19 June 2024

Pradip Patel, a former Chair of the Trust, has been honoured in the latest King’s Birthday Honours with an MBE in recognition of his service to healthcare.

Mr Patel, who stepped down as Chair of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust in March 2023 after seven years, supported the organisation through some momentous changes.

Frimley Health was a fledgling organisation when Pradip joined in April 2016, after Frimley Park Hospital and Heatherwood & Wexham Park Hospitals foundation trusts came together just over a year before.

Pradip led the Frimley Health Trust Board and the Council of Governors until March 2023. The Trust achieved some significant developments in this time including the delivery of a new emergency assessment centre at Wexham Park Hospital, building a new £100m planned care facility at Heatherwood Hospital, expansion of robotic surgery and artificial intelligence and the introduction of the electronic patient record that brought together 260 separate systems into one.

He provided leadership and guidance during the NHS’s difficult days of the Covid-19 pandemic, and supported the Trust in its subsequent recovery. He was admired by colleagues for his compassionate leadership, integrity and humility, and for his commitment to fairness and equality among teams and the communities they served.

Before joining Frimley Health as Chair, Pradip served as a non-executive director with Hillingdon Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and had a long career as a senior manager with Boots the Chemist.

Pradip said: “I love the NHS and it was my pleasure and honour to have worked for six years on the board at Hillingdon Hospital and then the seven years on the board at Frimley Health. This allowed me to see at first-hand how committed, dedicated and hard working the staff are. They provide caring and compassionate care 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 52 weeks a year and their enormous sacrifices make a real difference to patients and their whole family.

“I am humbled to receive the award, it is the staff who deserve it more than I do. So, I will simply accept it on their behalf.”