joining our profession. This pandemic will shape our society forever, and many will reflect and look back on this time and ask what did we do in the pandemic? I, like many others, will be proud to say that we were nurses and health workers in the NHS and social care.”