Eileen Sills

Dame Eileen Sills, DBE FRCN (born June 1962) is the Chief Nurse, Director of Patient Experience and Infection Control and a member of the board at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. She was the first Freedom to Speak Up National Guardian.

Career

Before taking up the National Guardian post, she was additionally senior nursing advisor at the Nursing and Midwifery Council and chair of the nurses group for the Shelford Group of leading NHS foundation trusts.[1] She was previously the Clinical Director of London's Strategic Clinical Network for Dementia.

She qualified as a nurse in 1983[2] at Stepping Hill Hospital. She moved from there to work in A&E at North Middlesex Hospital as a Sister[3] and then became director of nursing at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and then Whipps Cross Hospital. She chaired the London Standing Conference group on Homelessness.[4] She trained medical practitioners to be "dementia friends".[5]

Sills was appointed Chief Nurse at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in 2005.[6]

Honours

She was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours having been appointed a CBE in the 2004 New Year Honours.[7] She was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing in 2012.[8]

Controversy

In January 2016, she was appointed as the first Freedom to Speak Up National Guardian for the NHS.[9][10][11]

Some reactions were hostile as she would be working two days a week while retaining her three roles at the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust for the other three days. Activist Julie Bailey described her appointment as "disappointing". Roy Lilley described her appointment as "an affront" and "waving two fingers".[1]

On 4 March 2016, she resigned from her National Guardian post as she felt unable to do it justice together with her other responsibilities.[12]

On 20 February 2020, it was announced that Dame Eileen would step down from her chief nurse post towards the end of the summer.

References
  1. "New whistleblower tsar only working for TWO DAYS a week but keeps £174,000 a year NHS job". Daily Mirror. 8 January 2016. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  2. "Dame Eileen Sills DBE". Nursing Times. 3 September 2018. Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  3. "Management of the Fellowship". Nightingale Fellowship. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  4. "Chief nurse from Stoke Newington made a Dame in Queen's New Year Honours". Hackney Gazette. 31 December 2014. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  5. "Leading London nurse trains MPs to be 'dementia friends'". Nursing Times. 8 December 2014. Archived from the original on 3 January 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  6. "Guy's and St Thomas' appoints new Chief Nurse". Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. 29 June 2020. Archived from the original on 21 August 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  7. "Eileen's gong shock". Watford Observer. Archived from the original on 7 February 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  8. Royal College of Nursing (2022). "RCN Fellowship Roll of Honour".
  9. "Dame Eileen Sills". Care Quality Commission. 7 January 2016. Archived from the original on 26 January 2016.
  10. "CQC appoints first National Guardian for the freedom to speak up in the NHS". Care Quality Commission. 7 January 2016. Archived from the original on 8 January 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  11. "The National Freedom to Speak Up Guardian for the NHS". Care Quality Commission. 7 January 2016. Archived from the original on 26 January 2016.
  12. "CQC statement on the resignation of Dame Eileen Sills as National Guardian". Care Quality Commission. 4 March 2016. Archived from the original on 27 May 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  • Profile, checkcompany.co.uk; accessed 16 June 2016.
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