Honour for health informatics technical director

Technical director of Wirral Health Informatics Service (WHIS), Pete Marsh has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Wirral is one of the leading trusts in the health informatics field and has pioneered developments in areas such as electronic records and e-prescribing. Marsh has been part of the workforce at Wirral Hospital since its inception 15 years ago and took up his current role in 2001. The award recognises his dedication and commitment to the health service.

He said: “I had no idea that I had been nominated but I am delighted to be honoured in this way. I see it not just as a personal award but also as recognition of the hard work of all my colleagues in WHIS and the staff of the local NHS. My family are all delighted for me too and I intend to take my two sisters to the palace when I go to pick up my gong.”

Marsh originally began his professional life in clinical services as part of the staff in the chemical pathology department, eventually rising to the ranks of chief medical laboratory scientific officer. Then in the late 1970s he made the switch to informatics.

He said: “In 1979 the IT sector was just evolving so it was an exciting area to be working in. Over the years I have seen the growth of computer technology within the NHS and the vast benefits it has generated for patients and staff.”

Highlights of his career include secondments to the Department of Health and Cabinet Office and he has also worked as a consultant in America and as an adviser to the governments of Australia and New Zealand.

Marsh said: “Here at Wirral we are about to replace one of the most extensive, advanced and well established computer systems in use in the NHS, so there are plenty of busy years ahead and I am looking forward to that challenge.”

Chief executive of Wirral Hospitals NHS Trust, Frank Burns, said: “This is thoroughly well deserved recognition for Pete. For many years he has put his heart and soul into ensuring that our front line clinical staff and patients benefit from safe and reliable state of the art information technology.

“It is great to see national recognition of the indispensable contribution made by ‘back room’ NHS staff in delivering high quality patient care."

MBEs were also awarded to Linda Allott, medical health records manager for Barnsley District General Hospital NHS Trust, and to Grace Vanterpool, diabetes specialist nurse at Slough Primary Care Trust, whose work on the Slough Project to improve diabetes care has received national recognition. The project includes a partnership with Dr Foster Intelligence on a computer programme that combines information about hospital admissions and medical treatment for certain conditions with data on the socio-economic background of a particular area’s population.